Vulkan VR in Unity 5.6b1

Unity Engine
1

Is it possible to use Vulkan in VR? I’m using a Vive. I created a new scene with just the default skybox. When i try to build and run the scene using Vulkan VR it crashes on load. The stacktrace in the output log seems to run into a fault with physx:

========== OUTPUTING STACK TRACE ==================

0x01AB0D76 (test) physx::shdfnd::Foundation::getCheckedAllocator
0x01AA471A (test) physx::shdfnd::Foundation::getCheckedAllocator
0x01AA1C7F (test) physx::shdfnd::Foundation::getCheckedAllocator
0x01AA1CCB (test) physx::shdfnd::Foundation::getCheckedAllocator
ERROR: SymGetSymFromAddr64, GetLastError: ‘Attempt to access invalid address.’ (Address: 013B3146)
0x013B3146 (test)
0x01B2D1F8 (test) physx::shdfnd::ErrorHandler::getErrorCallback
0x01B6AC7F (test) physx::shdfnd::ErrorHandler::getErrorCallback
0x7667338A (kernel32) BaseThreadInitThunk
0x77099F72 (ntdll) RtlInitializeExceptionChain
0x77099F45 (ntdll) RtlInitializeExceptionChain

========== END OF STACKTRACE ===========

Building the scene with Direct3D11 works fine.

2

I don’t know if unity already support Vulkan with OpenVR, I don’t see anything about that on the web, just “Windows Standalone”.

Have you tried to update your GPU Drivers ?

Don’t forget it’s only the very first beta version of this young tech into Unity so I suggest you to fill a bug report, it will be very helpful to them.

3

That stacktrace is broken - you probably didn’t have “copy PDB files” option checked.

4

I’m using 373.06 drivers. Vulkan is supported on 368.69 and up so it’s not a driver issue. OpenVR recently added support for Vulkan but I don’t know if this support has made it to Unity’s 5.6 beta.

I wanted to make sure that VR is even supported using Vulkan before i opened up a ticket or did any more digging. So going back to my first quiestion: Is it possible to use Vulkan in VR?

1 Like
5

I’d like to know that as well.

6

The first experimental support for using Vulkan with OpenVR, from Unity’s side, should come in 5.6.0b3.

3 Likes
7

Hi Tak, will OpenGL support be added as well? (c.f. https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/opengl-support-in-vr-on-windows.447124/)

8

I also had the same error. I’ll keep an eye out for this thread. Hope OpenVR gets the Vulkan support with Unity soon. I don’t usually like using betas, but I’m dying to use it.

9

Has anyone been able to get Vulkan working? I’m tried a build using 5.6b6 and the build completed and when I launch it, I see the expected vulkran related output, and the game looks to be running on the monitor. But the game image doesn’t appear in the Vive headset and the little SteamVR window says that the game is unresponsive. I wish I knew how to fix this!

10

Release notes for 5.6b9 states:

  • VR: Added initial Vulkan support for OpenVR.

I guess I’ll give it another try. I wonder what “Initial support” means? I suppose it means it works, but probably isn’t perfect. It’s my understanding that Vulkan doesn’t work when playing in the editor. It’d be great if Unity could make this work. VR apps for the Vive work so much worse in the Editor so it would be great it this could be improved.

11

Patience my friend, everything in its time.
Unity 5.6b9 was released only 4 days ago and a new graphic API is a lot of works.
Unity 5.6 final is planned to March but they have the right to be late on their deadline, they won’t release a broken version just to respect this deadline.

Vulkan probably improve performances overall but you will still have a gap while in Editor. It already was the case without VR but this gap is even bigger with VR. (OpenVR or Oculus SDK).

12

It looks like Vulkan still isn’t supported by SteamVR in 5.6f1

13

From my experience with previous versions and betas this is just the sort of feature that sometimes slips past first releases. I wouldnt expect them to delay 5.6 over any Vulkan VR issues. Nor is it clear to me whether Vulkan is even supposed to run in the editor in 5.6, as opposed to just working in builds.

1 Like