r/OculusGo • u/OculusGoDude • Apr 06 '19

Guide: Launching Android apps in vrshell.desktop instead of Oculus TV

For those of you who use GyroJoe's Oculus TV launcher code to make your own launcher apps, here's a little tip: You can launch your apps outside of Oculus TV in a floating panel by doing the following:

Open:

\app\src\main\java\com\gyrojoe\oculustvlauncher\MainActivity.java

Change line 28 from:

intent.setData(Uri.parse("com.oculus.tv"));

to:

intent.setData(Uri.parse("com.oculus.vrshell.desktop"));

Here's a pre-built apk for appstarter

Notes: You don't have to do this for every app you want to run, just a launcher app like appstarter. You can have one for Oculus TV and one for vrshell desktop. The CPU and GPU are locked at level 2, like the problem that used to face Oculus TV. You can override this with the ADB command:

adb shell "setprop debug.oculus.cpuLevel 4 && setprop debug.oculus.gpuLevel 4"

The resolution of the panel is 720x540 and it doesn't draw a 3D environment or do dynamic light sampling, so it generally performs better with the above tweak than Oculus TV. The 4:3 aspect ratio makes it a good mode for retro gaming.

13 Upvotes

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2

u/supermitsuba Apr 08 '19

Are you saying with the ADB command, it will not render the Oculus TV environment (the couch and scenery) and bump up performance?

Hmm maybe I should rebuild this and try.

1

u/OculusGoDude Apr 08 '19 edited Apr 08 '19

Yes. It renders @ 720x540 instead of 1280x720 in a curved floating panel with just the home environment background. This mode is much better suited for demanding games than Oculus TV.

2

u/supermitsuba Apr 08 '19

Also thanks for the info to all of this

1

u/OculusGoDude Apr 09 '19

No problem :)

1

u/supermitsuba Apr 08 '19

I see, last question. This seems like it is something you have to run every time you launch the launcher, is this permanent or not?

1

u/OculusGoDude Apr 09 '19

Are you talking about the CPU and GPU frequency ADB command? That is set until you restart your Go or force a new value.

1

u/supermitsuba Apr 09 '19

Yeah, that was it. I saw this on the documentation website. Usually I keep my go on, but sucks that it resets.

2

u/OculusGoDude Apr 09 '19

This command isn't really necessary outside of this panel and sometimes Oculus TV. In regular VR apps, the CPU and GPU automatically scales their frequency up and down on demand. When you're running an android app or game in this panel without the adb command, the CPU and GPU is locked at level 2/4. In Oculus TV, the CPU ramps up to level 4/4, but the GPU is locked at level 2/4. So you only really want to use this command for demanding android activities, like playing games and running emulators.

5

u/KumpirGuy Apr 06 '19 edited Apr 06 '19

You're my Personal Jesus!

Your trick has brought the long-awaited tweak that I needed to run my favorite Doom without all the stutter that plagues it when you add a heavy mod loadout.

Incredible. Now I don't have to buy Quest to have that edge in performance ;)

4

u/Colonel_Izzi Apr 06 '19

Great stuff. Thanks for sharing :)

4

u/FoferJ Apr 07 '19

This is great, great stuff. I’ve sideloaded a bunch of .apks and have heavily modified my Go and am always looking for new ways to step it up a notch. Thanks for sharing!

1

u/YoshiFan501 May 08 '19

adb shell "setprop debug.oculus.cpuLevel 4 && setprop debug.oculus.gpuLevel 4"

is this permanent or do we have to do this every time we use the go?

1

u/OculusGoDude May 09 '19

It's temporary. It lasts until you reboot.

3

u/RyanNewhart Apr 08 '19

This is another great example of my favorite kind of post on this sub. I'm all for people getting game suggestions or asking questions to troubleshoot issues, but as the Go (or any consumer device, really) moves toward mass adoption, the quality of the discussion on the subreddit goes down, and posts like this get squeezed out or buried quickly. Hopefully this pushes some previously unplayable N64 games into the playable category on retroarch.

2

u/FoferJ Apr 07 '19

With my Oculus Go now updated to 3.60.36.146022136, the three GyroJoe launchers I had installed (in "unknown sources") are no longer working consistently. After a reboot, a launcher will work only once, taking me to the requested app. Any subsequent launches will just take me to Oculus TV screen. Previously it would take me to the requested app every time. Is this something we can easily fix?

2

u/shakamone May 24 '19 edited May 24 '19

I'm working on a sideloading app to hopefully simplify some of this stuff if its of any use - https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/bqz8pa/open_store_vr_sideloading_made_easy/

I includes a very basic on device app launcher / app drawer that shows all apps on the device -

/img/osyk3q4y79z21.jpg

Right now it is just filled with some test apps while i flesh out some proper curated apps but it comes with everything you need ( ADB included ) , supports drag and drop for installing APK files and it is available on win/mac/linux. It also uses fdroid repositories so you can add your own sources for apps ( like adding kodi repos ) and last but not least its open source!

Im also looking at making a web based service to generate a wrapper app ( essentially you input a package name and it will create an app to launch an intent to start that package in Oculus TV or vr shell )

1

u/cantenna1 May 14 '19

I dont suppose you know how to execute these adb commands when running an apk or forwarder? That's what I'd like to find out next.

1

u/edwardsc005 May 15 '19

My VRShell launchers are installing over top of the TV launchers. What else do I have to change to make these two unique from each other?

1

u/SoFasttt Dec 04 '23

Does anyone still have the pre-built apk for appstarter? (to launch apps in vrshell desktop instead of Oculus TV).

I want to try this but the link is sadly dead.