Enable Foveated Rendering in Unity without Oculus Integration for Oculus Quest/Go

From my understanding, to enable foveated rendering on the Quest/Go, you must use "OVRManager.fixedFoveatedRenderingLevel = OVRManager.FixedFoveatedRenderingLevel.High" or similar to enable foveated rendering in a Unity Project. This also requires having at least one OVRManager on a gameobject in the scene.
I would like to know if it is possible to enable the foveated rendering without the need for the OVRManager in the scene or having Oculus Utilities/Integration imported into the Unity Project at all?

Like is there anything we can add to the android manifest or call something from the Oculus(Android) integration from the package manager in Unity?

We want to simply use the Oculus (android) and Oculus (Desktop) packages from the package manager in our application but not include too much of the Oculus Integration asset from the Unity Asset store as it contains lots of code that conflicts with other plugins we are using.

 

Bumple.

 

Just seen this, I am glad to hear it is in the plans

 

Will it be available without having to install external stuff? was thinking of just having it in options or within XR namespace.

 

Interestingly enough, this Oculus Connect talk mentions how Vulkan allows for cross-platform Fixed Foveated Rendering (FFR) due to the extension no longer being Qualcomm only. This means that once Vulkan is working for Quest/Go, we may well see FFR cross-platform between Vulkan on Windows platform headsets as well as Mobile VR.

 

Yeah that's right but then it goes into SRP territory and that seems to be the realm of wizards.

 

FFR hookups coming with Vulkan support in the 2020 version of Unity, seemingly only with the new XR Subsystems Manager Oculus Loader plugin

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.xr.oculus@1.1/changelog/CHANGELOG.html

 

So can we use Vulkan now or? I mean the communication is a bit less than nothing atm from various parties.

 

It seems that the v1.1.3 listing mentioning FFR hookups for Vulkan on Quest has been removed since I posted about it on the forums.. very spooky. I think we will have to wait a bit longer. I can't get a build to run with Vulkan on Quest on 2020.1.0.14a

 

Unreal Engine latest version has the new Vulkan FFR implemented, come on Unity!
https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Support/Builds/ReleaseNotes/4_24/index.html

 

Hi
Which headset are you using? I guess you need some eye tracking to know which part should be rendered in higher quality, and which don´t.

 

No, it renders the middle of the screens higher than the outer edges.

 

I think that would give a terrible experience. I mean, you move your eyes all the time to look around instead of moving the whole head.

 

I think it is good, to have both options. Because for 2x VR cases. One for low-cost / hardware VRs and one with the high-level / hardware VRs. On my quest i expirienced this FFR with only inside the middle. So i recognized a very high jump between regula pixels and the outside lower resolution. It was a lil bit strange, but after a few min. you adopt to it and you forget about it. Best way is, to have two options for FFR: 1x static, 1x dynamic for eye-tracking devices.

 

I hear you but it helps in the meantime with performance. Id like to use it eventually for say, so have a huge instancing of a lot of particles. Turn on FFR for a few dozen frames while they load and you likely wouldnt notice as a player but it could help keep the frames up.

I used it in games and never noticed it until it was pointed out, then I noticed it all the time.

 

I got Vulkan running on my Quest in Unity 2019.3.9f1 and was looking for the FFR but still do not see. I read above that this is in 2020 version which I am going to try next. I shall report back.

 

Do not try Vulkan in 2020 yet the XR Graphics team are still working on it.

 

I made a copy of my project and tried 2020 last night with Vulkan before I saw your message. I see what you mean. Only the left eye rendered (at least on multiview as I did not try multipass) and the resolution was very low despite being on Ultra settings. Also, no FFR option to be found anywhere. Do you have any idea of when this will all be implemented? Thanks for the reply.

 

Ffr is implemented in the Oculus XR Plugin for XR Management. You can see it in the Manual for that plugin on the package website if you search Oculus XR Plugin Unity you will see it

 

Thanks @ROBYER1. I think my issue may be that I am using the URP and not the standard as per the details in the manual. It states:

"FFR works best when rendering directly into the eye textures using the forward rendering mode. Deferred rendering mode, which is characterized by rendering into an intermediate render texture, is not recommended for use with FFR. This situation arises often when using the default Universal Rendering Pipeline, which included a blit operation by default at the end of the frame."

Does this mean I need to go back to the old standard "Unity’s Built-in Render Pipeline" as I thought URP was the new built in standard going forward. Or do I just need to turn of blit in the URP? As I thank back to the previous standard renderer before I moved to URP, I do not recall seeing FFR as an option. Is this a setting I need to write code to turn on at specified level or is this a option to select in the Unity UI somewhere? Thanks for your help.

 

Nope, use URP if you can! Check your inbox on the Oculus forum I replied to your message there.

 

So is FFR working now? Is it 2020 only? Or any URP build?

(I'm not using URP until it's supported in AssetStore, but I'd happily install a new editor to try out the FFR separately)

 

+1 Also curious if FFR is possible with URP.

 

URP + FFR has worked together for many months now, why don't you try it?

 

I'm hoping to. I guess I've been failing at my googling (mostly your posts come up encouraging its development). As far as I understand, there's no way to enable it without using the Oculus Integration package. I was hoping that there was support in Unity's new XR System. I'm not sure what it's like to mix the two.

 

Best place to check is my forum posts and of course also the scripting API for the platform plugin you are using, if you search 'FFR' in the XR Oculus Scripting api in the link below you will
find it is here:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.xr.oculus@1.9/api/Unity.XR.Oculus.Utils.html?q=ffr

and here:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/2019-3-release-xr-updates.821637/#post-5441730

Just with the Oculus XR Plugin (from package manager) - use
SetFoveationLevel(Int32)

Code (CSharp):

1. Unity.XR.Oculus.Utils.SetFoveationLevel(level)

 

Yes! Thank you! I really appreciate your reply. I'll try to do a better job of following the updates to the Unity docs. Thanks again!

Cheers,

 

Sorry for the dumb question, but where should I put that in order for it to work?

 

Bump on that last question!

 

Into a script in awake/start or call it with a function when you want to change it? It is just one line of code you call I am confused what is still confusing about it!

 

I actually did just that but it doesn't seem to be turned on in my builds. Even setting it to the highest value doesn't seem to do anything to my rendering :/

 

Oh that's odd - are you on Oculus Quest 2? The effect is a lot less noticeable on Quest 2 vs the Quest 1

Make sure you aren't using any fancy effects like post processing that cause an extra blit when rendering - try stripping back or make a separate test project just with a world space canvas and a cube or something visual where you can see the effect - if it works there or in a new scene you will be able to compare and see if you are doing anything in your project that causes the extra graphics blit that breaks FFR.

FFR isn't always the route to performance, and if FFR doesn't work then you have that extra blit happening which can kill performance

Use the Android logcat logs in Unity to see what your build is telling you when you set it!

Check the log for errors, also try setting dynamic FFR from the docs here:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.xr.oculus@1.9/api/Unity.XR.Oculus.Utils.html?q=ffr

 

I would recommend any time something doesn't work in your project, try it in a separate unity project or a copy of yours with all assets removed for a quick test - then go from there and compare with your project to see why it worked in one not the other

 

Did anyone manage to make it work on Quest 2 and URP? I tried it and saw no graphical or performance change.

 

Yes it works with both Quests and URP with OpenGL and Vulkan. You can really see it on around the edges if you set it to 4. You can also see what level the FFR is in the OVR Metrics tool. You should see a performance increase. Nothing amazing, but for sure measurable in OVR Metrics.

 

Hi,
I found this mode in unity document. but I couldn't find how and where I can set the FoveatedRenderingMode value to. 2023 alpha version.
thanks for any help.