Getting Started in VR #
Original document by Mindy:
Last year I did a VR project in CS210 with Unreal Engine, and thought that I would share some thoughts and tips with you guys to get you started.
Demos #
| Title | Link | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Oculus Demos repository | https://share.oculus.com/ | The definitive VR experiences and demos repository from Oculus. |
| Elite Dangerous | https://www.elitedangerous.com/ | A space exploration video game with a great VR experience. Costs $45. |
Things to think about #
- what sort of approaches to games/experiences might work for your project?
- What are some common/different control interfaces/menus/UI that the demos use? What works better or worse?
- what hasn’t been done/done well? What can you bring to the table?
- There are also loads of other VR demos available - if you want to see if a kind of demo exists just Google it and you’ll probably turn something up.
- Also check out Cardboard demos on Google Play (I recommend VRSE) to see what sort of things are happening in the non-gaming/low-end space.
VR best practices #
- Google - http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053288/3-tips-on-designing-for-vr-from-google, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr.cardboard.apps.designlab
- Unreal - https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Platforms/VR/ContentSetup/index.html
- Oculus - https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/intro-vr/latest/concepts/bp_intro/
- Search for “VR best practices for [insert company/device/controller]” and you’ll probably unearth a ton of stuff
Unreal Engine tutorials #
- Unreal has a really good YouTube series where a developer sits there and shows you how to make a demo. This was by far the most helpful way to get me oriented.
- LayoutVR has good walkthrough guides
- You can go read the official Unreal Engine guides too
- Unreal has a steep learning curve if you’ve never done game dev before, so make sure you allocate a lot of time to learning it!
Controllers #
- This is still a huge pain point in VR, and likely the bottleneck to what you can accomplish.
- Oculus Touch is probably your best bet if you can get your hands on it
- Razer Hydra/Sixense STEM or the Kinect are other good
- But really, try to find all your possible options. If the controller is not exactly commercially available yet, don’t be afraid to ask for a prototype. You won’t believe how willing people are to work with you once you drop the Stanford/Unreal/Facebook/Oculus name.
Mindy’s team’s work from last year #
- https://unrealvr.wordpress.com/
- I’ve also done stuff on the Cardboard and some product research on the space in general. Feel free to ask me any questions!
There is a LOT of information to just absorb if you’re completely new to the space.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed is normal, just be tenacious, ask tons of questions and keep on reading!