I'm hoping to give some feedback, gain some advice and start a dialogue with Oculus to improve running content for clients and at events.
I work for an events agency where it's common place now to have VR at the events – sometimes we'll run about 3 stands each with 3 – 4 headsets and almost always the low end, 360 video content. I've just come off the back of two recent events where I came on site to help staff run VR demos, and it's been a nightmare. We've been using GearVRs and I try and make it totally foolproof. I'll put a shortcut to the video, or encode a NFC tag with the content to play, show the staff how to launch it straight into VR, however it never goes this way. In my opinion, the users shouldn't need a crash corse in how to use the device if it's just a simple video or experience that they'll passively experience, most just want to throw on the headset and take a look. After all, you don't show a user how a TV remote works just to watch screen content at an event, so why should this be any different? So they'll put on the headset, and just stand there. "Is it playing?" I'll often have to ask, prying the headphone off one ear. They'll usually have knocked the side and stopped the playback, so I'll have to describe taking the white dot that's in the centre of the screen, placing it over the play button, and tapping the side to begin. Sometimes they'll hit the back button and I'll need to take back the headset, and set it up again.
Sure it's not a massive issue, however it takes time, and looks really clunky. It isn't how you want to appear to your clients, fumbling with the tech. So I'm wondering if anyone can share some advice on how to make this process streamlined and foolproof. I was excited about getting the Oculus Go as I was hoping this would provide the answer to the above, however from my preliminary look at it, you can't actually launch experiences from the phone, meaning you'll need to navigate to the experience for the user, run it and then pass over the headset. It'd be amazing if Oculus Video had a phone interface so you could select media to play on the phone, and give you control over it through the app, better still, do this on multiple devices from one phone.
For fairs and shows I like to disable the prompt to press the oculus button to start VR. I have a video player which starts and stops the video automatically - so no need for the extra hassle to push that button.
This would be a tremendous help to not having to explain the audience which button to push first! Then they could just put on the headset and everything starts automatically. If you could provide a solution for this, Oculus Go would become instantly the holy grail for VR video presentations.
I want to jump on this boat and say that we really need this. To be honest... I'm astonished that there's no such thing as a kiosk mode or some enterprise solution on both the hardware and software side. We were hoping that the Oculus GO would fill this gap.
We have launched a VR show where 25 people can go through an experience simultaneously; synced with external audio via UDP. But using phones with the GearVR stays clunky and it is consumer hardware so stuff is breaking at a fast pace.
We have made a test application to run on the GO but there seems to be no way around the developer notifications and remote.
Any shared ideas and experiences are much appreciated!
Form a consortium that performs a group buy of a large number of units (>1000) and tell them that it is conditional based on the addition of a kiosk mode with clearly defined requirements.
We are currently constructing a simulation for our state fare and have recommended to our clients the Oculus GO platform (there really is no other choice considering the cost of a good android phone), and I have been shocked at the convoluted nature of deploying VR sims on Android devices. We've only ever done work on the standard Rift and HTC Vive (with the Vive being the easiest imo). I'm using Unity and having to set so many custom settings pointed at very specific files that aren't even the latest iteration. Its all as rickety as a bridge made of toothpicks. You'd think they'd make it more streamlined. Now I come here and read this post and it sounds like its gonna get worse!
Really would like to see the recalibration notification as well as the dev noticed removed. We have 2 apps, one for Kiosk mode and one for syncing multiple headset to play the same video but are plagued by these issues. Some more freedom for devs is much wanted.
