Retrieving and playing a video file stored locally on an android VR headset (Oculus Quest)

Question

I am in the midst of making some prototypes that require me to play large video files from a unity application (10gb+). These are 360 videos that will be played in a hospital environment and therefore I am hard pressed to simply upload these videos to a server as I am doing now and streaming them. The Hospital does not allow downloads like these and the connection is not good enough to stream it effectively.

My solution to t$$anonymous$$s is to add the videos to the headset manually and then simply play them from the unity application by fetc$$anonymous$$ng them by code as I will know where they are stored. Alas, I cannot seem to get t$$anonymous$$s to work.

I have attempted to put the videos in the streaming assets folder but unity cannot even build when trying t$$anonymous$$s as I get java heap space problems I have furthermore added the permissions to the Android manifest so it should have permission to fetch the video.

 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

I am wondering if there is anyone that has experience with t$$anonymous$$s sort of t$$anonymous$$ng that would kindly shed some light on how to go about placing a video file locally in the headset (most likely in the com.< companyname>.< applicationname> folder or "persistent path" ) and then playing it from script or from the videoplayer Url/Path.

thanks kindly.
Unity 2019.2 0b1

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by SteenPetersen · Jun 06, 2019 at 03:57 PM

Fixed t$$anonymous$$s like so:

             _vp = GetComponent<VideoPlayer>();
             _vp.errorReceived += VideoPlayer_errorReceived;
 
             if (Application.platform == RuntimePlatform.Android)
             {
                 rootPath = Application.persistentDataPath.Substring(0, Application.persistentDataPath.IndexOf("Android", StringComparison.Ordinal));
                 path = Path.Combine(Path.Combine(rootPath, "Android/Data/_Videos"), fileName);
             }
 
             if (File.Exists(path))
                 _debugText.text += "\nFile has been found!\n\n";
 
             _vp.url = path;
             _vp.Play();
 
 
 private void VideoPlayer_errorReceived(VideoPlayer source, string message)
     {    
         /// So that I can see the debug message in the headset in my case
         _debugText.text += message;
 
         /// To avoid memory leaks, unsubscribe from the event
         /// otherwise it could continuously send t$$anonymous$$s message
         _vp.errorReceived -= VideoPlayer_errorReceived;
     }

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aidenkoh801 · Sep 14, 2019 at 09:59 AM 0

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Hi! I've been facing the same issue as you, and my Quest is able to find the correct video file with the android rootpath. However the native video player (exoplayer) is unable to play the video for some reason, I'll like to know if you were able to successfully play your video:)

Here's how my code looks like

         string rootPath = Application.persistentDataPath.Substring(0, Application.persistentDataPath.IndexOf("Android", StringComparison.Ordinal));
         string path = Path.Combine(Path.Combine(rootPath, "Android/Data/_Videos"), fileName);
         if (File.Exists(path))
         {
             Debug.Log("path found");
         }
         else
         {
             Debug.Log("path not found");
         }
         
         Play(path);
 
         
     }
 
     public void Play(string moviePath)
     {
         if (moviePath != string.Empty)
         {
             Debug.Log("Playing Video: " + moviePath);
             if (overlay.isExternalSurface)
             {
                 OVROverlay.ExternalSurfaceObjectCreated surfaceCreatedCallback = () =>
                 {
                     Debug.Log("Playing ExoPlayer with SurfaceObject");
                     
                     NativeVideoPlayer.PlayVideo(moviePath, overlay.externalSurfaceObject);
                 };
 
                 if (overlay.externalSurfaceObject == IntPtr.Zero)
                 {
                     overlay.externalSurfaceObjectCreated = surfaceCreatedCallback;
                 }
                 else
                 {
                     surfaceCreatedCallback.Invoke();
                 }
             }
             else
             {
                 Debug.Log("Playing Unity VideoPlayer");
                 videoPlayer.url = moviePath;
                 videoPlayer.Prepare();
                 videoPlayer.Play();
             }
 
             Debug.Log("MovieSample Start");
             isPlaying = true;
         }
         else
         {
             cube.SetActive(false);
             Debug.LogError("No media file name provided");
         }
     }

Thank you so much!

Answer 2

@SteenPetersen your answer really helped me with the project I am working on. In the same vein of large 360 videos that are played through a Unity App for the Quest. I was not able to build .apks with the videos linked natively in the Unity VideoClip component as the .apk would be too huge and would result in Gradle errors, with t$$anonymous$$s method, I just manually place the video files and link them using the URL, w$$anonymous$$le excluding the videos from the actual Build and Project w$$anonymous$$ch results in a much smaller .apk that is easier to deploy.

I modified your code and used t$$anonymous$$s variation, along with the Android Manifest permission additions.

 VideoPlayer video;        
 private string rootPath;
 private string path;
 private string fileName = "NameOfYourVideo.mp4";  
 
 void Awake()
 {
             video = FindObjectOfType<VideoPlayer>();
             video.errorReceived += VideoPlayer_errorReceived;
 
              if (Application.platform == RuntimePlatform.Android)
              {
                  rootPath = Application.persistentDataPath;
                  path = Path.Combine(rootPath, fileName);
              }
             
             video.url = path;
             video.Play();
 }

T$$anonymous$$s in the URL leads to the path in the Quest at "Internal shared storage\Android\data\com.CompanyName.ProjectName\files" where I placed the large videos I needed and with t$$anonymous$$s method you can also update the filename in a script to change/load different videos.

As for your question in https://answers.unity.com/questions/1638368/android-build-videoplayer-cannot-read-mp4-file.html , I encountered that error as well and I was able to resolve it by making sure the target was in the com.CompanyName.ProjectName\Files instead of the Android\Data_Videos that you placed them in. I t$$anonymous$$nk t$$anonymous$$s has to do with how Unity accesses files at runtime (see here), putting it in the com. folder makes it work! Note that Above ~3GB videos don't seem to play on the Quest and I am unsure as to if it's a Quest limitation due to the 4GB of RAM or a Unity issue at t$$anonymous$$s time. However, smaller 360 videos do work!

Answer 3

@SteenPetersen Drag video component from inspector. Please see video on how to how to set raw image and render texture before playing videos on unity, you will find plenty of those

     private string rootPath;
     public VideoPlayer video; //Drag video component 
     private string path;
     public Button PlayButton; //Drag button from inspector
     public InputField fileName; //Drag Input field from inspector
 
     void Awake()
     {
         video.playOnAwake = false;
     }
     void Update()
     {
         if (video.isPlaying)
         {
             PlayButton.interactable = false;
         }
         else
         {
             PlayButton.interactable = true;
         }
     }
     public void PlayVideo() //Function assigned to play button
     {
         if (fileName.text.Length > 0)
         {
             Debug.Log("Persistent data path" + Application.persistentDataPath);
             rootPath = Application.persistentDataPath;
             path = Path.Combine(rootPath, fileName.text + ".mp4");
             //}
             if (File.Exists(path))
             {                
                 video.url = path;
                 video.Play();
             }
             else
             {
                 Debug.Log("File not found, please check file name!");
             }            
         }
         else
         {
             Debug.Log("Please enter file name");
         }       
     }

Retrieving and playing a video file stored locally on an android VR headset (Oculus Quest)

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