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Hotrian / OVRdrop-Public

Public issue/feature tracker for OVRdrop
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Laptop Compatability #71

Open Interstellar-pi opened 5 years ago

Interstellar-pi commented 5 years ago

So I have the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-51 (https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7312?b=1&pn=NH.Q2QAA.016) and I am able to get it to show in VR but I get a white screen similar to a issue before and I read it but I only have 1 HDMI port

Hotrian commented 5 years ago

Unfortunately not all laptops are compatible due to the way the laptop's display is driven by the integrated GPU, but OVRdrop and SteamVR will be run on the dedicated GPU. Some laptops have a BIOS option or hotkey to drive the display by the dGPU, but unfortunately most do not support this. Some laptops have the display driven directly by the dGPU, but this is increasingly less common as dGPUs get more powerful in laptops.

Laptops are setup this way for battery life reasons, and due to a conflict with Unity I'm unable to grab from other GPUs, though I'm still working to fix this in a newer version of OVRdrop, I have no ETA at this time. External display ports (HDMI, DVI, DP, etc) are usually connected directly to the dGPU, so something like a HeadlessGhost or other display dummy plug will work with OVRdrop in this case, but if you only have 1 HDMI port which is used by your HMD then this isn't a solution for you.

Unfortunately there's no easy solution here if you can't disable the iGPU and drive the display with your dGPU. In which case I would recommend my older OpenVRDesktopDisplayPortal (free) until I can fix this in OVRdrop. OVRDDP could do about 480p@24fps depending on CPU, where OVRdrop can easily do 1440p@200+fps depending on GPU. Higher resolutions at lower capture rates or lower resolutions at higher capture rates works fine. The performance isn't really comparable in that sense, but for simple things like copying in Twitch Chat OVRDDP usually works fine.

Kombinator90 commented 4 years ago

I bought OVRdrop on Steam, got a white window in the game, found the cause of the problem only here, now there are powerful laptops, why don’t you warn that the program is incompatible? I am grateful to everyone who develops the VR industry, but such things are very unpleasant, you push people to piracy.

Hotrian commented 4 years ago

Sorry you had issues with OVRdrop. Unfortunately I don't have the funds to test every laptop configuration - some laptops do work properly, and others do not, it entirely depends on manufacturer and design. For example some Alienware laptops work perfectly without issue, and some Alienware laptops do not work at all. The "power" of your laptop is not the issue, and a more powerful laptop is not guaranteed to work. The issue here is laptops tend to have the display rigged up to an integrated Intel GPU (to conserve battery life when not using hardware accelerated programs), and depending on the exact configuration OVRdrop may be entirely unable to grab the display's buffer off the Intel GPU. On some laptops, this configuration works fine, and on others it does not work - it depends on which technique is used to switch the active graphics card, which is hardwired into it, and cannot be controlled via software.

There is in fact a notice under the System Requirements on Steam:

Additional Notes: Windows 7 is NOT supported due to technical limitations. Some laptops are not currently compatible due to their configuration.

I am still looking into options to remedy this, unfortunately I have been unable to find a solution which works under Unity and is fast enough for OVRdrop's purposes. If you don't mind a slower option, you can still use my OpenVRDesktopDisplayPortal, free of charge. Valve handles all refunds directly, and I'm sure they would be happy to process your refund for you. Based on reviews, reports, and speaking directly with customers, I would estimate approximately 70-80% of laptops work without issue.

DizzyDJW commented 3 years ago

If you don't mind a slower option, you can still use my OpenVRDesktopDisplayPortal, free of charge.

How exactly does one do this? I have downloaded the file but there is nothing launchable inside.

Hotrian commented 3 years ago

If you don't mind a slower option, you can still use my OpenVRDesktopDisplayPortal, free of charge.

How exactly does one do this? I have downloaded the file but there is nothing launchable inside.

I'm guessing you may have downloaded the source code on accident, the latest executable is in this archive.