Dev update #7 - The one with SteamVR

Before we start, we want to say one thing:

It's a beta! Please do not buy SteamVR games specifically for VRidge.

This technology in current state relies on many third party components and compatibility cannot be guaranteed. You can test SteamVR compatibility with many free SteamVR games available on Steam.

We've been working on SteamVR integration for quite some time and we finally can release a version that should work more often than not. I'm cross-posting these notes to reddit because many of you already have accounts there and it's an easy way to discuss and troubleshoot as a community.

https://www.reddit.com/r/vridge/comments/4fu4sn/dev_update_7_the_one_with_steamvr/

SteamVR

"It's happening!"

Please keep in mind that this tech is still in experimental / unstable stages. Save your games often because crashes can and will happen. Not all games work and compatibility may come and go with game updates. We tried some most-wanted titles and here are quick summaries what you can expect:

• Euro Truck Simulator 2
• You need to go to Steam properties of ETS and use beta branch named "Oculus". Then you need to add -openvr in launch arguments. Disable Steam Desktop Theater for this game so it won't launch in flat mode.
• Elite: Dangerous
• It works but has issues with blurry text. This problem is common even on real HTC Vive devices. You can read some research here.
• We recommend using 1920x1080 for stream resolution. Make sure your phone has 1080p display as well.
• If you are getting black screen, see this post by@adrensnyder.
• Virtual Desktop / Steam Desktop Theater
• Those apps have extra lag and capture problems because essentialy everything is captured and rendered twice as many times as native VR games. We are trying to figure out ways to reduce the latency in those cases.
• We recommend using 1920x1080 for stream resolution. Make sure your phone has 1080p display as well.

There are few steps you need to follow before SteamVR games can work.

1. Install SteamVR runtime in your Steam.

2. Install VRidge SteamVR driver. SteamVR path should be filled automatically. If it's empty, manually point it to vrpathreg.exe, which is located somewhere in your SteamVR location. This can be done after connecting your mobile app to the client. 

3. Launch SteamVR. You need to launch SteamVR while your mobile app is connected to RiftCat. If you launch SteamVR without mobile app paired, close it and start it again after connecting mobile app.

If you can't see this button, start SteamVR from your library (it's a regular game)

If you are asked to run "Room setup" please choose standing experience and enter your height when you are asked to. Otherwise your camera may be too close to the ground for comfortable use.

SteamVR setup/tutorial VR mode is upside down and aligned incorrectly. It won't affect other games.

4. Small SteamVR window will open. If your mobile device was connected when you started SteamVR, it should display Connected and SteamVR games will show Play in VR as an option.

That's it! You should be able to play a lot of amazing SteamVR games now. If your mobile device drops connection you can reconnect VRidge by reopening mobile app. It shouldn't require game/SteamVR restart.

If you are stuck with Headset not detected message, close SteamVR, make sure your mobile device is connected to Riftcat client and start SteamVR again.

If you have problems, please reach out to us through our help center (we will keep adding known issues with SteamVR there soon) or reddit (so we can share workaround and solutions as a community):

https://www.reddit.com/r/vridge/comments/4fu4sn/dev_update_7_the_one_with_steamvr/

Android CPU usage optimized == a lot less pixel artifacts

We solved one very common cause of pixel artifacts happening due to "Frame loss @ decoder". We optimized some of our algorithms and the overall CPU usage dropped by ~50%. This is important because Android devices will generate less heat and therefore Android OS won't downclock CPU to counter the heat.

Core frequency downclocking due to high heat (thermal throttling) fixed pixel aritfacts for nearly all of our devices. There is still room for more optimizations so if you are still experiencing high frame loss @ decoder, don't worry - we will keep trying to optimize and find all the problems.

We have a request - can anyone with Asus Zenfone 2 reply in comments if they got VRidge working correctly? It seems that everyone with this specific phone model is getting constant artifacts.

Memory leaks fixed in NVENC and Media Foundation encoder modules

Some of you reported that staying in-VR with VRidge for longer than 30-40 minutes resulted in VRidge crashing due to lack of memory. We fixed two memory leaks that caused RAM usage to grow 30-100 MB every minute. Sorry for the crashes, totally our fault.