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Introducing XPlaneOculus, an X-Plane plugin for the X-Plane

xixtoo
Honored Guest
Website with youtube video: http://runway12.com/projects/XPlaneOculus/

This is a plugin for X-Plane that adds support for head tracking with the Oculus Rift virtual reality HMD.

3D rendering for the rift is not currently supported. I'm using Ibex to convert the X-Plane window's image to the format needed by the rift for now. It's not a perfect solution at all, but it's good enough for initial development.

Support for rendering in stereo 3D with the correct dirstortion for the Oculus' optics is a planned area of research, but may not be possible from an X-Plane plugin. Positional headtracking using a head mounted Razer Hydra is also planned.

Things are in pretty rough shape right now. Expect things to get better and more documentation to come after a few more hours of hacking.
😄 😄 😄
9 REPLIES 9

clawjelly
Explorer
Oh cool! Will you release a win-version for that?
3D artist since 2000. Yes, i'm old.

KuraIthys
Honored Guest
Ah, I was wondering how long it'd take for someone to do that... (Inevitably, if I ever plan on doing something, someone beats me to it. Because... I'm slow. VERY slow.)

But yes, based on my research into the X-plane API, a plugin would not be able to handle the 3d distortion needed for the rift.

While X-plane plugins can do a lot. (for instance, it's theoretically possible, from what I saw to build a razer hydra plugin that displays virtual hands and would let you manipulate the controls in a 3d cabin with both hands in a fairly natural manner), there are some limitations.

One of the biggest, (and most relevant to adapting X-plane for use with the rift) is that although you can add all kinds of things to different stages of the rendering pipeline, X-plane does not like plugins trying to take control over the final rendering stage, or even trying to do anything with the end result of all the other rendering stages.

Want to create a custom graphic overlay that displays on top of the aircraft models? No problem.
Insert entirely new geometry somewhere? Sure.

But distort the entire rendered image, and take control of the camera system? Not so much...

A plugin system can only take you so far it seems.

xixtoo
Honored Guest
I have control of the camera sys 🙂 Austin@laminar is helping me. even sent me relevant source code from x-plane for me to look at.

Agree about distortion though, may have to get "clever"

xixtoo
Honored Guest
"clawjelly" wrote:
Oh cool! Will you release a win-version for that?


I guess I'll have to sooner or later 🙂 Yes its planned. probably for the next alpha.

If anyone wants to help, i wouldn't mind 😉

KuraIthys
Honored Guest
"mikeakers" wrote:
I have control of the camera sys 🙂 Austin@laminar is helping me. even sent me relevant source code from x-plane for me to look at.

Agree about distortion though, may have to get "clever"


That's cool. Help from one of the developers would make things a lot simpler.

But really, if you can get as far as side-by-side rendering, some basic low-level shader hacks might be able to do the rest... XD

xixtoo
Honored Guest
So I'm currently having some problems positioning the camera to match the movement of the plane. If anyone can take a look at this StackOverflow question and give me some pointers I'd really appreciate it.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16984270/using-quaternions-to-rotate-a-vector-around-an-axis-expr...

xixtoo
Honored Guest
I just uploaded a new alpha build and youtube video. Find both on the project's website: http://runway12.com/projects/XPlaneOculus/

Bug fixes/new features:


    The camera now moves properly to match the plane while it's in motion (Issue #2.)
    A command has been added for resetting the orientation of the Rift. This can be bound to a key or button on the joystick to easily correct yaw drift while in flight.

dcc186
Honored Guest
HI Mike,

have been playing with your plugin- i have it working... to a point. The camera moves around outside environment only i.e. panel just stays in place. This may be a x plane setting rather than something to do with OR, can you please advise?

Thanks
Dan

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi all,

I've got it to work pretty well with Oculus Overlay and the windows version of the X-plane plugin for head tracking. Note that you need the 32-bit version of X-plane to get the plugin to work and here you use extended desktop with Oculus Overlay on the Rift screen. You'll see the normal 2D X-plane on your normal screen. I started with Ibex but I get better performance and easier handling with Oculus Overlay. However note that you have to have Overlay in focus in Windows. As soon as you change focus to X-plane the rift goes white. No problem as long as you have enough buttons on your joystick to fly with...

Oculus Overlay here: http://www.riftenabled.com/admin/app/128
Note that you have to set the positions on the screen where you want Overlay to show. Also, press Q to get the same 2D content into both eyes. Overlay defaults to trying to make 3D. Press space in Overlay for commands.

You can find the Windoze version of XPlaneOculus plugin here http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?s=1092fba5c71e8d1dca16d7e2b5e8ad25&showtopic=68187&page=2

Actually quite nice to fly with. Now when I got performance better than with Ibex I instead notice the resolution of the Oculus so I'm looking forward to the Full HD version. 🙂