Dev update #16 - Open Beta ending

Updates:

• Version 1.0.1 deployed to fix license being read incorrectly with some 64-bit games and SteamVR beta.
• Version 1.0.2 deployed with more 64 bit startup fixes.

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This post is a quick announcment that VRidge enters paid/early-access stage. You can read much more in our previous blogpost.

Price

EUR*	USD*	% off
9.99€	$9.99	(-50%)	Beta testers, all users registered before 16/06/2016**
14.99€	$14.99	(-25%)	Early access - everyone else***

Payment

After signing in into your RiftCat client and pairing phone with VRidge you will see "Unlock" button that will open payment page for you. We are not giving direct link because we want to make sure that someone tries VRidge before buying. On the payment page you will be able to pay with PayPal express checkout.

We are trying to add Paysafecards too.

UPDATED: Removed paysafecards as accepted payment method - country restrictions.

Dev update #15

This week we are not pushing app updates because we are trying to wrap up the 1.0 launch as fast as we can so we can go back to things we love doing the most - features and bugfixes. The launch is scheduled to happen early next week.

Pricing details

We were often asked about the final price of VRidge. People were wondering if it's going to be subscription based or maybe some kind of freemium model with unlockable qualities. Some people suggested ads but ads can support product only if it has millions of installs. Also, they would break immersion and they are often annoying. We are sure that flashing warning with "Your phone has a 32 viruses! Fix! Now!" in the middle of your immersive VR session would be terribly bad.

So we decided that the best choice would be something very simple - one-time payment. No quality tiers. No "insert coin to continue playing" every now and then.

We think that beta testers deserve a better deal because they were with us from the first days, they gave us a lot of feedback and tips to fix bugs. Some of you suggested cool features that we implemented (FreeTrack for example). So beta testers pay only 50% of the final price.

We also want to continue development in the future. We have a lot of ideas and some more bugfixing to do. We want to reduce bandwidth, reduce artifacts, fix incompatible phones, create GearVR native version and iOS app. We want to add more tracking options, better integrations with hand tracking controllers, we want to provide you the best Rift/Vive-like experience for a fraction of a price.

But this takes time and we don't think it would be fair for someone to buy it half a year from now with most (or all) of those features implemented for the same price people have to pay now. So we're starting with early access discount of 25% for all non-beta users registered after today. We will give at least one week notice (probably more) when this discount is going to expire. It's not going to happen too soon because we still have a lot of polishing to do.

Okay, enough words, you want to hear numbers. Regular price would be $19.99/19.99 EUR but this will be in effect once we declare that we are happy with all the features and no major bugs remain. This is not going to happen anytime soon so the actual amounts will be:

EUR*	USD*	% off
9.99€	$9.99	(-50%)	Beta testers, all users registered before 16/06/2016**
14.99€	$14.99	(-25%)	Early access - everyone else***

*All applicable taxes included.
**Beta discounts will expire 1 month after release.
***Early access will expire at some undefined point in the future. We will give at least 1 week notice.

Accepted payment method will be PayPal only but we will try to add something else if many of you ask us to. You will be able to buy it early next week. We won't have any downtimes (hopefully, unless something goes wrong) so you will be able to continue using VRidge without interruptions.

Free version

Free version will be time-limited. We believe everyone has to try the product before deciding if it's worth spending money on. There are a lot of 3rd party components so we want to give a way for everyone to test their hardware and system before buying. Free version will be limited to 10 minutes per session. It's enough to run some short experience fully and it should be enough to test out bigger games.

Will I have to buy it again for GearVR / iOS?

No. We are not asking you to pay again for the same thing on multiple devices. Please keep in mind that we will try our best to deliver those versions but it's not a promise because those versions can be blocked by things outside our control (Samsung/Oculus closing down GearVR SDK for example). We don't see any major obstacles now but we cannot predict the future.

What's next?

We want to keep updating VRidge further. This takes time and money and this is exactly the reason we ask a price equivalent to 1-2 cinema tickets. This will allow us to buy more phones to test, more devices, motion controllers. We want to keep up with PC VR and continue providing the best PC VR to mobile VR solution. GearVR and iOS versions will be our summer priority. We also want to get rid of bugs with some incompatible devices (Zenfone 2, few Huawei models, old Galaxy models, among others). Oh, and the heat is still an issue - we want to reduce it. 

We will also continue to listen to your suggestion. After all, we're making this software for your needs and we are really greatful for all the feedback and suggestions. Some of you went above and beyond with error reporting. All the recordings, logs, dump files, thousands of e-mails. We couldn't wish for better testers than all of you.

Thank you!

RiftCat Team

Dev update #14 - New user interface

RiftCat graphical update

As part of our vision to make virtual reality appeal to everyone we made improvements to our GUI design to make it more consistent across RiftCat apps & website. We applied Material Design guidelines and optimized what we could to improve the RiftCat experience. One picture is worth a thousand words so we decided to show what VRidge actually does in a simple and understandable way.

Simplified library

We decided to get rid of the "Store" tab. Instead, we made every game visible in the users Library. The process of adding the games to library first was overly complex. Access to games available on RiftCat platform is much faster now.

Unified PC settings window

We combined RiftCat settings and VRidge streaming/tracking settings into one window.

Mobile app UI improvements

Built-in FAQ/help center, USB tethering shortcut, slick sidebar, new icon and more!

Easier game starting

Starting SteamVR should be easier now. The leftmost button will now automatically install our driver and then start SteamVR. If no SteamVR is present it will open SteamVR install dialog. We also clarified what Oculus SDK versions are working. 

Some QOL and minor changes

• You can add custom Oculus SDK games to RiftCat client if you want to have everything in one place.
• You can reconfigure keybinding to reset head orientation (keyboard only for now, we'll try to add something for controllers too).
• You can contact support through support.riftcat.com and our official help e-mail address is going to be support@riftcat.com
• We are updating our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. No major/evil changes but we had to update some lines to be valid for new product launch. We will display site wide notification about it.
• We updated requirements and mentioned incompatible phones (haven't fixed those yet, sorry!) and new GeForce requirement (Windows 7 instead of 10)
• No more beta claiming/keys. Everyone registered will have beta access until the beta ends.

Rotation calibration/offset for SteamVR

One user asked us to provide a way to offset rotational data because some gyroscopes have calibration problems so we added this option. Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\ and open steamvr.vrsettings in notepad. Go to vridge section - it will look like this:

"driver_vridge": {
   "windowWidth": 1664,
   "windowHeight": 936,
   "renderScale": 130,
 }

For example, if you want to offset X by 20 degrees and Z by 5 degrees, change it into:

"driver_vridge": {
   "windowWidth": 1664,
   "windowHeight": 936,
   "renderScale": 130,
   "RotationOffsetXDeg": 20,
   "RotationOffsetYDeg": 0,
   "RotationOffsetZDeg": 5
 }

Virtual reality mode got removed

Almost no one used it so we had to part ways with it. There is plenty of better software of that kind in the market that VRidge can handle. Thanks to that, RiftCat client got thinner.

Beta ending soon

On June 20th open beta will end and VRidge will transition into paid/early-access stage. More info & pricing details will be available closer to release. Don't worry, we're keeping our promise about staying in indie-tier price range.

What's next?

We'll be busy with 1.0 launch during next week and the one after. We still need to finish some descriptions / instructions and promo graphics. After we're done with launch stuff we'll start working on the fun parts again - device compatibility, image quality and performance/heat optimizations. We've got a lot of ideas for new features too so keep following us here and on social media.

Thank you for all the support, feedback, bug reports. We launched our public beta exactly three months ago and it has been wild and amazing ride. We have no plans to stop development any time soon and we are motivated to keep working on VRidge as long as people keep using it. :)

Dev update #13

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UPDATED - Known issues:

• Increasing render scale decreases image quality instead of increasing it. Oops.
• New SteamVR installation may fail with Compositor error (400).
• Workaround: Try changing quality settings to anything else than defaults. Automatic hotfix will be available in 1-2 hours

Working on it. 

Client update 0.5.4.5a deployed with fixes to both above problems.

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This week we've been mostly working on new layout in preparation for 1.0 release. In this update we include several fixes, tweaks and new option for even better image quality.

New options in update #13

Mixed tracking mode (FreeTrack position + phone orientation)

You can now select new tracking mode that will take FreeTrack positional data but will keep using phone rotational data. This is useful when you have low-framerate tracking setup (30FPS camera for example). This way you can have 30 Hz positional tracking with smooth 60 Hz rotational tracking.

Render resolution no longer hardcoded to 1440p (SteamVR)

Until today everything was always rendered at 2560x1440 and then downscaled to streaming resolution. Sometimes it was a huge waste of resources because if you have 720p phone it was rendering 4 times as many pixels as could be displayed. After this update it should render at stream resolution (with optional supersampling, see next paragraph).

This way 720p phone users should see huge performance increase (75% less pixels to render). 1080p phones will see lesser but still visible performance increase (~45% less pixels to render).

Render Scale (SteamVR)

Thanks to the previous change we can now provider further tweaking options to image quality.

You can now increase render scale up to 200% of stream resolution. This is sometimes called supersampling/SSAA. Please note that increasing this can drastically reduce your performance (framerate).

If your PC can barely handle VR game in its native resolution leave it alone. But on the other hand if you have GTX 980 Ti SLI you should be able to use it to the fullest, right?

Small changes

• Removed gyroscope requirement from Play Store and added pop-up warning user that external tracking (FreeTrack) will be required.
• Fixed custom (high) bitrates crashing Android streaming from time to time. The higher the bitrate the more likely it was too crash and lead to restoring connection loop.
• Simplified SteamVR driver installation. Everything should be done automatically in 1-click now. If no SteamVR is found it will open SteamVR installation window from Steam
• Fixed FreeTrack axes being mixed (yaw and pitch).

Preview of layout changes

It will be probably pushed live next week. We unified settings window. We're going to update Android looks too with nice sidebar and integrated FAQ. Website will see some changes too. We'll remove store as a part of website and all games will be simply downloadable from library. We're going to bring back custom games too if you want to add your favourite games to quick launch list.

Login window

Main window

Dev update #12 - FreeTrack and other tracking options

This week we focused on improving our head tracking to reduce drift. We're adding FreeTrack support and alternative sensor fusion algorithms. 

Desktop client version is 0.5.4.4, mobile app version is 0.8.7. 

Why are we releasing update on Wednesday instead of Thursday this week? Tomorrow is public holiday in our country so everything (including our office building) is closed. Most of the team will be away on this long holiday weekend but we will catch up and respond to all e-mails and comments on Monday. 

Alternative tracking (mobile)

Until now we were using Cardboard API as the only tracking option. Today we are adding more options. Cardboard API is still the most tested with probably the lowest latency but many of you asked for something more stable. We decided to use alternative sensor fusion algorithms to reduce drift. Keep in mind that using magnetometer with magnet-button-cardboard can result in odd results.

We are also adding option to disable tracking completely because some people wanted 100% stable picture for cinema-like apps.

Our new options are:

Tracker	Required sensors	Pros	Cons
Cardboard API	Gyroscope Accelerometer	Lowest latency	Highest drift
Use magnetometer (stability)	Gyroscope Accelerometer Magnetometer	Lowest drift	Highest latency
			May interfere with cardboard magnet-button
Use magnetometer (responsiveness)	Gyroscope Accelerometer Magnetometer	Very stable with low drift	Latency still higher than Cardboard API
			May interfere with cardboard magnet-button
No gyroscope	Accelerometer Magnetometer	Works without gyroscope	Extremely shaky
No tracking	none	No drift :)	No tracking at all

You can access new options by tapping more in top-right part of the connection screen.

We will try to reduce delays on driftless options but if you are looking mostly ahead without much head movement you might want to use magnetometer optons for more stable experience. Remember that you can reset head position by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R.

External tracking support (FreeTrack 2.0 protocol)

Many people already have their own DIY tracking and we received many requestes to provide a way to use FreeTrack-formatted data. This is our first iteration of this protocol but we wanted to get it out ASAP so you can start experimenting with your devices. We tested with OpenTrack (FreeTrack 2.0 protocol).

Positional data is supported by SteamVR driver only currently. Oculus emulation layer will use rotational data only.

Dev update #11

We don't have much to show this week but most of our work will carry over to future updates. We spent a lot of time trying to counter sensor drift but our algorithms are not stable and tested enough to release them. Expect more news on that next update.

Desktop client version is 0.5.4.3, mobile app version is 0.8.6.

Changes

• Log me in automatically should work more reliably. Let us know if RiftCat client forgets your password again.
• VRidge should no longer fall behind and crash when encoding 1440p on previous generation NVIDIAs with NVENC checked on. See 1440p compatibility paragraph below.
• RiftCat Client should no longer freeze while connecting to phone (MTU discovery timeout freeze).
• RiftCat Client should no longer crash during phone discovery (System.Net.Sockets.TcpListener.AcceptTcpClient crash)

1440p compatibility

After last week's 1440p update we received some reports about 1440p not working with some video cards. Here's a list of compiled results and reports. 

Generation	Example hardware	1440p @ 60 FPS	1440p @ 50 FPS	1080p @ 60 FPS
AMD GCN 1.2+	R9 285, R9 380, R9 Fury X, R9 390***	✓	✓	✓
NVIDIA Maxwell	GTX 750, GTX 830M-860M, GTX 930+	✓	✓	✓
Intel HD & Iris (Haswell+)	Intel Core i3-4xxx+	✓	✓	✓
NVIDIA Kepler	GTX 650+, GTX 740+	❌	✓*	✓
GCN 1.0 & 1.1 AMDs	R9 240, R9 290, HD 7700+	❌**	❌**	✓
Intel HD (Ivy Bridge)	Intel Core i3-3xxx	?	?	?
Intel HD (Sandy Bridge)	Intel Core i3-2xxx	?	?	?

* Use 60 FPS option. VRidge will try to encode at highest possible framerate.
** According to AMD developer it's not possible to encode video with resolutions beyond 1080p with GCN 1.0 & 1.1 AMD.
*** There are two 390 variants. One is GCN 1.1, other is GCN 1.2. Removed - 390 is GCN 1.1.

We did not test all of this ourselves. If it's wrong, please let us know so we can correct it. Please keep in mind that some laptop (-M suffix) variants use different chipsets than non-M variants.

Dev update #9

This week brings rewritten SteamVR driver (no more flickers and upside down textures) and mobile optimizations. We wanted to refactor some code and fix some bugs before moving on to bigger features. 

You might notice slightly lower latency (especially in SteamVR mode). If you are S7/S7 Edge user, please check it out too because this updated resolved artifacting for at least one person. :)

Desktop client version is 0.5.4.1, mobile app version is 0.8.4.

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Please reinstall SteamVR driver after upading (close Steam first)

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SteamVR driver update

Updated - known issues:

• SteamVR games flicker in some cases. Reported on both Nvidia and AMD. 
• The Lab may crash during the game on loading screens.
• VR Render resolution is now 1920x1080 previously it was 2364x1461. Small quality drop might be noticeable for people with high-res phones. It will be tied to streaming quality next update.

We've rewritten our driver to use automatic driver registration process so it won't get overwritten by SteamVR updates. It has lower latency than previous driver and enables use of many SteamVR features: seamless VR context switching between apps, multi-layer compositor and more. It also fixes some problems with textures being upside-down or aligned incorrectly in some games. It will also allow us more flexible development in the feature.

You will need one last reinstall (click the Install SteamVR button). Remember to close Steam first. Our old driver will be removed in the process.

If Riftcat does not locate vrpathreg.exe file correctly, please point it to the file manually. It should be located in SteamVR\bin\win32 directory.

Android memory optimizations

We've updated large part of stream handling and networking modules on the Android side. It should now deliver frames more reliably with lower latency. 

It also manages memory a lot more efficiently. This result in less micro-hangs caused by memory cleanups (GC) which could cause frame drops @ decoder. 

Android (optional) stream changes for certain phones

We're also adding two experimental options. They can reduce or improve performance so we're not enabling them by default. The first one (Intel) can improve performance for Asus Zenfone 2 (and other Intel-based phones). The second might help with most various phones (but is targeted at certain Snapdragon models). 

You can access this screen by tapping More in top-right corner of the connection screen.

If your stream is lagging behind and/or showing blocky-floaty artifacts, try one or both. Please let us know if it changes anything.