Install Plugins

BlenderVR comes with plugins, e.g. to support the Oculus Rift DK2 or to use VRPN devices. This page will lead you through their installation, while none of them is mandatory to run BlenderVR.

Folder Structure

Add a plugins directory to your $INSTALL_DIR (see Folder Structure, this is once more a recommendation as it will be used as reference along this manual).

VRPN

This section briefly exposes the VRPN, install. In a nutshell, you will have to build VRPN, launch a VRPN server and BlenderVR then will act as a VRPN client to fetch the data from your VRPN devices. once the VRPN server launched on your machine/network, any device defined in your vrpn.cfg (input of vrpn server) will be handled by the server and its related infos pulled by the BlenderVR VRPN client. See VRPN Getting Started page for more information.

1. Install

  • Download VRPN 07.33.zip and unzip it (e.g. into $INSTALL_DIR/plugins/vrpn), or directly clone from the git repository: git clone https://github.com/vrpn/vrpn.git.
  • Follow the compilation instructions from the VRPN Getting Started page.

Warning

As for today, VRPN default compilation flags will build the vrpn.so (shared object) for Python2.7. As BlenderVR runs with Python3.X, you’ll need to add the following compilation flags to the cmake instruction (adapt hereabove paths to your architecture):

$ -DVRPN_BUILD_PYTHON=OFF
$ -DVRPN_BUILD_PYTHON_HANDCODED_2X=OFF
$ -DVRPN_BUILD_PYTHON_HANDCODED_3X=ON
$ -DPYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR=/<adapt_to_your_architecture>/Headers
$ -DPYTHON_LIBRARY=/<adapt_to_your_architecture>/lib/libpython3.4.dylib

2. Test the installation (VRPN itself and its shared object python module)

  • Test the installation with the binaries you just compiled, using the pair vrpn_print_devices and vrpn_server (see VRPN Getting Started for more details).
  • Test the compilation of the vrpn.so (Unix) vrpn.pyd (Windows) module: launch python3 and type:
import sys
sys.path.append('<path-to-the-folder-hodling-vrpn.so>')
import vrpn
for elmt in dir(vrpn): print(elmt)

The output should look like:

__doc__
__file__
__loader__
__name__
__package__
__spec__
error
quaternion
receiver
sender

3. First run in BlenderVR

  • Add the path of the VRPN python directory (that contains vrpn.so) to your configuration file library path.
  • Grab a VRPN device, find it’s name in the VRPN server, and define it’s associated callback name in the vrpn sub-section of the configuration file (said name is yours to chose).
  • Define the callback method in the blender-name-scene.processor.py attached to your scene (said method being named after the callback declared in the configuration file).

Use the basic-vrpn.blend scene in $INSTALL_DIR/samples/plugin/vrpn/basic-vrpn/ and its associated processor file for an example of how to use VRPN in BlenderVR, modifying the VRPN callbacks (methods) names space_navigator_analog and space_navigator_button to fit yours.

Oculus Rift DK2

This section guides you through the installation required to run the Oculus Rift DK2 with BlenderVR. The install procedure involves to:

Note

OSX: check on the web to setup your screen configuration for the rift (mirrored display, 90 rotation, etc.). For example: [here]

  • Modify BlenderVR configuration file for dk2 support:

Modify your configuration file to add the plugin users. Check the Oculus configuration examples for Desktop Oculus DK2 and Dual Oculus DK2 setups.

Once done, launch the basic-dk2.blend scene in $INSTALL_DIR/samples/plugin/hmd/ to check installation.