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cybereality
Inspiring
June 16, 2015

Unity 5.1 and the Oculus Integration (Official Info)

Howdy,

A lot of changes are occurring with Unity VR development quickly, so we wanted to be sure to give you a clear heads up about what is happening, when it will happen, and what it means for developers.

= Unity First-Party Support =

Unity 5.1 introduced first-party support for virtual reality, making it easy to substitute a stereoscopic VR camera for your main camera by selecting the "Virtual Reality Supported" check box in Player Settings. The initial release of v 5.1 provides support for the Oculus Rift only.

On June 12, Unity released version 5.1.0p1, adding Gear VR support. All developers wishing to update to Unity v 5.1 should select this release, which is available for download here:
http://unity3d.com/unity/qa/patch-releases

For details on implementing Unity's first-party VR support, see the Unity manual: http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/VROverview.html.

= Unity 5.1 and the Oculus Integration =

Unity 5.1 first-party VR support is incompatible with legacy versions of the Oculus Unity Integration (versions 0.6.0 and earlier). Projects using legacy versions of the Integration will only work with Unity v 5.1 if the "Virtual Reality Supported" box in Player Settings is not selected. In that case, they should work normally.

Oculus will be shipping an update to our Unity Integration shortly. If you import the new Oculus Integration version into a legacy VR project, it will work normally with Unity 5.1.

Once you update to this version, our Integration will work for the Rift and Gear VR if "Virtual Reality Support" is enabled.

= Known Issues =

Moving to Unity 5.1 is a substantial upgrade for VR development, and we recommend carefully choosing your timeframe for making the update. There is always risk in moving early to a new major release that you may encounter problems related to VR performance or otherwise.

Please let us know about any issues you encounter in the Oculus Unity forums, and keep your eye out for updates.

We are currently aware of the following issues with 5.1:

• All moonlight scripts, including platform UI, CPU/GPU levels, and overlay, are currently incompatible with 5.1.0. Updated versions will come with 0.6.0.1. The following features will no longer work:
• MediaSurface
• TimeWarp sub-stepping (only supports 60, no longer 20 or 30)
• Linear lighting (sRGB) and eye texture MSAA currently don't work. This will be fixed in Unity 5.1.0p2.
• VR.VRSettings.renderScale has no effect on Android.
• There is currently no way to render separate content (stereo video) to each eye. This may come back in a future Unity version.

For release notes and known issues in Unity 5.1:
https://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new/unity-5.1
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    108 replies

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    alecz
    Participant
    July 3, 2015
    "alexcolgan" wrote:
    we've been working with Unity to get the infrared passthrough working properly. I'll post again once the assets are out :D


    Excellent, cant wait for it! Thanks for the feedback!
    Jyakku
    Up and Coming
    July 6, 2015
    Great work, Oculus team! Native support is something I've been waiting for for a while and I'm really looking forward to slimming down the number of DLLs in my projects.

    Now that there isn't a set of OVR prefabs in the native integration, how would one achieve per-eye effects, such as applying certain layer masks to individual eyes? I'm sure there's probably a simple answer to this, but I'm not sure where to start converting my layer mask code to the new single-camera method of handling VR. In the old integration, I would just change the Culling Mask property of the cameras on the LeftEyeAnchor and RightEyeAnchor.

    EDIT: After carefully re-reading this thread, I see that the ability to render "separate content" such as stereo video is not available. Does this extend to semi-separate content, such as the same scene with different layers, or just entirely separate renders? If I can't render unique layers per-eye, is there an ETA on when this functionality will be rolled into the native support?
    cyberealityAuthor
    Inspiring
    July 6, 2015
    No, doing per-eye effects is not currently supported with the first-party VR support.

    I don't know of an ETA but I can ask.
    AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV
    Jyakku
    Up and Coming
    July 6, 2015
    That would be great, just so we can plan on when to fully transition from the Unity package to the native support. Thanks, Cyber!
    alecz
    Participant
    July 6, 2015
    "Jyakku" wrote:

    Now that there isn't a set of OVR prefabs in the native integration, how would one achieve per-eye effects, such as applying certain layer masks to individual eyes?


    I think i read somewhere this option will be back in the next updates!
    phileday
    Up and Coming
    July 7, 2015
    I'd like to also pipe in to highlight my need to per eye layer control. I create a video player so to watch stereo videos I need to have this feature. This means I won't be able to upgrade to the new system until it has been added. anyone who is creating any stereo video playback will also be running into this problem.

    If there is any work around to achieve this I would be really grateful to hear about it. Not being able to implement the new setup will push back my development.

    Once this feature has been implemented I look forward to taking advantage of all the build VR workflow and also have the knowledge that I'll be producing content for the Consumer version when it is released.
    phileday
    Up and Coming
    July 7, 2015
    Actually I do have another question. The documentation suggests we upgrade to 5.1.1p3 of Unity where as the latest beta is UNITY 5.2.0B1.

    Which versions should we be going with? Is is best to update to the latest beta for VR work as that is where a lot of development is going?
    cyberealityAuthor
    Inspiring
    July 7, 2015
    It's best to use the version Oculus recommends, which currently is 5.1.1p3. Thanks.
    AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV
    Welby
    Inspiring
    July 14, 2015
    A quick question probably already answered tons of time..

    If i'm using the unity 5.1 builted-in integration.. What is the quicker way to disable and able the VR mode at runtime?

    I mean,if i want a game that supports both VR and monitor,the best way is just start the game with the headset turned off if i want to play on monitor,and turned it on BEFORE starting the game if i want to play it in VR?
    MIND LABYRINTH VR DREAMS MIND UNLEASHED
    cyberealityAuthor
    Inspiring
    July 14, 2015
    Correct, the VR mode is detected when the game initializes. Though there is a setting to toggle this called VRSettings.enabled ( http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference ... abled.html ) it doesn't really work like you would expect (but feel free to try it out). So, at this point, it's better to assume the player is has or does not have a Rift at startup and that's it.
    AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV
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