Access Point 3.17.X – Release Notes
Version 3.17.9 – 28th December, 2020: Improvements on the Free Roam support The interface would no longer freeze during a game update initialization The game’s timeout during Demo mode would now only use the “Standby” HMD state. Improvements related to launching Unreal Engine 4 games Version 3.17.8 – 15th December, 2020: Important Access Points adjustments Version 3.17.7 – 23th November, 2020: In the case of multiple dedicated game servers, the operator is now able to select the desired server in the game selection popup Support for Project CARS Pro 0.943 Version 3.17.6 – 13th November, 2020: Hotfix – Crashing Unity games Version 3.17.5 – 11th November, 2020: If bHaptics player is installed, but not running, Synthesis won’t attempt to connect to it (it was adding 4 seconds unnecessary delay at session start) The restoration of previous save files is attempted only once per game per session. Extended Synthesis Engine support for Windows environment variables Proxy – upon Windows restart, wait for available network before entering the connection initialization loop Proxy – automatically detect system time change (including DST) and synchronize with the cloud Remote Windows restart option Version 3.17.4 – 28th October, 2020: Fix – sporadic save game issue with Half-Life: Alyx New Download Cache experimental Access Point feature (under the System settings) Fix – picking a game in the menu could be problematic if the controller doesn’t stand still. This is now addressed. Optimized Access Point support for new game plugins and multiplayer sessions The FPS for the “VR Menu Mirror” desktop window is lowered to 25 Optimized network negotiation process for LAN multiplayer games that don’t utilize the Standalone Game Server module Version 3.17.3 – 12th October, 2020: New: Demo Mode (https://synthesisvr.com/knowledge-base/demo-kiosk-mode/) SynthesisVR Engine Optimization All game launches on Oculus HMDs will be with the SteamVR SDK. Version 3.17.2 – 5th October, 2020: Bigfix: The top back button in the 2D launcher may not go back in the menu Bigfix: Custom game variants do launch with the game default startup arguments Bigfix: Upon Access Point restart, the “Semi-Offline Mode” button doesn’t properly display that the option has been previously enabled. Version 3.17.1 – 1st October, 2020: The Access Points now logs in the cloud the version of the games installed via the Synthesis CDN (so far this was performed only locally on the station) With the Standard and Pro plans, running a game update on one station will also queue the update on all the other stations. This takes off the need to manually update each of them individually. A new “disableFTDI” option is added to the localmanifest cheat sheet The FTDI and USB monitoring support (used with the NFC integration) is now disabled for the CDN version Version 3.17.0 – 28th September, 2020: Fixed random crash to the Standalone Game Server module Improvements to the multiplayer network negotiation process Other stability improvements OpenVR – Updated to version 1.14.15 Added 30 seconds timeout to the remote key activation Improvements to the CDN installation process New under the hood Synthesis Engine provisioning functionalities Display engine data on the session countdown timer. Activate by configuring: “Administration >> Advanced Settings >> Customizations >> Branding & Voice Prompts >> Behavior >> Display a second row on the session timer Example value: svr:playername|Player [pcname] Ready#
localmanifest.json Cheatsheet
“pauseSessionCountdownWhenNoPID”: true, The session clock would automatically pause when there is no any running game. May not be suitable for multiplayer sessions “dontPauseIdlePlaybackOnPID”: true, The idle playback wont pause automatically upon starting a session and/or a game. Suitable for KIOSK installations. “disableAPGameChange”: true, Disable the ability to start games through the Desktop Menu of the Access Point “disableAPSessionStart”: true, Disable the ability to start sessions through the Desktop Menu of the Access Point “disableKeyboardControl”: true, Disable the keyboard control for the VR menu (arrows, Enter, Backspace) customAnnouncementInSeconds: { “30”: “Custom Message 30 seconds before the end” }, Add precise (in seconds) text-to-speech support “nfc_shared”: “shared”, Fine tune your NFC integration. The default value is “shared” and your other options are “direct” and “exclusive”. You don’t have to set this up unless your NFC documentation hints otherwise “nfc_protocol”: “T1″, Fine tune your NFC integration. The default selection is “T1” and other options are: “default” ; “raw” ; “t0” ; “tx” ; “undefined” “preferredMac”: “000000000000”, In the case of multiple connected network adapters, define the MAC address of the primary one KATVR custom locomotion – https://synthesisvr.com/knowledge-base/kat-i-o-custom-locomotion-settings-for-non-kat-i-o-games/ “disableFTDI”: true, disable the default FTDI coin-op integration. This could be needed for third party FTDI based integrations “singlePerSessionLaunch”: [1,15], A comma-separated list of games that can be launched only once per session. This can be used to prevent non-PPM content to be launched multiple times when you are charging your customers per minute. “dontDownloadTrailers”: true, makes sure the Access Point won’t be trying to download and synchronize any trailers. Usually to be used in the case when you manage your own folder of playback videos.
SynthesisVR Menu Not Showing
This typically happens on laptops that do not use the multiple HDMI/Display Ports coming out of the same GPU. From the Windows menu, start typing in “Graphics Setting” without the quotation marks and when it comes up in the search, click on it. When the Graphic Settings come up, click on the “Browse” button to search for SynthesisVR. Navigate to the following location: C:\Program Files\SynthesisVR\app And once there select SynthesisVR.exe file and click on the Add button Once added, click on the Options button . On the popup, select high performance and then click on Save (note that depending on your version of Windows, this may appear slightly differently) Restart SynthesisVR by either ending SynthesisVR task via Task Manager or by restarting the service via the Windows Services app.
Delete or Update Session Through API
Create a new API rule (similarly to https://synthesisvr.com/knowledge-base/reading-leaderboard-through-api/) or edit an existing one and assign the “customers” permission. HTTPS POST Request: https://api.synthesisvr.com/data/sessions/<API_KEY>/<ACTION>/<SESSION_UUID> Example: https://api.synthesisvr.com/data/sessions/11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111/update/22222222-2222-2222-2222-222222222222 https://api.synthesisvr.com/data/sessions/11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111/delete/22222222-2222-2222-2222-222222222222 ACTION= update OR delete Update HTTPS POST PARAMETERS: date=2030-01-01 — mandatory — specify new date for the session time=15:30 — mandatory — specify new time duration=60 — optional — specify new duration people=2 — optional — specify the number of involved stations experience=1 — optional — specify the experience type id Note — there are no HTTPS POST parameters for the “delete” action.
Membership Add-On – Convert Your Visitors To Regular Customers
The membership cards functionality is a powerful tool for converting your visitors to regular customers and being able to collect funds upfront. Creating New Membership Plan Login to your SynthesisVR admin Account and go to “Administration >> Extras >> Cards” Click the Three Dots on the top right corner – then click Add New Batch of Membership Cards Fill in your settings Title = This is the name for each of the cards. When the “#code#” special string is placed in the title, it would be replaced by the actual code of the card Generation Pattern = keep it without any spaces inside. The # character would be replaced by the actual number of the card. If you plan to have 1000 cards, you should have at least 4 # characters (example: card:monthly:####) Quantity = the total number of cards to be generated Digital Cards Only = you may want to print the cards or just have pseudo cards (no hard copy). The printed cards are assigned to the customers via the “Scan QR Code” functionality on the sidebar and the digital cards are assigned via the “Customers” page. Generating Codes and Printing Physical Cards Now that you have created your membership option you have to generate them so the cards can be distributed among your customers Configuring Membership Cards As the next step, you can configure one or multiple modes for your cards. For this click on the “+ Add” button, to get the following popup Settings Title = Since a batch of cards could have different kind of discounts and promotions, use that field to identify the specific mode. Card Cost = You may want to sell the cards to distribute them for free. Give System Points Per Minute = This is no longer in use. If you want to create a points based rewards system, please subscribe to our points module. Discounts Applies For Sessions Up To [NN] Stations = This is to select how the concession rate is applied and to how many stations. Days of week = The days when the card can be used in your arcade. If it is a free card, you may want to restrict its benefits to apply only during the weekdays. Discounts are valid everyday = You may want to select if the discounts are valid for all days or selected days. Active period = how long after activation the card would expire. If you charges $200 for the card, it may expire after one year, so you can collect the next membership fee. Combine With Regular Discounts = You may combine the discount with an existing discount. Recurring Billing Period (optional) = You may select on what interval the bills are made. (Example: 30days or 15days) Mail the customer every time the card is used = You may want to send mails to your customers every time their cards are used. Packages Discounts = Here you can apply discounts to certain Experiences or All experiences. You can also add multiple discounts by simply clicking the Discounts + button. As example, the customers owning the card may have 10% during the weekdays. If the regular work hour rule cost is $30 our system will calculate the discount percentage and the customer will only be charged the discounted new amount. Included Free Time = As membership benefits, you can include free time for certain experiences so the customer does not have to pay. For example: The card owners would have 60 free VR Experience minutes every 30 days. Both the “free time” and the discounts can be used simultaneously. If the card has 60 free minutes then the customer will not be charged for the first 60 minutes of this experience. You can add multiple free minutes by clicking the + button. This way you can create different types of membership benefit programs. Carry over unused free time from month to month = Unused time will be transferred only if the renewal period for the free experience type is set to `1 month`. Free Time Renew Base = The `First Day` option works only if the renewal period for the free experience type is set to `1 month`. Points Collection Provide Points for Usage + = From here you can add points to visitors for: Session / Per Station; Minute; Session / All Stations for every of your Experience types for each day of the week.Point System can be chosen from: Membership; Room Scale Points; Session Reward Points; Global Points System. Membership Widget Setup Here you may select how the Membership widget needs to look like, by selecting the widget text color, card color, desired descriptions and the cover image. Assigning Membership to Customers Now you have the membership cards and their modes being setup. How you are using them depends on their mode (digital-only or not). Go to Customers on the left menu and search for the customer you want to sell the membership – Click Sell Card as Shown Below Select which membership card you would like to sell from the pop up On the pop up if you need you can still change the membership if you selected the wrong one in the previous step. You are ready to assign/sell the card (Note: all the non-free cards would affect the financial reports) You can choose a payment method and click Add Payment to assign this membership to this customer At the next step, go to “Stores >> Sell Ticket – Pick a customer for the next reservation”. The displayed cost would be reflected by the membership card settings. Every customer may have only 1 membership card. If you would like to assign more, you would have to create another account for this purpose
Access Point 3.16.X – Release Notes
Version 3.16.7 – 7th September, 2020 Improvements related to session time synchronization ; idle playback ; removing CDN games New functionalities for unannounced projects Version 3.16.5 – 26th August, 2020 Bugfix — VR dashboard may re-open automatically if the VR cursor points outside of the Synthesis menu Version 3.16.4 – 19th August, 2020 Overall improvements to the Access Point and the Voice Chat applications Support for the “Broadcaster” mode of Project CARS Pro Support for multiple dedicated game servers (as in the case of multiple free roam arenas running on the same LAN) Improvements for yet unreleased free roam games as well EXA Verxus (player spawned in the open space due to the server and players being launched simultaneously) Support for implementing a local queue system Synthesis Engine support for the Command Calls Version 3.16.2 – 3th August, 2020 Additional back buttons for the 2D launcher – they can be turned on under: Administration >> [tab] Advanced Settings >> [dropdown] Customizations >> Branding & Voice Prompts >> [tab] Behavior >> Extra Back buttons Improved Session Pause support Support for Project CARS Pro – Version 0.94 Faster detection for manually closed experiences Introducing programable NFC driven event system — allows hooking up third party billing platforms A new localmanifest.json setting allows pausing the session timer while no game is running: “pauseSessionCountdownWhenNoPID”: true, Bugfix – a rare case where the 3D Island launcher doesn’t display the available games Version 3.16.1 – 28th July, 2020 Enable additional (larger) back buttons in the 2D menu: Administration >> [tab] Advanced Settings >> [button] Customizations >> Branding and Voice Prompts >> [tab] Behavior >> Extra Back buttons When running multiple standalone game servers, now you can specify which VR stations the server supports: Administration >> [tab] Arcade Setup >> [button] VR Stations >> [button] Edit (for the stations that has the Standalone Game Server module) >> Serving Stations Version 3.16.0 – 22th July, 2020: Improved resources consumption (RAM/CPU/GPU) Improved handling of a memory leak caused by OpenVR. It was mostly affecting systems that don’t have SteamVR running all the time. As an example, system that run with the Vive Wireless Adapter Improved Synthesis network negotiation processes. As an example, it is now possible to run multiple free-roam arenas or to start 2 or more concurrent Arizona Sunshine Arcade sessions Project CARS Pro PPM tracking – the PPM charges will apply only when the player is racing. This allows, while on a PPM license, to keep the game running all the time. Bugfix – localmanifest.json may get wrongly overwritten Bugfix – the running game may not get properly muted/unmuted when the 2D menu is on front Temporary “SynthesisVR Engine” values can be defined with – and –: -playername=User — will set the player’s name to “User” until the SynthesisVR session is over –playername=User — will set the player’s name to “User” until the currently running game is closed Content studios can define server buttons to show up with the “Standalone Game Server” module. Example – The Raft received new Calibration and Start Game buttons. The “Standalone Game Server” module now has an easy “Close game” button that also closes the game on all connected stations. Bugfix – Offline Mode may not offer session options under specific conditions 2D Menu Changes: The back arrow on the top left is moved to the middle of the top menu and the icon is changed to one better hinting to a “Back” related action A new “Back” button is added under the “Play” button in a game view A new search icon now works from any screen and help the players to easily navigate to a specific title they know they want to play Upon launching a game, the view is automatically changed to the home screen A game category can be set as a Home screen. This allows you to have a “Top games” category and highlight specific titles to your customers. Upon clicking the Back arrow, they can see the full list of categories The voice chat icon is hidden for the single-player sessions The Lobby support is disabled for the single-player sessions Clicking on the SteamVR’s Steam Library and Steam Store icons will bring the player back to the Home SynthesisVR menu
Google Calendar Synchronization
To add a connection between SynthesisVR and Google Calendar so that your booked sessions show up in Google Calendar, fist head over to the Web Widgets & API section: The click on the Google Link tab followed by the Sign In With Google: A popup will appear asking you to choose the Google account you want to connect with, click on the correct one. Note that you should have at some point already logged into your store’s Google account on the browser you are making the connection to. Once you’ve clicked on the correct account, you will need to allow SynthesisVR to access your account for creation of the Calendar event. Once you’ve allowed the connection, you will now see the following screen (minus the red numbers): Calendar: You can enable or disable the synchronization using the drop down menu here. Event Location: Enter in your arcade name or location or whatever you want to show in the location part of the calendar event Event Title: What you want to show up in the calendar title Email Reminders: In addition to the email of the customer in the session (if there is one), and the arcade email, what additional email addresses would you like to be notified of a booking. This is for notifications. Multiple emails can be added separated by commas (no spaces). Popup Reminders: How long before the event do you want reminders to be sent to the emails in #4. You can have multiple times, all separated by commas (no spaces) Arcade Email Addresses: This is where you would put your arcade’s email address(es) Add Customers As Participants: Check this box if you want to have customers added to the calendar event allowing them to get reminders as well. Once you’ve entered all the appropriate information, click on Save and you’re all set. All future bookings will now be synced over to Google Calendar.
MobileFuel – Getting Started
Requirements: SynthesisVR Proxy has to be installed on the same network as the Android HMDs. Setup Instructions Download, install and start MobileFuel on your Windows PC Connect your Android device to the same computer through USB (only one device should be connected at a time). MobileFuel will automatically detect the attached device and will display its name and serial number. If this doesn’t happen, please make sure the Developer Mode is enabled for the device. Check your device screen for any pending USB permissions If the device is connected for first time, click the Provision button to add the device to your SynthesisVR stations. The device will be automatically subscribed for the “SynthesisVR for Android” module. After the provisioning, click the “Install” button in MobileFuel and wait for your device to restart Go to the “Your Arcade” page, locate your newly installed device (if you don’t see it, logout and log back in) and click on the settings icon. In the newly opened popup, enable the “Kiosk Mode”. If you would be using the HMD paired to PCVR, also enable the “Automated Streaming” option. Put on the HMD and manually start SynthesisVR for the first time. This will sync up the SynthesisVR subscription along with the Kiosk Mode setting and the application will start automatically going forward. You will also see the HMD active on your arcade Page: You can now launch sessions and games using SynthesisVR.
Customize the minutes dropdown
Go to “Administration >> Advanced Settings >> Online & Email Settings >> Web Widgets & API”. Create or edit your booking widget and add the following option to the “Add HTML to the HEAD tag” option: Under “Add HTML before the BODY tag closure”, add:
VR Session Manager – Timeline View
Overview To switch between The Station View and the Timeline View, click on the “Timeline View” switch at the top. Note that this is a local switch and would need to be set on each of the devices that access the Your Arcade page. Station View: Timeline View: On the left side of the Timeline View, you’ll see all of your stations listed sorted alphabetically. On the left of each station is a button that will bring up station specific settings (including things like Wake-on-LAN, Station Shut Down, etc). If the station is detected as connected the color of the button will be green. Offline or is a virtual station it will show as purple. On the right side of the section will be an icon of the headset in use on that station as well as controller battery percentage. Along the top of the Timeline View, you’ll find the different experience types you offer. You can, of course, click on each to show those stations the experience type is attached to and any bookings that use those stations. In addition, you can also click between the tabs using the Alt+[number} to switch. You can also change between them using Alt+ the left or right arrow to cycle between each experience type. Below the Experience Type tabs on the left side is the Walkin Mode toggle and the time display. Walkin mode will be explained a little further down in this guide. Clicking on the time display will adjust how you want your time to display in the Timeline. If you click on, for example, 15 the Timeline will show time broken out into 15 minute increments. Clicking 30 will show the time broken down into 30 minute increments, etc. This will be remembered for the next time you open the Your Arcade page. Underneath the Experience Type tabs on the right are the buttons to allow you to page through your days. This helps you see previous or upcoming reservations without having to go to the Reservations section. And, of course, the main section of the Timeline View shows the sessions/reservations all broken out by station and time. Colors are determined randomly and assigned a unique color for each session so it’s easy to identify which sessions are together and which are separate. Hovering over each session block will give you details on that particular session. Clicking on a session (or clicking on the View button in the popup details) will bring up the session summary which will be discussed later. Scheduling: Future Reservation: Somewhere along the Timeline, ideally close to the time you want to schedule, right click on one of the station’s timeline (again, ideally one of the stations you want to schedule for, but not a requirement). This will bring up the schedule menu. Click on the Schedule button. You can click on the X button or press Escape on your keyboard to get out of this menu. After you click on Schedule and once you start moving the mouse, you will be able to start putting in the session reservation. Depending on which direction you move your mouse (left and right along the Timeline) from the point you right clicked, you will be either adding time forward or time backward. Meaning that if, for example, you right clicked at 4pm and you moved the mouse to the right, you’d be adding time for after 4pm (starting at 4pm) and if you move the mouse to the left you will be adding time prior to 4pm (ending at 4pm). If you move your mouse up or down along the Timeline, you will be able to add/remove stations within the session. Once you’ve got a basic setup of what you want to schedule (don’t worry about being precise, you can refine later along this process), you will get the next set of options for scheduling. If everything looks good to you, click on the Schedule button at the top and that will bring up the Sell Ticket popup to complete the booking (again, you can continue to edit in that popup). In the bottom of this initial popup, you will have the option to pick a specific duration based on your Experience Types and Work/Business Rules. The left side will choose a duration that starts at the time on the left side, and the right side will create a duration that starts at the time on the right side of your selection. If you’re booking from the “All” tab, you will be given all Experience Types and times within those Experience Types (so long as you’re scheduling within the Work/Business Rules of those Experience Types). If you’re booking something for today, you will be given additional options to Snap Left and Snap Right. Snap Left will let you “snap” the booking to start at the end of the next session booked on that/those station(s) or immediately if you have no prior bookings. Snap Right will only be visible if you have booking on that particular station(s) and will “snap” to the beginning of the next session. Note that if you have cleaning times set in your Work/Business Rules, those will be taken into account as well. Final tweaks that can be applied to the booking before you go to the next step include the ability to remove a station from the booking by clicking on the red minus sign in the booking and adding a station by clicking on the big gray + button on the booking. Additionally, if you hover over the session and you see your cursor change to a plus sign, if you hold down the mouse button while the plus sign is showing you can drag the session to the right or left to change the start time. Once you have got all your things you wanted to set up done and you’ve clicked the “Schedule” button, this will bring up the