From f09331323d24494733b9d46122d5817fa608bfd7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christine Dodrill Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 09:43:40 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] first part of the VRChat for gmeets writeup Signed-off-by: Christine Dodrill --- .vscode/settings.json | 10 +++ ...ted-vrchat-gchat-setup-2021-02-24.markdown | 62 ++++++++++++++++ static/blog/vrchat/simple_graph.svg | 73 +++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 145 insertions(+) create mode 100644 .vscode/settings.json create mode 100644 blog/convoluted-vrchat-gchat-setup-2021-02-24.markdown create mode 100644 static/blog/vrchat/simple_graph.svg diff --git a/.vscode/settings.json b/.vscode/settings.json new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf2bd93 --- /dev/null +++ b/.vscode/settings.json @@ -0,0 +1,10 @@ +{ + "editor.wordWrap": "wordWrapColumn", + "editor.wordWrapColumn": 80, + "editor.wordBasedSuggestions": false, + "[markdown]":{ + "editor.wordWrap": "wordWrapColumn", + "editor.wordWrapColumn": 80, + "vim.textwidth": 80, + }, +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/blog/convoluted-vrchat-gchat-setup-2021-02-24.markdown b/blog/convoluted-vrchat-gchat-setup-2021-02-24.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0db844 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/convoluted-vrchat-gchat-setup-2021-02-24.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +title: "My Convoluted VRChat Google Meet Setup" +date: 2021-02-24 +tags: + - oculusquest2 + - vr + - vrchat +--- + +# My Convoluted VRChat Google Meet Setup + +Recently the place I work for sent us all VR headsets. I decided to see what it +would take to use that headset to make my camera show a virtual avatar instead +of my meat body face. This is the story of my journey through chaining things +together to make work meetings a bit more fun by using a 3D avatar instead of +myself in some of them. + +[This post uses SVG for diagrams to help explain what's going on here. You may +need to use a browser with SVG support in order to get the best experience with +this article. All the diagrams will be explained after the fact so that people +using screen readers are not left out.](conversation://Mara/hacker) + + + +So, let's cover the basics from a high level. At a high level a webcam is just +a video source that may or may not have a microphone attached to it. So in +order to get my avatar to show up in a video call, I need some way to make some +window on my computer act as a webcam. This will make the overall dependency +list look like this (for those of you using screen readers I will describe +this diagram below): + +![](/static/blog/vrchat/simple_graph.svg) + +VRChat renders to the Desktop which is picked up by OBS which has the ability +to pretend to be a webcam, which is finally picked up by Google Meet. + +If the VR headset that I got from work was a tethered to the PC kind of VR +headset like the Valve Index or HTC Vive, the next steps would involve full +body tracking or something so that I could have my movements in real life +transfer into movements that my avatar makes. + +However, the VR headset we got sent was an Oculus Quest 2. This is a +_standalone_ VR headset that is basically an Android tablet that you strap +to your face. This makes things a bit more technically challenging because +now you need some way to get the video to the headset and the motion tracking +data from the headset and to the computer at 90 times per second. This requires +a bit more cleverness. + +The Oculus desktop software ships with a feature called Oculus Link that allows +you to use a gaming PC to render the VR data to your headset by sending the +video streams over USB. I had to dig around for a compatible cable (It needs to +be a specific kind of USB-3 to USB-C-3 cable with at least 5 gigabits per +second of transfer capacity) since the ones that +[Oculus sells](https://www.oculus.com/accessories/oculus-link/) are both at +least CAD$110 and out of stock anywhere I can find them in Canada. The 0.75 +meter long cable I had been using was good enough to get me through the first +couple days of experimenting with VR, but it was clear that a better solution +was needed. + +I did some digging and found a bit of software called +[ALVR](https://github.com/alvr-org/alvr#readme) that claimed to let me do VR +from my computer wirelessly. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/static/blog/vrchat/simple_graph.svg b/static/blog/vrchat/simple_graph.svg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f80347 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/blog/vrchat/simple_graph.svg @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ + + + + + + +G + + +cluster_1 + +PC + + + +VRC + +VRChat + + + +DESK + +Desktop + + + +VRC->DESK + + + + + +OBS + +OBS + + + +VIRC + +VirtualCam + + + +OBS->VIRC + + + + + +GM + +Google +Meet + + + +VIRC->GM + + + + + +DESK->OBS + + + + + \ No newline at end of file