Easy Input for Gear VR and Oculus Go [Released]

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/88829

Easy Input for Gear VR makes supporting input for the Gear VR and the new Gear VR Controller a breeze. Whether you want support for the headset, Bluetooth controllers or the brand new motion controller, everything that is unique about the platform is accessible in one easy to use API. Many common tasks even expose high level components to attach to your objects so you don't need to write a single line of code. The versatility is left in though so if you do want to write custom code it is easy to do so.

Features
* Gear VR headset support
* Gear VR controller support
* Gamepad support
* Prebuilt controls so no coding required
* Grabbing, moving, etc. made easy
* Emulated in editor for quick prototypes
* Motion support
* Laser Pointer support
* 7 example scenes
* Easy callbacks to do anything custom

Enjoy our all-in-one asset for Gear VR!

 

With the product just released and very much in active development feel free to let me know what you want added to this product. Whether it's another example scene, or a new precoded control for a mechanic you've seen in a game, or anything else you might find useful, don't hesitate to let me know. This will continue growing for quite some time.

 

Love the product so far. Do you think we could get for the hand follow a prefab for the Gear VR controller similar to the one used in Oculus Home? The functionality of the tracking and laser pointer works great and for some of my games I'll want to use something custom, but on other games I'd want to use one that actually looks like the controller.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll certainly add this over the next few days.

 

This has now been submitted to Unity for review. PM or email me if you'd like this package before it gets through the review process. It should show up on the store in about a week.

 

I'm really enjoying this asset. I have a question about the VR Controller with Ray for the laser pointer affect. The follow object seems to be the origin of the laser. What is the HMD Follow Object?

In the Menu example, I see in your exampes the HMD Follow Object is a sphere off behind the menu but I wasn't sure what that was for.

 

Thanks for the enjoying the asset!

I have to agree with you that my current names are pretty horrible. In the next update which is almost finished I've actually broken it out into three separate components (laser pointer, gaze pointer, and combo pointer). The current Controlller with Ray is what is getting renamed to combo pointer. The main focus on this control was to mimic the functionality on the Oculus Home screen where it could be either a controller laser pointer or a gaze pointer depending on either what you had or which touchpad you hit last (either the controller's touchpad or the touchpad on the HMD)

In the new combo pointer, I've renamed follow object to laser pointer and HMD Follow Object to HeadMountedDisplayReticle. When you are using the headset as a gaze pointer the laser is parallel with your vision so you can't really see it, so all you usually see is the reticle either at a fixed distance if it hits nothing or right in front of what it hit if the raycast hits something. On either of the GUI examples if you tap the HMD touchpad you'll see the laser pointer disappear and that object act as a reticle for what you're aiming at. If you've always been using it in laser pointer mode then that's why you haven't seen the sphere move.

I've asked this of everyone so far but if there are additions you'd like to see just ask. Trying to get my growing list of controls fairly comprehensive in this product and also for a daydream product and a cross platform product that will be out shortly.

 

Thanks for such a quick reply. That was really informative. That makes more sense now. I have indeed only been using the laser pointer with the Gear Controller. My follow-up question is do you have a recommendation of where to put the Follow Object relative to the camera. In GuiNavigation example it seems that the Follow Object (cube) is at the same exact position as the Camera. However, I created a new scene and in mine, I had to move the Follow Object down a few units or else the origin of the laser pointer seem to be up above my head. Not sure if I am missing something?

I'm looking forward to the updates. I think this is a really great headstart for people that want to do VR. I'll let you know if I have any ideas for additions.

 

I've made updates since then but I believe even in the original script there was a height offset parameter exposed in the inspector. In general it depends on what the object it's a child to height is. In the UI examples, I didn't bother using a "camera rig" which is what most native sdks call it. Basically, a hierarchy of transforms that represent things like head, body, hand, etc. In those examples you'll see the height offset set to 0 and that the object for the laser pointer isn't actually a child of the camera or another common object.

However, in the FPS example you'll see the height offset set to 1. In that example there is a primitive rig, the capsule is the body, the camera is the head, and the laser pointer is the hand. Both the head and the hand are children of the body. The capsule is 2 meters tall but the transform for it is it's midpoint (1 meter tall). When you look at the camera it's locally 1 meter additional in height (so 2 meters off the ground). The laser pointer has a height offset of 1 in the inspector which gets it 1 meter off the ground or essentially hip high by default. If you set the offset to 0 it would be at foot level and if you set it to 2 it would be as high as the head. In real life everyone's height and what "feels" right to them is different but for games you generally just approximate an average person's height. For that example I have a feeling an offset of .75 - 1.25 would all feel ok but outside that range wouldn't feel right (too low or too high). Now if your game character was a giant mech these settings would be different, but hopefully that gives you an idea on how it works.

The two UI examples it doesn't matter much because you don't move around and the objects aren't parented to eachother so you could do it either in the offset or the initial y axis height of the objects, but when you start having a rig hierarchy it starts to matter what the offset is compared to what type of game you are going for. If you have humanoid characters you'd usually use actual typical measurments of where your head and hands are and offset accordingly.

Hope that helps.

 

@greggtwep16 Oh I somehow totally missed the height offset parameter. Mine was set to 3. Thanks. Makes perfect sense now.

 

Hi quick question, does this asset help us set up the GearVR controller to work with existing Unity UI buttons?

 

Yes it supports unity UI elements (buttons, checkbox, dropdown, etc.). There is an example for Unity UI navigation as well. It uses the Gear VR controller as a laser pointer.

 

Hi @greggtwep16!

This asset seems great!!! Do you have any video tutorial on how to use it? Or plan on to do it? Its always great to have it, so we can easily evaluate it and learn it!

Thanks

 

There are 7 example scenes included to take you through all the components. I certainly will make videos when things calm down a bit. Currently sales have been good and I've been trying to keep up with all the requests for new controls. Current controls requested to be in the next update are:

-look dpad
-Teleport laser pointer
-grab laser pointer
-pointer receiver component

I'm nearly done with these and they are in beta with those who requested them. Once those are pushed I need to push a similar package for daydream and a cross platform package as well. After that I can get to the videos.

In the meantime don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have. I'm always looking for things to improve whether it's the documentation or adding new components.

 

Thats Great!!! Teleport laser pointer and grab laser pointer are definitly awesome and needed update! And also to push it to daydream!!!

The videos will also be a great addition, cause it makes so much easy to understand things in a couple of minutes!!! But i definitly understand the priorities just dont forget to add them when you can!!!

Thanks

ps:just bought the asset ;-)

 

Hope you like it. Any questions you have don't hesitate to ask. If you are interested in being a beta tester for any of the upcoming features or unreleased products just send me an email to our support address on the asset store page.

 

Thanks

 

All the current additions requested are submitted and currently going through Unity review. Any existing customer that wants the package early just send me a mail with your invoice to the support email address on the asset store page. Summary of changes:

-Added Editor Window and buttons to automatically use recommended settings
-Automatic include of SDK controller model via menu dropdown
-New Control: laser pointer
-New Control: gaze pointer
-New Control: combo pointer (laser and gaze all in one based on whether the controllers are connected)
-New Control: curved laser pointer (good for teleporting)
-New Control: look dpad (good for swivel chairs or architecture walkthroughs)
-New Control pointer receiver (good for highlighting on hover with a laser pointer and much more)
-New Control grab receiver (good for grabbing things with laser pointer)
-New Control teleport receiver (good with the curved laser pointer for teleporting navigation)
-New Example Pointer example (showcases all the new pointers and receivers)
-New Editor emulation motion controller (you now can simulate the motion controller in editor with the mouse)
-New Editor emulation HMD (you can now simulate HMD looking around in editor with the mouse)

 

Cool new additions!! I just dont have much time to test it right! Maybe for the next one ;-) Thanks!

 

Version 1.1 is now live on the store. Certainly let me know if there are further additions anyone would like to see. As stated before here is the summary of changes in this latest version:

-Added Editor Window and buttons to automatically use recommended settings
-Automatic include of SDK controller model via menu dropdown
-New Control: laser pointer
-New Control: gaze pointer
-New Control: combo pointer (laser and gaze all in one based on whether the controllers are connected)
-New Control: curved laser pointer (good for teleporting)
-New Control: look dpad (good for swivel chairs or architecture walkthroughs)
-New Control pointer receiver (good for highlighting on hover with a laser pointer and much more)
-New Control grab receiver (good for grabbing things with laser pointer)
-New Control teleport receiver (good with the curved laser pointer for teleporting navigation)
-New Example Pointer example (showcases all the new pointers and receivers)
-New Editor emulation motion controller (you now can simulate the motion controller in editor with the mouse)
-New Editor emulation HMD (you can now simulate HMD looking around in editor with the mouse)

 

I haven't had time yet to look at all the new controls but I can say the new emulations are very useful. Thanks!

 

Glad you like it. As always if you'd like to see any additions don't hesitate to ask.

 

I haven't tried your plugin yet; I just purchased it yesterday. However, my first complaint is you should *NOT* rewrite someone's editor build settings with your scenes, under any circumstances, unless it is directly controlled by the user (as in, a menu option or something). I loaded your MasterExample scene and it rewrote the scene list in the build settings.

I'm glad I have everything under revision control so I could revert the 50+ scenes I had loaded in the build settings. If you want a push-button way to run your demo, then add a menu option that preserves the old build settings, loads your settings and builds (and/or runs) the app, then restores the old settings.

 

Noted. I'll push this out in an update. Until that time the conditions, for overwriting are opening the master demo scene which adds all the other sub scenes so that you only have to deploy the demo once and can run all the examples.

I'm sure there is a way to have this happen without any destructive changes, I'll probably add a dialogue window with a yes or no so that you have to perform an action to have this happen. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

I've recently submitted a new update for review. If anyone wants the package early just send an email to our support address. It will likely hit the store sometime next week.

Changes:
New Control: StandardPointerClickReceiver (Good for hovering on things and then clicking to invoke an action)
Bugfix: When running masterexample it makes sure to keep the users currently loaded scenes.

As always, if anyone wants any more additions let me know.

 

Just bought your asset and it works great! Im interested in making a teleporterfunction that mimics what you can see in valves destination app (now SteamVR Home).

Basicly when you click/hold the trigger the curved laserpoint appears, then you aim, and when you release the trigger you teleport. And then the curved line disapear until you click/hold again.

Is it possible to do this with this asset yet?

 

The teleport and curved laser that is in the pointer example does most of what you describe. It doesn't currently do the extra button appear/disappear but it does the rest. I can certainly add it over the next few days though. Thanks for the suggestion. If you want to test it out while in beta just send an email to our support address on the asset store page and I'll send it to you as I make the changes.

 

Hi, I am interested in this asset. Before I make the purchase, I'd like to know if it's possible to move around similar to the FPS controller from Unity's standard assets, including jumping?

 

It's not a 1 to 1 comparison to what is in standard assets, no. There Unity took an arcade style approach (quake, etc.) For example it uses a character controller and isn't physics based (ie. rigidbodies).

All the precoded modules (including the one in the provided in the FPS example) are at a slightly lower lever. For example, the provided sample has a dpad control for the character, a laser pointer for the aiming with the gear vr motion controller, etc. whereas the Unity one was in one large all and one script. In the end it's fairly similar, but allows you to swap out the dpad for the style you want (look dpad (moving in the direction of the head), regular dpad (moving in the direction of the body), or touchpad (moving by swiping instead of holding)). When you attach the lower level components you want though you do get most functionality that you want. As far as jumping you can certainly attach a custombuttonController and call your jump function based on whichever button you want to assign to it.

One other thing to be aware of though is using the gear vr motion controller there is a bigger lack of buttons vs a normal keyboard like in standard assets. You only have the touchpad and 2 buttons. For this reason turning left/right are mapped to the long presses of the buttons and shooting is short press of the trigger.

Hope that helps. Certainly let me know if you have any more questions.

 

Hi is there anyway to stick the laser to the normal OVRCameraRig so its correctly aligned ? I've tried parenting the lasers in several places in the hierarchy and out of the hierarchy. I tried changing tracking to eye level / floor level , one camera / two camera setup.

Any tips would be great.

 

It depends on the settings you have within the camera rig, but in general the laser pointers (normal, curved, etc.) use the coordinates supplied by the Oculus SDK which are in relation to the center of the head (midpoint between the two eyes). The Oculus SDK also assumes a typical humanoid height. All the examples I supplied my own rig but it can certainly use the Oculus one as well (if you do it's important to remove OVRManager script from it so it doesn't try to compete with EasyInputHelper. It also takes into account the left handed/right handed setting you've supplied on your gear vr.

I generally recommend creating your own rig so you are fully aware of what's inside it. I also generally recommend this as I add editor support that Oculus didn't provide (mouse/keyboard emulation for the controller). That being said others have used it in the past. If it's just the height that's off you can update the height offset in the inspector.

To give you specific advice let me know how the controller is off centered from what you expect and if you are seeing this in editor, on device, or both.

 

Hi, i'm really interested in your asset and would pose just a couple of questions:

- Does it work with Unity VR native integration, or does it need the camera rig prefab from OVR utilities?

- Is it possibile to recenter the Gear VR controller via code? I know that's accomplished by a long press on right button, but i need to physically block all the buttons except the trigger, to prevent users to access the Oculus standard menu (my app runs in an amusement park).

Riccardo

 

Hi Riccardo,

To answer your questions:

1. It works with native integration for all except input (because Unity does not have ways to query all the parts of the controller). Everything camera based can be native. All the examples use a normal Unity camera set to both eyes, so no you don't have to use the camera rig prefab.

2. The Oculus Utilities SDK just added this recently to their API (version 1.14 I think). I have been busy adding additional controls that people have requested but haven't added this yet. I'll try and get it in the next version. That being said I'm not sure how you will block the home button it's reserved from oculus I'm not sure you'll be able to intercept it.

 

Thank you for your prompt answers.

About the home/back buttons, in my app they will be blocked on the physical controller with some sort of customization, maybe a plastic strip or something like that.

I think I'll try to implement the recentering by myself and have a go with your asset.

 

Any chance of a Gear VR / Daydream version of this asset that works on both platforms?

 

I've already submitted to the store a daydream version it's going through review currenlty.

The main asset that would be useful is a cross platform product though and that's currently in beta. There are quite a few additional editor things needed to make cross platform builds seamless. Definitely in the works though. I hope to submit that one in a few weeks.

 

I still have a lot to figure out but at the moment trying to figure out the best way to parent a First Person VR Controller on a character. Using your example scenes, I saved the firstPersonGearVRController as a prefab, then used it in another scene by aligning with a character head and then parented to the character. Is this the best way to do this? I would like for there to be a body for the first person character.

Secondly, I would like to place the character in a helicopter in the seated position and anchor his right hand to the cyclic. Any feedback you can give would be great as I'm trying to understand how this works as I move along. My thinking is that when a specific button is pressed, the character opens the door, climbs in, and now is in position to fly the helicopter.

And lastly, when the character is outside of the helicopter he is controlled by the Game Pad. When seated in the helicopter, the Game Pad controls the helicopter. Any ideas you may have as it relates to your asset would be great. Thanks.

 

When you say Game Pad are you referring to a normal bluetooth controller or the Gear VR controller (motion controller)? The way to proceed would be different depending on which you are referring to.

As far as the parenting you would indeed have the head be parented to the body. In the the first person example this is what is done and the motion controller is one of the hands (the hand that you've selected when you set up gear vr and told it if you were left handed or right handed).

As for your helicopter mode when you hit the button to enter I would probably have an animation get your player seated and then make the body's parent your helicopter. That way your helicopter movements also move the player (the only thing that you'd still want is your head movement looking around the cockpit) assuming it's a first person view.

The switching of controls would probably be best done by enabling and disabling your two sets of controls. When you're out of the helicopter you'll probably have the dpad control moving you around and your helicopter controls disabled. When you're in the helicopter you would enable those and disable the dpad.

 

By game pad I was referring to the Moga Power Pro and similar devices. I have the Gear VR controller but I don't think it would work too well for what I have in mind.

I probably did the parenting wrong. It looks right in Editor mode but when I hit play the camera view changes.

Ok, I appreciate your feedback, thanks.

 

Ah ok, if you're using a normal bluetooth controller like the moga power pro you have disregard the part about left/right handed. The example FPS that's included is more geared towards the motion controller as well.

You'd want to do something similar, just instead use the standardaxiscontroller probably mapped to the left stick. It's important to note that if you didn't have issues in editor but did when deploying to the device that you were probably trying to move the camera directly. Unity essentially doesn't allow this and gives full control over the camera transform to the HMD. So if you were trying to move the position directly everything is fine in the editor but on device it acts like nothing is happening. I wish Unity didn't do this, but it is what it is so all your position or rotation changes that you want to happen you must do so through a parent object (like the body previously talked about). Once you do that your left stick should move the character around even on device. When you enter the helicopter you probably still want to make the body a child of the helicopter and remove that as the parent anytime you exit the helicopter.

 

Ok, I did manage to get the camera on the body and oriented correctly. The position is not exactly where I want it but not displaying the skinned mesh renderer on some body parts, and slight adjustment to the clipping on the camera helped out a lot.

I worked for awhile trying to figure out how to make the character move, with your standardaxiscontroller script, but so far no luck.

I appreciate the tip regarding the parenting while entering and exiting the helicopter. That makes sense.

 

Is it this controller?

https://www.amazon.com/POWER-MOGA-P...&qid=1499064378&sr=8-1&keywords=moga+pro&th=1

If so what mode are you on and did you install pivot (this is just going off the reviews of others having issues with that controller and gear vr). I don't have that particular gamepad (for android I test with the amazon bluetooth controller and mi gamepad). If you want me to verify with my controllers you can certainly zip up your project and send it to the support email address on the asset store page and I can test.

 

Yes, that's the correct controller. I've been using in Mode B but also tried Mode A.

I think the problem is that I have something configured wrong on the FPS controller. I don't know what you mean by the pivot in this case. I did not setup a pivot.

I will take you up on your offer and send over the project. I created just a sandbox with an FPS controller and nothing else just to get it to move. The only thing I did from there was attach your Standard Axis Controller Script. I am unable to get the First Person Controller to move on Gear VR with the Moga Controller.

By adding the following to the script for testing, I was able to get the FPS controller to move in Unity on play:

CrossPlatformInputManager.SwitchActiveInputMethod (CrossPlatformInputManager.ActiveInputMethod.Hardware);

I then removed that entry.

I'm sure the problem is on my end because I'm not really clear on what I'm doing. Just fumbling along

 

I responded to your email after looking through your project. Your example scene did not contain the Easy Input Helper gameobject which creates all the more specific events. Adding that to your scene and things started working properly.

I tested both in editor and on device (with my Amazon controller). Hopefully it also works for your controller in mode b, if that controller works for other games in gear vr (ie. minecraft, etc.) then it should work in your scene as well. Pivot was program included with your controller from the moga website, the amazon reviews that had trouble with your controller in gear vr said not to use it and just use mode b.

 

Hi There,


This asset looks really promising and I'm really thinking of buying it. I'm new to unity but got already some stuff working on my Gear Vr. Only now I'm trying to make a tour through an offshore windmill for engineering purposes. The meaning of this tour is to use it during meetings with clients so they can go through the windmill and discuss some technical stuff.

Now I saw it was possible to connect your Gear VR with google Chromecast so people on the meeting room can see on a screen what the person with the VR glasses on sees. If he uses for instance the laser pointer you made, the people will also see where he is aiming at right?

But the most important thing will be... when he aims at something and he pulls the trigger can he leave a marker at that place? For example a marker with a number so when they look next time through the gear VR the marker is still there and they know that that is a point that needs extra attention. When the markers have numbers they can make a word document that corresponds with the marked number and see what the technical error was on that spot.


So is it possible to save something (marked spot) in an .apk if so do you know what asset I can get or how to make it?

 

For walking around the windmill there are already controls built in for this. As far as Chromecast Oculus did add official support for it recently (previously you had to enter into developer options). That being said it's still pretty buggy and overheats very quickly (5-10 minutes). If you're thinking of a live demo of any duration you're going to have to come up with a cooling solution with either a heatsink or fans. But with Chromecast anything you see on device you will see on the display whether it's a laser pointer or anything else.

Saving things is beyond the scope of this input asset but there are many ways to do this (player prefs, serializing to a file, etc.). All 3 pointers (laser, curved laser, and gaze) provide the coordinates of where they are pointing so you could certainly spawn one of your prefabs at those coordinates. Once spawning your prefab you would then save the coordinates in whatever method you prefer and spawn it again whenever the app would be started again.

 

Thanks for your fast reaction.

Well I have to see how Chromecast works that’s just a matter of testing.

But the last part of saving the location will be a big problem to fix that. (Since I’m not really familiar with scripting.)

Can you give me some hints for what i have to look on the internet so I can try to figure it out?


I just ordered the asset, and I will play with it today to get a bit familiarised with it.

 

If you are doing this the Unity way with scripting the easiest would probably be playerprefs.

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/PlayerPrefs.html

When the player creates your marker you would probably save the position of where it was created along with the information of the marker. Probably using 3 setFloat calls (for x.y.z) and a setString call (for the information in the marker). You would also on scene start check playerprefs and spawn any previously saved markers found in playerprefs. It will require some scripting though.

There are also some saving assets on the store that claim to allow you to do it without code but I don't have them so I can't vouch for them (Easy Save, All Save pro, etc.). Learning scripting is a good idea anyways, eventually you will run into a situation where you will need it, but with no coding experience it can take awhile to wrap your head around.

Hope you enjoy the Gear VR input asset, if you have any questions, issues, additions, etc. don't hesitate to let me know.

 

Hi I'm trying to implement a simple cursor to click UI elements but it isn't working.

 

Which pointer are you using (laser, gaze, etc.)? The GUI navigation has this off of the combo pointer. Are you trying to recreate this in your own scene? If so, send me a screenshot of your hierarchy and the inspector of the pointer you are using.