In the previous parts, we wrote about how to get started developing a game in VR, and how game designers work when creating games in VR. In this article, we will touch on the topic of creating graphics for VR.

We're building on the experience we've gained from the upcoming Playground VR game on Steam (subtle hint at wishlists).

The visual and the feel it creates play a key role in these kinds of games, as the player is the most "part" of the game world. Therefore, it is important to approach the creation of models and the interface in such a way that they do not cause hostility, but complement each other and fulfill their main function - they are the guides of the user in the game.

The variety of environments

When creating models for VR, the emphasis is on geometry, not textures. This is necessary so that the player can, if desired, interact with the object from different angles.

You need to plan the look and feel of your models in advance so that they can be reused and combined with other resources. This will greatly simplify development and optimize the game (more on that later).

When creating a staircase, it makes no sense to impose a unique texture on each step and make unique geometry for it, it's easier to unify them.

Simplification

Interaction is a key element of immersion in VR. For smaller games, the investment of team resources in animation, sound and environment interactivity will be more significant.

Therefore, graphics simplification is a great solution for virtual reality. Many games resort to this solution, Job Simulator, Toybox and Playground VR use simple geometry, but convey the main essence of VR games — high interactivity.

In Playground VR, we relied on a large number of elements with which the player could interact, challenge their agility and reaction.

Another advantage of simplifying graphics is the ability to achieve high performance, which is very important for VR gaming.

Performance

When creating VR games, special attention must be paid to the interaction of hardware and software. In particular, one of the key goals is rendering from 90 frames per second for each eye.

In this regard, both game code and models and effects must be optimized. One way to maintain a high frame rate is to create Levels of detail (LOD). Thus, models that are far from the player should lose the number of polygons, since the details become poorly distinguishable.

Models with different levels of detail can be created independently or you can entrust this work to automatic polygon reduction systems.

An example of automatic optimization - some parts are lost. For particularly important objects, it is better to set the settings manually.

Both Unity and Unreal Engine have built-in precision performance monitoring tools. Such tests must be performed regularly, since testing is an important part of the development of VR projects and from a performance point of view, in the next parts we will talk about it in more detail.

Unity 3D Profiler - a tool that provides information about game performance

We hope you find these tips helpful as you create and optimize graphics for VR. In the next part we will tell you more about the organization of the development of a VR project.

What do you think is most important when creating graphics? Share your opinion in the comments, let's discuss.

Don't forget to wishlist Playground VR and if you have ideas or your own game, and you are looking for a publisher, write to us.

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