Question regarding VR Quest 2 Parallax Occlusion Mapping and UE4

mpuLse

Hey there!

At work I'm part of a project that is specializing in 3D VR environments, we're currently ironing out our pipeline which will set the pace for the future environments to come. However there is one issue we're running into that is quite hard to dig up clear info on, as it gets 'muddy' on the exactness of its use.

That would be indeed, Parallax Occlusion Mapping. I do know that it is supported and that it does work via Oculus Link, but what I am noticing is it doesn't when packaged and sent to the Quest 2 Headset (no cable assistance via the GPU in a PC). It gets completely ignored and the textures fall back to being super flat (the reason behind this is Normal Mapping in VR is quite lack luster.) Now my thoughts from trying it multiple times and different ways, is that I'm thinking that it just doesn't support POM without assistance from Oculus Link. So, am I missing something? Finding a definitive answer on this is difficult to pinpoint. I've scoured the internet on this and figured I'd reach out and see what's up.

Does anyone here happen to know the answer to this direct little issue? Thanks in advance!

Cheers

mpuLse

Nevermind, a colleague just confirmed my suspicion. It does not translate over, but any additional information on this or if you have any ideas how to achieve more depth without resulting to just modelling the geo as such to better represent depth would be much appreciated. I will continue the research :P

poopipe

It is almost certainly cheaper to model the geometry than any of your other options - which is why unreal doesn't push pom and other such hyper-expensive solutions to mobile platforms. 

Displace it in zbrush (or whatever) and decimate the result.

mpuLse

poopipe said:

It is almost certainly cheaper to model the geometry than any of your other options - which is why unreal doesn't push pom and other such hyper-expensive solutions to mobile platforms. 

Displace it in zbrush (or whatever) and decimate the result.

Hey! Sorry for the late reply, yeah you're bang on. Was just covering all bases so to speak making sure nothing was missed. You're completely right, that's what I ended up doing anyways before reading this. Certainly is the best way to create depth is to just model it and be smart with your geo. Take er easy!