Quote: "I'm still here, Raven. I don't frequent the forum very often, but I've stayed available for support. TGC owns the code to the plugin. I developed it for them and they are free to do whatever they want with it. I've chosen to keep supporting it simply because I want to do so."
Then there is clearly some conflicting feedback that is provided via the forums., as I did post for help with issues I was having with the plug-in on the AppGameKit Chat Forum back when I first purchased the Plug-In (back in June / July).
Ultimately after waiting for some form of response, I just gave up on the plug-In and decided to do prototyping in Unity instead.
Quote: "Using SteamVR was a no brainer at the time. SteamVR supports all of the PC HMD devices. All other choices would have required using individual API's for each device. Sure, there are some other options available now, but SteamVR was by far the best option at the time of development."
While I do understand it from an "All-in-One" Solution., I would argue that there is a difference between creating a Middleware Tool / Library and an User-Centric End Product.
But note, I've been no less vocal about TGC themselves having quite heavy Steam Integration on Desktop Platforms... I won't delve into the litany of reasons why I'm not a fan of the platform (from a Developer / Publisher Standpoint... for Consumers; sure it's fine) but having such a limitation certainly is quite restrictive and also informs a lot about how you want / need to go about creating a (potentially) successful product which can actually see a return on investment.
Quote: "There is nothing special about the "access" that was used for AppGameKitVR. Everything was done with the standard install of AppGameKit Classic using the documented examples of creating plugins."
As I saw it there were three possibilities.
1 • It was just an Interface that was basically behaving like an AFR Stereoscopic Rendering System that simply passed that on to OpenVR ... which sure is a way to do it, but would have issues in regards to Latency, Performance, Frame Stability and Motion Sickness.
(VR Chat uses a similar approach., and it's just plagued by said issues)
2 • It was using the AppGameKit SDK, and there was a way to gain access to the Render Device (or Context in OGL Terms) that I just wasn't seeing
3 • TGC had provided Special Access to the Render Pipeline to the Developer
If you notice I don't specifically assume any of them... merely had listed them within the possible approaches.
Now from my perspective Option 1 is a waste of time and effort., because you're essentially at the whim of both TGC and Valve who can (and have) accidentally broken support with Updates to their Engines / API.
In any case I do have my answer, and this will need some time to think about what / if approach to take next as there are some options but far less straight forward.
Quote: "I'm not aware of anyone else having an issue with the HMD not receiving the render images in AppGameKit Classic. That problem does exist in Studio (for the reasons I mentioned above). I did read about one person having some issues, but it was related to their video drivers, but that is about it. I have both a Vive and WMR device that I use for testing. These days I primarily test with the WMR device because it is simpler to connect. I know someone else that tests with Oculus devices. So, your problem definitely shouldn't be a hardware compatibility issue. Are you trying it in Tier 1 or Tier 2?"
This is in Tier 1., as well I'm gonna be brutally honest ... Tier 2 literally makes no sense outside of Mobile Development, as there are just better options for Desktop.
I've had the issue since I purchased AppGameKit VR back in what June / July; as I just got the VR with it, figuring it'd be a quick and fun way to prototype VR Project ideas without having to deal with Unity...
I can't tell you why it doesn't output an image to Steam VR... just that it doesn't.
And that's both the Pre-Built Demos and any project Built with AppGameKit VR., which I've not exactly had much luck with Setting Up and Compiling Projects with AppGameKit VR ... as half the time it keeps telling me the Plug-In isn't Registered or Installed; something like that.
With the exception of copying across the runtime library., the Steam Version is "Supposed" to be Ready-to-Go; but yeah... I've had issues in respect to that as well, which again I got no bloody help about that either.
You know I miss the days of DBP where you'd just drop a Plug-In into the Compiler Folder and that was it... was good to go.
AGK so often feels like a few steps backwards.