Mastering Oculus Rift Development

Book excerpt: Explore the new frontier of virtual reality with the Oculus Rift and bring the VR revolution to your own projects About This Book Create immersive 3D games especially designed for the Oculus Rift platform Build complex realistic virtual reality (VR) games with the Unity Engine Create striking VR environments with advanced graphical techniques Who This Book Is For This book is for aspiring indie developers and VR enthusiasts who want to bring their ideas into virtual reality with a new platform that provides an unprecedented level of realism and immersion. What You Will Learn Increase immersion with 3D audio and intuitive interfaces Create group VR experiences using multi-player networking Design fun and engaging mechanics that utilize VR principles Explore the best ways to navigate and interact using the Oculus Rift Design intuitive ways to navigate and interact with scenes in VR Add stunning realism to a scene with three-dimensional audio Invent mechanics and features that take full advantage of VR hardware In Detail Virtual reality (VR) is changing the world of gaming and entertainment as we know it. VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift immerse players in a virtual world by tracking their head movements and simulating depth, giving them the feeling that they are actually present in the environment. We will first use the Oculus SDK in the book and will then move on to the widely popular Unity Engine, showing you how you can add that extra edge to your VR games using the power of Unity. In this book, you'll learn how to take advantage of this new medium by designing around each of its unique features. This book will demonstrate the Unity 5 game engine, one of most widely-used engines for VR development, and will take you through a comprehensive project that covers everything necessary to create and publish a complete VR experience for the Oculus Rift. You will also be able to identify the common perils and pitfalls of VR development to ensure that your audience has the most comfortable experience possible. By the end of the book, you will be able to create an advanced VR game for the Oculus Rift, and you'll have everything you need to bring your ideas into a new reality. Style and approach This book takes a step-by-step tutorial approach with illustrative examples to help you implement the projects on your own. The book lets you first get to grips with the Oculus SDK and then moves on to the Unity Engine to add realistic graphics and features in your games.