Meta Avatars SDK (Feedback/Issues)

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Heya!

It seems like the meta avatar sdk package for unity is missing some assets that make it unusable. Following the official meta project config documentation and v 29 update guide on a fresh project leads to errors and a lot of the assets that the documentation talks about, like scenes or most importantly the avatar manager prefab that has the shaders on it, are completely missing from the packages so it's impossible to get working at all. Unless there's some third secret package containing this stuff, it's currently impossible to implement meta avatars. This is with meta avatar SDK unity package installed and the sample assets package as well 

Is it possible to include an editor to create a new Meta Avatar in the app? We want the user to be able to make custom avatars for their NPCs.

Genuine Feedback. Please don't take this as a joke or an insult. But honestly? I would scrap it and start again. It's woefully over complicated, looks like someone basically took an internal tech demo as samples and said "yep, ship it" like it's a ready product. It's structurally a complete mess, is a nightmare to work with in anything that's not just a clone of the sample project... in fact, you literally have to use a bunch of files that are IN the samples just to get it running. There isn't a redeeming factor. Which is a shame, we really really want to use Meta avatars in our game. But right now? just having it in the project is proving a complete liability. Scrap it. Plan it properly in a USER CENTRIC WAY. And do NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES do any kind of forced asset copies to an assumed structure of a project. It's absolutely wild that this code exists in a publicly released SDK.

    [InitializeOnLoad]
    public class SampleAssetsStartupTrigger
    {
        static SampleAssetsStartupTrigger()
        {
            // defer until the scene has loaded
            EditorApplication.update += RunOnce;
        }

        static void RunOnce()
        {
            EditorApplication.update -= RunOnce;
            if (!SampleAssetsUPMMover.DoesFileVersionMatch())
            {
                SampleAssetsUPMMover.CopyFilesOver();
            }
        }
    }

So start again, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO JUST MODIFY WHAT'S THERE! It will just be enforcing the same bad structure that it already has. It really, really needs a redo from scratch. This will take LESS time than continuing to use what you have now, which I'd wager if VERY slow to develop for.

I've spent countless hours over the last few days just trying to get my custom Avatar to load, with no luck. The funny thing is, I had it working on the project I was using, but started running into random errors (not with the avatar) so I figured I'd start the project over with a clean slate. Well, whattya know, for the life of me I can't get my custom avatar working again, no matter what I do. I must've created 10 new projects over the past week trying different versions of Unity (including 6), older versions of the Meta all-in-one SDK (69, 72, 74), older versions of Meta Avatars (24.1, 31, 35) and can't get it working. I've done the entire process so many times with creating the app on the Meta dashboard, doing the Data Checkup, copying App IDs, etc.

Mind you, I'm not a total scrub. I work as a full stack developer and have been using Unity for some time now. The level of sloppiness with these SDKs is quite frankly unacceptable. The amount of notes, known issues, fixes that Meta has AS STANDARD PROCEDURE is absolutely mind blowing. At one point the **bleep** Building Blocks wouldn't even show up and Meta's posted in version release notes somewhere "if you cannot see the Building Blocks, create a script and enter this in, and run it". Okaayyyyyyy Meta. I cannot imagine being a beginner developer, thinking Building Blocks would be an easy way to make a VR game only to be left dealing with this slop. No matter which tutorial I follow (either Meta's or youtube videos) nothing works. It's a **bleep** shame. 

Cryostriker is right. Meta needs to take all of these tools out behind the shed and put them out of their misery. RIP ⚱️💀 OHH YESSS!

I got it working!!!! Woo-hoo! Thanks so much RiverExplorer , your suggestion to add the breakpoints in the code really helped me. The OvrPlatform wasn't initializing at all. There were a few things that I did, but the issue may have been a dumb oversight on my part- I didn't have the Meta Quest Link App running on my PC (since I'm at work testing this out ...)  I probably should have had running all along? Because that is what starts the OVR background processes in Windows.  Once I had that running, and then re-set my separate App IDs for both the Rift (PC) and Quest, it worked. Thanks so much for your input. I've never been so happy to see my avatar! LOL 🍻

This is exactly what I would love to see from Meta. It even has interactions and locomotion all synced over the net. You follow this, and you are up and running in an afternoon. https://youtu.be/TfxqiSwJWzs?si=kLxyPOpjMxxnS1kR

I have the same problem. I couldn't get the latest v35 avatars to work with OpenXR. They work fine with OculusXR so I guess I'll use that for now.

Appreciate the follow-up here. You haven't been ignored or forgotten—the reason for the delay is that sorting all this out on our end involves a lot of communication between different teams that work in different ways—the internal discussion on this issue has more than 15 people participating! I appreciate your patience, as these first few issues aren't just opportunities for us to make the experience better, they're also test runs where we figure out the best way for our own teams to communicate to make sure that the most important issues get visibility and I can update you on progress in a timely fashion.

For now I can tell you: I believe we have a bunch of the stuff you're looking for in Showcases, but we agree that they should be represented in Building Blocks as well and we anticipate adding them in the near future, time and resources depending. I also believe the Avatars team is planning a hotfix for the issue ImmersiveMatthew  and bk_brainiac are highlighting, I will update you when I have more information!

Just want to close the loop on some of this stuff:

First: The issue with USING_XR_SDK has a hotfix coming out which should address RiverExplorer's use-case.

The weirdness we're seeing with the Building Blocks not working properly is a little unusual, because in our own testing (using a combination of Networked Avatar block + Teleporter block from ISDK + Networked Grabbable Object block), we had no trouble getting both locomotion and interaction working in v74. We're not 100% sure yet what's causing this to fail in your implementation, but we suspect it's either the same issue that's being fixed in the above hotfix, or a separate issue with Interaction Profile configuration that has its own hotfix coming out shortly.

Avatars not working with XROrigin is a separate issue which needs a little more clarification, and forgive me if I miscommunicate here because I have a lot of catching up I'm still doing on the technical side. The gist of it as I understand it is that our commitment to OpenXR is focused first and foremost about OpenXR Plugin support, where cross-platform devs would be able to build a single Unity OpenXR Plugin-based app and run it on Quest headsets alongside any other platforms they may be targeting. We're not moving away from OVRCameraRig yet because it would require developers to switch CameraRig per platform and do their cross-platform adaptation themselves. We would like Avatars to be less OVRCameraRig dependent, but we're not 100% sure yet at this stage exactly when and how we want to prioritize this.

Hopefully this provides a little more clarity. This feedback is going to the Avatars team so more questions, feedback, and (constructive) criticism is still welcome!