My team has no experience developing VR games, but would like to try. We figured our first project should be something small, relatively simple, and most importantly, help us learn the do’s and don’ts of VR. There’s a lot of information on the internet about how you should develop VR games, what the best practices are, etc. and some of it is in conflict, which is why I decided the best way to figure this out is through testing. That is why our first VR game will be one which explores different ways to do things in VR.
The basic idea is to have a series of maps the player can go through which explore different aspects of VR. This game is mostly targeting other developers, though I could see others enjoying it as well. The different aspects will not be limited to simply mechanics either. I’d like to explore things like using parallax occlusion vs. geometry with micro-detail normal maps vs. a standard low-poly asset with typical normal maps. I’d like to answer questions like “how does this look in VR,” “which is better for performance,” and “what’s the best compromise between quality, performance, and ease of development.” I plan to do this with various types of lighting, tricks, and post processing effects.
This game will be released for free, along with the project files, and will be created using 4.25. Most of the assets will fall under the “don’t reuse our stuff” license (tbd), but things like blueprints and any code will be fair game. If we have time, we’d also like to make a version for the Oculus Quest considering the unique challenges that it presents.
At the end of the document, I’ll post a link to my current brainstorming page. It’s very much a rough draft, and actual development on this won’t happen until we’re done with our current project (hopefully a month or two), but what I’d like from you are suggestions on what you’d like to see explored, experiences you’ve had developing in VR, things you’ve learned and even things you’d like to learn.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I’ll keep everyone updated on the progress.