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ElectricMucus
Up and Coming
July 25, 2014

Lets make a SDK 0.4 Linux nagging thread!

Since there is no official response as to the status of Linux & OSX I am creating a thread.

I think that cross platform developers shouldn't be treated as second-class citizen. Perhaps this is of no concern and the SDK is on it's way as we are posting, but I'd like to make sure we aren't over looked! ;)
The new way of treating the rift as a specialized device using the windows runtime & driver might complicate things, or not. But before there is further speculation it would be really, really nice if some oculus rep gives us a short heads up. :)


update: thanks for the OSX release, how long until we've got Linux?

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      mindabuse
      Up and Coming
      July 31, 2014
      Just want to add to the crowd that I have DK2 in hand and am eagerly awaiting the SDK for OS X.

      I *really* wish that the Oculus SDK was multi-platform instead of treated as separate branches.

      In the meantime, could anyone toss me a clue at successfully initializing the DK2 (DK1-style rotation) sensor with the 0.3.2 SDK? The C API wasn't detecting the HMD as a whole, and I was hoping to at least limp along with that until the OS X 0.4.0+ SDK was released... Any insight would be most appreciated.
      jherico
      Inspiring
      July 31, 2014
      "mindabuse" wrote:
      In the meantime, could anyone toss me a clue at successfully initializing the DK2 (DK1-style rotation) sensor with the 0.3.2 SDK? The C API wasn't detecting the HMD as a whole, and I was hoping to at least limp along with that until the OS X 0.4.0+ SDK was released... Any insight would be most appreciated.


      It's possible you'll need to update the firmware using the 0.4.0 SDK. I'm not certain though. I haven't tried using the DK2 with 0.3.x SDK builds yet.
      Brad Davis - Developer for High Fidelity Co-author of Oculus Rift in Action
      mindabuse
      Up and Coming
      July 31, 2014
      "jherico" wrote:
      It's possible you'll need to update the firmware using the 0.4.0 SDK. I'm not certain though. I haven't tried using the DK2 with 0.3.x SDK builds yet.


      I got access to a Windows system and upgraded the firmware. I have yet to see what differences it made in OS X. If anyone readily knew the appropriate C or C++ initialization + sensor orientation, that would be get me something to go off of....

      Using the HMD as a display on OS X appears to support 75 Hz (based on the Display preferences). So getting something thrown together could be in the realm of possibility, and even more so with the right distortion shader.....
      mindabuse
      Up and Coming
      July 31, 2014
      "mindabuse" wrote:
      If anyone readily knew the appropriate C or C++ initialization + sensor orientation, that would be get me something to go off of....


      ....and I just found this snip of code that may work with DK2:


              ovrHmd hmd = ovrHmd_Create(0);
       
              if (hmd == NULL) {
                      hmd = ovrHmd_CreateDebug(ovrHmd_DK1);
                      debug = true;
              }


      In my initial tests, ovrHmd_Create() returned NULL, so maybe ovrHmd_CreateDebug() may at least get me something usable to start....
      bluenote
      Up and Coming
      August 1, 2014
      "ElectricMucus" wrote:
      "bluenote" wrote:
      There was an interview with Palmer at CES where he was talking about that code. IIRC he mentioned that the idea was not to come up with their own approach on visual motion tracking but rather to license some (expensive?) state-of-the-art tracking system. This probably makes sense since it is pretty tough to reach the quality of top tracking systems. This might also be the reason why going open source is no longer that easy.


      Do you have a clip of said interview? I was under the impression that the LED/Camera system was their idea not some licensed tech.


      It was in the following interview around the 9 minute mark.




      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YoUV7uty40

      But maybe I was interpreting too much into this. The presentation linked by Fredz definitely points in a different direction. And since there are so many specific details (like camera latency vs IMU update frequency) the whole sensor fusion problem requires a highly customized solution anyways...
      dpark1113
      Up and Coming
      August 1, 2014
      It should have been better to release OSX SDK first. There are so many problems with Windows SDK due to incompatibilities.
      DQCarder
      Up and Coming
      August 1, 2014
      I'm fine with waiting for the OS X support — it's done when it's done, you know? But what really bothers me is that the official DK2 page clearly states that OS X is already supported. It doesn't take that long to edit a web page, so there's no excuse for leaving that up there. What a disappointment.
      jherico
      Inspiring
      August 1, 2014
      "DQCarder" wrote:
      I'm fine with waiting for the OS X support — it's done when it's done, you know? But what really bothers me is that the official DK2 page clearly states that OS X is already supported. It doesn't take that long to edit a web page, so there's no excuse for leaving that up there. What a disappointment.


      Technically it's supported via the 0.3.2 SDK, just not with positional tracking. It's a pretty fine hair to split though. I'm not really in their court on this one. I'm getting really tired of the 'Direct3D and Windows first, everything else whenever we get around to it'.

      I'm also distressed that they haven't adopted nightly builds, since many of the issues with the current and previous SDKs would have been spotted and reported much earlier by people willing to mess around with unstable builds, leading to more stable public releases.
      Brad Davis - Developer for High Fidelity Co-author of Oculus Rift in Action
      ElectricMucusAuthor
      Up and Coming
      August 1, 2014
      "jherico" wrote:
      I'm getting really tired of the 'Direct3D and Windows first, everything else whenever we get around to it'.


      This makes no sense. Isn't OpenGL wider adopted at this point?
      Are there still any game engines which do not support OpenGL?

      I mean I get the Windows first thing as they are the largest platform by a long shot still. But Direct3D, really? :?
      jherico
      Inspiring
      August 1, 2014
      "ElectricMucus" wrote:
      This makes no sense. Isn't OpenGL wider adopted at this point?


      Sadly no, not on Windows which is the platform the the vast majority of games, which is what Oculus is focused on with laser like intensity.
      Brad Davis - Developer for High Fidelity Co-author of Oculus Rift in Action
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