I’m just diving into Rift development with Unity and, after browsing some open source projects as well as the Unity VR Samples, wanted a sanity check on how the tools have changed over time.
From what I’ve read, seems like old OVR resources were packages that could be added to projects to provide VR support (similar to how Google Cardboard still works). Now, since Unity provides native VR support, those packages are obsolete and the Oculus Utilities Package just provides some useful assets for VR development. Is that right? I know this is a basic question but I’d really appreciate any clarifications since I’d like to really understand how Unity support for VR has evolved over time.
That’s correct. In unity 5.1 there was no VR support so we had to import the oculus vr camera. Now it’s built into Unity 5.2+ so we can utilize it by simply checking the VR checkbox in player settings.
I’ve been developing for the Oculus dk2 (as a hobbyist) since 5.1. There have been lots of bug fixes and general improvements. VR is definitely changing fast.
The apis seem to be changing a lot to. With the initial unity oculus integration there was no good way to tell if the device was connected (the api calls didnt work) and Unity crashes all the time… I think they fixed a lot of the early issues though.
The best way to learn about Unity’s integration is probably just through trial and error. Build things. See what’s possible and where Unity’s apis are lacking.