Does HereSphere support HEVC/H.265 playback?

[RobotNinja]

Pretty much as the title states does HereSphere support HEVC/H.265 playback? it is pretty much needed on high resolution stuff.

[HereSphere]

The HEVC extension for Windows is needed to play HEVC files. You can install the free version by pasting this link in your browser:

ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9n4wgh0z6vhq

I'm planning on adding a DirectShow playback option so you can use LAV filters/codecs instead of requiring Media Foundation, but it's going to take quite a bit of time before the feature is ready.

Edit: Seems like Microsoft has disabled the link for the free version. I'd recommend getting the free codecs from here instead:
https://www.codecguide.com/media_foundation_codecs.htm

[Dexter]

Originally posted by HereSphere:

I'm planning on adding a DirectShow playback option so you can use LAV filters/codecs instead of requiring Media Foundation, but it's going to take quite a bit of time before the feature is ready.

Is there any way to change the filter(s) the player defaults to? As far as I can tell it doesn't default to HEVC Video Extensions by Media Foundation/stutters with higher resolution HEVC files and I don't see the LAV Tray icon or a way to change Filters after browsing through the menus several times, working similar to SkyBoxVR in that way.
It's a bit perplexing to see these advanced VR Video players, in this case even doing things like distance correction and applying complex picture filters not having the most basic features of something like MPC-HC/BE being able to add External Filters and Prefer them and change their Settings. Trying a few different ones, the most advanced it seems to get is being able to Enable or Disable DirectShow (using LAV Video Decoder or Media Foundation) in something like DeoVR and Whirligig letting you choose between Media Foundation/WinRT/DirectShow or VideoLAN, but otherwise being rather incomprehensible and not the most user friendly.

[HereSphere]

Right now, the only supported playback option is Media Foundation. LAV filters require DirectShow to work. If HEVC isn't working, then you might have disabled Media Foundation with the Codec Tweak tool (usually, people who use SVP might have tweaked the codec settings to disable Media Foundation). Also, you will need to install the HEVC extension (link above) and make sure you're using a graphics card that supports hardware accelerated decoding (Nvidia GTX 10 series or newer). HereSphere uses UE4, so I'm unable to use the same video playback plugins for Unity that DeoVR or Whirligig uses (which provides Media Foundation, DirectShow, LibVLC, and WinRT playback).

MPC, VLC, and other players have decades of development, are open-sourced projects so they have many developers over the years, and they can take advantage of open-source tools like FFmpeg or LAV filters. In addition, they don't need to be integrated into a 3D game engine to work. They can render directly to the desktop window instead of having to render into a texture, which has performance costs.

My plan is to add mpv as a playback option, since it seems to be the most customizable playback backend and has excellent performance, even with 7K+ videos. So far, I've been able to dynamically link libmpv with HereSphere, but I'm having issues getting the player to output an image into a texture that UE4 can use due to compatibility issues with OpenGL and Direct3D. I'm not sure when I'll be able to add this option.

[Dexter]

Originally posted by HereSphere:

If HEVC isn't working, then you might have disabled Media Foundation with the Codec Tweak tool

I installed the HEVC Extension the other day and I'm using DeoVR as a reference, which has an implentation of DirectShow and uses the Media Foundation HEVC Codecs: https://steamcommunity.com/app/837380/discussions/0/3059618578279861506/
I'm using the same 6K/7K/8K video files to test a few different players and their functionality. DeoVR uses LAV Video Decoder in DirectShow Mode, although despite choosing DXVA2 or CUVID for Hardware Decoding the videos stutter (much bigger stutter and other problems like sometimes high-pitched voices with the new DXVA2 method than the deprecated CUVID one), so there seems to be something wrong with it. Both videos play well in MPC-HC outside of VR via LAV and GPU-based Hardware decoding on both a GTX1080 and 3080Ti I tested them with on two PCs. If I disable DirectShow I assume the player uses Microsoft's HEVC Decoder, since the lag stops and it actually works remarkably acceptable, though some minor residual judder remains.

When I start the same videos back-to-back after closing down the other player on HereSphere I get stutter similar to the behaviour exhibited using LAV Video Decoder playback with CUVID in DeoVR, although I'm unable to see what Filters are used internally beyond not seeing a LAV Tray icon, since there's nowhere to check. To be clear I'm doing this with the Demo version of HereSphere, not sure if there's a build gap or difference. I checked various other players like the ones mentioned above to see if there's a "best one" out there, but it always seems to be a bit of a compromise with DeoVR seemingly working the best and having most of the features I want. SkyBoxVR seemed the most user-friendly and best-looking from the bunch, but it also uses unchangeable internal Codecs and seems to have been mostly discontinued on PC in favor of Quest support (no Updates for almost a year). From your remarks it will apparently need a Community-built Open Source video player solution to be developed at some point to get "the one". :P

[HereSphere]

The demo and paid version are identical except for an occasional popup when using the demo version. I have a GTX1080 and an i7 4770k, and I'm able to get a solid 90fps with 8K HEVC videos at 2X supersampling in HereSphere. Media Foundation should have better performance than DirectShow when using HEVC hardware decoding. I'm not sure if there's an issue with the specific videos you're testing, or there's something else with your system. Maybe try reinstalling your graphics driver. I personally use Display Driver Uninstaller to fully remove the graphics driver in Safe Mode, and right now, I'm on Nvidia Driver version 457.30. Some Nvidia drivers will negatively impact VR performance.

Another possible issue could be your HDD. If you have an SSD, try moving the video to that drive and test again. HereSphere has to do more computations to render the video, so a slow/fragmented HDD could cause some stutters. My external 5400rpm HDD seems to work fine, but some users have reported issues with certain HDD models.

[Dexter]

This is a new PC I put together for VR via Valve Index with a i7-11700K, 3080Ti and 32GB of 4000Mhz RAM with a new Win10 installation and fresh NVIDIA drivers.
You're right though, the media files seem to be running much better (similar to DeoVR) from the local NVMe SSD than over a network drive, although it's unlikely that I'll keep media files on there. :P
Didn't change the behavior of DeoVR at all though with either the Media Foundation or LAV Codecs. Weird.

[HereSphere]

Thanks for the details. How is your network drive setup? Are you accessing it through wifi or a direct wired connection? Is it located on another computer on the network, a NAS, or something else (also are those connected via wifi or a direct connection)? I'm working on adding SMB3 compatibility to the app (right now for the Quest2 port, but I'll also try adding it to the PC version).

[D-Rock]

I installed the ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9n4wgh0z6vhq

Restarted everything and made no difference, what am I missing here? I just did it in my chrome browser.

[MNXN]

Originally posted by HereSphere:

Right now, the only supported playback option is Media Foundation. LAV filters require DirectShow to work. If HEVC isn't working, then you might have disabled Media Foundation with the Codec Tweak tool (usually, people who use SVP might have tweaked the codec settings to disable Media Foundation). Also, you will need to install the HEVC extension (link above) and make sure you're using a graphics card that supports hardware accelerated decoding (Nvidia GTX 10 series or newer). HereSphere uses UE4, so I'm unable to use the same video playback plugins for Unity that DeoVR or Whirligig uses (which provides Media Foundation, DirectShow, LibVLC, and WinRT playback).

MPC, VLC, and other players have decades of development, are open-sourced projects so they have many developers over the years, and they can take advantage of open-source tools like FFmpeg or LAV filters. In addition, they don't need to be integrated into a 3D game engine to work. They can render directly to the desktop window instead of having to render into a texture, which has performance costs.

My plan is to add mpv as a playback option, since it seems to be the most customizable playback backend and has excellent performance, even with 7K+ videos. So far, I've been able to dynamically link libmpv with HereSphere, but I'm having issues getting the player to output an image into a texture that UE4 can use due to compatibility issues with OpenGL and Direct3D. I'm not sure when I'll be able to add this option.

If you end up supporting MPV as a backend, that would mean that a linux-native version of this software would be possible (yes, there are a few crazy ones like me who use VR On linux)

[HereSphere]

It's going to be really challenging to get UE4/UE5 to work properly on Linux. I don't have that much experience with Linux, either. I'd probably need a Linux expert on the dev team to be able to pull off a Linux port.

[ChuckBevitt]

Originally posted by HereSphere:

The HEVC extension for Windows is needed to play HEVC files. You can install the free version by pasting this link in your browser:

ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9n4wgh0z6vhq

I'm planning on adding a DirectShow playback option so you can use LAV filters/codecs instead of requiring Media Foundation, but it's going to take quite a bit of time before the feature is ready.

Edit: Seems like Microsoft has disabled the link for the free version. I'd recommend getting the free codecs from here instead:
https://www.codecguide.com/media_foundation_codecs.htm

For heaven sake, give Microsoft their $.99. Don’t mess around with possibly corrupted or malicious files. Not to save $.99.

[HereSphere]

Originally posted by ChuckBevitt:

Originally posted by HereSphere:

The HEVC extension for Windows is needed to play HEVC files. You can install the free version by pasting this link in your browser:

ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9n4wgh0z6vhq

I'm planning on adding a DirectShow playback option so you can use LAV filters/codecs instead of requiring Media Foundation, but it's going to take quite a bit of time before the feature is ready.

Edit: Seems like Microsoft has disabled the link for the free version. I'd recommend getting the free codecs from here instead:
https://www.codecguide.com/media_foundation_codecs.htm

For heaven sake, give Microsoft their $.99. Don’t mess around with possibly corrupted or malicious files. Not to save $.99.

I understand the sentiment. codecguide.com is legit, though. It's where most people get the k-lite codec pack. You already technically have a license for the h265 codec when purchasing a graphics card with h265 decoding capabilities. It's just Microsoft makes you jump through some extra hurdles to get the codec.

[Snipington]

Double checked, already have codec (have never version than one from link), still gives message.

Wondering what I'm doing wrong

[sebna]

Basically 90% of newer videos does not work for me...

Can you post a step by step guide as to what files and codecd to install in what order on clean OS to get it working?

It is very frustrating if I am honest

[andakod]

Originally posted by HereSphere:

Right now, the only supported playback option is Media Foundation. LAV filters require DirectShow to work. If HEVC isn't working, then you might have disabled Media Foundation with the Codec Tweak tool (usually, people who use SVP might have tweaked the codec settings to disable Media Foundation). Also, you will need to install the HEVC extension (link above) and make sure you're using a graphics card that supports hardware accelerated decoding (Nvidia GTX 10 series or newer). HereSphere uses UE4, so I'm unable to use the same video playback plugins for Unity that DeoVR or Whirligig uses (which provides Media Foundation, DirectShow, LibVLC, and WinRT playback).

MPC, VLC, and other players have decades of development, are open-sourced projects so they have many developers over the years, and they can take advantage of open-source tools like FFmpeg or LAV filters. In addition, they don't need to be integrated into a 3D game engine to work. They can render directly to the desktop window instead of having to render into a texture, which has performance costs.

My plan is to add mpv as a playback option, since it seems to be the most customizable playback backend and has excellent performance, even with 7K+ videos. So far, I've been able to dynamically link libmpv with HereSphere, but I'm having issues getting the player to output an image into a texture that UE4 can use due to compatibility issues with OpenGL and Direct3D. I'm not sure when I'll be able to add this option.

Hi! I also experience rather serious stutters with 4K+ HEVC video playback, but I'm using 5700XT AMD graphics. When talking about hardware acceleration, everyone here mentions only Nvidia models. Does that mean that Heresphere doesn't work properly with AMD for now ?