Oculus VR apps with Unity

.YAML Quick start guides Oculus VR apps with Unity

How to build a Unity Oculus VR app with codemagic.yaml

Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies. It allows you to quickly create various types of applications and games and, in particular, it lets you design XR (AR or VR) experiences.

The process of building Oculus VR apps with Unity closely follows the steps for building a regular Unity Android project with a couple of extra steps.

This guide will illustrate all of the necessary steps to successfully build and publish an Oculus Unity VR app with Codemagic. It will cover the basic steps such as build versioning, code signing and publishing.

Prerequisites

Building Unity apps in a cloud CI/CD environment requires a Unity Plus or a Pro license. Your license is used to activate Unity on the Codemagic build server so the iOS and Android projects can be exported. The license is returned during the publishing step of the workflow which is always run except if the build is cancelled.
You can use Unity dashboard to check the number of free seats on your license or to manually return a seat if necessary.
You will also need an Oculus developer account. This account will be used to publish the built Unity app to the Oculus app release channel. You can sign up for the Oculus developer program here.
An Oculus app associated with your Unity VR app configured for new build uploads in release channels. To learn more about Oculus developer apps and release channels, check out the Oculus official docs.

Adding the app to Codemagic

The apps you have available on Codemagic are listed on the Applications page. Click Add application to add a new app.

If you have more than one team configured in Codemagic, select the team you wish to add the app to.
Connect the repository where the source code is hosted. Detailed instructions that cover some advanced options are available here.
Select the repository from the list of available repositories. Select the appropriate project type.
Click Finish: Add application

Creating codemagic.yaml

In order to use codemagic.yaml for build configuration on Codemagic, it has to be committed to your repository. The name of the file must be codemagic.yaml and it must be located in the root directory of the repository. Detailed explanation can be found here.

Tip You can find codemagic.yaml examples in Codemagic Sample Projects repository.

If you prefer to write your codemagic.yaml file from scratch, you can start with this minimal configuration.

workflows:
    sample-workflow:
        name: Codemagic Sample Workflow
        max_build_duration: 120
        instance_type: mac_mini_m2

Tip You can have more than one workflow in the same codemagic.yaml file. If you are building for both the Android and iOS, simply enter both workflows as:

workflows:
    android-workflow-id:
        name: Android Sample Workflow
        # .......    
        # .......
        # .......  
    ios-workflow-id:
        name: iOS Sample Workflow
        # ......

Scan for the codemagic.yaml file by selecting a branch to scan and clicking the Check for configuration file button at the top of the page. Note that you can have different configuration files in different branches.

Code signing

All applications have to be digitally signed before they are made available to the public to confirm their author and guarantee that the code has not been altered or corrupted since it was signed.

Generating a keystore

You can create a keystore for signing your release builds with the Java Keytool utility by running the following command:

keytool -genkey -v -keystore codemagic.keystore -storetype JKS \
        -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000 -alias codemagic

Keytool then prompts you to enter your personal details for creating the certificate, as well as provide passwords for the keystore and the key. It then generates the keystore as a file called codemagic.keystore in the directory you’re in. The key is valid for 10,000 days.

Uploading a keystore

Open your Codemagic Team settings, and go to codemagic.yaml settings > Code signing identities.
Open Android keystores tab.
Upload the keystore file by clicking on Choose a file or by dragging it into the indicated frame.
Enter the Keystore password, Key alias and Key password values as indicated.
Enter the keystore Reference name. This is a unique name used to reference the file in codemagic.yaml
Click the Add keystore button to add the keystore.

For each of the added keystore, its common name, issuer, and expiration date are displayed.

Note: The uploaded keystore cannot be downloaded from Codemagic. It is crucial that you independently store a copy of the keystore file as all subsequent builds released to Google Play should be signed with the same keystore.

However, keep the keystore file private and do not check it into a public repository.

Referencing keystores in codemagic.yaml

To tell Codemagic to fetch the uploaded keystores from the Code signing identities section during the build, list the reference of the uploaded keystore under the android_signing field.

Add the following code to the environment section of your codemagic.yaml file:

workflows:
  android-workflow:
    name: Android Workflow
    # ....
    environment:
      android_signing:
        - keystore_reference

Default environment variables are assigned by Codemagic for the values on the build machine:

Keystore path: CM_KEYSTORE_PATH
Keystore password: CM_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD
Key alias: CM_KEY_ALIAS
Key alias password: CM_KEY_PASSWORD

Configuring Unity license

Each Unity build will have to activate a valid Unity Plus or a Unity Pro license using your Unity email, Unity serial number and the Unity password.

You can add these as global environment variables for your personal account by navigating to Teams > Personal Account or team by navigating to Teams > Your Team Name and then clicking on Global variables and secrets. Likewise, you can add the environment variables at the application level by clicking the Environment variables tab.
Enter UNITY_EMAIL as the Variable name.
Enter the email address used with your Unity ID as Variable value.
Enter the variable group name, e.g. unity_credentials. Click the button to create the group.
Make sure the Secure option is selected.
Click the Add button to add the variable.
Repeat the steps to also add UNITY_SERIAL and UNITY_PASSWORD variables.

Add the unity_credentials variable group to the codemagic.yaml:

  environment:
    groups:
      - unity_credentials

Note: The UNITY_HOME environment variable is already set on the build machines.

On the macOS Unity base image UNITY_HOME is set to /Applications/Unity/Hub/Editor/2020.3.28f1/Unity.app.

Activating and deactivating the license

Activation

To activate a Unity license on the build machine, add the following step at the top of your scripts: section in codemagic.yaml:

  scripts:
    - name: Activate Unity license
      script: | 
        $UNITY_BIN -batchmode -quit -logFile \
          -serial ${UNITY_SERIAL?} \
          -username ${UNITY_EMAIL?} \
          -password ${UNITY_PASSWORD?}

Deactivation

To deactivate a Unity license on the build machine, add the following script step in the publishing: section in codemagic.yaml:

Linux instances
Mac M2 instances

  publishing:
    scripts:
      - name: Deactivate Unity License
      script: | 
        $UNITY_BIN -batchmode -quit -returnlicense -nographics

  publishing:
    scripts:
      - name: Deactivate Unity License
      script: | 
        /Applications/Unity\ Hub.app/Contents/Frameworks/UnityLicensingClient_V1.app/Contents/MacOS/Unity.Licensing.Client \
          --return-ulf \
          --username ${UNITY_USERNAME?} \
          --password ${UNITY_PASSWORD?}

Note: If a build is manually cancelled before reaching the publishing section, the license WILL NOT BE RETURNED automatically. This may cause future builds to fail if there are no free license seats available.

Visit Unity dashboard to manually deactivate license.

Creating a build script

You need to create additional build script to allow building and codesigning Unity projects in headless mode. Add a new file /Assets/Editor/Build.cs with the following content:

using System.Linq;
using System;
using UnityEditor;
using UnityEngine;

public static class BuildScript
{

    [MenuItem("Build/Build Android")]
    public static void BuildAndroid()
    {

        PlayerSettings.Android.useCustomKeystore = true;
        EditorUserBuildSettings.buildAppBundle = false;

        // Auto-set the version code using Codemagic's
        // current workflow index
        var versionIsSet = int.TryParse(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("NEW_BUILD_NUMBER"), out int version);
        if (versionIsSet)
        {
            Debug.Log($"Bundle version code set to {version}");
            PlayerSettings.Android.bundleVersionCode = version;
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.Log("Bundle version not provided");
        }

        // Set keystore name
        string keystoreName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("CM_KEYSTORE_PATH");
        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(keystoreName))
        {
            Debug.Log($"Setting path to keystore: {keystoreName}");
            PlayerSettings.Android.keystoreName = keystoreName;
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.Log("Keystore name not provided");
        }

        // Set keystore password
        string keystorePass = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("CM_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD");
        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(keystorePass))
        {
            Debug.Log("Setting keystore password");
            PlayerSettings.Android.keystorePass = keystorePass;
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.Log("Keystore password not provided");
        }

        // Set keystore alias name
        string keyaliasName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("CM_KEY_ALIAS");
        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(keyaliasName))
        {
            Debug.Log("Setting keystore alias");
            PlayerSettings.Android.keyaliasName = keyaliasName;
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.Log("Keystore alias not provided");
        }

        // Set keystore password
        string keyaliasPass = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("CM_KEY_PASSWORD");
        if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(keyaliasPass))
        {
            Debug.Log("Setting keystore alias password");
            PlayerSettings.Android.keyaliasPass = keyaliasPass;
        }
        else
        {
            Debug.Log("Keystore alias password not provided");
        }
        BuildPlayerOptions buildPlayerOptions = new BuildPlayerOptions();
        buildPlayerOptions.locationPathName = "android/android.apk";
        buildPlayerOptions.target = BuildTarget.Android;
        buildPlayerOptions.options = BuildOptions.None;
        buildPlayerOptions.scenes = GetScenes();

        Debug.Log("Building Android");
        BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer(buildPlayerOptions);
        Debug.Log("Built Android");
    }

    private static string[] GetScenes()
    {
        return (from scene in EditorBuildSettings.scenes where scene.enabled select scene.path).ToArray();
    }
}

Configuring Unity project settings

To begin with, make sure that when you first create your project, you start from the official Unity VR project template. This will automatically add various sample assets and global settings to your project.

Then, you need to check your build configuration so that the project uses Android as the build target. If it is not yet the case, click File > Build Settings, select Android in the Platform section and click on the Switch Platform button.

Then, click Edit > Project Settings and:

Click on the XR Plug-in Management tab and pick the Oculus option for the Android build.
Click on the Player settings tab.
Expand Other Settings and check the Override Default Package Name checkbox.
Enter the package name for your app, e.g. com.domain.yourappname.
Set the Version number.
Put any integer value in the Bundle Version Code. This will be overridden with the build script.
Set the Minimum API Level and Target API Level to Android 10.0 (API Level 29) (note that higher versions are not supported by Oculus at the moment).
In the Configuration section set Scripting Backend to IL2CPP.

Add a custom base Gradle template

You will need to add custom Gradle templates so your Android builds work with Codemagic.

Open Unity and File > Build Settings.
Make sure Android is selected in the Platform section.
Click on the Player Settings.
Expand the Publishing Settings.
Check the Custom Base Gradle Template.
Close the project settings and build settings.

Modify the base Gradle template

In the project explorer expand Assets > Plugins > Android.
Double click on baseProjectTemplate.gradle.
Replace the entire file contents with the following:

// GENERATED BY UNITY. REMOVE THIS COMMENT TO PREVENT OVERWRITING WHEN EXPORTING AGAIN

allprojects {
    buildscript {
        repositories {**ARTIFACTORYREPOSITORY**
            google()
            mavenCentral()
        }
        dependencies {
            // If you are changing the Android Gradle Plugin version, make sure it is compatible with the Gradle version preinstalled with Unity
            // See which Gradle version is preinstalled with Unity here https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/android-gradle-overview.html
            // See official Gradle and Android Gradle Plugin compatibility table here https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/gradle-plugin#updating-gradle
            // To specify a custom Gradle version in Unity, go do "Preferences > External Tools", uncheck "Gradle Installed with Unity (recommended)" and specify a path to a custom Gradle version
            classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.0.1'
            **BUILD_SCRIPT_DEPS**
        }
    }
    repositories {**ARTIFACTORYREPOSITORY**
        google()
        mavenCentral()
        flatDir {
            dirs "${project(':unityLibrary').projectDir}/libs"
        }
    }
}

task clean(type: Delete) {
    delete rootProject.buildDir
}

Build versioning

When publishing your app, each uploaded artifact must have a unique build version. Codemagic allows you to easily automate this process and increment the version numbers for each build. For more information and details, see here.

A simple way to automatically increment the build version is to use Codemagic built-in variables, such as BUILD_NUMBER - auto incremented number of builds for this project and workflow combination. The /Assets/Editor/Build.cs build script can use this environment variable to set the actual build number for the resulting .apk.

Building the app

Add the following scripts to your codemagic.yaml file in order to prepare the build environment and start the actual build process. In this step you can also define the build artifacts you are interested in. These files will be available for download when the build finishes. For more information about artifacts, see here.

  environment:
    #...
    vars:
      UNITY_BIN: $UNITY_HOME/Contents/MacOS/Unity
  scripts:
    - name: Activate Unity license
      script: #...
    - name: Set the build number
      script: | 
        export NEW_BUILD_NUMBER=$BUILD_NUMBER
    - name: Build the project
      script: | 
        $UNITY_BIN -batchmode \
          -quit \
          -logFile \
          -projectPath . \
          -executeMethod BuildScript.BuildAndroid \
          -nographics \
          -buildTarget Android
    artifacts:
      - android/*.apk

Publishing

Codemagic offers a wide array of options for app publishing and the list of partners and integrations is continuously growing. For the most up-to-date information, check the guides in the Configuration > Publishing section of these docs.

Email publishing

If the build finishes successfully, release notes (if passed), and the generated artifacts will be published to the provided email address(es). If the build fails, an email with a link to build logs will be sent.

If you don’t want to receive an email notification on build success or failure, you can set success to false or failure to false accordingly.

workflows:
  sample-workflow-id:
    environment: 
      # ...
    scripts: 
      # ...
    publishing: 
      email:
        recipients:
          - user_1@example.com
          - user_2@example.com
        notify:
          success: true
          failure: false

Oculus distribution

Meta Platforms Technologies provides several options for selling and distributing apps on their platform. To learn more about different options, please visit their official page.

To distribute your app to one of their stores, you can use the Oculus Platform Utility. This example will showcase distribution to the Meta Quest Store but you can find documentation on other available options in the official Oculus platform utility docs.

Configure Oculus credentials

Follow the official guide to obtain either a Oculus app ID / App secret combination or an Oculust user token.

You can add these as global environment variables for your personal account by navigating to Teams > Personal Account or team by navigating to Teams > Your Team Name and then clicking on Global variables and secrets. Likewise, you can add the environment variables at the application level by clicking the Environment variables tab.
Enter OCULUS_APP_ID as the Variable name.
Enter the corresponding value as Variable value.
Enter the variable group name, e.g. oculus_credentials. Click the button to create the group.
Make sure the Secure option is selected.
Click the Add button to add the variable.
Repeat the process to also add either the OCULUS_APP_SECRET or the OCULUS_USER_TOKEN variable.

Add the unity_credentials variable group to the codemagic.yaml:

  environment:
    groups:
      - oculus_credentials
    vars:
      OCULUS_RELEASE_CHANNEL: ALPHA

Publish the app

Add following script steps to the publishing: section in your codemagic.yaml file to download the Oculus Platform Utility tool and to upload your app to the store:

  publishing:
    scripts:
      - name: Deactivate License
        script: #...
      - name: Install Oculus CLI tools
        script: | 
          wget -O ovr-platform-util \
            "https://www.oculus.com/download_app/?id=1462426033810370&access_token=OC%7C1462426033810370%7C"
          chmod +x ./ovr-platform-util
      - name: Publish app on a Oculus test release channel
        script: | 
          ./ovr-platform-util upload-quest-build \
            --app_id $OCULUS_APP_ID  \
            --app_secret $OCULUS_APP_SECRET \
            --apk android/android.apk \
            --channel $OCULUS_RELEASE_CHANNEL

Note: If you are using Oculus user token to authenticate, replace the last script step with the following:

    - name: Publish app on a Oculus test release channel
      script: | 
        ./ovr-platform-util upload-quest-build \
        --app_id $OCULUS_APP_ID  \
        --token $OCULUS_USER_TOKEN \
        --apk android/android.apk \
        --channel $OCULUS_RELEASE_CHANNEL

Conclusion

Having followed all of the above steps, you now have a working codemagic.yaml file that allows you to build, code sign, automatically version and publish your project using Codemagic CI/CD. Save your work, commit the changes to the repository, open the app in the Codemagic UI and start the build to see it in action.

workflows:
  unity-oculus-workflow:
    name: Unity Oculus Workflow
    max_build_duration: 120
    environment:
      android_signing:
        - keystore_reference
      groups:
        - unity_credentials
        - oculus_credentials
      vars:
        UNITY_BIN: $UNITY_HOME/Contents/MacOS/Unity
        OCULUS_RELEASE_CHANNEL: ALPHA # <-- Put your release channel name here (cannot be "store" = Production)
    scripts:
      - name: Activate Unity License
        script: | 
        $UNITY_BIN -batchmode -quit -logFile \
          -serial ${UNITY_SERIAL?} \
          -username ${UNITY_EMAIL?} \
          -password ${UNITY_PASSWORD?}     
      - name: Set the build number
        script: | 
          export NEW_BUILD_NUMBER=$BUILD_NUMBER
      - name: Build the project
        script: | 
          $UNITY_BIN -batchmode \
            -quit \
            -logFile \
            -projectPath . \
            -executeMethod BuildScript.BuildAndroid \
            -nographics \
            -buildTarget Android
    artifacts:
        - android/*.apk
    publishing:
      scripts:
        - name: Deactivate License
          script: | 
            /Applications/Unity\ Hub.app/Contents/Frameworks/UnityLicensingClient_V1.app/Contents/MacOS/Unity.Licensing.Client \
              --return-ulf \
              --username ${UNITY_USERNAME?} \
              --password ${UNITY_PASSWORD?}
        - name: Install Oculus CLI tools
          script: | 
            wget -O ovr-platform-util \
              "https://www.oculus.com/download_app/?id=1462426033810370&access_token=OC%7C1462426033810370%7C"
            chmod +x ./ovr-platform-util
        - name: Publish app on a Oculus test release channel
          script: | 
            ./ovr-platform-util upload-quest-build \
              --app_id $OCULUS_APP_ID  \
              --app_secret $OCULUS_APP_SECRET \
              --apk android/android.apk \
              --channel $OCULUS_RELEASE_CHANNEL
      email:
        recipients:
          - user_1@example.com
          - user_2@example.com
        notify:
          success: true
          failure: false

Next steps

While this basic workflow configuration is incredibly useful, it is certainly not the end of the road and there are numerous advanced actions that Codemagic can help you with.

We encourage you to investigate Running tests with Codemagic to get you started with testing, as well as additional guides such as the one on running tests on Firebase Test Lab or Registering iOS test devices.

Documentation on using codemagic.yaml teaches you to configure additional options such as changing the instance type on which to build, or configuring builds to be automatically triggered on repository events.

Oculus VR apps with Unity

Prerequisites

Adding the app to Codemagic

Creating codemagic.yaml

Code signing

Generating a keystore

Uploading a keystore

Referencing keystores in codemagic.yaml

Configuring Unity license

Activating and deactivating the license

Activation

Deactivation

Creating a build script

Configuring Unity project settings

Add a custom base Gradle template

Modify the base Gradle template

Build versioning

Building the app

Publishing

Email publishing

Oculus distribution

Configure Oculus credentials

Publish the app

Conclusion

Next steps

Getting help and support