Blank screen in iPadOS app
May 11, 2020 12:00 AM
I wouldn't use this forum for a bug report, but the CenarioVR page has no links for support, and searching the "?" dropdown for support is also blank.
I created a very simple scenario in my trial version (8 minute 360 video, a few info cards, one question, one button). It works fine in Google Chrome, and my Oculus Go headset.
In the iPadOS app, it produces a blank, black full screen. I can hear the audio, but nothing shows.
Also, even though there's a pause action at 22 seconds in my scenario, the audio continues. (Obviously I can't tell whether the invisible video is continuing.) Pausing works correctly on Chrome and in the Go.
iPad Air 2 model MGKL2LL/A, iPadOS 13.4.1.
I restarted the device, but the problem persisted. I have no other iOS or iPadOS devices here to test on.
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It occurred to me while typing, so I tested, and the Corals of the Caribbean scenario does the same thing: blank black screen, aside from the little micro-icons at the edges that CenarioVR seems to add. It is not just my scenario that's doing it.
Discussion (23)
My boss confirms the same behavior on his iPhone.
This video is already very low in resolution, probably too low to be usable. I'll test a still.
Surely you could display an error message explaining the problem, instead of a blank screen?
For support issues, you can always use support@trivantis.com, or the forums as well.
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iOS showing a blank screen is generally indicative of an out of memory or video capability issue. In looking up that model of iPad, it looks to be released in 2014, and very well may not be capable of 360 video, despite having an updated OS. We do test quite thoroughly on iOS devices, and certainly have not seen issues with the Corals scenario.
Have you tried lower resolution videos, or perhaps 360 image scenes to see if they load on your iOS device?
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iOS (Safari in this case) gives no indication of an error to the underlying program, that is how it handles it.
Sadly, iOS is by far the least capable VR runtime out there.
Wow. That seems very retrograde for Apple, which is so proud of being a technology leader.
Would the same thing happen with Google Cardboard? I have just been authorized to get a new iPhone for myself, so I will be able to test that soon.
They are actually about as far behind as they could be in the VR space.
Cardboard is a "dual lens" view of what you see in the browser, it will be the same experience.
Thanks again, John.
Can you maybe have a different error message than the "access to motion" one, to tip off someone on an iOS device? Just saying, "Use the CenarioVR app if on iOS" would avoid having ignorant folks like me bugging you.
iOS 13.5 came out the other day, and it should help with that broswer issue. They fixed some bugs introduced with 13.4.1.
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Huh. My Lectora course containing CenarioVR HTML5 (the Corals of the Caribbean sample) won't let me pan by dragging on my iPad. The interactivities that happen to be on the screen work, but I can't pan.
A brand new iPhone XR running 13.4.1 gives me the Black Void of Death in the CenarioVR app, and in Lectora. I can't upgrade to the new version, this device is managed and our IT department usually spends several weeks checking new iOS releases before pushing them out to our corporate devices.
However, after a restart, I can open the scenario on the iPad!
And it's totally unusable! I'm attaching a video showing what it looks like. I was holding the iPad as still as physically possible for the first 90 seconds or so, then I put it in the stand. (I'm using an Otterbox case, which doubles as a stand.) Even motionless it had some weird jitter and remained stubbornly upside-down. Dragging with my fingers had no effect.
I figured out the problem with editing your posts. If you last edited a posting in the "Text" (really shortcode) mode, then the WordPress app (or whatever it is) you're using doesn't let you edit a previous post. If you switch to Visual and post, then you can retroactively edit other posts you have made. This is ... odd. Why would my choosing a specific editor mode disable editing other posts?
The panning should be controlled by movement of the tablet itself.
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No different on my older iPad. Blank screen.
Am I remembering wrong? I thought we used to be able to edit our own postings in these forums.
John, you wrote:
The panning should be controlled by movement of the tablet itself.
I believe you commented elsewhere that this is NOT true for Lectora courses containing embedded CenarioVR scenarios under iOS. That's the situation I'm referring to above, launching the Lectora course from ReviewLink on iPadOS with Safari.
I checked, by the way, and the iPhone XR can't even launch your public scenario about the sailing ship Namur. That is, it launches but is a blank, black screen.
I really want to recommend the product to my management, but the majority of our employees have only iPhones or iPads, not computers or headsets. It's make-or-break to be able to use the scenarios on the devices they actually have access to.
Things in the "public" area are not necessarily published with the latest version of CenarioVR. We are constantly updating the product to work with each release of iOS/iPadOS as they seem to introduce new bugs along the way. Please try publishing your content with the latest version to check compatibility.
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By the way, interface things: if you add a 3D model to the scenario, the resulting pseudo-dialog has a "Drag files here or click to upload" area, with an up-arrow. The up-arrow is not an active area, clicking it does nothing. You're supposed to click above the arrow in the blank area, which I find quite unintuitive.
Also, the drop area/upload seemingly only accepts graphics files? Oddly enough the (real, system) dialog for uploading says you're uploading a "Custom". One suspects your developer created a custom list of file types and didn't change its name. :-)
I haven't tested, but as a reasonably experienced 3D developer and longtime UX guy, I don't know why I would drop/upload a JPEG file in that area. Does it replace the clownfish I added to the scenario? Become a texture? Seriously, there's no way to know what happens when you drop a file there, and a user doesn't know why that field exists.
EDIT: after posting that, I realized that there is no way to upload my own 3D models. I hope you plan to change that, because it really limits the usage of this feature. For instance, I might want to upload a model of my company's equipment to allow the learning to study it. Can't do it in this version.
ANOTHER EDIT: may I suggest that in the left-side panel showing all assets in the scenario, you add an option to the, um, Option Menu for each: "Turn to see"? I placed an object in my scenario and I have no idea where I put it, and I have to frantically scrub all over the place looking for it.
Hi, John,
Well, I with the latest CVR app, and a scenario published earlier today, on my older iPad and my brand-new iPhone XR, I get the spinning cube and then an almost immediate crash of the app when I try to launch.
The old scenario still launches to the black void of space.
As an experiment, I published your Corals of the Caribbean scenario with CVR 10 minutes ago (so the latest version) to my own CVR space. Launching it on the iPad results in the weird jitterfest effect I posted above. Launching on the iPhone XR results in the black void of doom.
Well, I inexplicably can't edit the above again, so let me say that I found your YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/V6AjbJxNT9g
That answers many of my concerns above. I still think in UX terms it makes little since for me to click on a particular object (the clownfish) and have CenarioVR ask me if I want to upload a different model instead of using the one I just selected.
I found the tech specs page, the PC meets these specs yet I get a black screen.
https://www.trivantis.com/products/cenariovr/tech-specs
Is there a preferred web browser and PC specification to run published Cenarios? I've published to 'CenarioVR Live and Mobile' and on some browsers / PCs it just comes up with a black screen (after clicking the play button).
Is there a particular environment you are experiencing the "black screen" issue on? Is it related to a certain image or video scene?
Lots of posts to answer to here, but we'll get the arrow icon "clickable" in the next update. The entire rest of the grey area is clickable, appears to have been an oversight on the href for that icon.
Tiy can definitely upload your own 3D models, in the original 3D release there was a bug in that the GLB extension was not in the list of files in the native system dialog that was brought up. You could just drag and drop to the editing canvas itself or to the grey area to add your own GLB fies. That has been fixed, and you can now use all three methods to add your own 3D objects.
When adding an object from the media library, CenarioVR brings up the propert dialog so you can name it, add actions etc. Its not prompting you to replace it at that point.
CenarioVR allows both 3D and 2D objects as hotspots, which is why you can choose JPGs, PNGs, SVGs, or GLBs for you resource type to go aong with a hotspot.
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Its just a very simple Cenario with a 360 background image and some info labels. I've created support ticket but they can't replicate. On one PC it works in one browser, Edge but not in Chrome. On another it works in both and on another it doesn't work on any browser, all are Dell PCs, laptops and desktop, varying ages but all running Windows 10.
Have you shared an export of the scenario with support? If not, could you send it to cenariovr@elearningbrothers.com so we can take a look?
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