Using Plugin

Current Blueprint and C++ workflow for connecting Omara hardware and playing one-shot or spatial scent interactions.

The plugin exposes OVR ION/Omara discovery, connection lifecycle, telemetry, scent playback, and spatial scent behavior to Blueprint and C++.

Runtime setup

• Use one OVR connection manager for each local game process that owns physical scent hardware.

• Enable Show Plugin Content and use the included /OvrUtilities/BP/BP_OVRConnnectionManager Blueprint, or create a manager from the native class.

• Add an Olfactory Epithelium component to the locally controlled pawn or character that receives spatial scent interactions.

• Treat connected and device ready as separate states. Odor playback is gated by the device-ready pipeline.

• In multiplayer, keep hardware objects local and nonreplicated. Replicate gameplay intent, then let each client drive its own local device.

Connection methods

Companion WebSocket

On Windows and macOS, the manager can try the OVR Companion bridge first. The default endpoint is ws://127.0.0.1:8080. If the bridge is unavailable, direct native transports remain available.

Blueprints can call Connect Companion Bridge, Retry Companion Bridge, and Disconnect Companion Bridge and observe the Companion events. BLE, serial, and Companion share connection ownership so only one transport controls the hardware at a time.

Direct BLE

Create a BLE scanner, bind its advertisement/device-found event before starting the scan, and connect the returned device. Advertisements are asynchronous, so binding before the scan is important.

Android/Quest also exposes system Companion Device pairing. Picker cancellation, timeout, missing data/device, and disabled Location Services are reported through On BLE Companion Pairing Failed with a reason string.

USB serial

Windows x64 supports direct serial discovery and connection. Use the manager's serial auto-connect settings or the Create Serial Device Blueprint API. Automatic Omara adapter detection checks the Silicon Labs CP210x identifier VID_10C4/PID_EA60; Probe All COM Ports is available when broader discovery is needed.

Call Disconnect Active Transport when the game must explicitly release whichever transport owns the device.

Important events

Bind the events needed by the game, especially:

• connect and disconnect

• On Device Ready State Changed

• On Battery Percent Changed

• On Disconnected With Reason

• On BLE Companion Pairing Failed on Android

• On Serial Auto Connect Failed on Windows

• On Play Odor Not Ready when playback is requested before the device is ready

Odor playback

Use Play Odor Normalized for intensity from 0.0 to 1.0, or Play Odor Byte for intensity from 0 to 255. Play Odor remains available for Blueprint compatibility.

Create reusable OdorAsset data and assign it to one-shot playback or spatial Odorant components. A request made before the connected device reports ready is not sent to the hardware and broadcasts On Play Odor Not Ready instead.

Spatial odorants

Geometric attenuation supports sphere, capsule, box, and cone shapes. Niagara particle integration and burst/diffusion are separate optional behaviors, not additional attenuation shapes.

For a Niagara-driven odorant:

1. Select the Niagara actor/component through NiagaraActorToOdorize or NiagaraFXName.

2. Create a Niagara user object parameter named OVRObject.

3. Configure Niagara's particle export callback/module to send particle data to that object.

4. Validate the effect in Play In Editor or a packaged build with a locally controlled pawn and Olfactory Epithelium component.

Epic's Niagara plugin is required for this integration and is enabled automatically by the plugin descriptor.