What Do I Need to Become a VR Developer? (VR Headsets, Apps, and Skills needed)

In AR/VR Development


What Do I Need to Become a VR Developer? (VR Headsets, Apps, and Skills needed) - read the full article about VR development, AR/VR Development and Augmented & Virtual Reality Solutions from Justin P Barnett - VR Game Dev on Qualified.One
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okay first off I am super excited that youre  interested in becoming a vr developer because it is so much fun and you get to learn so  many new skills and its such a cutting edge technology that its going to be huge soon in the  future very very soon and oh Im so excited that youre getting into it what do you need to get  into it how much is it going to cost you what kind of equipment do you need computers do you  need all that kind of stuff Im going to do my best to break it all down for you so lets get  into it first off vr touches so many different fields you have obviously programming you have  art 3d modeling animation all of the you know normal 3d game development kind of jobs that you  would have to do especially if youre going to just start out learning it youre probably not  going to have a big team or any team at all maybe just a couple friends if youre lucky to help  you out you need to learn all of these skills yourself but dont let me scare you off you dont  have to learn them perfectly you dont have to be amazing at them you just have to you know have  the basic concepts of it be able to get you know 70%-80% of the way there and then once you  start to touch all of these different areas you can start to niche down on a very specific  one that you like or that youre interested in that kind of thing but how do you start lets get  into some practical information the first thing I would tell you is to just try it dont even start  developing on it try vr get a headset or just use your phone get google cardboard I think its like  20 bucks maybe borrow your friends headset its super cool and you just have to have that first vr  experience and get into it play some of the games its super fun but its not for everybody it  is uh not for people who get motion sick easy I think its the greatest experience ever but if  you get motion sick easy you may not enjoy it you might not like the kind of interaction that vr  provides and it might not be for you so before you start developing games for it you need to  make sure that you like it okay but what headset Im going to list out a bunch and put them on the  screen and for all of the things that i mentioned theres also going to be links down in the  description that you can click on and go directly to the page for current pricing and all that  maybe youve tried it and youve borrowed your friends headset now you want to get more into  it and you want to get your own headset theres some different options you can choose theres the  cheap options which use your phone and its just mounted to your head and a like a just a mounting  device its not an actual device its more of just a mounting platform and then your phone does all  of the actual computing power and all that kind of stuff these are going to be the google cardboard  the google daydream and then also the gear vr by oculus a middle ground option which is actually  I might argue the best option for anyone including people who want to get really into vr development  and make it a career is the oculus quest 2 that just came out for vr headsets it is super  affordable it does not need a computer its standalone and its probably the best tech out  there on the market right now and then if youre looking to go a little more premium and you have  a good pc that you can plug into these headsets might be the option for you there is the oculus  rift s which is the one that i use and then there is the HTC Vive that may be my next vr headset  after you get a headset and get a couple games play around start to like it youre going  to want to start to make your own games and the main thing that you need for that is a game  engine theres two huge competitors for this space right now it is unity which I use and there is  unreal engine which I have dabbled in a little bit and its actually really good unreal engine  is geared more towards very good looking games like AAA quality looking games the reason I chose  unity though is because Im already proficient in c sharp and thats the primary language for  unity whereas unreal engine uses c plus or they have a visual scripting language called  blueprints which is actually pretty cool and good for people who arent super into coding and  programming and dont know the actual code its super easy to just drag and drop if statements  and all these complex functions and whatnot its very easy to visualize so if youre not super into  the coding side of things I might suggest going with unreal engine this is a huge topic and Im  gonna make a dedicated video about unity versus unreal or other game engines just know that this  is highly debated and really just pick one youll learn it and youll get good at it eventually  youre gonna suck at either one whenever you start so just pick one and start playing around with it  when you get into these game engines youre going to want to learn the game engine first not vr vr  is taking the game engine and game development and taking it to a whole other level youre going  to want to get in learn how to do first person shooter style games because thats probably  the most similar content that vr is some great resources for that are Brackeys YouTube channel  hes absolutely amazing he doesnt put out videos anymore but the videos that are up there right now  are absolutely incredible two other resources for vr specific tutorials are vellum vallum i dont  know how to pronounce his YouTube channel but its up on the screen hes a great resource and  also vr with Andrew Ive found his tutorials to be very good with the programming side of things  and how stuff works and I love his approach to his tutorials and then also me of course if you uh  stick around I will be putting out lots of content in the future here comes the hard part for me its  the art side of things I can do all the coding very well I know thats just how my brain works  thats what I do professionally I can know how I want to design something in a game aspect of how I  want to achieve a goal and then I can also program the mechanics very well but the art side of things  is very difficult for me if youre an artist and youre good at that kind of stuff then blender is  a very good free option and theres also 3ds max and there is Maya both of those are from AutoDesk  and they cost a decent amount theyre professional 3d creation software so theyre pretty pricey but  blender is amazing theres tons of tutorials out there about that but if youre not good at art and  3d modeling and hard surface modeling and anything like that then there are plenty of assets that you  can purchase or theres plenty of assets for free that you can use in your game so youre going to  want a character youre going to want sets youre going to want the outdoors props all theres  tons of stuff that you want to put in your game and modeling it takes forever takes a long time  unless so unless youre really passionate about it I suggest just getting some free assets and then  once you start to get good you can start to pay for some better assets that you can use in games  that you actually start to sell there is of course the asset stores for unity and unreal both of  these have a lot of options for these kinds of assets and theres also some good external  sites there is Turbo Squid, Free3d, CG Trader, and Sketchfab are ones that Ive found that have  some pretty good quality assets that you can get or if you just want to go very bare bones and  not even use an external software unity has a software thats built in called pro builder that  you can use and its super easy to just prototype levels with that and you can do a very very  small amount of 3d modeling there just for like placeholder props the next step is audio and  if youre musically inclined you already know way more than I do audio is my worst thing if  you thought I was bad at 3d modeling audio is just its not theres nothing there the two places  I use for this are free sound and epidemic sound you can get a lot of good tracks from there and  its easy to find some ambient music sound effects and just stuff to go into your game for more of a  polish effect audio is a thing that really comes towards the end once youve started to hone  in the project and then last but not least make some projects go ahead and start these  are all the tools that you need you need the game engine you are going to need some 3d assets  and youre going to need some audio and once you have all of those you can start to make some  vr games start watching some tutorials follow some tutorials dont go down the tutorial spiral  youll get stuck there and youre just gonna be watching tutorials and not learning anything  and not getting any better watch a few tutorials get the basics and then go off and make your own  thing go start small but just go ahead and start watch the bowling devlog that I did where I just  completely botched making bowling in vr because Im learning and I just thought oh bowling will be  easy and itll be cool but like along the way when i was doing the game I actually learned like oh  okay this is another thing that goes into making a vr game that I didnt think about at first  so its things like that thatll come up when youre building a project on your own not  following a tutorial where you have to use your brain and think oh well how do I fit this piece  together or how do I accomplish this thing that I wanted to do and youll go off and look at  other tutorials to do that specific thing and your understanding of vr game development will  happen a whole lot faster than if you were just following tutorial after tutorial after tutorial  thats my advice just go ahead and start break things small projects just get some stuff under  your belt and then you can start to uh release projects and publish it Ive found that filming  helps me a ton with learning because I have to learn it myself first and then I have to write a  script about it and then I usually will find that when Im filming it I dont actually understand it  so I have to go back and relearn it and it really cements the understanding that I have so thats  just another tool that I use to help me learn this kind of stuff so let me know what helps you please  subscribe if youre into these kinds of tutorials or talks hang out in the comments section we have  a super super good comment section throw your ideas out there ask questions Im always about and  i will answer every single comment that you post and be there for any questions that you have  so reach out and Ill see you in the next one

Justin P Barnett - VR Game Dev: What Do I Need to Become a VR Developer? (VR Headsets, Apps, and Skills needed) - AR/VR Development