Is it possible to develop Oculus VR in Unity without Oculus hardware?

[Anonymous]

Hi, Oculus developers.
Could you please help me?
I am new here. Now, I want to develop Oculus VR app with Unity. But I don't have Oculus hardware.
Nothing and No experience!

So if it is possible to develop without hardware, please give me your advice.
And if it is impossible, what is needed for Oculus VR development?

Hope to hear from you.
Cheers.
K.

[Slayemin]

I would say "Yes, it's technically possible". In theory, you could build a complete VR app without ever testing it in VR.

But, why would you want to build an app and never test it to see what issues you might have? It would be like designing and building a car and selling it to auto dealers, without ever having driven a car yourself or made sure that your car turns on. If you're *really* good at building cars or VR apps, you might be able to get away with it. But, you say you're really new, so... you should really get a VR headset for development.

I recommend using Unity or Unreal Engine 4 for VR development. Those are the two most commonly used game engines used by professional VR devs.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Slayemin.
Your answer is helpful for me.
Well, actually, now the VR headset is on way to me.
But the deadline of VR task is tight. So... I mean, I am looking for a fast way to develop VR app.
But you say that VR headset is MUST. Currently, I need to use Oculus Go.

Could you please give me your advice for developing Oculus Go VR app?

Thanks, again.

[Schneider21]

I'm working on a project at work for the Go. I don't currently have access to a VR-capable PC or PCVR headset.

Developing for the Go without the PC headset is sort of a pain in the ass. Each time you make a little change you want to test out, you have to compile to the device, which means waiting a few minutes for it to build and deploy, popping the headset on, checking if what you did worked, and if not, popping the headset off, making the change, and doing it all again.

It also makes debugging certain things impossible. Unity's Play mode is super useful for being able to select objects in the scene while the game is running, inspect properties, and change values on the fly. You can't do that with just the Go.

Because of this, I've been pestering my boss to get me a new machine and order a Rift S, even if we're still targeting the Go for the final product. The amount of time it'll save me on iteration and debugging will be well worth it.

[Anonymous]

Hi, Schneider21.
How can I call you?
Anyway, thanks for your answer.
As a new VR developer who wants to find out my living here, I wish to conquer this field.
Currently, I am working on Unity. I will ask questions continuously.
 
So, let me ask one more question.
Which VR device is the most popular?
Because as I said above, I need to find out my living in this field. In other words, AR/VR will be my main jobs.

Hope to hear more.
Thanks. 

[Schneider21]

ARVRLover said:

Hi, Schneider21.
How can I call you?

I'd rather you didn't.
:wink:

I'm happy to answer anything I can through the forums here, and I'm also active on the Unity forums as well.

ARVRLover said:

I will ask questions continuously.
 
So, let me ask one more question.
Which VR device is the most popular?
Because as I said above, I need to find out my living in this field. In other words, AR/VR will be my main jobs.

Hope to hear more.
Thanks. 

I'm no expert on the VR market. Hell, I'm still starting out as a VR developer. But according to these figures, PSVR has a commanding lead (43%) in the VR space as of last year. This makes sense because of the sheer number of PS4s that are out there in the world. Oculus (19.4%) and HTC (12.9%) make up the rest of the significant market, but I expect Oculus's share to grow considerably this year, with the same not being true of HTC. Valve's headset will be popular among enthusiasts, but won't make much of a difference in those numbers as a whole.

I only own the Go currently (as well as a Google Daydream View that I've abandoned). I'll be picking up my Quest on Tuesday, and eventually I'd like to get a Rift S as well. I like the direction Oculus is taking VR, and although I'm not married to them by any means, the other brands on the market just don't really interest me. The WMR headsets seem low quality or have controllers I don't like, and the HTC/Index setup requires sensors placed around, which just doesn't work for my living and use case. So it seems I'll be sticking with Oculus products for the near future, but that's just me.

If you really want to make a living doing VR stuff, though, you need to be able to do anything. Don't focus on one ecosystem or SDK. Learn how to do a bit of everything, and be really good at -- at least -- one thing. Then go from there.

[Anonymous]

Hi, Schneider21.
Sorry for my late reply.
Thanks for your detailed answer.

Actually, your last words make me so excited.
Because I am going to master one device, currently. So your last words make me so confident in this field.
I have just purchased Oculus Go.
You said that you have already purchased Oculus Go.
So, could you please let me know how to develop Oculus Go app?

I have tried to install my own apk on Oculus Go from Unity.
Of course, it ran. But after closing the app, I couldn't find the installed my app on Oculus Go again.

Currently, I would like to know these:
1. Is it impossible to test Oculus VR on Unity without building and installing on Oculus device?
   Because, building and installing waste some minutes. I am not a senior developer. 
   So in many cases, I need to test frequently.
2. How can I interact with Oculus app store?
3. What is needed for Oculus app store?
4. What is the effective way for developing Oculus app? Currently, Oculus Go.

Thanks for your time, Schneider21.
I hope to hear your answer.
K.

[Schneider21]

So, could you please let me know how to develop Oculus Go app?
Your sideloaded apps will appear in the "Unknown Sources" tab of the library. Check there.

Is it impossible to test Oculus VR on Unity without building and installing on Oculus device?
Correct, it is not possible to run from the editor without having a Rift. This is a major pain point, and while it is potentially being looked into by Oculus, it's enough of a hindrance in my opinion to warrant purchasing a Rift (and, consequently, a VR-capable PC) even if you intend to only publish standalone VR apps.

How can I interact with Oculus app store?
What is needed for Oculus app store?
I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean submitting your app to be published? There's a guide for that here.

What is the effective way for developing Oculus app? Currently, Oculus Go.
Again, I'm not positive on what you're asking here. Are you asking for efficient workflows? I know of none for strictly Go development, as I've done plenty of back-and-forth while waiting for compiling to finish so I can test my changes. The only efficient way to develop for Go really still seems to be by using a Rift with mobile limitations in mind. It's not ideal for the developer on a budget