I guess I just don't understand what the problem is in enabling VR on current projects.

Development Platform & Builds XR Development
1

This just seems like everything is being made overly complicated when it comes to rendering to a VR device instead of a single monitor.

On a single monitor you need one camera’s view. So if we were to want to do a VR preview, why isn’t the engine simply taking our current camera and making two renderings–one slightly to the left and one slightly to the right of our current camera–to create the output? No height problems, no other issues that I can think of, and we get our perspective.

Also, as far as our HUD or widgets go for our non-vr games, it would be nothing to simply render the current widgets to some imaginary plane a set distance in front of the player’s eyes–all set by a single project setting variable.

Done. A non-VR designed game turned VR very simply, and all handled automatically by the engine. Games that require more than this can override this default behavior at their own will and implement whatever behavior they would require.

I’d love to make my game VR compatable, but I’m not going to spend the same amount of time I’ve spent developing it up to this point just to make it work the way that it should be able to work out-of-the-box by the engine.

Personally, after working with VR and my DK2, I find VR to be neat, but gimmicky. The cost of VR hardware is going to prohibit widespread adoption, and VR developers are only going to be creating content that other VR developers are going to use and appreciate.

As it stands right now, if I try to do a VR preview of my Labyrinth Larry, this is what I get:

Nevermind… Even after a reboot I still can’t upload this screenshot. Let me try making a screenshot of the screenshot:

d581746b85510a0aa9a598e44ecdece985a59461.jpeg
d581746b85510a0aa9a598e44ecdece985a59461.jpeg1461×848 207 KB

Okay, that worked. Anyway, thoughts? Answers? Opinions?

2

Technically, yes. Almost. In your screenshot I see 2D HUD elements that may cause nausea if seen through a HMD.

However, I think you are doing what most people do (even those who call themselves “VR Experts”): they confuse the technology (stereo headsets) with Virtual Reality. VR is so much more and every little thing in your game that reminds the player of being in a computer world breaks the VR experience. You need to design your game for VR from ground up.

That doesn’t mean it’s technically complicated - Epic took care of this, thankfully.

3

However, I think you are doing what most people do (even those who call themselves “VR Experts”): they confuse the technology (stereo headsets) with Virtual Reality. VR is so much more and every little thing in your game that reminds the player of being in a computer world breaks the VR experience. You need to design your game for VR from ground up.
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I understand completely what you’re saying here, and I can’t say I disagree with you. I do tend to generalize the VR term as a simple way of stating “Immersive 3D Experience” when true VR is much more than that with the content that is delivered. I’m not necessarily looking to deliver a true Virtual Reality product. However, I’d love to be able to add an Immersive 3D experience (Maybe we can term this I3D) without too much fuss on my side.

I also see what you’re saying about the HUD elements potentially being vomit inducing, especially if there are many (and they are animated) but, I’d still like the choice like I stated above. This would at least allow me to playtest different designs and ideas that would be compatible through both methods of delivery and then (if I feel it is necessary) make alternates and choose which is presented based on whether it’s a monitor or HMD.