These are just a few things I’ve come up after since seeing various UE4 VR demos have come out over the past year, and struggling with a few things myself:
I am aware of Mitchmmc’s template, but I was hoping someone at Epic or Oculus might reading this be able to implement these things into UE4:
1. LB and RB and the Q key and E keys for “VR comfort mode” turning similar to how Unity has it by default (without having to use Mitchmmc’s template)
I wasn’t personally a huge fan of this mode at first, but it has really grown on me and I am experiencing less nausea having it as an option if I’m seated. Also, as it stands we can’t really use a swivel chair with the DK2 as there is a wire attached (unlike with GearVR)… Carmack even went as far as to referring to thumbstick turning as “VR poison”, so this seems relatively important as a default control scheme option. I know I could most likely look at what Mitch is doing and copy it over, but looking more for default implementation for other VR devs that aren’t using his template or aren’t aware of it.
2. Implement official VR templates from Epic(or Oculus) showcasing various VR game modes (space cockpit, fps, vehicle, stationary with UI elements), movement modes, perception of scale, vection, important depth cues (like aerial perspective), frames of reference, correct postprocessvolume settings, lighting, screenpercentage settings, and UI done right would be important things to showcase going forward. Couch knights and the Realistic Rendering demo just aren’t enough imo. I do realize for that list that first person games are not what Oculus are really shooting for, but people are going to do it anyway… so I think we might as well show them the best possible approach to it if it’s going to be done. I think there is no better way to do that than to have official VR template options from the start. Maybe it’s Oculus that needs to make these templates since they have done all of the research? I’m not really sure on that.
3. If making templates showcase the “right” and “wrong” way to do things, with a demo within the templates. So instead of reading only “Oculus Best Practices Guide” for reference, we could experience these things that are being talked about for ourselves.
I just don’t want what happened with the Dying Light game to happen to anyone else of couse there were many more issues with that: Virtual letdown: Dying Light shows the difficulties of first-person VR | Ars Technica
If we are going to make VR experiences from the ground up, we really need to be shown how to do it right from the get-go. I trust the best practices guide, but have no idea how to implement some of these things and feel Mitchmmc had the right idea for making that template, but that needs to be expanded on from an official souce.
Also side note, Couch knights no longer seems to work with 4.7 for some reason. (Has compiler errors) I would love to see this fixed as it was a very useful template for learning.