Book Image

Unreal Engine Virtual Reality Quick Start Guide

By : Jessica Plowman
Book Image

Unreal Engine Virtual Reality Quick Start Guide

By: Jessica Plowman

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (8 chapters)

Artistic limitations in VR

Now that we have a basic understanding, it's time to get specific. How do the limitations we face in VR affect each of the following categories of game art?:

  • Static and skeletal meshes
  • Materials
  • Lighting
  • Visual effects

Each category represents different limitations that need to be considered when creating the visuals for our game.

Static and skeletal mesh limitations

Let's start by taking a look at static and skeletal meshes:

The static mesh editor in Unreal 4

Static and skeletal meshes represent the majority of the art that goes into creating a game in Unreal Engine 4. These are your 3D models and tend to be sorted into groups such as environment, character, weapon, vehicle, and so...