Sharing

For users to share with their Facebook network they first need to connect their Oculus account to their Facebook account. You may wish to encourage users to stream, to do so notify them that Sharing is available if they link their Oculus and Facebook accounts. Account linking is available in the ‘Settings’ menu of the Oculus 2D app.

When preparing your builds for testing and release you'll have to choose whether to allow Sharing in your app. Oculus encourages you to allow sharing as it exposes your VR experience with a large Facebook audience who may not own your app.

To enable Sharing, navigate to Sharing on the Developer Center, check the box to indicate that you have read and accept the terms, and select ‘Save’.

If you do not want to enable sharing, you'll still need to navigate to the Sharing page and select ‘Save’ with the box unchecked. There is no default setting, you have to choose to enable or disable Sharing in order to publish your app.

Livestreaming

All sharing is initiated by the user through the Oculus Platform. However, there are a couple of SDK methods you should call at certain points in your game to accommodate livestreaming. For example, you should pause a livestream if the user is entering a password or credit card information. Then, once the user has finished that activity, you can resume the stream.

The following SDK methods can be called from the client app.

• Check the livestream status:

  Native - ovr_Livestreaming_GetStatus()

  Unity - Platform.Livestreaming.GetStatus()

  Review the ovr_Livestreaming_GetStatus page for information about the parameters and return data structure.

• Pause the livestream:

  Native - ovr_Livestreaming_PauseStream()

  Unity - Platform.Livestreaming.PauseStream()

  Review the ovr_Livestreaming_PauseStream page for information about the parameters and return data structure.

• Resume the livestream:

  Native - ovr_Livestreaming_ResumeStream()

  Unity - Platform.Livestreaming.ResumeStream()

  Review the ovr_Livestreaming_ResumeStream page for information about the parameters and return data structure.

Testing Livestreaming

Livestreaming a user's experience may have an impact on the performance of your app. We recommend testing how your app performs when a user is livestreaming and adjusting features and performance as appropriate.

To test livestreaming in your app:

1. Add the ovr_Livestreaming_GetStatus() check to your app to determine when a user has enabled livestreaming.
2. Upload a build to a testing channel in the Developer Center. Information about release channels and uploading builds can be found in the Distribute section of these docs. Any user who has been added to your app's organization will be able to test livestreaming.
3. Launch the app and initiate a livestream. Monitor the performance of your app while the livestream is running to determine if any adjustments are necessary. Please see the Mobile Rendering Guidelines page for best practices and performance requirements when developing Gear VR apps.
4. If adjustments are required during a livestream, enable them any time a user has initiated a livestream by checking ovr_Livestreaming_GetStatus().