Running a VR application developed in Unity on Valve Index? (VR Point Cloud Editor)

Question

I'm interested in annotating a .ply point cloud file in VR, and it looks like VR Point Cloud Editor (or VR Point Cloud Cleaner, which may be a previous name/version) has the features I'm looking for: https://ccom.unh.edu/vislab/tools/point_cloud_editor

I'm able to run the .exe file, but I just get the Unity loading screen on my desktop. How do I let it know that a headset is connected? All the documentation, as well as the external tutorial on Brown's VR Wiki (https://www.vrwiki.cs.brown.edu/vr-modeling-software/tutorials/vr-point-cloud-editor-tutorial) seems to just assume that the headset and controllers are connected without issue and start from that point. (VR wiki page: https://www.vrwiki.cs.brown.edu/vr-modeling-software/vr-point-cloud-editor)

I'm using a Valve Index, and haven't had any issues running applications in SteamVR.

1. Is there a particular mode or application I should have open when I launch the VRPCE .exe file?
2. I see a "controllerType" variable in the .json file, but it isn't mentioned on the website.

Any tips are much appreciated.

Answer 1

Thanks elvissteinjr on the Valve Index Reddit for answering this one:

There's generally no difference between a Steam or non-Steam application connecting to SteamVR. Steam has some stuff in the way of UI integration (some of which can still be achieved via mostly undocumented files), but otherwise they work the same. Well that aside, the application you linked works fine on my machine. SteamVR has to be up and running, it won't launch it if it's not, however. The "supports all major headsets and controllers through SteamVR and OpenXR." part of the page seems a bit misleading depending how you read it. From what I can tell this is an OpenXR-only application. No OpenVR API library or SteamVR manifests in sight. SteamVR can still run this, of course. The only idea in terms of fixing it on your end is to make sure SteamVR is registered as the OpenXR runtime. To do that, check the OpenXR settings tab in the SteamVR settings on the desktop (it's hidden in VR as all options will bring up UAC anyways).