Asymmetrical Gameplay - Can the HMD Mirror Window display other stuff instead?

Development Platform & Builds XR Development
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We’ll be seeing a lot of this type of VR game on the PSVR system; Asymmetrical/Asynchronous Gameplay, is where 1 player is in VR, while the other players are playing/interacting from a traditional screen. Instead of just viewing what the player is seeing directly on that screen, they see alternative views or info, or a gameplay UI of some sort.

So I’ve been trying to figure out how I could do that with UE4 (I’m using 4.11)… But so far, as far as I’ve been able to find in the documentation, the HMD Mirror window can only display the player’s camera. And I’m not a C++ coder, so I can’t really get into the engine to tweak that.

I’d love to be able to make a game where, for example, the VR player is exploring a spooky location, meanwhile their friends are outside VR, watching them on the normal screen, seeing a sort of in-game security camera view or something, and they might even be selecting from option prompts to change the various spooky things that are happening to the VR player, or maybe they can even assist the VR player somehow. heh, maybe by viewing a map overview, and choosing to place bonus items or jump scares.

Even if performance wise, displaying alternative cameras isn’t the best idea… I think there should at least be a way to display a 2D interface outside of VR on the screen, something that could display select-able prompts or a mini-map overview in 2D, or just stats or something. It could make for some pretty fun social/party experiences, using VR. Tho I’d much prefer the ability to use a camera, even at the cost of reducing graphics to make it run better.

Does anyone know if this is possible? I don’t know as much about UE4 as I’d like, so I might be missing something obvious, that allows us to do this already. Otherwise, I hope some of the devs see questions like this, because I think it would be a valuable feature to allow for.

EDIT: In addition, being able to change the HMD mirror window to a different camera allows for a different form of spectator mode, for people outside VR to view what’s going on. This video sorta shows an example: Spectator Mode for Job Simulator - A new way to display social VR footage! - YouTube

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Looking for the same here.

3

I’m interested in display a widget for the monitor only (have it not appear in the HMD). Have you had any progress?

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I’ve considered this- maybe making a player controller whose only job is to run the widget, but haven’t gotten into it yet.

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Yeah, Ive seen some people suggest running two instances of the game and treating it like a multiplayer. I dont this this is a great solution, though.

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Same here, trying to find a proper solution for this. Instead of creating two instances of the game, what about creating an other separate window to display the things you want to have on the screen only. Although I haven’t got the time to give it a try myself.