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How to Get Started in VR Development

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** For '''royalty-free stock audio''', check out [[The Free Sound Project]], the [[#GameAudioGDC Bundle]], and the [[Oculus Audio Pack]].
** Check out Oculus's [[introduction to audio spatialization]] and the Oculus Connect talk [[3D Audio: Designing Sounds for VR]]
 
==4. Implement Interactivity==
After you've got a feel for the engine and have some artwork to use, the next hurdle is figuring out how you will add interactivity to your projects. I highly suggest first reading up about VR user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) principles -- otherwise your players might end up with achy eyes from poor stereoscopic rendering decisions, or even vomiting from motion sickness. Fortunately, these can be avoiding simply by avoiding locking text to the viewport, or by putting the player camera in a visible capsule (car, spacesuit, cockpit) during movement to reduce nausea. And if you plan to implement hand tracking, it's a good idea to focus on making everything as real as possible -- your research and prototyping will pay off with an impressive sense of presence.
==='''VR UI/UX Resources'''===
* Google's own '''[[Cardboard Design Lab]]''' is perhaps the fastest introduction to this subject.
* Google Developers - '''[[Google I/O 2015 Livefeed - Designing for virtual reality]]'''
* '''[[Research VR podcast]]''', which covers the developing VR industry and cognitive science, emphasizing the relationship between intentional design and conscious experience.
* Leap Motion's '''[[VR Design Best Practices]]''' article is full of thoughtful suggestions
* '''[[Mitch's VR Lab]]''', based on UE4, is a YouTube series many examples of UI programming and principles.
* Fuseman's '''[[Introduction to VR UI in Unity]]''' livestream tutorial, which explains concepts useful beyond Unity.
* '''[[UE4 HTC Vive - How to interact with a menu using Motion controllers]]''' on YouTube
* '''[[Five ways to reduce motion sickness in VR]]'''
 
This requires some kind of scripting language. Unreal Engine 4 has an intuitive, flowchart-like scripting system called '''Blueprint Visual Scripting''', and if you're not yet comfortable programming, this may be useful for you to get started. Check [[here]] for a general introduction to Blueprints. Blueprints are powerful enough to do entire projects without having to write a line of code (though you'll be using many programming concepts). Otherwise, both Unreal and Unity have a native programming language. For Unreal, it's '''C++''', and for Unity, it's '''C#'''. Many people who are aspiring VR devs have little to no programming experience, so this step can be particularly daunting. We want to help you get past this hurdle also, so we'll be updating this wiki with resources that will teach you the fundamental programming concepts needed for VR dev.
 
==5. Some final tips==
If you're a solo VR dev, remember, start small. There's time for more grandiose visions once you have a solid grasp of the fundamentals, so to begin with start with a project that you think is very simple. Even Pong has more to it than you would think at the first glance. Work at it step by step, once you have a few projects up your belt you'll be in a much better position to attack some more complex problems.
 
Feel free to ask questions on this subreddit, and post your beginner projects. It doesn't matter how scrappy you think it is, it will be helpful to other people who are trying to learn.
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