Bigscreen Beta News

Hey all,

Thanks for all the feedback and bug reports about the 2019 UPDATE.

• fixed a performance bug for PC users that had additional supersampling set outside of Bigscreen
• fixed a performance bug with the Camera tool rendering 4K or even 8K video
  
• fixed a bug where some GearVR users couldn't use the keyboard, couldn't login, couldn't use the app
  
• fixed a bug with grabbing the UI
  
• fixed a bug with the list of rooms not updating
  
• fixed a bug when changing a public room to a private room
  
• fixed a bug with Windows 7 users crashing on app start
  

Friday Patch #2 fixes:

• fixed Remote Desktop not launching for some users
• fixed the Public Rooms List not updating sometimes
  
• fixed bugs with the Alt-Tab screen; it will appear less often, and won't be annoying for users with VR controllers!
  
• fixed several UI bugs
  

Thursday Patch #1 fixes:

• fixed a crash on app start (on the PC)
  
• fixed Audio Driver installation errors
  
• fixed Audio issues due to audio devices with unicode/text names
  
• improved UI/poking issues
  
• fixed bug with Alt-Tab screen and it will not appear for users with VR controllers unless you Alt-Tab to Bigscreen
  
• moved the full Environment selection UI from the Room page to front of the Home page
  
• fixed performance issue in multiplayer rooms due to incorrectly streaming at >1080p resolutions (ex. 4K), affecting PC & Mobile performance
  

The top priorities are the performance issues and the Audio streaming issues.

• PC performance issues where performance gets worse every minute when you are Alt-Tabbed away from Bigscreen.exe, performance resets when you Alt-Tab and focus on Bigscreen.exe. Weird bug, horrible performance. WILL be fixed soon!
  
• Mobile/Oculus Go performance issues
  
• desktop audio streaming is too quiet or seems muted
  

Tomorrow, we will release Patch #4 and fix more of those bugs!

READ about the 2019 UPDATE here: https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791453071702/announcements/detail/1754619140864802328

Hey all,

Thanks for all the feedback and bug reports about the 2019 UPDATE.



Patch #2 fixes:

• fixed Remote Desktop not launching for some users
• fixed the Public Rooms List not updating sometimes
  
• fixed bugs with the Alt-Tab screen; it will appear less often, and won't be annoying for users with VR controllers!
  
• fixed several UI bugs
  

Patch #1 fixes:

• fixed a crash on app start (on the PC)
  
• fixed Audio Driver installation errors
  
• fixed Audio issues due to audio devices with unicode/text names
  
• improved UI/poking issues
  
• fixed bug with Alt-Tab screen and it will not appear for users with VR controllers unless you Alt-Tab to Bigscreen
  
• moved the full Environment selection UI from the Room page to front of the Home page
  
• fixed performance issue in multiplayer rooms due to incorrectly streaming at >1080p resolutions (ex. 4K), affecting PC & Mobile performance
  

The top priorities are the performance issues and the Audio streaming issues.

• PC performance issues that cause 1-2fps even on high-end GPUs, and a related bug with non-VR cameras (ex. the Selfie Stick) where opening & closing fixes the perf issue
  
• Supersampling issues
  
• Mobile/Oculus Go performance issues
  
• some users cannot create/login to accounts with an "Oops something went wrong" generic message
  
• desktop audio streaming is too quiet or seems muted
  

Tomorrow, we will release Patch #3 and fix more of those bugs!

Hey all,

Thanks for all the feedback and bug reports about yesterday's 2019 UPDATE.

• fixed a crash on app start (on the PC)
  
• fixed debug logs (output_log.txt) not getting written due to unicode/text encoding issues on PCs
  
• fixed Audio Driver installation failing due to file path/unicode text issues on some PCs
  
• fixed Audio Driver installation button disabled in the UI
  
• fixed Audio issues due to audio devices with unicode/text names
  
• improved UI/poking issues
  
• fixed bug with Alt-Tab screen and it will not appear for users with VR controllers unless you Alt-Tab to Bigscreen
  
• moved the full Environment selection UI from the Room page to front of the Home page
  
• fixed performance issue in multiplayer rooms due to incorrectly streaming at >1080p resolutions (ex. 4K), affecting PC & Mobile performance
  

The top priorities are the performance issues and the Remote Desktop issues

• PC performance issues that cause 1-2fps even on high-end GPUs, and a related bug with non-VR cameras (ex. the Selfie Stick) where opening & closing fixes the perf issue
  
• Mobile/Oculus Go performance issues
  
• Remote Desktop client doesn't open for some PC users
  
• some users cannot create/login to accounts with an "Oops something went wrong" generic message
  
• desktop audio streaming is too quiet or seems muted
  

Tomorrow, we will release Patch #2 and fix more of those bugs.

Hey everyone!

Over the past year, we’ve been working on a massive new update for Bigscreen with real-time raytracing lighting effects, new environments, new avatars, new VR UI, a Windows audio driver, and more.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oNHkUUHMdw

• New Room features: change the name, privacy, and settings on the fly
  
• Oculus Overlay support: improved visuals and clarity when displaying your desktop on the big screen
  
• New Teleportation. This new feature lets you move around environments, while also making it easier to change your seat. Also added snap rotation.
  
• Improved Desktop audio streaming with the new Bigscreen Audio Driver for Windows 10 PCs. Desktop audio streaming used to have lots of issues and bugs (ex. 5.1/7.1 headphones). It is now easy and automatic!
  
• New social Lobby, a place to hangout and meet other people.
  
• New Bigscreen Accounts. Create and login to your new Bigscreen account. This will be used for the upcoming friend/party system, and “Bigscreen Movie Nights”
  
• Mobile VR headsets can now create public & private rooms — anyone can join your room, from any PC or mobile VR headset (fully cross-platform)
  
• Mobile VR headsets have significantly improved performance and battery life, especially in larger rooms with 5–15 people.
  

Many of the worst bugs and problems from the past couple years have now been fixed and improved. Notably if you had the following issues, please try using Bigscreen again. Here are a few of the many bugs we solved:

• fixed support for 5.1 and 7.1 headphones, and SPDIF/USB DAC audio devices
  
• fixed desktop audio streaming bugs where your audio would stop working, get muted, or stutter when people leave the room
  
• fixed UI bugs where the UI would become frozen or irresponsive
  
• fixed crashes when people would join/leave your room
  
• fixed server bug where people would fail to properly join/leave rooms
  

We have been working on several significant updates that will launch in the next couple months after the 2019 Update. These updates will include:

• Friend/party system: invite friends into your rooms easily, and get notifications
  
• Videoplayer: watch videos stored locally on your PC or Mobile VR headset. This videoplayer has an easy-to-use VR UI, making it easier to watch videos, especially 3D movies.
  
• Streaming & performance improvements: while the performance has improved in the 2019 Update, more significant tech is coming soon that enables much better performance and streaming in larger 12-person rooms
  
• Bigscreen Movie Nights: last year, we did a few pilot tests of “movie nights” where we hosted a movie. We plan to sell “virtual movie tickets” for our movie nights.
  
• Oculus Quest: Bigscreen has been a launch title on every major VR headset for the past 3 years — such as Oculus Rift, Oculus Touch, and Oculus Go — and Bigscreen will launch on the Oculus Quest later this year!
  
• Bigscreen 1.0: by the summer, we expect to leave “beta” and launch 1.0. Expect a whole new level of polish, reliability, and functionality by then.
  

Let me know if you have bugs, issues, or feedback with this new update.

We have been working so hard on this major overhaul of Bigscreen, and I hope you enjoy it.

- Bigscreen Team

What's up! It's been awhile since we launched an update for Bigscreen.

We have been heads down totally overhauling Bigscreen with some massive new features that will be rolling out in a series of updates in the next 3 months.

In 2 weeks, we will be launching the Bigscreen Beta 2019 Update on PC (Rift, Vive, WinMR, etc.) and Android (Gear/Go) simultaneously. The biggest problems, bugs, frustrations you have had with Bigscreen Beta have been fixed in this update, along with some beautiful new features (some of which you can see in this video teaser below!)

I don't want to spill the beans just yet on the details of this update because it's too exciting...but I need your help! Please join our Discord and help us test this new Bigscreen Beta update. We plan to spend the next week or two testing this before releasing it to the whole world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5GmOHpS470&feature=youtu.be