tldr:
There are two huge problems with creating content for VR – Epic has addressed the major one, being able to interactively edit in VR. This is the way VR specific content will be created from now on – in VR for VR. The UI can only get more intuitive from here on out.
I’ve been busy working out some of the hardware kinks on a massive VR space, but I wanted to take the time to belatedly comment on on an announcement Epic made last week. They not only managed to get the Unreal Editor running in VR, but have hacked up some VR UI that enables you to access (most?) of the editing features from inside VR. This is awesome. This is something we (Framestore) were kicking about, thinking of hacking some implementation together, but now we don’t have to. Thank you Epic for providing (and supporting) tools to make VR content creation sooooo much simpler.
Here’s a screen shot of manipulating an object in 3D – you can translate, rotate and scale the object in VR!
They have also implemented some menu items in VR – note that you pull up a menu then make the selection using a (in this case Vive) controller.
For non- textual things like selection a material, they have a more traditional menu palette.
You can see some videos and read a summary of it here.
Epic will be making a more formal announcement at GDC on Wednesday March 16. Hopefully with soon-to-follow release of a VR enabled Engine update or source code. I’ve seen some comments that have downplayed the usefulness of this development, but I think that most folks are missing the point (or have never developed VR content) – you’ll use the tools that are the fasted for initial development – I can’t really see folks starting a project from scratch by climbing into VR. The resolutions and ergonomics suck.
But….
For anyone who’s worked on VR content, tried a work-in-progress level in VR, gotten out of VR, done a tweak, gotten back into VR, etc. etc. Just being able to climb into VR and make edits in situ is a huge step forward. There’s a traditional space for editing that doesn’t require literally waving your hands around (which gets pretty tiring pretty quickly), but for that final bit of tweaking, you can now immerse yourself in the environment the user will be in. This is a fantastic step in the right direction. This is a bear to implement, and I’m really glad Epic is taking on VR content editing in such an enthusiastic manner. The fact that Sweeney is narrating is just the icing on the cake.