If you're developing a virtual reality app for the Samsung Gear VR, there are a couple of key steps that you will need to take to get your apps to work before they are officially published into the Oculus Home store. Thankfully, the process is pretty easy to follow thanks to our handy little guide...If you've been asked by us or your VR development agency to send them your "Device ID" then you will need to follow Step 1 to Step 4 to get enable your handset to run the in-development application. If you're a VR developer, follow all of the steps until the end of the page. To get started, we need to get the "Hardware Serial" from the Samsung device that the APK needs to be installed on.
The handset Hardware Serial (or Device ID) is NOT the same as the IMEI number or Android Device ID. Do not send these numbers to your developer as they will not work.
Step 1: On the device Download an app called Device ID by Evozi from Google Play
Step 2: Open the app and scroll to the bottom and look for "Hardware Serial".
Step 3: Tap on the "Hardware Serial" field to copy or share it.
Note: this is the Device ID or Hardware Serial number that you will need to give to your VR developer so they can send you example builds and un-published demos. Send your developer the number you have copied in this step.
Step 4: Enable the "Allow Unknown Sources" setting. This can be found by opening Settings on your device then locating the Security settings and switching on the Unknown sources option. Depending which device and operating system you are using, this option can be found under "System -> Security", or under "Quick settings -> Lock Screen and Security".
Generate the signature file.
Once you have the hardware serial it can be used with the Oculus Signature File (osig) Generator to create a signature file that matches your device (usually done by the developer). You end up with a file prefixed "oculussig_" and your hardware serial (with no file extension).
The signature file is then saved into the project file structure.
For Unity you have to put the file in the "Assets/Plugins/Android/assets" folder. You then select Android platform in the build settings and enable the "Virtual Reality Supported" in the Player Settings -> Setting for Android -> Other Settings. And build the APK.
For Unreal the signature file should be placed in “Engine/Build/Android/Java/assets” Then enable the Plugin for GearVR and in the Project Settings under Android setup the required Android support and check the ‘Configure the AndroidManifest for deployment to GearVR’ option. And build the APK
Transfer the APK to the device and install it.
Once you have the APK you can transfer it to your Samsung by connecting it to your computer directly and manually copying it across or by uploading to something like Dropbox and downloading it onto the device from there. Once the APK is on the device, tapping on the APK will trigger the install, if you copied the APK then you can find it by opening the built in "My Files" app and going to the location you copied it to and tapping on it to install it.
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