Rhea Myers

Tag: Virtual Reality

  • OpenXR on GNU/Linux With OpenHMD and Monado

    With the release of Debian 10, it is possible to build Monado on Debian in order to use the OpenXR SDK with headsets supported by OpenHMD.

    Hopefully this means a future OpenXR-enabled Firefox will work with them as well.

    In the meantime we can at least run the hello_xr demo. Here’s how… (Updated April 2020.)

    Build and install OpenHMD:

    https://github.com/OpenHMD/OpenHMD

    Build and install Monado:

    https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/monado/monado/

    Build and install the OpenXR SDK:

    https://github.com/KhronosGroup/OpenXR-SDK-Source/

    To set the Rift to non-desktop (before each run, if not set in the kernel), run:

    xrandr --output HDMI-0 --prop --set non-desktop 1

    If needed you can check this by running:

    xrandr --prop

    Then to run the OpenXR-SDK hello_xr demo, run the following in the OpenXR-SDK directory:

    XR_RUNTIME_JSON=/usr/local/share/openxr/1/openxr_monado.json ./build/linux_debug/src/tests/hello_xr/hello_xr -g Vulkan

    Which will show the pocket universe captured in a screenshot the top of this post in your VR headset.

  • Galerie Default

    I created a building in CryptoVoxels using one of their default build templates and filled it with a show of Tokens Equal Text:

    https://www.cryptovoxels.com/parcels/2000

    I’ve named it Galerie Default after how it was made. You can take a look in your web browser via the link above (and if you have a fancy VR headset you’ll soon be able to wander around it immersively). There are much more advanced uses of the CryptoVoxels system to show NFT art within it, but this was a fun experiment.

  • Oculus Rift CV1 Support in OpenHMD

    Bad Camera Image of Rift CV1

    OpenHMD has added support for the Oculus Rift Consumer version 1 (CV1) in the dev-oculus-cv1 branch.

    It tracks the headset and turns the video and sound on. Above is a blurry image taken on my phone showing openglexample running on-screen and in the rift display.

    I’ve found a few minor issues:

    • You’ll need a strong enough graphics card to power the CV1. An X200 laptop’s built-in graphics won’t cut it.
    • openglexample crashed the Gnome window manager on my under-powered laptop. Other window managers were fine.
    • The rendering in opengexample is intended for the DK1 so it isn’t quite right for the CV1, the resulting viewpoints are slightly too far apart.

    But, as I say, these are minor issues. The Rift CV1 works on GNU/Linux! Next to find a good (Web)GL example of rendering for the CV1.

    (A big thank you to Oculus for sending Kickstarter backers a CV1! o_O )

  • Gloves

    Making music with datagloves in the 1980s:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3oy98HUs8E

    Making music with datagloves in the 2010s:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6btFObRRD9k

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Ah8TKopks

    I’m interested in applications of VR gloves to visual art making.
    There’s examples of this for 3D modelling, e.g.:

    http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/P5_Glove:Art

    but I’m more interested in 2D image production. If anyone knows of any
    examples I’d be very interested.

    Heap’s use of wrist microphones could be replaced with palm cameras for
    capturing image samples or video samples rather than sound samples,
    making literal the eye-in-hand motif popular in logos a while back (e.g.
    http://secondlife.com/525/_img/page/index/secondlife-logo.png ). These
    samples could be manipulated using a glove interface providing the kind
    of spatialization of sample properties that Heap demonstrates, either in
    image composition or VJ applications.

    The role of and constraints on bodily performance are different for
    image and music making, maybe this would be more suitable for
    livecoding, but I still think that a defamiliarising, flexible and
    expressive interface is a useful affordance for art.

  • Free Software Oculus Rift Driver in Chromium

    With a nightly build of Chromium and experimental code from vr.js you can run a free software JavaScript/WebGL Oculus Rift environment on GNU//Linux:

    https://github.com/benvanik/vr.js/tree/master/experimental/usb-driver

    The demo allows you to look around the inside of a cube, which reads as a room. It’s fun, and an exciting step for the Rift and Free Software.

    rift-js-demo