Resources created to help you effectively gather together materials that will support the preservation of an immersive media experience.
Immersive media can make use of complex systems of interconnected software. To support the preservation of immersive media, it is useful to gather and individual archive these components so that they can be preserved independently of any specific installation. Archiving is here only described to the extent of bit-level preservation. A deeper look at preservation strategies can be found in Preservation Resources.
This page describes the process for extracting an XR runtime as a contained unit of software, so that it can be archived independently of a computer system.
XR runtime are often distributed using front-end tools that carry out downloading and installation in the background (e.g. SteamVR is downloaded through Steam). This makes it harder to extract and archive them for reuse in the future. This page describes the process of extracting different XR runtimes for independent archiving.
Oculus Runtime 0.8.0 (dating from 2017) is currently available to download from the Oculus website: .
For later versions you are dependent on the to install and manage the runtime. After installation, the runtime can be found in C:\Program Files\Oculus - still to be tested whether this directory can be copied to a new machine, but seems unlikely.
These instructions are adapted from Valve's of SteamVR. While this method allows you to extract a standalone copy of the SteamVR runtime, the version available through Steam cannot be controlled.
1. Either a) Install and open the on a PC with full internet access or b) Access a computer which already has the appropriate version of Steam installed.
2. In the Steam Client, open the Library section and find the part of it labeled "Tools".
3. Find the entry "SteamVR" and install it.
4. Right-click on the entry "SteamVR" and in the resulting popup menu click on the entry "Properties".
5. A new window with multiple tabs will open. Select the tab "LOCAL FILES" and click on the button labeled "BROWSE LOCAL FILES".
6. The directory containing the SteamVR Runtime will open. Copying this entire directory will encapsulate the files required to run SteamVR on another computer. From this directory, SteamVR can be launched by running the "vrstartup.exe" executable file in "\SteamVR\bin\win64".
This page describes the process for archiving a Unity 5 project and its dependencies on Windows, so that it can be preserved independently of a specific computer system.
Work in progress!
One way of preparing for the preservation of an application made in Unity 5, is to archive the project files associated with it. Executable software is created from a Unity project by exporting an application that supports the target platform. By archiving an Unity project, we aim to gather together all the materials required to carry out to repeat this build process. This opens up options for incremental migration to new versions of Unity, and the modification of code to support other hardware and software platforms.
To build an Unity project, you need the following components, guidance on the archiving of which is provided on this page:
Project folder: the collection of custom Unity content and project files
Unity Editor: software which allows you to open and edit a Unity project folder
Dependencies: any additional software not included with the engine binaries or project by default e.g. libraries, modules
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The Unity Editor software can be installed using the Unity Hub software or from the intallers distributed via the Unity Download Archive.
Before proceeding, you will need to identify the version of the Unity Editor the project was created with. To do so, navigate to the ProjectSettings folder within the project folder and open the file named ProjectVersion.txt (tested in 2018.3.9).
1. Install Unity Hub on a suitable computer and navigate to the Installs tab.
2. Click Install Editor and select the appropriate editor version. If the appropriate version is not available, you will need to install it use the Unity Download Archive method.
You may also wish to install additional modules to improve build support.
3. Return to the previous Installs tab, click on the cog icon next to the Editor entry you wish to archive, and click on Show in Explorer.
4. In the Window which opens, you will be looking inside the application directory for the Unity Editor version. This folder can be archived and used to access the Editor independently of the Unity Hub installer.
There are two common ways of extending the functionality of Unity which you may find have been used: Modules and Packages.
Modules extend core features, and includes options to build for non-Windows platforms. Unfortunately, if any non-standard modules have been used by the project your only option is to use the Unity Hub application to download and install these.
Packages are handled by the Unity package manager module and are included in the project folder once they have been added.
This page describes the process for archiving an Unreal Engine 4 project and its dependencies, so that it can be archived independently of a computer system.
One way of preparing for the preservation of software made in Unreal Engine 4 (UE4), is to archive the project files used to create it. While it is the executable form of the software (or 'build') which is used to run it, archiving the source form of the software opens up more preservation options such as:
Creation of new builds which support different platforms and environments;
Incremental migration to new versions of Unreal Engine 4;
Migration to a new engine should this become necessary.
Additionally, source materials can contain rich technical history and support an understanding of how the software was developed.
As a rule of thumb, you want to have all the materials required to repeated the process of building the software. To build an Unreal Engine 4 project, you need the following components:
Project folder: the collection of custom Unreal Engine 4 content and project files;
Engine binaries: the editor software which allows you to open the project;
Dependencies: any additional software not included with the engine binaries by default e.g. plugins, libraries.
A sensible approach is therefore to archive all these components either independently or in the form of a disk image. Each component type, including how you can locate it, is described in detail below.
An Unreal Engine 4 project folder is a collection of files conforming to a specific directory structure — more information on this format can be found in our introduction to Unreal Engine 4.
The archive this, the supplier will need to send you a copy of this complete directory. The contents of this directory should look something like the screenshot below:
One interesting thing to note is that this can include assets and other materials that are not used by the built application. This can make the project files larger, but also provides historical insight into the way it was created. If the creator of the project files offer to 'clean them up' before supplying them, you may wish to advise them against that.
Project files can include hundreds or even thousands of files, so as a final step you may wish to ZIP them for convenience and reduced stored size.
To open an Unreal Engine 4 project you need an appropriate version of the Unreal Engine 4 editor. To avoid errors, you should use the editor version in which the project original developed. If you use a newer version, Unreal Engine will present a warning and give you a choice of whether to proceed or not. There is a chance you can open the project successfully, but doing so may break or change things, so do so very carefully and always using a duplicate copy.
You can download prebuilt UE4 binaries using the Epic Games Launcher. Once installed, the engine version can be located in your UE4 install directory and zipped for archiving.
Alternatively, you can build binaries from the source code on GitHub (this is a private repository and you will need to request access prior to use). See also the Binary Builder tool https://github.com/ryanjon2040/Unreal-Binary-Builder.
If the project involves a modified version of UE4, you will also need to archive a copy of the source code. Archiving the source code of the engine version used can also be a generally useful thing to have, as it can hold useful information for future preservation work.
For a project using a modified source code, the creator should be able to supply this or advise on where it can be found. For unmodified UE4 source code, this can be pulled from the Unreal Engine repository on GitHub: https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine. This is a private repository, so you will need to request access and link to an Epic Games account before being able to access it — see the official instructions.
Sometimes additional dependencies are required to open or build a UE4 project successfully.
Plugins are extensions to Unreal Engine 4's functionality. They can be installed from the within the engine or manually. There are two default locations for plugins:
Unreal Engine install location: /[UE4 Root]/Engine/Plugins/[Plugin Name]/
Project folder: /[Project Root]/Plugins/[Plugin Name]/
You need to make sure that any required plugins have been installed and archived with either the project files or engine binaries.
If a UE4 project involves custom C++ code, you will need to install the appropriate version of Microsoft Visual Studio (e.g. 4.27 requires Visual Studio 2019 to build such project for Windows).
