Dev Update #37 - VRidge 2.1 Beta

VRidge 2.1 Beta is now available

To be able to test out the Beta version - follow the "How to join the VRidge Beta Update channel?" article.

This update is focused mostly on improving the 2.0 version experience and bringing Wireless NOLO support back. We have some info about AR Core positional tracking as well - read more about it below.

We have listened to your feedback about VRidge 2.0 and provided several improvements to the software. 

User Experience changes

We have added four new languages:

• French
• German
• Spanish
• Chinese

This includes translation of the website, RiftCat desktop client, mobile application, automatic emails and YouTube descriptions with subtitles to provide the best experience for those who do not speak english.

The translation were made with the help of our beloved community using CrowdIn system. We are very thankful for your help! We are providing VRidge full version keys for the active translators in return.

As many people worked on the translations, they might contain mistakes or inconsistency. That's why we encourage you to inform us about any errors in translations so we could make it perfect before it will reach the "Stable" channel.

There are other languages mostly translated within the system. We will deploy them over time.

New "Discover" feature:

An additional tab within RiftCat that will let you learn what possibilities does VRidge have. It will be a library of our video tutorials so you could always find something new to do in virtual reality. We will update this tab on a regular basis.

Recenter hotkey improvement:

Recenter hotkey can now be bound into any controller input. You can use Gamepad, Joystick, Steering Wheel or any other XInput-compatible controller.

Redesign of LIVE settings:

When you enable Advanced mode or turn on any of our integrations, the LIVE settings will get an additional menu to organize specific settings that can be changed on the fly during streaming.

Redesign of connection screen:

We have improved the connection screen a little bit by moving the elements around and introducing the Basic Guide and Help Center link for new users.

One of the most occuring issue with VRidge 2.0 happens when the desktop app can detect the phone but cannot connect to it in time. It's manifested by constant connection popup. We reworked the connection process to better inform the user about what is happening. Connecting your phone to the desktop app should be much friendlier now.

Additionally, PC-mobile app version mismatches will now be correctly displayed on the connection screen. This doesn't work retroactively - 2.0.3 mobile app will not be detected by 2.1.0 PC client.

NOLO Wireless support

We have brought back NOLO Wireless support that was present in 1.5 version of VRidge Classic. It is added as an Integration called "NOLO Wireless" and can be configured within RiftCat. We have also added some new changes in comparison to the 1.5 NOLO support:

• Support for throwing objects in games by passing velocity data from the controller
• Support for ceiling mode
• Configurable anti-noise filter to prevent random button press-events.
• NOLO settings can be changed LIVE. 

AR Core positional tracking

We were planning to release an AR Core positional tracking with this release - it was almost ready. But unfortunately due to the sudden change within AR Core SDK that introduced a feature breaking bug we had to wait for the next SDK release.

The SDK should get an update in the upcoming weeks but we couldn't postpone this update for that long. That's why we are releasing this patch without AR Core positional tracking but we will add it back as soon as possible.

VRidge SDK documentation update

We have updated our VRidge SDK to the v3 code examples and specification. It's now available as .NET standard package with .proto definition so you can use it more easily in any language of your choice on most of the popular OSes.

Bug fixes

• GeForce 640M and 650 GT will now be correctly detected as NVENC-capable.
• Updater .exe icon changed to the VRidge 2.0 version instead of VRidge Classic
• NOLO wired mode will no longer require setting "Gear VR" in NOLO driver's Riftcat/Trinus. switch. We still recommend using "Gear VR" because it works better for most of the phones.
• In "Cardboard" mode you will be using NOLO rotational sensor.
• In "Gear VR" mode you will be using your phone's rotational sensor along with latency optimizations and tracking prediction to make latency lower. It's not limited to Gear VR devices and can be used by any phones.
• If VRidge is not able to start network server, it will now try to close previous VRidge processes to make sure old instance is not locking network port. If it doesn't help, it will display "Check your firewall" popup.
• Updated help center link if VRidge can't access game's surface because of NVIDIA Optimus tech.
• VRidge will now redirect user to install Media Feature pack for Windows if it detects that Media Foundation is missing. Previously it crashed with "mfplat.dll" error.
• VRidge will no longer crash on startup along with Riftcat due to rare race condition.
• VRidge will no longer crash on video keyframe request (specific GPUs only).
• VRidge standalone/diagnostic mode will no longer crash on systems with disabled desktop duplication API. It will now instead wait until SteamVR starts instead of displaying desktop stream.
• VRidge will no longer crash because it incorrectly defaulted to Quick Sync encoder on systems where Media Foundation's Quick Sync is not supported (Windows 7 or Intel <4th gen)
• RiftCat client will no longer crash due to random race condition after disconnection when it tried to display "Disconnected" toast.
• RiftCat client will no longer crash if you click on "Login" during popup close animation.
• Fixed Android crash that could occur when your restarted Android app mid-stream.

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Remember that you can follow the current development progress on our public Trello board: http://go.riftcat.com/vridge-development

We hope that this Beta version won't contain too many issues and we will be able to bring it to everyone as soon as possible. Thank you guys for your continous support!