Third Party Apps and Rift 1.17 Update

cybereality

With the 1.17 PC software update (available now in our public test channel) we’re making it easier to manage your content library all in one place. Now, you’ll be able to view and launch all apps that support Rift from your computer or in VR, even if you acquired them from outside the Oculus Store. We know people sideload apps for a variety of reasons, so we've included some options to help provide flexibility and control of what’s displayed. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• You can toggle displaying third party app titles “on” and “off” from the Filter menu of the Library in the upper right of the Oculus desktop app
• You can remove individual apps from your Library (note that this does not uninstall the app; also, at this time, this action can’t be undone)
• If you are using an app obtained or purchased outside the Oculus Store, your activity will simply display as "Online"
• Library will still display the five most recently played apps. If you toggle “off” third party apps titles, they will be removed from recent activity

We’ll be iterating on Library functionality and features with future patches. If you’re testing the release, please share feedback with us via the PTC, and stay tuned for future updates.

ragenrok

Oh thank goodness lol

ShyningFade

This sounds very promising! I haven't received my Rift yet, but I've heard a lot of commotion when it comes to playing games outside of Oculus Home.

vrgamerdude

Oh WOW.. Now this is good news indeed! █-)

neonridr

@cybereality - fantastic news, some great features being implemented here.

bzowk

A long overdue addition!  Already updated and see Filter option, but how do we actually add the titles / executables to our library?  Thanks!

grant666uk

bzowk said:

A long overdue addition!  Already updated and see Filter option, but how do we actually add the titles / executables to our library?  Thanks!

Was thinking the same thing ???

ragenrok

How do we download this test version?

Syndroid

Great update!

And as expected, SteamVR itself gets added as an app
So if you want to play a SteamVR game you have to run SteamVR first, then start the game from within SteamVR,

Kensik

ragenrok said:

How do we download this test version?

go into your oculus setting click on beta and click on Public Test Channel 

ragenrok

Kensik said:

ragenrok said:

How do we download this test version?

go into your oculus setting click on beta and click on Public Test Channel 

Thank you! downloading now

Elpoc

Absolutely brilliant news.

ragenrok

Installed the new Public test and my library now shows Superhot VR which I own on steamVR not oculus

Syndroid

ragenrok said:

Installed the new Public test and my library now shows Superhot VR which I own on steamVR not oculus

Superhot is not a SteamVR game though. It supports the Rift SDK.
SteamVR is Valves software/runtime. And there are quite a few games on Steam that don't support the Oculus SDK;

ragenrok

Syndroid said:

ragenrok said:

Installed the new Public test and my library now shows Superhot VR which I own on steamVR not oculus

Superhot is not a SteamVR game though. It supports the Rift SDK.
SteamVR is Valves software/runtime. And there are quite a few games on Steam that don't support the Oculus SDK;

I know, im just happy that I can launch it directly from the oculus home now instead of needing to open SteamVR first

nalex66

ragenrok said:

Installed the new Public test and my library now shows Superhot VR which I own on steamVR not oculus

Cool! Does Oculus Home automatically add the third-party titles that you have installed, does it add them when you run them, or is there a method to manually add them?

ragenrok

nalex66 said:

ragenrok said:

Installed the new Public test and my library now shows Superhot VR which I own on steamVR not oculus

Cool! Does Oculus Home automatically add the third-party titles that you have installed, does it add them when you run them, or is there a method to manually add them?

Not sure yet, I'm doing this from my work PC so cant really run games. Didn't see a way to manually add games yet so it either scan's your computer or adds them as you launch them

Narcil

It adds them when you launch the game from Steam. When the game starts using rift.

How do you "share feedback with us via the PTC" ? Just submit Feedback in the options?

cybereality

Yes, you can click Provide Feedback in the Settings menu.

ragenrok

nalex66 said:

ragenrok said:

Installed the new Public test and my library now shows Superhot VR which I own on steamVR not oculus

Cool! Does Oculus Home automatically add the third-party titles that you have installed, does it add them when you run them, or is there a method to manually add them?

Just got home and tested, oculus home adds it to your library as you launch them. Launched "The Lab" and Oculus instantly added it

Arock387

Can we point to the directory?  For example steamvr games can we just point to the exe?

ragenrok

Arock387 said:

Can we point to the directory?  For example steamvr games can we just point to the exe?

doesnt seem like it, but you dont even need to launch it with your rift connected. I dont have my rift yet but I've just been downloading steamVR games and launching them and Oculus add's them even though they all error out saying now HMD detected lol

studlygoorite

This is great, thanks. My Steam games are now in my Oculus library!

I spoke too soon, Elite Dangerous showed up (just a pic, no title on the library tile) but the next 4 games did not, another installed that has a pic on the library tile but I don't know what game it is as I do not recognize the pic, just like other software grabbing the wrong box art for a movie.

studlygoorite

ragenrok said:

nalex66 said:

ragenrok said:

Installed the new Public test and my library now shows Superhot VR which I own on steamVR not oculus

Cool! Does Oculus Home automatically add the third-party titles that you have installed, does it add them when you run them, or is there a method to manually add them?

Just got home and tested, oculus home adds it to your library as you launch them. Launched "The Lab" and Oculus instantly added it

Maybe I have a firewall thing going on here, I launched "The Lab" and it never added to my library.

nalex66

studlygoorite said:

ragenrok said:

nalex66 said:

ragenrok said:

Installed the new Public test and my library now shows Superhot VR which I own on steamVR not oculus

Cool! Does Oculus Home automatically add the third-party titles that you have installed, does it add them when you run them, or is there a method to manually add them?

Just got home and tested, oculus home adds it to your library as you launch them. Launched "The Lab" and Oculus instantly added it

Maybe I have a firewall thing going on here, I launched "The Lab" and it never added to my library.

If you launch it from within the SteamVR interface, Oculus Home may just see "SteamVR". If you launch the apps from their EXEs, it should work.

firagabird

I'm really glad that this long requested feature is coming for Rift. Can we expect a similar update heading to Gear VR?

EDIT: Crap, the most important two words were the one that didn't make it to my original post.

eldeeder

cybereality said:

• You can remove individual apps from your Library (note that this does not uninstall the app; also, at this time, this action can’t be undone)

THIS! How do we do this!?

Phrap

There seems to be a conflict with this Beta update and Unity. Unity will constantly freeze every few seconds or so while the OVR Server process is alive while on 1.17.X, but does not do this when un-enrolling from the beta channel and downgrading to 1.16.X.

Syndroid

If anyone wants to change the Icons and display names for third party apps:

Icons: "C:\Program Files\Oculus\Software\Software\StoreAssets"

name: "C:\Program Files\Oculus\Software\Manifests" , open the .json file and look for "displayName":

the Oculus service (or computer) then needs to be restartet in order to apply the changes

Nibre

To generate your own asset info, you can make a new JSON (named with a new, and self-matching canonicalName) with whatever JSON stuff you need in it, and run; 

OVRLibraryService.exe library generate-asset-pack [library GUID here] "[canonicalName here]"

That'll generate the default Store Assets + JSON you need. If that goes over your head, no worries, this is more of a low-level type thing that someone who is really digging into this will want to play with. Don't futz around too much with this if you don't know what you're doing, you could probably mess something important up.

Phil007

1.17 messes up wilson heart for me. When i start it on 1.17 the colours are crushed. Reverting back to .16 fixed it.
I tried manually changing the display drivers from unlimited to limited output. No change.