DinoVR Tutorial

Overview

DinoVR is a collaborative VR viewer developed to visualize fluid simulations and can also be used to visualize any point-based dataset (e.g. pointclouds). For more information, visit the DinoVR github repository.

For a tutorial on building DinoVR from source, see this google doc.

Installation

Estimated time: 10 minutes

Requirements: Windows 10*, SteamVR, Visual Studio 2019 or later (with C++ toolchain installed)

Download the DinoVR zip file.
- If you are using paperspace:
  - copy the link above, open the paperspace console and open Google Chrome on your console
  - Click the circle icon menu in the top right, and click sync clipboard
  - Press the command to sync your local clipboard to Paperspace (Ctrl+V on Windows and Cmd+V on Mac)
  - Then press Ctrl+V to paste the download link into your browser on paperspace and download from GDrive
  - If this doesn't work you can also use a link shortener and enter the shortened link manually
Before unzipping the file, make sure to DELETE any other DinoVR folder that exists in your Downloads folder, or wherever you have saved the zip to
To unzip the downloaded file, two finger click it, and select "Extract Here"

Next, run setup.bat by double clicking on the file. If a blue warning shows up that says "Windows protected your PC", click More Info and then Run Anyway:
You'll be prompted with the following screen:

Enter your name.
Next, enter your appid, which will be given to you at the beginning of class -- make sure it is typed exactly correctly, with no extra spaces (dont use CTRL V for this -- it closes the window and ends up leaving the APPID field blank).
At this point, DinoVR should be ready to run!

Starting DinoVR

Before running DinoVR, you'll need to connect your headset to Paperspace using Virtual Desktop.
Next, launch SteamVR from your headset using virtual desktop. We recommend doing this by clicking your menu button on the left controller, and clicking Enter SteamVR. If it does not work, do the same thing but exit, and try again.
Finally, start the program by double clicking the run_steam_vr.bat file on your desktop. It is recommended to do this step from your paperspace console rather than your headset because it is easier to navigate the file explorer.

Note: SteamVR must be connected to your headset before running run_steam_vr.bat.

If you run the bat file and SteamVR says headset is not connected, open another SteamVR app first and SteamVR should detect the headset, then quit that app and open the bat file again.

Objectives

Estimated time: 40 minutes

Once DinoVR is launched, you should see a collection of points representing layers of soil / mud with a dinosaur foot directly above the points. Throughout this tutorial, you will be paired up with a partner, try to approximately recreate the following images (see below for the controls supported by DinoVR), and paste your reconstructions in the Activity Board:

DinoVR Controls

DinoVR supports a variety of controls that utilize both the Oculus Quest controllers and a keyboard. Below are all of the controls supported to DinoVR. While working on the above objectives, you'll likely want to view these controls in your headset. This can be done launching the SteamVR menu (click the button with three bars on the left Oculus controller) and selecting Desktop from left panel of the SteamVR menu.

Quest 2 Controller Controls

Keyboard Controls

Surface controls (note that surface mode must be enabled to support this features):

p -> changes surface type
v -> decreases the grid size of the surface
i -> increases the grid size of the surface

Layer controls:

1 -> hide / show the first layer of the model.
2 -> hide / show the second layer of the model.
3 -> hide / show the third layer of the model.
7 -> magnify cutting plane (note that cutting plane mode must be enabled to support this feature)

Foot controls:

v -> hide / show foot
b -> hide / show foot path

FOR WINDOWS USERS

Make sure your Windows configuration sets the Nvidia graphics card as default.

Go to Nvidia Control Panel
At the left side select "Manage 3D settings"
At the right panel select the "Global Settings" tab.
In the Preferred graphics processor drop down select "High performance Nvidia Processor"

TROUBLESHOOTING

AppId Errors:

If you run the run_steam_vr.bat file and see errors in the terminal about appID -- you entered your appID wrong in the setup.bat file, or haven't set it up at all. If you already ran the setup.bat file once, you cannot run it again. You must open the SteamVR_controller.minvr file and enter your appID and name in the correct field manually, i.e.
- - - <AppID>ENTERYOURAPPIDHERE</AppID>
    - <PlayerName>ENTERYOURPLAYERNAMEHERE</PlayerName>
Your appid is case sensitive, so make sure it is entered exactly

SteamVR Errors:

If you are getting errors about SteamVR, sometimes SteamVR blocks the Virtual Desktop driver.
If you navigate to the SteamVR popup and it says "Some addons blocked", click on "Manage Addons" and unblock the Virtual Desktop addon.

If you don't see that popup, click on the hamburger menu (☰) in the SteamVR popup on your Virtual Machine -- then navigate to Settings.
In the settings window, make sure Advanced Settings are enabled (Show Advanced Settings, at the bottom). From here, go to the Startup/Shutdown tab, and click on Manage Addons -- make sure the Virtual Desktop Streamer (Quest) addon is enabled.
Once done, make sure to restart SteamVR for these changes to take effect.

If you still get SteamVR-related errors after this, (i.e. headset is not connected), then navigate to SteamVR home and run the bat file from there, or open another SteamVR app first, then quit it, and then run the bat

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