Oculus Quest: Compile and Package Apps with Unreal Engine

This section provides in-depth information building and packaging Unreal applications that target Oculus Quest and Quest 2.

Overview

Once your environment is set up with the appropriate tools and your project settings are configured properly, you can build virtual reality projects targeting Android, and then load and run the APKs on the Oculus device.

Prerequisite

• Use the Quickstart Guide to set up your development environment and links to set up your device for development.

Build and Package Projects

1. Connect your Oculus device to your PC via USB.
2. Open a shell terminal and verify you can communicate with your device by using adb devices. Note that depending on the device you are using, you may need to configure your connection for software installation. For more information, see ADB in the Mobile SDK Developer Guide.
3. Select File > Package Project > Android > Android (ASTC). Alternatively you can select ETC2, but ASTC compression is recommended.
4. When prompted, browse to the destination folder where you would like your APK to be installed.
5. Once the build process is completed, navigate to the destination folder. Run the .bat file beginning with Install_ to install the application.
6. Click the application to launch.

Launching a Project Directly onto your Headset

You may also directly build and launch an application to your Oculus headset without saving the APK locally.

1. Connect your device to your PC by USB.
2. Select the Launch menu from the Unreal toolbar and select your headset under Devices. If you do not see your device listed, verify your USB connection, and check if you need to set your connection to Connected as an Installer.
3. Your application will build and install to your Oculus Quest device.

Preview Content on a PC

You may launch the Unreal Engine with a configuration option to use the Oculus plugin in conjunction with the Mobile renderer on the PC. This allows you to preview mobile development from the desktop using an Oculus Rift. To do so, disable OculusRift and SteamVR plugins for your project, and add -OpenGL -FeatureLevelES2 to your command line.

Although it is possible to preview mobile applications in the Oculus Rift during development, it is not generally useful to do so, because Rift applications are subject to substantially different performance requirements. For more, see “Performance Targets” in Oculus Quest: Testing and Performance Analysis. You may find it easiest to use the 2D preview in Unreal, and then either build an APK or use Launch on Device when you need to view the app in VR.

Note: Mobile Content Scale Factor is not currently supported for Oculus development.

Blueprints

Oculus provides Blueprints for common Oculus operations such as querying battery level and headphone connection status.

For more information, see Blueprints Reference.

Advanced Rendering Features for Mobile

The Oculus SDK offers advanced mobile rendering feature such as multi-view and hybrid monoscopic rendering. Under some conditions these features can significantly improve performance. For more information, see Rendering.