I need some guidance

[MackDaddy/[uV}Milkbone]

I got OVR drop working in with an overylay inside of elite dangerous using the compatibity fix, but I can seem to play the game while utilizing the window.

ED loses input control while any other window is active which means the overlay can only show me the monitor screen with the monitor ED window open.

Is there a method to this madness to make it work or do I have to fight with alt tabbing to utilize the window properly?

[Jaded]

Okay, so there are a few things about this that are causing you issues:

• OVRdrop can currently only clone from the front buffer, i.e. it can only see what you can see.
• If you only have a single monitor, you only have a single front buffer OVRdrop can work with.
• If you don't have HOTAS, Elite Dangerous requires mouse input.
• You can't click through the application being cloned. Clicking would cause you to lose focus on ED.

So there are a few different things that you can do to fix your exact problem, but they have varying degrees of tradeoffs.

Here is a little list of known possible resolutions, in no particular order:

Option 1: Get a second monitor
Pros: More real estate
Cons: Price, GPU resource cost, requires an extra display port, OVRdrop can only clone from monitors hooked up to the Primary GPU right now

Option 2: Get HOTAS
Pros: No GPU usage change
Cons: Price, USB resource cost, Requires learning new controls

Option 3: Get creative with your real estate (i.e. make the cloned application small enough that it doesn't interfere with Elite Dangerous, and rearrange the windows so they don't overlap)
Pros: Price
Cons: Clone resolution

Option 4: Get a dummy monitor (e.g. Headless Ghost)
Pros: Price
Cons: Same as Option 1 except Price, cannot physically see dummy monitor

Option 5: (untested) Use OnTopReplica
Pros: Price
Cons: Requires some setup, CPU/GPU resource cost, Cannot simulate "clicking" application using VR controllers, Cannot change target in VR

I would recommend trying Option 5, and if that doesn't work, default to 3 until you can switch to 1, 2, or 4. OnTopReplica uses 0% of my CPU according to Task Manager, though I'm not sure how much GPU resources it consumes, it doesn't effect my frame timings at all with a GTX 1080.

Option 4 is probably the best overall if you have an extra HDMI port on your main GPU. A legit Headless Ghost[headlessghost.com] will run you about $20, and the one I have works perfect with OVRdrop on both of my PCs (when plugged into the Primary GPU, same as the actual Display and my HMD).

I gave some exact steps to Option 5 over here on Reddit. Unfortunately you won't be able to click the target application using this method, since the target would actually be OnTopReplica, which is copying an image of the actual source.

Sorry for all this nonsense. It's difficult to imagine every use case when an application is under development, and unfortunately I missed some of the common cases, such as users who only have a single monitor but want to play a game using the mouse.. I've been trying to fix these issues since launch, but unfortunately it seems like Unity may be the cause of my issues. I love Unity, but it is a game engine, and unfortunately it seems it just isn't designed to do what OVRdrop needs it to. I'm working to remove Unity from OVRdrop but that's a huge task.

Disclaimer: I am not necessarily endorsing, nor endorsed by, any products mentioned in this comment. I am in no way affiliated with these products nor do I speak for or have even ever spoken with any of the developers (at least to my knowledge).

[MackDaddy/[uV}Milkbone]

I use unity for hobby game making, I love Unity too but I'm WELL aware of its limitations lol.

These are all great fixes and I will play around to see what works best for me. Thanks so much for the reply!

[NorfolkDave]

Was linked here from another thread.
@Jaded I would urge a look through OBS source code (I believe it is open source) and see how they are capturing windows that are not "ontop" (this function should perhaps of been added BEFORE the app went on sale, especially given the high price)

1) not a viable option for me (doubt it will be for many)
2) for the game I tried to play lastnight this is not an option as it uses the motion controllers, but only accepts input if in focus (much as many vr games...back to my point that this should of been addressed before the app went on sale)
3) not every game preview can be resized or shifted about (may be valid for unity games as they seem to always be movable....but not really a viable solution)
4) buy another device to be able to use the software? I put this in the same bracket as 1, not a valid solution.
5) Will give this a try, again since this is open source may be an idea to see how they display the window when it is not in the foreground, a fix would be way better than a work around!

[Jaded]

@David I already understand how both OBS and OnTopReplica work. The problem is I built OVRdrop on top of Unity, and it seems Unity doesn’t want me to mess with DirectX. Once I have finished decoupling OVRdrop from Unity it should be easy. Unity kept OVRdrop on a weird hybrid version of the ancient .NET 3.5, which also caused huge issues.