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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Unreal Engine 4 for virtual reality game design, development, User Experience design techniques and Blueprint programming to create virtual reality gameplay for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PSVR, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
Key Features
- Build VR games from scratch with the power of Unreal Engine 4
- Learn User Experience design practices to take your VR game to the next level
- Understand the best practices to creating art for games on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and PSVR
Book Description
With the ability to put players directly in the game, virtual reality gives users the chance to experience digital worlds directly. Nevertheless, many designers are unsure where to start when working with this amazing technology.
With this book, you will learn user experience design processes and create immersive gameplay experiences designed for entertainment and player comfort. Using the power of Unreal Engine 4's Blueprint visual scripting language, you will build player interaction and locomotion systems from scratch and use these flexible systems to create a sample game, as well as develop functional 2D and 3D user interfaces for players to interact with. And also learn the best practices for creating game art for virtual reality. Finally, you will learn how to test your application with your target audience and finalize your game for distribution.
By the end of this book, you will have the knowledge to be able to make the leap from traditional game development to creating immersive virtual reality experiences using Unreal Engine 4.
What you will learn
- Understand how to get started with VR development in Unreal Engine 4
- Design and create interaction and locomotion systems from scratch
- Plan and program a sample game for VR
- Understand how VR affects user experience and user interfaces
- Discuss what is needed to create optimized art for VR
- Test your game with users and prepare for distribution
Who this book is for
The audience for this book is intermediate or advanced users of Unreal Engine 4 but who have not begun working with VR technology. These users are familiar with the game engine and have an interest in VR technology. They are just beginning to explore the VR features that the game engine has to offer.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 231
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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Unreal Engine Virtual Reality Quick Start Guide
Copyright © 2019 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Commissioning Editor: Kunal ChaudhariAcquisition Editor: Siddharth MandalContent Development Editor: Smit CarvalhoTechnical Editor: Leena PatilCopy Editor: Safis EditingProject Coordinator: Pragati ShuklaProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer: Pratik ShirodkarGraphics: Alishon MendonsaProduction Coordinator: Saili Kale
First published: February 2019
Production reference:1260219
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78961-740-5
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Contributors
About the author
Jessica Plowman is a game designer and educator who currently resides in the United States. At an early age, she discovered her love for video games and the joy they bring to others. She began teaching students about game development in 2005 and enjoys supporting the dreams of the next generation of developers. She has worked with Unreal technology for over 10 years, and currently teaches students game technology and game design in Sarasota, Florida. When not teaching, she consults on different topics related to Unreal technology and continues to further her education by researching best practices related to both teaching and game development.
About the reviewer
Deepak Jadhav is a game developer based in Pune, India. Deepak received his BSc in computer technology and MSc in game programming and project management. Currently, he is working as a game developer in a leading game development company in India. He has been involved in developing games on multiple platforms, including PC, macOS, and mobile. With years of experience in game development, he has a strong background in C# and C++, as well as the skills he has built up on platforms including Unity, the Unreal Engine, and augmented and virtual reality.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Unreal Engine Virtual Reality Quick Start Guide
Dedication
About Packt
Why subscribe?
Packt.com
Contributors
About the author
About the reviewer
Packt is searching for authors like you
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
Introducing VR Technology in Unreal Engine 4
Why use Unreal Engine 4 for VR?
What types of VR Technology are available to developers?
Room-scale VR
Seated VR
Mobile VR
Pros and cons of popular VR headsets
HTC Vive
Minimum hardware requirements
Oculus Rift + Touch
Minimum hardware requirements
Windows Mixed Reality headset
Minimum hardware requirements
Samsung Gear VR
Limitations of VR
Introducing our sample project – Server 17
Summary
Locomotion, Design, and Starting Our Project
The Human-Centered Design process
Choosing our locomotion method
Natural locomotion
Artificial locomotion
Cockpit locomotion 
Physical locomotion
Setting up new game files in UE4
Project setup
Creating our custom Game Mode
Creating a GameState
Creating a custom PlayerPawn
Programming our custom PlayerPawn
Summary
Exploring Riveting Gameplay in Virtual Reality
What does VR bring to video games?
Popular gameplay mechanics
Shooter experiences
Action/adventure experiences
Vehicle experiences
Physics-based experiences
Puzzle experiences
Rhythm experiences
Educational experiences
Designing the gameplay for Server 17
Adding the hand functionality
Building the teleportation
The server – Building the puzzle box
Building the first tool station
Building the Timer
Summary
User Interface and User Experience inside VR
What is UX design?
User interfaces in VR
Designing the UI elements for Server 17
Displaying the level timer
Redesigning the tool experience
Summary
Creating Optimized Game Art for VR in UE4
Performance is key
Artistic limitations in VR
Static and skeletal mesh limitations
Material limitations
Lighting limitations
Visual Effects (VFX) limitations
Performance-boosting techniques
Static and skeletal mesh techniques
Material techniques
Lighting techniques
Visual effects techniques
Measuring ingame performance
Summary
Finalizing Our VR Game and Next Steps
The importance of game testing
Collecting testing data
Usability testing 
Card sorting
Expert review
Preparing for distribution
Summary
Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think
Preface
For many of us developers, Virtual Reality (VR) represents a relatively untapped market for unique games that take advantage of an amazing new technology. VR has the ability to drop our players directly into our digital worlds and provide them with an experience they cannot get anywhere else. However, the skills that are needed to adopt this new technology and create these worlds are not yet widespread and easy to come by. Our goal is to change this and help spread the word about the power of VR.
Epic Games has been a long-time supporter of VR. Over the last several versions, Unreal Engine 4 has expanded its support for VR and continues to optimize its software to allow more developers to do amazing things. On the hardware side of things, both the number of manufacturers and the capabilities of the VR headsets on the market continue to increase. Many developers are making apps for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, though there are several other options to choose from, including PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR, and Windows Mixed Reality Headsets.
Whichever you choose, this book can help you on your journey of working with VR. Over the course of the book, we will look at how to design for VR. We will program flexible interaction systems for this unique environment, create user interface elements, and discuss the specific game art needs of the medium. Finally, we will wrap up with a game prototype and prepare it for distribution.
Who this book is for
This book is written for the intermediate to advanced user of Unreal Engine 4 with an interest in working with VR technology. These users are familiar with the game engine, but have not yet explored how to create games and applications in VR.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introducing VR Technology in Unreal Engine 4, will give you a solid introduction to VR technology in Unreal Engine 4 and to the types of virtual reality hardware that are available on the market today. We discuss the current limitations of the hardware and introduce you to our sample project, Server 17.
Chapter 2, Locomotion, Design, and Starting Our Project, guides you through the different types of movement systems currently in use in modern VR games, and discusses the pros and cons of each. Using human-centered design methods, you will design a locomotion system for first-time players and go through the process to set up our sample game in Unreal Engine 4.
Chapter 3, Exploring Riveting Gameplay in Virtual Reality, has you delving into different types of gameplay used in popular virtual reality titles such as Gorn, Tribe XR, and others. You are then guided through designing gameplay for our sample game, and building movement and interaction systems from scratch using Unreal Engine 4's powerful blueprint system.
Chapter 4, User Interface and User Experience inside VR, teaches the basics of user experience design and how these techniques are applied to virtual reality. The book explores 2D and 3D interface elements, and guides you through creating both.
Chapter 5, Creating Optimized Game Art for VR in UE4, discuses the limitations that VR software and hardware place on creating game art. You will explore the issues surrounding the creation of 3D models, textures/materials, lighting, and visual effects, as well as some best practices for dealing with those limitations.
Chapter 6, Finalizing Our VR Game and Next Steps, completes the journey of game creation by discussing the importance of game testing, outlines some techniques to gather testing data, and discusses how to improve your design based on feedback. You are taken through the steps for finalizing the sample game for distribution, and we'll look at where to go next with the game prototype that you have developed.
To get the most out of this book
An intermediate knowledge of the Unreal game engine is required for this book
An installation of Unreal Engine 4.20.x is required
A virtual reality headset and the computer hardware capable of running it are required
Download the example code files
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Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Smack thatCreate Projectbutton and let's continue! Now take a look at the interface."
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Introducing VR Technology in Unreal Engine 4
Virtual Reality (VR). These words call to mind images of movies from the 1980s and 1990s, such as characters such as The Lawnmower Man, people strapped into equipment that covers their entire bodies, and computers that take up entire rooms, as well as digital vistas that stretch forever and basic geometric shapes that were meant to simulate the real world. The term VR came about in the 1980s to refer to the systems of gloves and headgear that are used to interact with these computer-generated worlds. Since then, advances in electronics and digital displays have allowed for the creation of smaller, more powerful devices. In 2010, Palmer Lucky's discovery that mobile phone display technology had reached a high enough resolution to be used in VR led to the creation of the first Oculus Rift headset. This event would kick-off the technology arms race that has since given us the Oculus Rift, the Samsung Gear VR, the HTC Vive, and the new Windows Mixed Reality headsets. With the prices coming down every year, VR has found its way into the hands of 171 million users around the world.
For many of you, this book represents the first steps down the path to creating your very own VR title. You may have recently grown interested in getting started with the technology, or you might already have a complete design, and you are ready to begin developing. In either case, this book will lead you through the process of choosing your target hardware and audience, the unique design, locomotion, and gameplay concepts specific to VR, creating art for your virtual world, and finally the process of testing and prepping your game for distribution. Through the creation of our sample game, Server 17, we will discuss some of the problems VR developers face, such as optimization and how to help players deal with VR sickness.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
Why use Unreal Engine 4 for VR?
What types of VR technology are available to developers?
Pros and cons of popular VR headsets
Limitations of VR
Introducing our sample project—
Server 17
Why use Unreal Engine 4 for VR?
VR represents the next great frontier for game developers. Just like mobile technology allowed for developers to reach new markets and move video games into the mainstream, VR gaming will also be able to tap into new markets and appeal to new fans who are looking for a more active style of gaming. To accommodate this, game engine developers have been quickly working to add new features and refine existing ones to entice developers to choose their platform for their next big title:
Beginning in 2014, Epic Games began laying the groundwork for full VR support within Unreal. This led to the development of their first VR title, Robo Recall. In this game, players were able to shoot and smash their way through a city overrun by murderous machines. The game utilized a teleportation system for locomotion and some pretty solid controls for its gun-based gameplay. The game began development in 2016 and was released for Oculus Rift in 2017. It took full advantage of the most recent build of Unreal at the time to show off the latest rendering techniques and optimizations for VR.
Since then, Epic Games has continued to update and develop Unreal Engine 4 to provide game developers with the best tools available for their projects. Unreal Engine versions 4.17, 4.18, and 4.19 included many optimizations and performance updates geared specifically toward VR headsets and VR developers, with the goal of being able to improve performance and framerates, two of the most crucial elements to monitor in VR game development.
Beyond a commitment to bringing developers the best tools for their VR games, Epic Games provides developers with many other reasons to choose Unreal Engine for their games:
Unreal Engine is free to begin using, with only a 5% royalty after the first $3,000 per game per quarter. These terms allow smaller teams of developers to dive right into projects without worrying about how to pay for their tools.
Unreal provides support for most VR hardware, including the Samsung Gear VR, the Oculus Rift + Touch, the HTC Vive, and more.
The Blueprint Visual Scripting language allows non-coders to develop game features and prototypes without the need for a programmer.
Unreal Engine is capable of high-end materials and shaders, thus providing your players with incredibly immersive experiences.
What types of VR Technology are available to developers?
Knowing that Unreal Engine 4 works with the vast majority of VR technology, our next step is to choose the type of VR headset we would like to use. There are many factors that can contribute to this decision. The first is knowing who the target audience for our experience will be. Start by researching previous games that are similar to our design. By doing so, we can find out what segment of gamers will purchase our style of game and see whether we can interview a few players who fit this demographic. With this information, we can make informed design decisions as we go through the process of development, which will result in a game that really appeals to its player base.
The next factor we need to be aware of is what type of experience our design is most suited for. VR experiences fall into a few distinct categories:
Room-scale VR
Seated VR
Mobile VR
Room-scale VR
The first is room-scale experiences.
These are active experiences that require the player to move, jump, and perform actions inside a predetermined area covered by sensors. An example of the room scale pay space covered by the lighthouse sensors that come with HTC Vive is as follows:
Seated VR
For experiences that may not require that particular level of activity, there are seated VR experiences. An example of the space needed for a seated-or standing-only VR experience is as follows:
Seated experiences are built around the idea that the player remains stationary and that only the headset's orientation data is needed.
Mobile VR
Finally, there are mobile experiences. These experiences are formatted specifically for mobile devices, such as the Samsung Gear VR and the Oculus Go. The original version can be found on the following link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samsung_Gear_VR_Experience_(16241072054).jpg.
Mobile experiences are designed to take advantage of the accelerator and gyroscope found in smartphones to provide an immersive experience and to control gameplay. For our game, we will likely have the player stand in a small area with their tools for the task close at hand, though some movement may be required. With this in mind, we will design Server 17 to be a room-scale experience.
Pros and cons of popular VR headsets
Now that we know who our players are and what type of experience we want them to have, we can make the decision regarding which VR headset we would like to use to design our experience. Each type of VR headset brings different strengths and weaknesses to our project, along with specific requirements for the computer that will be running it. Let's take a look at some of the most popular VR headsets available today:
HTC Vive
Oculus Rift + Touch
Windows Mixed Reality headsets
Samsung Gear VR
HTC Vive
Released in April 2016, the HTC Vive system consists of the following:
VR headset
2 x Vive motion controller
2 x infrared sensors, known as lighthouses
Great for room-scale experiences due to its 16ft x 16ft maximum size play area, the Vive is one of the two most popular VR systems available today, accounting for 45% of all SteamVR players in February 2018. Capable of a resolution of 2,160 x 1,200 (1,080 x 1,200 per eye), this is the headset of choice for many developers. The motion controllers can be tracked to the millimeter, and each offers nine different buttons that can be mapped inside Unreal Engine 4, which provides developers with a significant number of input options. Audio is provided by the player plugging in their own headphones, though a separate Deluxe Audio Strap may be purchased to provide a more comfortable distribution of weight and integrated headphones.
Minimum hardware requirements
Intel Core i5-4590/AMD FX 8350 equivalent or greater
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970/AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or greater
4 GB of RAM
HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 or newer
1x USB 2.0 or newer
Windows 7 SP1, Winodws 8.1 or later, Windows 10
It is worth noting that while the HTC Vive is compatible with Unreal Engine 4, SteamVR is required to be running during use. With its excellent tracking, solid resolution, and flexible motion controllers, the HTC Vive is an excellent option for room-scale and seated VR experiences.
Oculus Rift + Touch
The original Oculus Rift headset was released in March 2016 by Oculus VR, after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Due to its status as a crowdfunded project, the Oculus Rift has the interesting distinction of having had its development heavily publicized. The company released two different development kits (DK1 and DK2) to its backers during development, before releasing the first commercial version. The current version of the headset includes the following:
Oculus Rift headset
2 x desktop-based infrared sensors
2 x Oculus Touch controllers
These controllers have six different button inputs that are tracked by Unreal, but their real claim to fame is the fact that these controllers are capable of finger tracking and hand gestures. The Rift has a resolution of 2,160 x 1,200 (1,080 x 1,200 per eye), exactly the same as the HTC Vive.
Minimum hardware requirements
Intel i3-6100/AMD Ryzen 3 1200, FX4350 or greater
Nvidia GTX 960/AMD Radeon RX 470 or greater
8 GB+ of RAM
Compatible HDMI 1.3
1 x USB 3.0 port and 2x USB 2.0 ports
Windows 10
Similar to the HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift + Touch requires its own application running in the background to be able to operate. Though the Rift comes with two sensors, its recommended room scale play area is 5ft x 5ft. Though much smaller than the Vive but with the Rift's decreased hardware requirements, it is still an excellent option for seated and room-scale experiences.
