Unreal Engine Virtual Reality Quick Start Guide

Unreal Engine Virtual Reality Quick Start Guide

by Jessica Plowman
Released February 2019
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781789617405

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Book description

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.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright and Credits
    1. Unreal Engine Virtual Reality Quick Start Guide
  3. Dedication
  4. About Packt
    1. Why subscribe?
    2. Packt.com
  5. Contributors
    1. About the author
    2. About the reviewer
    3. Packt is searching for authors like you
  6. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
      1. Download the example code files
      2. Download the color images
      3. Conventions used
    4. Get in touch
      1. Reviews
  7. Introducing VR Technology in Unreal Engine 4
    1. Why use Unreal Engine 4 for VR?
    2. What types of VR Technology are available to developers?
      1. Room-scale VR
      2. Seated VR
      3. Mobile VR
    3. Pros and cons of popular VR headsets
      1. HTC Vive
        1. Minimum hardware requirements
      2. Oculus Rift + Touch
        1. Minimum hardware requirements
      3. Windows Mixed Reality headset
        1. Minimum hardware requirements
      4. Samsung Gear VR
    4. Limitations of VR
    5. Introducing our sample project – Server 17
    6. Summary
  8. Locomotion, Design, and Starting Our Project
    1. The Human-Centered Design process
    2. Choosing our locomotion method
      1. Natural locomotion
      2. Artificial locomotion
      3. Cockpit locomotion 
      4. Physical locomotion
    3. Setting up new game files in UE4
    4. Project setup
      1. Creating our custom Game Mode
      2. Creating a GameState
      3. Creating a custom PlayerPawn
        1. Programming our custom PlayerPawn
    5. Summary
  9. Exploring Riveting Gameplay in Virtual Reality
    1. What does VR bring to video games?
    2. Popular gameplay mechanics
      1. Shooter experiences
      2. Action/adventure experiences
      3. Vehicle experiences
      4. Physics-based experiences
      5. Puzzle experiences
      6. Rhythm experiences
      7. Educational experiences
    3. Designing the gameplay for Server 17
      1. Adding the hand functionality
      2. Building the teleportation
      3. The server – Building the puzzle box
      4. Building the first tool station
      5. Building the Timer
    4. Summary
  10. User Interface and User Experience inside VR
    1. What is UX design?
    2. User interfaces in VR
    3. Designing the UI elements for Server 17
      1. Displaying the level timer
      2. Redesigning the tool experience
    4. Summary
  11. Creating Optimized Game Art for VR in UE4
    1. Performance is key
    2. Artistic limitations in VR
      1. Static and skeletal mesh limitations
      2. Material limitations
      3. Lighting limitations
      4. Visual Effects (VFX) limitations
    3. Performance-boosting techniques
      1. Static and skeletal mesh techniques
      2. Material techniques
      3. Lighting techniques
      4. Visual effects techniques
    4. Measuring ingame performance
    5. Summary
  12. Finalizing Our VR Game and Next Steps
    1. The importance of game testing
    2. Collecting testing data
      1. Usability testing 
      2. Card sorting
      3. Expert review
    3. Preparing for distribution
    4. Summary
  13. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Product information

  • Title: Unreal Engine Virtual Reality Quick Start Guide
  • Author(s): Jessica Plowman
  • Release date: February 2019
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781789617405