You’re interested in Virtual Reality (VR) development. What’s the best way to get started?

Lots of great platforms there, like Oculus, HTC Vive. But first think of what you want to achieve: what kind of experiences do you want to build? VR games? Then what are your favorite games?

First hurdle - choosing the VR battlefield! Headsets, controllers, fancy gloves... each device brings unique strengths and demands. Popular platforms like Oculus or Vive all have their own SDKs, basically dev toolkits. Budget, target audience, and project goals are key factors. Picking the right platform is like picking the perfect game engine - it sets the foundation for an epic VR experience!

There are many hardware options to make games for, and it is important to try some hardware and software to get used to VR. The interactions feel very different compared to flat screen games and apps. To experience this see what is available to you. Even if you just get a cheap Google cardboard to see some 3DoF environments, it can give you an idea of what is possible. If possible, get a cheap VR headset. The Quest 2 is very cheap now, especially on the used market. This headset has almost all the VR features you might need for development, with maybe the exception of expensive eye tracking. Once you got the hardware, take a look at which software to use, which is talked about further in this article.

To begin, understand the necessary experience, skills, and projects related to VR development. Choosing a relevant VR platform, including Oculus and Google Cardboard, demonstrates your commitment to learning and staying updated in the field of virtual reality.

Google Cardboard is a great start as if you have a Android phone, you already have the most important part to test your app. No need to buy an expensive Quest headset, just use your phone. Though be careful, Google stopped Cardboard in 2021, so it's now in 2024 not that easy to start. Godot Engine has Cardboard support, but only before the Godot 4.0 release which was rewritten from scratch and dropped Cardboard support (it's being reimplemented back through OpenXR libraries but at this time not fully yet). Also, Cardboard on latest supported version, Godot 3.6, is using old deprecated libraries with poor performances. If you want to go with Unreal Engine, you will need a paid plugin priced 299$. Or use Unity but be careful with the license.

Vital that you learn Unity or Unreal. And once you get your certification, the bet way to learn is by starting out with small projects, your own or others, and check their feedback and rating carefully.

Game engines allow you to quickly make immersive and interactive content. It brings together input handling, graphics, audio, coding, world building, and a lot more into one package. There are 3 engines I recommend looking into. The first is Unity, which is very extensible and has the best XR support from my experience. Unity also has the biggest VR developer community. The second is Unreal, which has great graphics, especially when combined with a powerful PC. The third is Godot, which is free and open source. It is good to get started, but has a smaller community. To get started there are many free tutorials on YouTube. Start with something simple, like a game where you throw an object onto a target.

Hmmm When diving into VR development, choosing the right gaming engine is crucial. Consider factors like ease of use, compatibility with VR devices, community support, and your own programming skills. Unity and Unreal Engine are popular choices, each with its strengths. Unity is beginner-friendly and versatile, while Unreal offers high-end graphics and lots of free market place high demand assets and robust VR tools. Evaluate both to see which aligns best with your project goals and skill level.

Research and choose an engine that best fits your needs, skill level, and the type of games you want to create. With this, it is important to study fundamental game development principles such as game design, game mechanics, level design, and user experience. One of the most effective ways to learn a game engine is to work on projects that interest you. Notably, hands-on experimentation is key to gaining a deeper understanding of how game engines, including Unity and Unreal Engine, work and what they can do.

Certainly Unity and Unreal are the two main players. In addition to the code to learn, pay attention to the visual prototyping and development tools - Unity Visual Script and Unreal Blueprint.

One of the best ways to learn is by watching the tutorials, even those on Linkedin or coursera, lots of free options out there, and take the documentation and exercises from there and try them out before playing around with projects.

Consider enrolling in online courses, workshops, and tutorials specifically designed to teach game development using the game engine you're learning. Many platforms offer structured learning paths, video tutorials, and interactive exercises that can help you learn more efficiently and effectively.

Surely it is worth taking any courses that are available to you with the understanding of what they will bring you? It will be a skill, an understanding of the process, a portfolio, an opportunity to be part of a community. Always show and share the results as you go along. Even at the level of low detail prototypes and concepts. This will motivate you to keep working.

For VR development, start with online tutorials and courses tailored to your chosen gaming engine. Websites like Udemy, Coursera, and YouTube offer comprehensive courses covering VR fundamentals, interaction design, and platform-specific techniques. Look for courses with hands-on projects to apply what you learn. Additionally, explore community forums and VR companies website like www Darulsolutions.com for additional guidance and support as you progress in your VR development journey.

The best way to learn VR (or game) development on your own is YouTube and other free content. There are many great guides on how to get started, and even on how to do more advanced things. Because of these free tools, I generally recommend not taking any paid courses/certifications. Maybe this helps further along the way, but if you are motivated you do not always need this. Some engines even have their own free learning environment, like Unity Learn (which even has a VR pathway I highly recommend!). For any questions about the learning process, you can join Discord servers or forums for the chosen engine, with a big community to support you.

New tools are constantly emerging to make a VR designer's life easier. The most important thing is to design for interaction in space, not on the plane of the screen. Also, in one way or another, document and record your result in the form of documentation to pass on to your colleagues an understanding of how mechanics, animation, and the logic of interaction with the environment and objects work

To experiment in coding and prototype development for VR, begin with simple projects to grasp basic concepts. Utilize tools like Unity's VR development kit or Unreal Engine's VR templates. Start by creating basic interactions like grabbing objects or moving around in virtual space. Gradually incorporate more complex features like physics simulations or multiplayer functionality. Experimentation is key; don't be afraid to try new ideas and iterate on your prototypes to refine your skills and understanding of VR development.

Once you got your certifications its time for playing around. Think of some simple projects, build them, look up your errors, and then start doing projects for other people.

Once you are a little comfortable with the engine it is important to experiment a lot. This is especially nice since VR is still relatively new, and has a lot of untapped potential. Get a good starting point, usually made by using a sample project with easy-to-use components. Then start to make small tweaks to this project. Change some small values to see how that feels, and really try to understand what makes the interaction feel good or bad. After that start adding your small tweaks to the interactions or environment and start making the project your own. If you are already good with programming you also can build up your own system of course.

To learn new skills I usually follow these 5 steps: - download a sample project. - make a build (try to fix errors if any). - play with it. - try to understand the code. - design a new simpler project to see if you understood things correctly.

Stay updated with the latest developments in the game engine community by following official blogs, newsletters, and social media channels. Continuous learning and adaptation are essential for staying relevant in the rapidly changing field of VR.

Join a community or agency as a junior developer first, and meet other developers to discuss job opportunities, and especially the developer conferences to see whats out there.

VR (/game) development has a huge community with many great people. This is something which really connects the community. You can easily talk to these people on forums or Discord servers. Most, if not all, game engines have their own forum and Discord server to join, with a lot of active people sharing their content and helping everyone out. If possible also try to connect with people IRL, by joining local meetups or industry events.

The answer to this question is very different depending on where the starting point is for the individual. I would suggest in all cases, go and find people to talk to, try out the various headsets and solutions that are out there, experience as many use cases and examples of VR that you can whether gaming, training or collaborative spaces. The next steps depend on your skillset. If you can't code, but want to code, then learn! Plenty of tutorials out there, but Unity/Unreal Engine would be good starting points and a good grounding. If you can code, then seek a role within a suitable size organisation to work with others, or just get developing to test them out. Success is built on failure, so go and make mistakes, but learn from them.

?????????? ?????? ?????????????? ???? ?????????????????????? ????????????: While understanding technical aspects and user experience is essential, delve into the intricacies of interaction design in VR. Interaction design focuses on how users engage with virtual environments, objects, and interfaces. Explore innovative ways to incorporate gestures, hand movements, and spatial interactions to enhance user immersion and engagement. Experiment with haptic feedback, object manipulation, and responsive environments to create compelling and intuitive user interactions. By mastering interaction design principles specific to VR, you can craft immersive experiences that captivate users and push the boundaries of virtual reality.

VR development could look a lot more different from the perspective of an organisation that is looking to explore, adopt or even build applications externally. I would suggest starting off with learning some basics about the space, finding existing use cases and trying as many experiences as possible - you will learn what is possible, what you like and don't like and most importantly, what business challenges in your company could be solved with the use of immersive technologies. Start small, but don't forget to think about the bigger picture, because once you build a prototype and prove its feasibility to your company, you don't want to be in a situation where you don't know where to go from there. Think about scale & sustainability.