//TODO - fix later

  After some experimentation with OVR, I am switching back to XRI.  The lack of support for decent device emulation in the editor is a deal breaker for me.  Having to test every tiny change on the headset is way too annoying once you are used to using the Device Emulator. It turns out that is is possible to have the best of both worlds! You can combine the interaction framework of XRI with the rendering layer of OVR to build an application that support both XRI and low level Oculus features such as pass-through.    Here is an attempt to record the steps I took to set this up. Assumptions This post assumes the following Unity version and packages   Unity 2021.3.39f1   Oculus Integration SDK v50 (Unity Asset Store)   Create an XRI based project.  I used the Unity  XR-Interaction-Toolkit Examples project here as a template.     https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/XR-Interaction-Toolkit-Examples Note - I needed to upgrade th...

  Here is a list of the core requirements for the XR Mind Mapper project Build a VR mind mapping application that must support the following: Creation, , selection, editing and deleting of graph nodes in 3D   - each node has a color, size and label  Linking of graph nodes via edges    - edges can be created between two nodes     - edges can be selected, edited and deleted. Automated layout of nodes as a force-weighted graph     -each node has a repulse charge     -each edge has a spring tension    -some nodes can be manually positioned (fixed in place by the user) Hierarchical data:      Nodes can contain other graphs. User can zoom into or out of sub-graphs Persistence:        Graphs can be saved/loaded from the file system Ideally, the application should also support:     Both  hand based and controller based interaction      Web generation - Gene...

 Today's progress report, setting up the initial project for the XR Mind Mapper application. Attempt 1     Unity 2021 + XRI + XRI Examples    Was going well until I realized that this would not support passthrough, and MR is one of the features I want to add. Abandoned after a couple of hours. Attempt 2 Pushing the lever hard over to Oculus feature support so that I can test some of the capabilities of the Quest Pro.  Unity 2021 + Oculus Integration SDK v 50 + Oculus XR + URP Used the Oculus->VR->Scenes->Cubes scene as a hello world test.   Seemed to work.  Now to learn the OVR interaction SDK Oculus Interaction Samples Notes #1 URP Compatibility The Oculus SDK examples are not compatible with URP out of the box. This seems to  be mostly fixed by running the Render Pipeline Converter to upgrade materials, but some examples use custom shaders that do not upgrade. Meh, life is short. If you still see magenta, swap out the sha...

Starting this blog to track progress with a number of projects and to post any interesting findings along the way.  Project ideas:   KSpot - a low-cost quadraped robot   Mbots - 3D printed robotic tinker toys   XGraph - an XR knowledge graph/mind mapper    XKey - gesture/hack tracking based XR keyboard   SDrone - DIY drone swarms Life is short, names are hard.