Daz and VR

Wonderland

Does anyone know a way of going inside a Daz scene and viewing it in VR (with a Quest 2 headset)? Or a way to render images (side by side I guess?) viewable in VR? I feel like it should be possible but I'm not techie enough to figure it out. I have Virtual Desktop but can't figure out a way to view DS scenes other than on a large 2D flat screen. I guess you could import objs into Unity but that's a whole other software program to learn and I still wouldn't know how to save it and view it in VR. And I'm not even talking about making it for sale, I mean just personally walking around a Stonemason set or something in VR. Or it would be amazing to be able to set up a whole scene in VR similar to the way one could in AltspaceVR. 

Mada

I have done that but you need to use Unity or other game engines to do it. In my opinion the best option would be to use VRChat's SDK since its well supported with tutorial videos and takes the creating of the VR side like teleporting and moving around in a scene out of the quotation, all you have to worry about is the scene. Here is the problem to make it run on a Quest 2 though - its going to be a frame rate hog and make you sick as all heck - everything needs to be optimised and textures reduced to fit on a Q2 chipset.
The only other good option I can think of would be to create a 360 that you can take into VR, you won't be able to walk around objects since its now just an image but you'll be able to look around at the scene.

You should have a decent enough computer if you're doing Daz Studio, so if you haven't used Quest Link yet I would recommend setting that up so that you can use your computers GPU instead of the Quest 2 chipset - that will make everything a lot more useable and less likely to give you motion sickness. Unity is daunting in the beginning, but its the same like learning DS, start at the beginning and work your way through the steps... it will get a lot easier :)

 

Wonderland

Yes, I can link the Quest to the PC but the problem is my brain lol. I have no idea what an SDK is although I think I managed to use some premade ones in AltspaceVR for cocktails in my art gallery club. But I just find VRChat daunting. It seems really scattered to me and I end up in random rooms with carrot avatars yelling obscenities or children dressed up as porno characters. It's so chaotic for me. I guess I'll check out some tutorials though.

As far as the still images go, I'd like to make slide show of VR images for YouTube but when I see a VR video on YouTube, it doesn't show as side by side or over under but looks like a normal 360 image. The video you posted shows how to do over under images but that can't be viewed correctly on YouTube unless you use Virtual Desktop. I guess I was looking for a simple solution but everything seems a bit too techie for me. I really miss AltspaceVR where everything was so simple! 

Mada

LMAO yes VRChat can be chaotic... one tip - never go into a room with other people, only with friends. When you open a room you can create an instance that is only visible to friends to join. That way you avoid all the kids and weird characters haha. I never go into public rooms at all unless its for an event.

 

Wonderland

Mada said:

LMAO yes VRChat can be chaotic... one tip - never go into a room with other people, only with friends. When you open a room you can create an instance that is only visible to friends to join. That way you avoid all the kids and weird characters haha. I never go into public rooms at all unless its for an event.

 

Unfortunately I lost all my AltspaceVR friends and can't find them in VRChat. Does VR Chat use the regular Meta Quest names or are they exclusive to VRChat? In any case I'm Alicia_Wonderland in Meta Quest if you or anyone else here wants to friend me. 

Mada

They're not connected with Meta no :)

I guess the best way way to find your altspace friends would be to check in these groups 
Altspacers in VRChat : https://www.facebook.com/groups/754379468854225/
There's also a group just for altspacers in VRChat: https://vrchat.com/home/group/grp_21bbd4a2-528a-4650-929a-08996694265e (505 members so def going to be some regulars in there)

Wonderland

Mada said:

They're not connected with Meta no :)

I guess the best way way to find your altspace friends would be to check in these groups 
Altspacers in VRChat : https://www.facebook.com/groups/754379468854225/
There's also a group just for altspacers in VRChat: https://vrchat.com/home/group/grp_21bbd4a2-528a-4650-929a-08996694265e (505 members so def going to be some regulars in there)

Ah, thanks. I'll check it out. Just realized I have a couple of friends from AltspaceVR on Discord who could hook me up with people I used to know. I've just had such bad experiences in VRChat that I've been avoiding it. I was very active during Covid in social VR but lately using it just to chill with streaming media, travel experiences and meditation apps. I fractured my foot and am on crutches so can't even do workout apps now. 

Still wish there was a way to create in DS in VR. I hate actually sitting at the computer lol. Especially now with the foot fracture, I'm supposed to keep it elevated. I might try using Virtual Desktop and see if the controls will actually work in it, then I could at least have a giant screen while lying down in bed! 

Bartleby

I actually managed this when I was learning how to use Unity - IIRC getting to a situation where you can view assets in FPS was not that hard.

If things have not changed - this was a while ago when it was still called oculus....

Unity has VR pretty much built in, if you have a project, go into project Settings and find the VR/XR section and check the box to switch VR on, and select your device type.  When you Run Game after that you should see your Unity scene in the VR headset.  You will have to have PC VR set up and a cable connection so Unity can see the headset.

Use the Daz->Unity bridge to bring in your Daz assets and add in an FPS Player prefab from the Unity Standard Assets (or get a free one from the asset store) and you should be able to walk around Stonemasons environments using WSAD and the mouse.

One gotcha - when I did it there was no Bridge to get the Daz assets into Unity, I had to export an FBX and import it into Unity.  When doing so, there was a 'Create Coliders' checkbox (or some similar name) which you had to check to avoid falling straight through the floor.  The Bridge may have something similar.

Once you have a set in Unity, hopefully the Bridge will have taken care of materials, but you will have to work on lighting to get the best out of it.

If you want to do anything more complex with the VR (proper VR movement, grabbing etc.) , you will need the SDK (Software Develpers Kit) which includes more player prefabs you can just drag in.  There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube about using those.

Mada

Wonderland said:

Mada said:

They're not connected with Meta no :)

I guess the best way way to find your altspace friends would be to check in these groups 
Altspacers in VRChat : https://www.facebook.com/groups/754379468854225/
There's also a group just for altspacers in VRChat: https://vrchat.com/home/group/grp_21bbd4a2-528a-4650-929a-08996694265e (505 members so def going to be some regulars in there)

Ah, thanks. I'll check it out. Just realized I have a couple of friends from AltspaceVR on Discord who could hook me up with people I used to know. I've just had such bad experiences in VRChat that I've been avoiding it. I was very active during Covid in social VR but lately using it just to chill with streaming media, travel experiences and meditation apps. I fractured my foot and am on crutches so can't even do workout apps now. 

Still wish there was a way to create in DS in VR. I hate actually sitting at the computer lol. Especially now with the foot fracture, I'm supposed to keep it elevated. I might try using Virtual Desktop and see if the controls will actually work in it, then I could at least have a giant screen while lying down in bed! 

Virtual Desktop actually works pretty well - if my eyes are tired and I can't see the tiny letters in the DS interface and I have a lot of work left to do I'll switch to the headset. The mouse and keyboard is a bit harder, you really need a flat surface as well to do any kind of work. Good luck with your foot - hope it heals quickly :)

chris-2599934

Here's a rather low tech way to make an image that you can view as if you're standing in the scene:

• Create your scene as usual, make it a busy one with lots going on!
• Place a camera in a good viewpoint in the middle of the scene, preferably at eye level for a character standing in that spot.
• Set the aspect ratio to 2:1 - i.e. the render needs to be twice as wide as it is high, 4096x2048 pixels is a good size to start with - or bigger, if your machine can handle it!
• Select the camera in the Scene tab and go to the Lens panel in the Parameters tab. Set "Lens Distortion Type" to spherical.
• Render an image using that camera, it will appear very distorted when viewed normally

Once you have an image, go to https://renderstuff.com/tools/360-panorama-web-viewer/ and you'll be able to upload your image and view it in pseudo-3D.

For a more VR experience, you'll need another image...

• Go back to your Daz scene and duplicate your camera
• Make the old camera the parent of the new one, then set the X Translate value of the new camera to 6. This will move it 6 cm to the right - so the old camera gave a left eye image, the new one will do the right eye
• Render the new image as above.
• In a 2D editing program - Photoshop or whatever you have - combine the two images into a single square image, the left one on the top half, the right one on the bottom half.
• Upload the combined image to Renderstuff as above.

You need to click the "Stereo" button at the top left of the image to make it render properly, then click the "Open New VR Tab" bar across the top of the image. I believe if you do this via a VR headset (even just Google cardboard) it will project different images in each eye, and move the images as you move your head - giving you the full VR experience of being in your (albeit static) scene. I don't have a headset myself, so can't be sure how well it works.

Note that if you want to share the result with somebody else (or on here!), you'll need to host your image somewhere online, like imgur, and then do the "upload image from link" method of getting it to Renderstuff.

Mada

chris-2599934 said:

...snip

I believe if you do this via a VR headset (even just Google cardboard) it will project different images in each eye, and move the images as you move your head - giving you the full VR experience of being in your (albeit static) scene. I don't have a headset myself, so can't be sure how well it works.

I haven't tried the method above so have no input other than never ever use google cardboard... I have on boarded so many users into a headset who complained of getting motion sick previously and then when you ask its always google cardboard - it did a lot of damage to VR because people then think all VR is bad like that :)

eeyun

This will move it 6 cm to the right - so the old camera gave a left eye image, the new one will do the right eye

Hmm - seems like that would give you binocular stereo for the straight-ahead view, but turn your head to the side and one eye's viewpoint will be *behind* the other, that can't be good. (And don't look behind you :-)