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jherico
Inspiring
October 3, 2014

Linux 'putting your money where your mouth is' thread...

So, the Linux 'nagging thread' has kind of dragged on for a while. Oculus has pledged Linux support, but given no ETA on when we'll see positional tracking supported for DK2. It could be this week. It could be months.

However, I think that sitting around and waiting for Oculus to solve the issue kind of goes against the spirit of Linux anyway. If you want something done, you should be willing to do it yourself. To that end, I'm working on porting the current 0.4.2 SDK to Linux. I've managed to reverse engineer some of the code required to interact with the LEDs so that they can be turned on. The camera is natively supported. Right now the primary missing component to getting this done is the software for calculating a head pose based on an image from the camera.

Unfortunately this kind of math is outside my field of expertise. So I'm putting a call out to the community to see if interested parties might be able to assist with this.

If you want a Linux SDK and don't want to wait for Oculus to get around to it, and you've got the skills, here's a video of them captured from the webcam on Linux:




You can download original file from here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Oculus/oculus_rift_leds.webm

If you can write C or C++ code that will take that video, or an image from that video, and turn it into a head pose, let me know and I'll work with it to produce a viable Linux SDK with positional tracking.

    44 replies

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    brantlew
    Participant
    October 15, 2014
    "blackguest" wrote:
    Doc-OK just posted his first successful head tracking in his latest blog post: Hacking the Oculus Rift DK2, part III http://doc-ok.org/?p=1138!!!

    We are getting close to beating facebooculus in getting dk2 working in linux!



    Nice job. This project is going about 10x as fast as I would have imagined.
    creepytennis
    Participant
    October 15, 2014
    This is so fantastic. I really am so grateful to you guys, and I'll definitely contribute, even if it's just cash. Thanks again.
    jhericoAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 15, 2014
    "brantlew" wrote:
    "blackguest" wrote:
    Doc-OK just posted his first successful head tracking in his latest blog post: Hacking the Oculus Rift DK2, part III http://doc-ok.org/?p=1138!!!

    We are getting close to beating facebooculus in getting dk2 working in linux!



    Nice job. This project is going about 10x as fast as I would have imagined.


    Frankly I'm kind of astonished myself. I was hoping to be able to contribute more myself, but I can't possibly match Oliver's skills, nor his pace between my day job and my book requirements. It looks like we're down to sensor fusion and then integration and packaging into a distributable.
    Brad Davis - Developer for High Fidelity Co-author of Oculus Rift in Action
    brantlew
    Participant
    October 15, 2014
    "jherico" wrote:
    "brantlew" wrote:
    "blackguest" wrote:
    Doc-OK just posted his first successful head tracking in his latest blog post: Hacking the Oculus Rift DK2, part III http://doc-ok.org/?p=1138!!!

    We are getting close to beating facebooculus in getting dk2 working in linux!



    Nice job. This project is going about 10x as fast as I would have imagined.


    Frankly I'm kind of astonished myself. I was hoping to be able to contribute more myself, but I can't possibly match Oliver's skills, nor his pace between my day job and my book requirements. It looks like we're down to sensor fusion and then integration and packaging into a distributable.



    It's amazing how randomly some projects gain traction and others don't. This post could have easily just drowned in a sea of posts - never to be discovered again. I really love this thread because it reminds me of the heady days on MTBS3D when people actually did VR instead of just talked about VR. FreePIE is another project that was initiated this way. I originally floated the idea at MTBS3D and contributed a good bit to it, but CyberVillain really pushed that one through. http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=14188 But I've been involved in other good project ideas that just never materialized for whatever reason. It's rarely a community effort that drives them. It always takes the concentrated effort of one or two individuals to make things happen. Doc Ock really dug his teeth into this one. And really you could say similar things about Palmer and Oculus. The Rift was really just another little project that caught fire through the actions of one or two individuals. Or hell - I guess Linux itself has a similar story.
    jhericoAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 15, 2014
    All I know is the more support ther is out there for developer who want to play with VR, the better the chances of someone coming up with something really interesting and new, rather than just a 'Doing X, but in VR' experience, which most stuff so far has tended to be.

    It's interesting stuff to be sure, but it's not transformative.

    There's something out there, like the fabulous statue hidden inside a block of marble, waiting to be set free by the hands of a sculptor. It will arrive, and everyone will look at it and think it was as obvious as radio, the car, the TV or the personal computer. And I'm not talking about VR itself, I'm talking about something people will build with VR. We just don't know what it is yet.
    Brad Davis - Developer for High Fidelity Co-author of Oculus Rift in Action
    FictionX
    Participant
    October 15, 2014
    I barely understand half of the technical stuff that's being said in this track... I just think you guys are awesome. :-)

    However, I just need to say this (and I may be alone in thinking it, in which case I apologize): If people from the community end up making DK2 work in Linux, it's a huge win for both the Linux and the Rift community.
    In my book, it will however also be a major loss for Oculus in terms of respect and trust. They should have provided us with a functioning SDK months ago.

    This project didn't really gain traction at random, like Brantlew says. It gained traction out of necessity, and out of people being frustrated and tired of "delays" and wanting to move their projects along - and I guess to keep Linux from falling off the VR wagon completely. The talent has been here all along and they could have started this project at any time - but they were waiting for Oculus to make good on their promises.

    Sorry.. had to get that one off my chest. This tread and the project is fantastic - no matter what the reason for it is.
    okreylos
    New Participant
    October 15, 2014
    "FictionX" wrote:
    This project didn't really gain traction at random, as Brantlew says. It gained traction out of necessity.


    Thank you for saying that. I was going to say the same thing, but didn't. Yes, there's nothing even remotely random about this. I've had a DK2 sitting on my desk for more than two months (IIRC), and so far I've gotten great use out of it as a paperweight. I got everything except positional tracking working with my open VR SDK a little more than a month ago, and jherico posting his HID dumps the Friday before last was the final straw.
    brantlew
    Participant
    October 15, 2014
    "okreylos" wrote:
    "FictionX" wrote:
    This project didn't really gain traction at random, as Brantlew says. It gained traction out of necessity.


    Thank you for saying that. I was going to say the same thing, but didn't. Yes, there's nothing even remotely random about this. I've had a DK2 sitting on my desk for more than two months (IIRC), and so far I've gotten great use out of it as a paperweight. I got everything except positional tracking working with my open VR SDK a little more than a month ago, and jherico posting his HID dumps the Friday before last was the final straw.



    Well ok, not random in the out-of-thin-air quantum mechanical sense :lol: But it just so happened that you wanted it badly, were watching the forums, and had the skill set to pull it off. Change one of those factors or the timing and this is just one of hundreds of other ideas that languish and go nowhere.

    Anyway, the official Linux build is still coming soon - delayed along with the SDK mostly by non-technical scheduling, prioritization, and logistical issues of which I can't get into. But as opposed to previous releases we now have dedicated staff that concentrate on Linux and we have relationships with major distros to negotiate kernel fixes/compatibilities so I expect the upcoming release will be quite comprehensive.

    That's not to discourage you from continuing this project. I hope you do finish it and provide a back-bone for others to experiment with other algorithmic, optimization, and fusion techniques.
    kotakotakota
    Participant
    October 16, 2014
    "brantlew" wrote:

    Anyway, the official Linux build is still coming soon - delayed along with the SDK mostly by non-technical scheduling, prioritization, and logistical issues of which I can't get into. But as opposed to previous releases we now have dedicated staff that concentrate on Linux and we have relationships with major distros to negotiate kernel fixes/compatibilities so I expect the upcoming release will be quite comprehensive.

    Great! Thanks for the update! :)
    creepytennis
    Participant
    October 16, 2014
    "brantlew" wrote:

    Anyway, the official Linux build is still coming soon - delayed along with the SDK mostly by non-technical scheduling, prioritization, and logistical issues of which I can't get into. But as opposed to previous releases we now have dedicated staff that concentrate on Linux and we have relationships with major distros to negotiate kernel fixes/compatibilities so I expect the upcoming release will be quite comprehensive.


    Thanks so much for the update! :)

    Some slightly worrying noises maybe. "relationships with major distros"? 'kernel fixes'? Well anyway, it'll be great to have a choice between an official driver and an open one, especially if the official one turns out to be closed source, or has other awkward prerequisites.
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