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dearVR 3D audio reality engine released!

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by dearreality, Mar 21, 2016.

  1. dearreality

    dearreality

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
    50
    Hi everyone and welcome to dearVR 3D audio forum!

    Our new dearVR assetoffers you a professional solution for positional 3D audio and ultra-realistic acoustic room virtualisation in unity. It is pretty easy to use with the Unity Spatialization SDK (+5.2) and made for VR, 360° cinema and all different kind of games.

    dearVR_1.jpg


    The dearVR asset works with any pair of headphones. With it, you are able to create a realistic, three-dimensional sound space around your listener. Just like natural listening, one will hear sound sources outside of the head with a genuine feeling of distance and different directions.

    What makes the dearVR 3D audio asset special is the way it virtualizes all different kinds of acoustic settings with a great amount of realism. We combined positional and distance perception with reflections and reverb to achieve ultra-realistic virtual acoustics. 45 different presets are included within the asset. From a car to a cathedral, from a small alley to a concert arena - with the 45 virtual acoustic presets nearly any virtual scenario can be simulated. With different parametersyou can easily suit them to your scenes.


    Features

    ● Realistic Spatialization for Unity Audio System
    Turn your unity project into an immersive 360° sound experience for headphones.

    ● 45 Virtual Acoustic Room Presets
    From a small car to a huge church – presets for the most common production needs.

    ● Multiple Reverbs on one audio source
    Reverb Groups can be connected to various audio sources.

    ● Real-Time Room Analyzer for Auralization
    Reflections based on the room geometry.

    ● Acoustic Occlusion
    Simulates alterations within the soundfield for audio sources obstructed by objects or walls.

    ● More features coming soon…

    dearVR_Screenshot3_Reverb_Bus.jpg


    Useability

    ● Build for Unity Spatialization SDK (+5.2)

    ● Simple to setup and customize

    ● Integrated in Unity Audio Mixer


    Compatibility

    ● VR Ready for all HMD devices

    ● Works with any pair of headphones

    ● Flag for Stereo Loudspeaker Mode

    ● For PC / Mac / iOS / Android


    Get it here:
    http://u3d.as/oq8

    Please visit our website for more information and demos.
    www.dearvr.com

    Or enjoy our video:



    We are convinced to offer you one of the most powerful 3D audio experiences available for unity!
    Feedback is welcome!

    Cheers,
    dear reality
    http://www.dear-reality.com


    dearVR_Headphone.jpg
     
  2. gevarre

    gevarre

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2009
    Posts:
    132
    This looks awesome.

    Question: the game I'm working on basically takes place outside in a completely open environment, so obviously the reverb part isn't going to be of much use to me. Will this still be good for spatializing my sound sources?
     
  3. SpookyCat

    SpookyCat

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2010
    Posts:
    3,748
    Looks a very cool system, I wonder if it could help in the following case. I have a scene where a car is driving around going through tunnels, under bridges etc so needing some reverb effects but the listener is watching this from a distance, can you system apply the reverb to the car as it goes through a tunnel so it sounds correct to the listener outside the tunnel?
     
  4. SideShowBobMS

    SideShowBobMS

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2013
    Posts:
    10
    Thanks!
    If the open environment means outdoor, you can select the Outdoor presets.
    Yes, you can disable the Internal Reverb flag or select the Direct_Signal or Reflections_Only preset for each sound source to disable the reverb.
    This will work fine for the perception of direction and distance and btw saves some performance!
     
  5. SideShowBobMS

    SideShowBobMS

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2013
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    Yes, you can send the car sounds to different Reverb Buses in the Audio Mixer, e.g. one for outdoor and one for the tunnel and disolve between different MixerSnapshots when the car enters the tunnel.

    If you still want to localize the car sound damped when it's in the tunnel, just add Occlusion to the car sound and give the tunnel object a layer that is activ in the Occlusion Objects LayerMask.

    Just write me if that worked out for you.
     
  6. felizimm

    felizimm

    Joined:
    Feb 11, 2015
    Posts:
    4
    I bought this asset and it is fine if I attach it to a game object with audio source. But a lot of people (and me) are using Master Audio. It would be great to support it. I tried to get it working together but failed. It is complicated and the performance is very poor then. Do you plan to integrate it?
     
  7. SideShowBobMS

    SideShowBobMS

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2013
    Posts:
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    Yes, Master Audio and Fabric are on our Roadmap! I'll check it and try to bring the Master Audio compatibility in the v1.1 update of dearVR. Can you give any more details about your failed try? e.g. with how many sources and clips?
     
    Dracones likes this.
  8. o3a

    o3a

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2013
    Posts:
    8
    @SideShowBobMS, would Linux support happen to be on your Roadmap for dearVR as well? It would be useful when SteamOS is supported for the Vive and other HMD's. The product looks great!
     
    SideShowBobMS likes this.
  9. SideShowBobMS

    SideShowBobMS

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    Aug 17, 2013
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    Yes, Linux support is on our dearVR roadmap. First tests on Linux and Embedded Linux were running well.
    Thank you!
     
  10. unicat

    unicat

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2012
    Posts:
    425
    Hi, if i use Maximize on Play in the game window i can`t here the sound anymore.
     
  11. dearreality

    dearreality

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
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    Hi,
    sorry, but i’m not able to reproduce this kind of bug. Could you sent us some details about your system via support@dear-reality.com

    And - don’t be angry with me - check the status of the „Mute audio“ button right next to „Maximize on play“...

    Best
    Achim
     
  12. unicat

    unicat

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2012
    Posts:
    425
    Windows 10, Unity 5.4 f3 here. Mute Audio is disabled.

    Edit: In maximized mode i can hear the sound start for a very short time (maybe 1 or two millisecs) then it gets cut.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2016
  13. SideShowBobMS

    SideShowBobMS

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2013
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    Hi unicat,
    just tested the dearVR v1.1 on our Windows 10, Unity 5.4.0f3 with and without Maximize on Play and everything worked fine.
    Can you try to reproduce the issue with an empty project only importing the dearVR Asset? If yes, please contact our support emailadress (see above) and sent the test project.
     
  14. unicat

    unicat

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    Apr 8, 2012
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    Ok, will try it.
     
  15. unicat

    unicat

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    Apr 8, 2012
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    Ok, imported in an empty Project and tested the example Scene. Same problem. The file is to big to send it to you, even 7zipped.
    It is not much important to me, because it works in the minimized window and in the .exe.
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2016
  16. o3a

    o3a

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2013
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    @SideShowBobMS, I am experiencing what appears to be a bug in dearVR. After disabling and re-enabling a GameObject with a DearVRsource script attached, the sound isn't audible when played the second time. I tried changing every setting and couldn't get it to work. Our current workaround is to destroy the gameObject after playing and re-instantiating it from a prefab to play the sound again at a later time, but that's impractical in some situations and generally not the best practice. Is this a known issue? I could send you a sample scene if it would help. Thanks in advance.
     
  17. SideShowBobMS

    SideShowBobMS

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    Aug 17, 2013
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    Hi @o3a , thanks for your feedback! We were able to reproduce this behaviour and are working on a fix. If you send a short mail to our support http://dearvr.com/support/ we can supply you with a hotfix-version as soon as possible. We will post the results here.
     
  18. SideShowBobMS

    SideShowBobMS

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    Aug 17, 2013
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    Hey @o3a, we have fixed the issue.
    And it will be part of our next update, that we are going to upload to Unity Asset Store this week (+ Unity review process takes a few days). If it's urgent, just send me your dearVR Invoice No. per mail and I'll send you the hotfixed version immediately.
     
  19. SideShowBobMS

    SideShowBobMS

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    Aug 17, 2013
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    dearVR was just updated to v1.1.1 in the Asset Store: http://u3d.as/oq8
    WARNING: Due to changes in Unity's (5.3.6+) internal audio engine, that we have no influence on, left and right channels of stereo clips have to be summed. So the value for "inputChannel" 0.0 is fix now and the parameter is depricated. We recommend to recheck your mix and work with mono files from now on. (In case you are working with older dearVR versions, please make sure to set "input channel" to 0.0)
    - Fixed input channel paremter to 0.0
    - Fixed not playing sources after deactivation and reactivation
    - Enabled mono audio clips for spatialization
    - Enabled ENABLE_BITCODE for iOS
    - Enabled dearVRPlayOnAwake on OnEnable
    - Auto detecting Android architecture as ARMv7 now
     
  20. Dreamcube017

    Dreamcube017

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2009
    Posts:
    253
    Hi, I am also useing Master Audio and would LOVE to use DearVR with it. I purchased DearVR in hopes of using it in my current project, but when linking the DearVR Engine to a mixer track, nothing changes. Then, if I add the DearVR Reverb, all the sounds on that channel or conneceted to it don't play at all.

    If you could have that in the next update, that would be wonderful.

    Thanks!
     
  21. Dreamcube017

    Dreamcube017

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    Dec 20, 2009
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    Ok after messing around, was creating the DearVR Engine mixer plugin the solution to working with any other audio format? It seems to have worked although I'm still figuring out the reverb. Just making sure I'm using that properly. Thanks again!
     
  22. dearreality

    dearreality

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
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    Hi @Dreamcube017 - thanks for your feedback! As SideShowBobMS mentioned in an earlier post - YES, Master Audio is still on the roadmap for dearVR. We didn't manage to implement it in the last update v1.1.1
    But we are working on it...
     
  23. Dreamcube017

    Dreamcube017

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    Dec 20, 2009
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    Ah ok. Thanks! Can you shed some light on what the DearVR Engine effect is suppose to do. There doesn't seem to be any documentation on it.
     
  24. SideShowBobMS

    SideShowBobMS

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    Aug 17, 2013
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    Hi @Dreamcube017 , there is a quick-start-guide text file and a big manual pdf in the /Assets/dearVR/Documentation folder.

    The dearVR reverb effect, that you can add in Unitys Audio Mixer, is internally connected to dearVR Source Objects through their "send-level" and only creates a diffuse reverb for them. It can't spatialize any audio bus in the mixer.
    Please check the documentation and tell me if that helped you to get dearVR running with and without Master Audio?
     
  25. Dreamcube017

    Dreamcube017

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    Dec 20, 2009
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    Hi again @SideShowBobMS : I took a look at the documentation, but I was not refurring to the Reverb effect, but the DearVR Engine that you can add to the mixer. It has a ton of sliders and stuff. That's not mentioned in the documentation. I understand the reverb and how it works, but not this other one.
     
  26. henriqueranj

    henriqueranj

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2016
    Posts:
    177
    Hi, your engine looks promising! However, I want to know more about your mention to 360 videos.

    Could you please explain more about how your engine integrates with it? Would it allow to play 360 videos in VR with head tracked Spatial Audio within Unity? If so, what would be the requirements for the audio in the video?

    I am considering a use case where I have a spherical 360 videos played in Unity and enable Spatial Audio. Would your engine allow this?
     
    b4th likes this.
  27. vladibo

    vladibo

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2013
    Posts:
    38
    How to make sound more or less louder?

    DearVRPlayOneShot(sound)
     
  28. vladibo

    vladibo

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2013
    Posts:
    38
    This is the solution I found

    Code (CSharp):
    1. DearVrSource.clipIsPlaying = true;
    2. DearVrSource.BypassPerformance = false;
    3. DearVrSource.audioSource.PlayOneShot(_resources.LoadAudioClip(e.Clip), Math.Pow(e.Strength,3));
     
  29. jaboit

    jaboit

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2016
    Posts:
    2
    Hi!

    Love this utility, sounds really great. I'm seeing this in the console in Xcode: what's the issue/fix?

    dearVR_h: WARNING internalMute this buffer due to ErrorCode: 1outbuffer-size 2048 length 1024 outchannels 2 sizeof(float)4

    Many Thanks!
     
  30. dearreality

    dearreality

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
    50
    Hi @jaboit
    Thanks for your feedback.

    This means the engine is ok, but muted because:
    - intentionally muted
    - not loaded yet

    Does that occur often?
     
  31. jaboit

    jaboit

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2016
    Posts:
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    Hi, the error appears every frame or so (it looks like) in the Xcode console, and has appeared with every new build. All of that said, the engine seems to be working great and sounds good. I hope that helps!
     
  32. GermyGames

    GermyGames

    Joined:
    May 20, 2012
    Posts:
    38
    Any word on Master Audio support? I'm kind of holding off on making a purchase until then.
     
    Konst likes this.
  33. StevenC

    StevenC

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    Dec 13, 2012
    Posts:
    2
    Hi,

    We seem to getting a weird performance hit of round about 2-7ms whenever we Play a sound from a DearVR source. I assuming we must be doing some wrong.

    We have a scene that can have up to 100 DearVR sources (not all playing) with sounds being triggered in the FixedUpdate. We do have the optimisations turned on but still seem to be getting this hit. This is being used in Unity 5.5.1 so i don't know if DearVR has issues with the current version of Unity?

    We do have a few sounds that where left on mono accidentally but even when switched to stereo they were still causing hiccups.

    Do you have any idea what could be causing these hitches?
     
  34. Chrichrimen

    Chrichrimen

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2014
    Posts:
    2
    Hi @dearreality,

    Thank you, your plugin is really great! :)

    To dig deeper, I may have more specific needs about the room presets:
    - Is there any way (even a little hack) to add our own room preset?
    - Is it possible to blend two or several room presets?
    - Can we fade from one room preset to another room preset when walking?
    - Can we modulate the sound to hear more sound through a window than through a wall?


    Thanks!

    Christophe
     
  35. go1dfish

    go1dfish

    Joined:
    Nov 2, 2016
    Posts:
    54
    Profiling DearVR I'm noticing 122B of garbage allocation when I use DearVRSource.DearVRPlay() resulting from internal calls to String.Concat() and Object.get_name()

    Seems like these may be related to some sort of internal logging, is there a way to avoid this?
     
  36. dearreality

    dearreality

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
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    Hi Steve - sorry for the huge delay. Something didn't worked as expected with my forum notifications.

    Can you send us a simple project so that we can take a look at the problem? That would be great.
    I don't think this is an issue caused by the Unity 5.5.1 version.

    Best,
    Achim
     
  37. dearreality

    dearreality

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
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    Hi go1dfish - again, sorry for the delayed reply.

    We will look into this. This is in fact because of the way we do our logging in the background. We will send you an updated as soon as we find a solution.

    Best,
    Achim
     
    go1dfish likes this.
  38. go1dfish

    go1dfish

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    Nov 2, 2016
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    Also I've noticed that enabling DearVR's occlusion checks seems heavier than if I do raycasts myself.

    Is DearVR doing partial occlusion? Or can I get the same results by raycasting from source to listener using the same layer mask and turning on force occlusion when they are blocked?

    So far I've gotten pretty nice results with this approach and I'm wondering if there is any benefit to the built in occlusion detection.
     
  39. arapps3d

    arapps3d

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    Jan 13, 2015
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    Hi! Is it possible to import an Ambisonics file with DearVR?
     
  40. summitgamesentertainment

    summitgamesentertainment

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    Sep 30, 2016
    Posts:
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    Hello. Is it supporting web gl in Unity ? Please reply fast. I have to answer a client.
     
  41. Konst

    Konst

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    Aug 26, 2013
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    holding off for Mater Audio as well here
     
  42. Tancho

    Tancho

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    Feb 25, 2016
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    1
  43. dearreality

    dearreality

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
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    Hi, sorry for the huge delay.
    No, ambisonic audio files are not supported yet.
     
  44. dearreality

    dearreality

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    May 23, 2015
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    Hi - no, webGL is not supported.
     
  45. dearreality

    dearreality

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    May 23, 2015
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    Hi Konst - thanks for the feedback concerning Master Audio. We decided to add different feature first and as a result it is still on our TODO list.
     
  46. BusterTheWizard

    BusterTheWizard

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
    55
    I've been using DearVR for about a month now, I just started getting drastic spikes in the DSP load today and I have no idea what's causing it. A few minutes into my game and it will start shooting up to 150% every couple of frames, dropping my framerate from 110 fps to under 20 fps. In the profilier there are CPU spikes coming from DearVRSource.Awake() every time the player or an NPC shoots, but even after they shoot the DSP Load spikes continue. I don't know what to do about this or why it just became a problem. Sometimes when I start the game in the editor the DSP Load will increase each time I press play, starting at 10% and after pressing play a few times getting as high as 80% right after starting. The only solution I found was doing AudioSettings.Reset() when the game starts every time, but that doesn't solve the spikes during gameplay.

    UPDATE:
    I removed DearVR and everything is working fine again. In my game, all the enemies have audiosources on their root and their gun, the shots have two audiosources (distant, muffled shot sound effect, whizzing sound effect) and the hits have an audiosource. I recently added additional audiosources for the player's weapons/bullets, maybe it was just too much for DearVR? After a couple minutes of gameplay with this is when the audio would completely break. I should mention I did try reinstalling DearVR multiple times and I deleted all the files associated with it each time.
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2017
    JulianKS likes this.
  47. JulianKS

    JulianKS

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    Jan 18, 2017
    Posts:
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    Hello!

    I am having the exact same problem as nixtwiz.

    Here is an audio recording that shows the lag I get in any of my scenes:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkjdb0c799hjvan/lagSample.mp3?dl=0

    Here are the Profiler stats associated with the recording above. As you can see, the Total Audio CPU and Mesh Memory are spiking all over the place. I see my CPU spiked a couple times as well due to the Scripts, but that's not enough to cause this type of lag; plus I already know where I need to optimize my code. Unfortunately, I am having a really hard time optimizing anything because these audio spikes mess with the timing, making testing very difficult.
    ProfilerAudioStats.PNG

    I tried adjusting my AudioManager, making my DPS Buffer Size set to "Best Performance" and my "Max Virtual/Real Voices" fields maxed out. Doing so improved the lag very slightly, but did not by any means fix it. Plus I do not want to keep "Best Performance" for my public build.
    AudioSettings.PNG

    I initially thought it was my new Razer Blade laptop's fault (like CPU throttling when running on the battery, or a program like nVidia GeForce Experience or Razer Synapse lagging things), then I thought it was my own code's fault (which led me to make some major optimizations which did not help), then I thought it was Unity's fault. None of these troubleshooting attempts panned out.

    I have since realized that dearVR is the culprit, because like nix, I also tried troubleshooting by removing DearVR as my spatializer on my project and it started working perfectly fine again. The problem is, my entire project is based on the technology that DearVR provides, and my projects have a ridiculous amount of audio that happens on a scheduled and timed basis in relation to one-another.

    I read in the user manual that enabling "Performance Mode" will help. However, I am confused as to how to do this. The manual specifically says: "In Performance Mode play audio sources only with dearVRplay(),
    DearVRPlayOneShot (AudioClip) or DearVRPlayOnAwake flag."

    My problem is that I don't know how to do this. Right now I use this structure to actually tell all of my audio to play:
    structure.PNG
    Basically I make an AudioSource variable and an AudioClip variable (not shown here). Then I assign the AudioClip = to the AudioSource.clip (shown in line 1 above). Then I tell the source to play (shown in line 2 above).

    Staying in-line with what I think DearVR's manual is telling me to do, I tried "narratorClipPart1.dearVRplay();", but that was not valid syntax. Unity treats it like I'm referencing a variable and tells me that it does not currently exist.
    I also tried "dearVRplay(narratorClipPart1);" but that didn't work either.

    How do I get my project to recognize the commands listed in the manual?

    In the Inspector, I also tried enabling the "dearVR PLAY PERFORMANCE MODE" option on my Objects and then trying the code, but that didn't work either.
    inspector.PNG

    So I've tried every possible combination that I could think of, but I have no idea how to use Performance Mode to play a clip.

    Any help would be much appreciated! I value any insight anybody can offer. Thank you very much and I apologize for the long post!
     
    Last edited: May 20, 2017
  48. BusterTheWizard

    BusterTheWizard

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2012
    Posts:
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    Is your source a DearVRSource? It should be that, not an Audiosource.
    If narratorClipPart1 is a DearVRSource, you should be able to do narratorClipPart1.dearVRPlay() as well as narratorClipPart1.dearVRPlayOneShot(youraudiocliphere).


    I only commented out most of my code after deleting the DearVR files in case my issue was resolved, here's what I had working:

    public DearVRSource dv;
    public AudioSource au;
    public AudioClip shootSound;

    void Awake()
    {
    au = GetComponent<AudioSource>();
    dv = GetComponent<DearVRSource>();​
    }

    void Shoot()
    {
    dv.DearVRPlayOneShot(shootSound);​
    }

    void animationSounds(AudioClip soundToPlay)
    {
    au.clip = soundToPlay;
    dv.DearVRPlay();​
    }
     
    JulianKS likes this.
  49. dearreality

    dearreality

    Joined:
    May 23, 2015
    Posts:
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    Hi @nixtwiz and @JulianKS
    thanks for your feedback and sorry to hear you are having problems with dearVR.
    We are just checking this issue, gave it a high priority and will get back to you asap.
     
    BusterTheWizard and JulianKS like this.
  50. JulianKS

    JulianKS

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2017
    Posts:
    11
    @nixtwiz
    Thank you for the help! Unfortunately when I tried changing my AudioSources to DearVRSource, I got the standard error for when something isn't recognized:
    DearVRSource.PNG

    Do you know how you got your DearVRSource to be recognized? I have Dear VR Manager on an object -- my Main Camera and primary Audio Listener (it's my understanding we only need 1 Dear VR Manager across a scene) and just to be safe I even tried putting it on the object holding the script where I'm trying to use DearVRSource. I even tried putting "Dear VR Source" Component on the Game Object just in case that somehow enabled it too.

    Is there like a "Using DearVR" or something that I'm missing? Or do I need to be using one of the 2 scripts below?
    upload_2017-5-21_9-58-36.png

    Thank you again for your input! I didn't realize I had to use DearVRSource as my var type instead of AudioSource. So that at least is a step in the right direction.

    @dearreality
    Thank you for looking into this!

    *edit*
    I figured out part of the problem. I wasn't using "Using DearVR;", as I thought.

    But unfortunately now I have a bigger problem. The only thing I can't seem to use is "____.clip" anymore. I need to be able to use .clip in order to reference a clip's length such as DearVRSource.clip. Or more importantly to my project, DearVRSource.clip.length.

    I was previously using coroutines to time my AudioSources (which are all now DearVRSources) to wait until clips from the previous source was finished playing. How can I replicate that using DearVRSources?
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2017