Hello again!
Welcome to the second devlog for PhoneLink VR. We're still hard at work on our redesign, here's some of the highlights from the last few weeks. We'll be launching a beta version of the redesign to get some feedback from the community. A few select members of the community have been previewing a closed beta over the last few days and so far feedback has been pretty positive!
New setup experience
The setup flow in the original app wasn't the best, there was a lot of text and it can be quite overwhelming for new users. We've redesigned the setup experience and updated some of the language to make it easier for new users to understand. There's still more we're looking to do with setup. We're looking into ways to reduce the number of QR codes that need scanning but don't have anything to share just yet.
XSOverlay integration
Since devlog 1 we've worked hard on the XSOverlay integration. Our first iteration of this is working great, just check "Use XSOverlay Notifications" in the desktop app and you'll now see your notifications appear using XSOverlay's system rather than SteamVR's.
Dashboard overlay
One of the technical benefits of our redesign is the new UI system we're using. The old app used Qt which worked fine for the first version of the app but was a pain to work with and iterate on. The new system is powered by Ultralight, which is a UI renderer designed for games. It integrates really well with the GPU which is great when you're working with SteamVR overlays.
We are able to reuse 90% of the code from the desktop UI in the dashboard overlay. Because of this we're hoping that adding new overlays will be much easier in the future. For example, having an overlay attached to your wrist.
See you next time!