Gear VR Controller 4 Windows

This library allows you to use a Gear VR controller in a UWP app over Bluetooth!

Download & Install

Nuget Package: GearVrController4Windows

Install-Package GearVrController4Windows

Operating Instructions

Setup Connection

Create an instance of the GearVrController class:

var gearVrController = new GearVrController();

Using the Windows.Devices.Enumeration APIs, pair the Gear VR controller and retrieve the DeviceInformation object. One way to do this is by using the DevicePicker class. This code snippet from the GearVrController4WindowsSample project demonstrates how to display the DevicePicker on the form and get the DeviceInformation object:

devicePicker = new DevicePicker();

// only show Bluetooth Low Energy devices
devicePicker.Filter.SupportedDeviceSelectors.Add(BluetoothLEDevice.GetDeviceSelectorFromPairingState(true));
devicePicker.Filter.SupportedDeviceSelectors.Add(BluetoothLEDevice.GetDeviceSelectorFromPairingState(false));

// Calculate the position to show the picker (right below the buttons)
GeneralTransform ge = pickDeviceButton.TransformToVisual(null);
Point point = ge.TransformPoint(new Point());
Rect rect = new Rect(point, new Point(point.X + pickDeviceButton.ActualWidth, point.Y + pickDeviceButton.ActualHeight));

// save the device information of the clicked device
DeviceInformation di = await devicePicker.PickSingleDeviceAsync(rect);

If you want to create your own device picker, then use the DeviceWatcher class. To see how, check out the official Microsoft documentation and sample on this topic here. You can also check out my other project here to see how I got the controller to work with an MVVM architectural pattern.

Pass the DeviceInformation variable into the gearVrController.Create method (do this in an async method):
```
await gearVrController.ConnectAsync(di);
```

Reading Inputs

To read inputs either bind a button property to a control in XAML or subscribe to the PropertyChanged event.

Binding to a control in XAML:

<TextBlock Text="{x:Bind GearVrController.TouchpadButton, Mode=OneWay}" />
<!--GearVrController is a public property in the code-behind. You can also bind to a ViewModel.
In this example, the TextBlock will have a value of "True" when the button is pressed, and "False" when not.-->

Using PropertyChanged in code behind:

public sealed partial class MainPage : Page
{
    public GearVrController GearVrController { get; set; }

    public MainPage()
    {
        GearVrController.PropertyChanged += Gvc_PropertyChanged;
    }

    private void Gvc_PropertyChanged(object sender, PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        case nameof(GearVrController.TouchpadButton):
            if (ViewModel.GearVrController.TouchpadTapped == true)
            {
                Debug.WriteLine("Touchpad pressed and is true!");
            }
            break;
        case nameof(GearVrController.HomeButton):
            Debug.WriteLine("Pressed home button.");
            break;
        default:
            break;
    }   
}

Please see the sample project for a complete implementation.

Notes

Motion readings (Accel, Gyro, Mag) are not fully correct. Official implementation uses multiple readings for each coordinate (X, Y, or Z) and consolidates them?
No fusion drift algorithm applied, having one would make the readings more useful to developers.
Magnetometer calibration not implemented.
Only works with UWP apps running on Windows 10 1803 or above due to the Bluetooth APIs used.

Credits

Jim Yang for his research on reverse engineering the controller: https://jsyang.ca/hacks/gear-vr-rev-eng

ioswald / gearvrcontroller4windows Goto Github PK