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Unreal Engine Will Soon Allow Developers To Build Games Inside of VR (roadtovr.com)

Posted by timothy on from the recursive-loop dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Epic Games, the creators of Unreal Engine, has been a longstanding supporter of VR. They were on board way back when Oculus sparked the VR industry in 2012 with a Kickstarter that would snowball into a rekindling of consumer virtual reality. Having been one of the first major game engines to support VR headsets like the Rift, the company has been aggressively positioning Unreal Engine as the go-to tool for VR developers. Now they're taking a massive next step, showing the first look at bringing developers themselves inside of virtual reality to craft games with the full set of UE4 tools at their fingertips. That means that developers can place and manipulate objects from right within a world in progress; the video demo in the linked story is impressive.

37 comments

  1. Sick by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Even watching the video made me sick. This ain't gonna work for the vast majority of people.

    1. Re:Sick by X0563511 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Watching someone else' head motions is never anything like it matching your own. Unless you've worn one, you can't speak to that with any basis in reality.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    2. Re:Sick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And it looks exhausting. Who's going to do that 8+ hours a day while a game is being developed?

    3. Re:Sick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the guy in the video had way too much coffee.

    4. Re:Sick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the post-minecraft world. It's what plants crave!

    5. Re:Sick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks like the natural evolution of Garry's Mod (Half-Life 3 confirmed for Unreal Engine?).
      The fanbois will love it, but real devs won't bother.

    6. Re:Sick by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      I have friends who get nauseous simply from the head bobbing in minecraft.

      There are a lot of people who get nauseous from VR.
      There are a lot of people who get headaches from VR.

      It's still a very real thing
      http://www.wired.com/2015/04/r...

      Unless you are a person that gets sick from VR or have formally studied it, I don't think you can speak to that with even as a good a basis in reality as the parent poster.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    7. Re:Sick by rtb61 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That short term use doesn't even touch the physiological impact of extended use, hours per day, days per week, weeks per year and of course years, as the likely very poor outcomes that would result. Most people don't even being to realise how tiring and painful it is to continuously bob and weave you head about for hours on end. It really does put paid to the idea of sitting back at the end of the day and gaming, phsyically not possible with VR unless you turn off motion detection and rely on hand controllers to do it instead and just use the VR display for immersion.

      It would make serious sense to produce base model immersion on VR displays, with no motion detection or anything else, just a plug in immersive 3D display, this for people who dislike the experience and motion sickness, people not interested in spending that kind of money (double plus saving, greater unit production significantly reduces cost per unit, this driven by a much cheaper unit generating the bulk of sales, especially if it manages a USB connection and the appropriate Android or Apple software) and people who just want to sit back or even lie back (possible to lie down in a comfortable bed gaming with no motion control VR). It would be silly to release just the high priced version without mentioning the impending future release of a budget 3D immersion version and appropriate controllers with smart phone connection and software.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    8. Re:Sick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > how tiring and painful it is to continuously bob and weave you head about for hours on end

      To me, as someone with osteochondrosis, that sounds like it could be less painful and even beneficial, than sitting still.

  2. My game will rule! by For+a+Free+Internet · · Score: 1, Funny

    In my game the player will have to move rocks around a place and beat on them with his or her fists. Then nothing will happen for a long time, then you will DIE! Farting is not allowed in my game.

    --
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    1. Re:My game will rule! by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      Farting is not allowed in my game.

      Farting will be in the day one DLC.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. Virtual reality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More like trivial reality. Are we entertaining ourselves to death while we decay?

    1. Re: Virtual reality? by Namarrgon · · Score: 2

      We've been doing that since we started painting on cave walls. Or was it enriching and educating ourselves? Up to you.

      --
      Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
    2. Re: Virtual reality? by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Rather, we've been doing that since the advent of television.

  4. Unreal Engine Virtual Reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ie, the Virtual Unreality Engine.

  5. Catching up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This isnt all that new in the 3D/VR world..

  6. Request by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Funny

    I want to take a photo of a room in my house and have it converted to VR, and then be able to style it and move furniture around.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    1. Re:Request by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see what you're up to.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JkIs37a2JE

    2. Re:Request by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      I want to take a photo of a room in my house and have it converted to VR, and then be able to style it and move furniture around.

      I want to take a photo of a room in my house and have it converted to VR, and then have a virtual Bella Thorne come and take her clothes off. And then be able to move furniture around.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:Request by volpe · · Score: 1

      If you said that four months ago, you'd be in trouble :).

    4. Re:Request by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      If you said that four months ago, you'd be in trouble :).

      I keep a special calendar, just for statutory purposes.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  7. VR sets are so heavy that they make my neck sore. by laserhead · · Score: 2

    I got some vr sets. One thing I don't like them is that they are too heavy for long time wearing. Wearing them make my neck sore. I wonder VR can't sell a lot unless they solve this problem.

  8. Wait a sec... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So that Virtual Reality Studio kit program i've been using in 1993 is a LIE!????????

  9. I don't get the point of VR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've used a VR head set. It worked fine (I had no issues at all with it at all), but I don't see the point. I just kept getting annoyed that I only had one axis (horizontal) of mouse look in the demo I played: I preferred mouse look to turning my head: its easier (less physical work, and much easier for high accelerations) and just as natural after all these years of using it. It felt no more immersive than a traditional graphics setup.

    Sure I get 6 degree of freedom manipulators are nice, but I don't see how they require VR.

    VR is nice for the wide FOV, but I can have that on my desk fine (I can game with a FOV > 90 degrees without issues). My desktop displays have more pixels than the VR head set anyway.

    I could see VR being more intuitive for a new user than other systems, but given that I'm already used to said other systems, but to me VR just seems like an overly skeuomorphic interface: it just seems pointless for experienced/power users of virtual worlds/computer graphics.

    1. Re:I don't get the point of VR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This.

      I'd personally just rather have a nice head-mounted display without all of the "immersion" bullshit. No sensors, no gyroscopes, nothing. Just screen+speakers+microphone.

      If you're going to have sensors, at least have the decency to make it NOT a non-standard steaming pile of crap. When I "look around", make the desktop clipping rectangle move around within the virtual desktop space. Don't do a bunch of fancy pseudo-3D stuff that induces vomiting. That's just asinine and won't cause me to pay money for your shitty product.

  10. Motion sickness by LittleBunny · · Score: 2

    This will be interesting. I have been developing for VR with Unity. I suspect motion sickness will be a real problem here. The video shows the dev walking around and manipulating objects, i.e. moving around in-game via walking around in the real world. That's fine, but when you zoom out and zoom around in the world without your body moving, that's when the nausea starts. Maybe one develops an immunity to it with time; maybe such an immunity will become an important thing for game developers to have.

    1. Re:Motion sickness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I once had a serious case of vertigo for a day or two in a game when I changed the way the camera worked so that the down-direction of the camera could be changed (imagine going from a predictable third-person camera to descent-style full 3D freedom).

      It seriously surprised me because I had built up this understanding of the way the game world worked and how I interpreted it after being a longtime user. But after a few days it was back to feeling normal again.

      I think the brain will adapt, there is definitely immunity to develop but the brain does adapt quickly, it may take a bit longer for full-VR immersion as it envelops our entire vision, but you will get over it.

    2. Re:Motion sickness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The vection problem can be resolved by having some sort of fixed grid in relation to the user that provides a stable frame of reference, and then you transform the world accordingly (translate, rotate, scale), the sensation you get as a result is the world moving like an object while you remain fixed in the same position. Quite comfortable.

  11. Ioquake3 did it first. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://ioquake3.org/

  12. Re: VR sets are so heavy that they make my neck so by newsdee · · Score: 1

    I wonder if it's worth hanging the VR set to the ceiling to hold part of the weight...

    --
    The ENIAC Demo Competition
  13. So 12 years on... by Chas · · Score: 1

    And they're FINALLY catching up to the City of Heroes base builder?

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
    1. Re:So 12 years on... by eggstasy · · Score: 1

      Or Second Life, or Active Worlds, or MUSH...

  14. 'developers' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    'developers'

  15. Unreal by Grindalf · · Score: 1

    I would like to see another episode of Unreal, it is such an eye catching game.

    --
    The purpose of existence is to make money.
  16. Facebook bought a lemon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Zucker realy screwed up on this one... this look like a headache system. Its way too much hastle for the average joe.

    Magicleap are more interesting... although they have proven nothing in realworld yet...

  17. Probably not that useful in the end by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Multiple monitors pretty much give you the same thing. VR is useful when you're working on something you can walk around, but since there's really no such thing as a natural walking controller that truly naturally emulates a space larger than your available playroom, it's not really sensible here. We already have tools for moving around 3d spaces that we're not actually in, and they work pretty well.

    A creature modeling tool that lets you work in a VR space is useful. A level modeling tool that does the same is a lot less so.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"