Thursday, August 25, 2016

Dev update #21 - Legacy GPU support




Update on Gear VR (1 September):
We managed to fix known bugs but we still need to shuffle some code and run some tests after. We will try to finish all the release prep work before Monday so we can submit the app to Sideload VR early next week.

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This is a small update, not the one with Gear VR support. Minor bug fixes and a new software encoder for some older GPUs. Desktop app version is 1.1.2 and it's available in beta channel.

Software encoding

Many people kept asking us to introduce support for video cards other than modern GeForces and Radeons. We added Intel HD Graphics support (starting with Intel Core 4000+ processors) but it wasn't enough.

Today we bring full software encoding capability for all systems running Windows 8.1+. This will allow you to run VRidge on any system that can launch your games in VR. There will be of course limitations and game / SteamVR / Oculus hardware requirements still apply but no extra hardware will be required by VRidge.

This mode is last resort option and is automatically pre-selected only if no modern video card is detected on the system. This puts high load on your CPU (depending on video resolution but good CPUs can encode 1080-1440p in real time). It may also add some latency depending on your CPU performance. It's the worst decoder out of all the options but it's the best one where none of the other options work. 

New software encoding option

Bugfixing

  • Sometimes SteamVR wasn't launching VRidge server properly. An extra option was added to desktop app settings. If you check it, it will run some extra checks during launch process to make sure VRidge server starts properly.
  • AMD "Not enough storage" or "Signature verification error" error will now ask if users wants to open troubleshooting page for this error.
  • Old NVIDIAs (pre-Kepler chipset) will no longer default to NVENC encoder. It will now offer new software encoder.
  • Changed MF's default encoding profile to 100. It shouldn't cause any problems but if it does, go to Riftcat\Config, open vridgeQuality.cfg with notepad and change UseLegacyProfile to true. Setting it to legacy profile may affect Android device compatibility.
  • Minor text fixes.

GearVR news

We contacted SideloadVR to make sure we have some platform to launch on. If they don't agree to host VRidge we'll have to create our own repackaging service to bundle user signatures. This shouldn't be too hard but may delay release for few days if SideloadVR crew refuses to host VRidge.
There is one major bug to fix and we're good to go. Expect more news and, if everything goes well, an apk file next week.

44 comments:

  1. Keep it going guys, excellent work. Xxx

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  2. Woot! Time to countdown till Gear VR version hits Sideload VR!

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  3. Awesome work guys. I really hope the Gear VR version fixes the streaming stutters I get. I use stream theater ok my S7 and it's a locked 60fps. With riftcat it always feels like I am stuck at 30. It's an awesome product that hopefully has a long life with the upcoming google daydream class of phones.

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  4. my old GPU don't have Dx11 is it possible to use Steam VR with DX10 GPUs ?

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    1. You can test compatibility with SteamVR with this tool http://store.steampowered.com/app/323910/

      You can use GPU below minimum requirement (GTX 970) but I think DirectX 11 is hardcoded minimum. I haven't seen anyone using SteamVR with Dx 10 GPU. :(

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  5. is it possible to make VRidge work on Android 4.4.2 phones ?

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    1. We have plans to port VRidge to 4.X Android, not ETA.

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  6. Is there a way to downgrade to 1.1.1b? I'm experiencing terrible artifacting an some sort of rainbow thing with a pixely mess on the SteamVR home screen when everything was okay before.

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    1. Rainbow like mess is most likely caused by automatic stream fixes. You can disable this in app options but it would be great if you ran a diagnostic stream. We could use your diagnostic data to make sure it doesn't happen again.

      See the article below:
      https://support.riftcat.com/hc/en-us/articles/211601805-How-to-gather-diagnostic-data-on-Android-

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  7. What's the status on different payment methods? I'll appreciate if you consider Skrill as an option.

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    1. Currently on hold but you can contact us at support@riftcat.com and we'll find some sort of individual payment solution.

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  8. Replies
    1. Early next week, I hope. Fixed nasty bugs but it took us longer than expected and we didn't have time to merge code into beta and run final tests. :(

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  9. Nie mogę się doczekać wersji Gear :) Jeśli tylko będzie działało tak dobrze, jak sklep Oculus, to kupuję od razu :)

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    1. Edycję Gear VR będziemy jeszcze ulepszać przez następne tygodnie (jak nie lepiej). Pierwsze wydanie zawsze jest najbardziej karkołomną wersją. :)

      Nie ma pośpiechu z zakupami - cen nie podnosimy, preorder bonusami nie kusimy, wersja darmowa-testowa będzie. Kupuj tylko wtedy, gdy jesteś pewien wartości produktu. :)

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    2. A macie jakieś wieści od Sideload VR? Uda Wam się skorzystać z ich hostingu?

      Póki co jedyną grą, w której nie działała mi wersja z czujnikami telefonu, było Elite Dangerous. Z resztą nie miałem problemów. Jakby dodać do tego czujniki Gear, będzie wyśmienicie.

      Jeszcze parę pytań:
      - czym się różni Media Foundation od NVENC?
      - czy w jakiś sposób mogłem przestawić maksymalny bitrate? Wcześniej miałem ponad 100, teraz tylko 30.

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    3. Sideload jeszcze się nie odezwał. Mamy nadzieję, że kanał zgłaszania appek bardziej obserwują, ale postawienie klonu kawałku sideloada, który generowałby .apki, nie powinno być szczególnie czasochłonne.

      Dziwne, że E:D nie działało. U nas śmigało nieźle (poza tym że nikt w biurze nie umie latać :).

      "-czym się różni Media Foundation od NVENC?"
      NVENC i Media Foundation to tylko programistyczne warstwy do kodowania/strumieniowania obrazu. NVENC jest od NVIDII, MF jest od Microsoftu, ale używa "pod maską" albo sterownika NVIDII, albo AMD - zależy od tego jaka karta graficzna siedzi w środku.

      Pierwotnie zaczęliśmy tylko z MFem, bo chcieliśmy żeby uniwersalnie działało bez znaczenia jaką kartę ma user. Okazało się jednak, że MF ma problem z GeForce'ami i działał tylko na Windows 10, który ma mieszane opinie. Zdecydowaliśmy więc dodać NVENC.

      Jakościowo/wydajnościowo oba powinny działać bardzo podobnie, choć NVENC w teorii powinien byc minimalnie bardziej wydajny. W przyszłości chciałbym posiedzieć trochę nad optymalizacją specyficznie NVENCa, bo NVIDIA ma tam bajeranckie opcje do streamingu gierek z niskim opóźnieniem i nie wszystko wykorzystaliśmy. Tylko czasu nie ma, bo inne feature'y trzeba rozwijać. :)

      Bitrate można dostroić w configu (Riftcat/config/vridgeQuality.cfg). W okienku można tylko chyba do 30-50 przesunąć. Plik .cfg przyjmie wszystko, ale generalnie przekraczanie 50 nie będzie już dawać lepszego efektu wizualnego, a będzie powodować tylko zwiększone opóźnienie i szanse na zgubione klatki (bo więcej musi przesłać na sekundę detali).

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    4. Z bitratem dodam jeszcze, że on musi być dostrojony do rozdziałki. Dla 1080p 30 Mbps powinno być wystarczające. Dla 1440p można zauważyc zwiększenie jakości przy przejściu na np. 40-50 Mbps, ale to zależy od kolorystyki gry i ilości rzeczy, które ruszają się na ekranie.

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    5. Akurat jeżeli chodzi o moce przerobowe to mi ich nie brakuje - NVENC w 780Ti sprzętowo wyrabia 50mbps bez wpływu na wydajność (a może nieoficjalnie nawet więcej), w budzie siedzi 6700K, router ma 5ghz AC i jest zestawiony z S7E na link 866mbps. Jak korzystałem z Trinusa to było non stop obciążenie 100-200mbps i żadnych spowolnień nie zauważyłem.

      NVENC w Pascalu wyciąga na papierze 130mbps, więc z czasem może warto i taką opcję dać :)

      Jak można się najszybciej dowiedzieć o aktualizacji? Czy aplikacja z Play Store da info od razu?

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    6. Z takim zestawem to faktycznie można solidny stream zmieścić. :)

      O aktualizacji najłatwiej się dowiedzieć via Facebook/Twitter. Blogger, którego używamy jako platformy pod ten blog, ma też atom feed (http://blog.riftcat.com/feeds/posts/default), który czytniki RSS powinny potrafić zasubskrybować.

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  10. Thank you for the fantastic tool, do you plan to introduce hdmi support for all in one hmd, these hmd include hdmi connection port

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  11. Thank you for the fantastic tool, do you plan to introduce hdmi support for all in one hmd, these hmd include hdmi connection port

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    1. We'll definitely try to do something with HDMI headsets since many people asked about it already and there are more and more of those headsets appearing. :)

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  12. Hi Trinus VR integrated StreamVR in their latest release. Overall the experience is not as polished as Vridge but their implementation of streaming/compression/decompression is really great. They might be using software compression because de graphics are superbe but slowed down 0.5x . I have a radeon HD 7970 streaming to an S6. Worth checking.

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    1. Forgot to tell you...Vridge is the best app of 2016 in my book. I am anxiously waiting for the GearVR version. Thank you a lot for this piece of dream come true.

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    2. They are using picture streaming (fast series of JPEGs) which can't artifact but uses a lot of CPU and bandwidth + is limited in terms of resolution and framerate. It's good for stable & decent quality but you can't go too far with it.

      We're thinking about similar solution but it's currently low priority since with good connection artifacting is really rare.

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    3. Thank you for the info. Could it be possible to use something such as GPUJPEG to encode JPEGs using hardware acceleration and some form of hardware JPEGs decoder on android? Assuming WIFI AC provides enough bandwidth to stream all those JPEGs.

      Regards

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    4. We'll investigate this topic. This may be a nice option for bandwidth heavy but stable connection type. Even if you lose couple of frames along the way it doesn't cause much problems. If we lose frames in a video stream, it corrupts series of pictures for up to 120 next frames.

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  13. Can't wait to try out the GearVR version in Warthunder/Elite.

    Great work guys!

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  14. Can't wait to play vivecraft with gear vr sensor !

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  15. what about gear vr?¿?¿ i am really happy with that new version...... the best app for android, you are the best....

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    1. We are currently waiting for SideloadVR to approve our submission.

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  16. I just tried the gearvr version and it is wonderful. I do not perceive any drift whatsoever. The head tracking is smooth with a very small lag. Overall the experience is miles ahead of the cardboard version. The stream is stable when I revert to uselegacyprofile = true in vridgequality.cfg. When disabled my screen is entirely gray. A new bug introduced by this version is the image being double and straining my eyes. It is like the IPD is too short on my S6.

    Thank you for this great gearvr version. I feel like I wont need an oculus rift after all. Just that weird IPD issue and a way to increase the stream quality (currently limited to 1080p) on my amd radeon 7970 and this S6/gearvr combo will become my day to day gaming headset.

    I played Omega Agent on SteamVR and did not get dizzy like I used to on the cardboard version.

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    1. Check out the latest blog post - http://blog.riftcat.com/2016/09/dev-update-22-gear-vr-first-release.html
      We messed up the stereoscopic view in first version really bad but it should be fixed with the version 2 (available at SideloadVR).

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  18. It's good. But I have a little problem. GearVR version mono. Both eye see the left eye screen. In the steamVR headset mirror the image is good, but the samsung s7 see just the left eye both sides. in HD and 2k quality both. In cardboard no problem.

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  19. where is the gear vr version?¿?¿ i am reading people that is using at this time... thak you

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    1. Available at SideloadVR. Scroll down to instructions in our latest blog post:
      http://blog.riftcat.com/2016/09/dev-update-22-gear-vr-first-release.html

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  20. SideloadVR, better headtracking, but mono screen.

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    1. Check out the latest blog post - http://blog.riftcat.com/2016/09/dev-update-22-gear-vr-first-release.html
      We messed up the sterescopic view in first version really bad but it should be fixed with the version 2 (available at SideloadVR).

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  21. like mentioned above, head-rotation is much smoother but IPD seems to bei a problem, the 3D effect doesnt work.

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    1. Check out the latest blog post - http://blog.riftcat.com/2016/09/dev-update-22-gear-vr-first-release.html
      We messed up the sterescopic view in first version really bad but it should be fixed with the version 2 (available at SideloadVR).

      Delete