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motorsep
Inspiring
December 15, 2018

This is why I hate devving for mobile VR using UE4

Every single time I update my project to new release of UE4 I have issues building / running it on Go. I don't even remember when was last time I didn't have any issues.

My project was deploying / running fine on 4.19.x. I have not changed anything related to rendering in it. Since 4.20 was deemed as "unstable" release by the community, I decided to skip it and wait for 4.21 (and since I was working on AI, I didn't really need to test on the device just yet).

Now my 4.21 project crashes all the time on Go in the render thread. How on Earth can that happen if I didn't change anything render-wise ?! While I firmly believe that standalone VR is the future, I am about to throw in the towel with UE4 + mobile VR.. It just seems that I spend more time doing QA for Epic and Oculus with UE4 than working on my game.

/end of rant
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    10 replies

    PAalto
    Up and Coming
    December 16, 2018
    I don't think UE4 is alone in that, I have had somewhat similar issues with Unity! Upgrading to a new version will usually break something, and then I need to figure out how to fix the issues to get my project back to working order. I haven't experienced as serious issues as you describe, though, so hopefully you get those issues sorted! Good luck!
    Working on LineWars VR: http://linewars.patrickaalto.com/LWVR.html
    MaxArch
    MaxArch
    Inspiring
    December 17, 2018
    @motorsep I share the frustration.

    With every update to software/drivers for Oculus / Unreal / Windows / Nvidia I expect something will break. The only way to prevent that - and by doing so you accept you won't use the latest improvements - is to stick to one version for your project (which can be frustrating as well if nice improvements have been integrated in the updates).

    Curious if an AAA-title dev can share their experiences but I expect this is just the way it is for devs in general. Maybe also why dev teams won't likely update to newer UE versions during the development cycle?
    motorsepAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 17, 2018
    @maxBr

    While I understand how it goes with software development, breaking engine beyond belief with every new release is bizarre practice. I am not surprised because nowadays Epic works like this - if it works for Fortnite, it's good to go. They don't care for mobile VR a single bit.

    So the issue is that Unity is in-house engine for Oculus, especially for mobile VR. So I've never heard of Unity projects break completely with every new update, because Oculus is the one that makes sure it doesn't happen. That's not the case for UE4 (for mobile VR at least).  I've never had such issues when using UE4 with Rift.

    I could have stayed with 4.19 if Epic didn't put out all these improvements for Android. They are essential and my project isn't in beta stage to be cautious about updating. 
    motorsepAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 17, 2018
    @NinjaGaijin

    By chance, has anyone at Oculus had a chance to look at my bug report about this issue with logcat linked to it ?

    Thanks beforehand
    bkj
    Up and Coming
    December 18, 2018
    So I've never heard of Unity projects break completely with every new update,

    Not with every update but it does break occasionally (I am still on 5.6. jumping over 2017.x, 2018.x waiting now for stable 2019 with proper Vulkan support).



    BOOL VR Games
    motorsepAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 18, 2018

    bkj said:

    So I've never heard of Unity projects break completely with every new update,

    Not with every update but it does break occasionally (I am still on 5.6. jumping over 2017.x, 2018.x waiting now for stable 2019 with proper Vulkan support).





    I had stuff breaking with UE4, but never to the point where it's a hard crash, no matter what project settings one uses.
    motorsepAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 18, 2018
    Hmm.. I used to get pretty quick turn around on bug reports. Now it's like everyone has already left for Christmas holidays - haven't heard anything back yet.
    Anonymous
    December 19, 2018
    Want to post your bug report here as well in case some of us encountered the same and have already found how to fix/workaround it?

    I find myself updating my project with every new engine release and as something is always bound to break. If you leave too many engine versions in between it takes even longer to update your project as you need to make the changes introducted with every engine version in between. My project was originally 4.7 (the first version to 'officially' support gearvr and I've upgraded it on every version since :D (now running 4.21).

    But in general I agree completely it is frustrating spending so much time fixing breaking changes to get the newer engine improvements into your project.
    motorsepAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 19, 2018
    @aussieburgerVR

    Well, this wasn't a bug report thread :) I submitted this issue twice to Oculus and heard nothing back. So much for being Oculus Start member  :/  (and yes, I understand they are ramping up for Quest release and it's a holiday season).

    Basically the issues is this https://github.com/Oculus-VR/UnrealEngine/issues/24

    Epic tested my project and said it works fine using Launch on the Device button from the Editor (with stock 4.21.1 from launcher). I tried that and it indeed works - my project runs on Go fine. However, if I build it conventionally and manually install it with adb - it crashes right when it launches.

    I didn't have any such major issues with UE4 since 4.9.x up to 4.19.x I skipped 4.20.x and now I have this crap with 4.21.1
    motorsepAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 20, 2018
    Anyhow, figured this bug out (details in my Issue report on github)
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