sebaausili Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Hi all! I'm trying to perfrom some psycphisical experiments for my PhD. I would like that Mac OS detects the Vive as a secondary screen so I can control what to present there from MATLAB. I'm running this from Ubuntu and the operative system identify the Vive as an extention of the current monitor. To be clear, I don't need a VR enviroment at the moment. I only want to present a white/grey/black screen on both eyes (for example). Could you please help me with this? Thanks a lot and looking forward toyour comments. Seba. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HackPerception Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 , generally speaking, running a Vive as a extended display device can be tricky. On Windows it can be done by forcing extended mode, although it doesn't render each eye as a mirror of one another (that is to say, each eye renders a different portion of the screen space). As Ubuntu has SteamVR support, you may be able to disable direct mode by going into SteamVR -> Developer Settings -> "Disable direct mode". Otherwise, using a Vive on Umbuntu via Mac HW is not something most of us will have Vive specific experience with, especially since this is a non-standard usecase. It's worth noting that performance in extended mode will be severely reduced compared to direct mode if you get it up and running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebaausili Posted July 23, 2018 Author Share Posted July 23, 2018 Thanks a lot for your support. Well, in the Ubuntu (no SteamVR installed) the Vive is working as you described: "... it doesn't render each eye as a mirror of one another (that is to say, each eye renders a different portion of the screen space)..." This is enough for what I need initially. I still don't even have the SteamVR installed in Ubuntu and I'm not using the controllers/tracking systems. I only want to control the visual field in a specific way. The problem is that I imagine that it would be the same for mac (plug the Vive and have and additional screen recognized by the OS) and it's not... The moment I plug it, the Mac seems to recognize the Vive but the Vive's screen is completely black and the OS doesn't show it as a secondary screen (under System Preferences-> Displays...) Sorry, but as you can see, I'm completely new on SteamVR. How do I reach the Developer Settings? On my mac, I open Steam and I have SteamVR on "libraries". Is that SteamVR the one that contains: Developer Settings-> "Disable Direct Mode"? I'm not sure where to find it... Thanks a lot! Seba. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HackPerception Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 , what we commonly refer to as SteamVR is actually known as the "compositor"... It's an environment that manages SteamVR sessions and provides a GUI to manipulate SteamVR's underlying settings. You can access the settings by hitting the down arror and then navigating to "Settings" and "Developer" will be one of the cateogires. On Mac, you must be using SteamVR beta branch. Support for Mac is still under development. It may actually be easiest to get everything launching correct and use an Editor (Unity, UE4) to properly display your target ouput rather than trying to use extended mode to drive pixels. HMD's are not really designed to be used as a secondary monitor that you simply plug in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebaausili Posted July 23, 2018 Author Share Posted July 23, 2018 Thanks a lot for your help. I also thougth about Unity, but the problem is that I cannot control what I want to present from Matlab. That's why the secondary screen migth be the best solution for me... I will try tomorrow to plug everything in the lab and look for the Developer settings and I let you know how it goes. Thanks again and I'll keep you updated. Seba. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HackPerception Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 , I'm not familiar enough with MatLab to know what types of outputs it can achieve but you could likely find a way to capture whichever window and pipe it into the HMD. On the Windows side, there is an app called OVRDrop which is what I recommend to bring non-native apps into VR - there isn't anything related on MacOS yet. It works by targeting the OpenVR layer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HackPerception Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 , I'm not familiar enough with MatLab to know what types of outputs it can achieve but you could likely find a way to capture whichever window and pipe it into the HMD. On the Windows side, there is an app called OVRDrop which is what I recommend to bring non-native apps into VR - there isn't anything related on MacOS yet. It works by targeting the OpenVR layer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebaausili Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 I've reached this point, but there is no "direct" or "extended" mode to change in it... Not sure now if this is the windows you were refering to. (I cannot upload the capture, so I provide you the link of what I have in front...) https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8lr1gc6rslt5n6/steam.png?dl=0 Also, sometimes when I start SteamVR the compositor window does not even show up. I n the Library window it says "runing" but I don't have. the small window with the down arrow. Is this a Mac bug or I'm missing one step? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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