VR Development Framework
v 1.0.0
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Installation
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Installation

Pre-Setup

You will have to perform a couple of simple steps before getting started with arc-vr:

No further steps are required to make your project arc-vr compatible. However, if you are planning on using SteamVR (HTC Vive or Valve Index) you will have to make Unity's XR Plug-in Manager compatible with the SteamVR input system (see next step).

SteamVR/HTC Vive Compatibility

Arc-vr uses Unity's XR Plug-in Manager as a general API. Unfortunately, the XR Manager does not include a default plug-in for the HTC Vive or Valve Index. If you plan on using either of these (or using SteamVR in general), you'll need to perform a couple of extra steps before everything is in place.

You can try using Valve's own OpenVR plugin, but I recommend to use Khronos' OpenXR instead, as it supports a wider range of devices and generally has more features. The following steps will describe how to set up a project intended for the HTC Vive with OpenXR:

  1. Open Windows > Package Manager. Display all packages from the 'Unity Registry', then find and select 'OpenXR Plugin'. Click 'Install'.
  2. Open the Edit > Project Settings, and select XR Plug-in Management. Enable the 'OpenXR' option.
  3. Under 'XR Plug-in Management' you should now be able to select 'OpenXR'.
  4. Select 'OpenXR > Features' and tick 'HTC Vive Controller Profile' to enable compatibility with HTC Vive Controllers.
  5. The OpenXR Plugin will likely be displayed with a red exclamation mark. Click on it to open the OpenXR Project Validation Window. Here, OpenXR will ask you to change a few project settings. You can click 'Fix All' or manually change these one-by-one.
Note
If these steps are out of date or you're having trouble with OpenXR, refer to their official 'Getting Started' documentation.

Note
If your project uses custom shaders that are not single-pass compatible, you will have to set 'Render Mode' to 'Multi-Pass'. Note that this will dramatically reduce performance, so only do this if you know that you have to. All shaders included in arc-vr are compatible with single-pass instanced rendering.

Installing arc-vr packages

Your first step should be to choose which arc-vr packages you require for your project. Look at the overview for a feature-list.

Once you've chosen which packages you need, head over to the github release tab and download the respective .tgz files.

Under Windows > Package Manager click the plus sign and select 'Add package from tarball'. Browse to the downloaded '.tgz' file and select it.

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Note
All arc-vr packages have arc-vr-core as a dependency. Install arc-vr-core first.

Note
At the moment arc-vr-ui uses the old Unity InputSystem, while OpenXR uses the new one. If you are using the ui-package, you will have to set Project Settings > Player > Active Input Handling to "Both", for it to work as intended. There are plans to migrate arc-vr-ui to the new InputSystem in the near future.