The future of virtual reality gaming appears bright, especially now that Google’s Android-powered VR platform, dubbed Daydream, gets Unreal Engine support.
As a little refresher, Google had earlier announced that third-party game studios Ubisoft and Electronic Arts are among the partners of the Mountain View-based firm that are presently working on projects dedicated for Daydream.
A day after, Google also revealed that Epic Games’ most recent version of its game-design toolset, the Unreal Engine 4, is coming to the company’s VR platform.
What this means for developers is that they can easily port their apps to the mobile VR system. With the free Unreal Engine 4 plugin, which can be downloaded via GitHub, Epic Games’ Technical Director Nick Whiting said that the process is a piece of cake.
"Click enable on the Google plugin," Whiting told Polygon in an interview. "[T]hey’re basically just checkboxes you do when you deploy your app.”
He further said that the company will soon push out a document that explains the step-by-step process to turn on the advanced features.
In a bid to showcase the progress of Epic Games in this project, the company released an app called Dungeon. It is worth mentioning that this app leverages the VR platform’s significant feature — the motion controller.
"We're making Dungeon a tech demo like we did with Showdown and Bullet Train to kind of feel out the platform, figure out how far we can push the visuals and kind of experiment using the motion controller," said Whiting.
Daydream’s Motion Controller
Google’s motion controller for Daydream VR platform is offering three degrees of freedom: left and right, up and down, forward and backward.
“But when you play with simulating the elbow and the arm of the player it’s amazing how good it feels,” said Whiting. “[T]he visual response you’re getting and the physical input that you’re giving it correspond one to one.”
It is believed that this motion controller, which comes as a standard part of the Daydream VR platform, stands apart from its strongest rival, the Samsung Gear VR.
Whiting added that in terms of performance, Daydream is closer to Gear VR.
"Daydream is Google's new Android-powered VR platform, and Epic Games has released Unreal Engine 4 support for it," reads the description of Epic Games' tech demo. "Here you can see a new UE4 demo for Daydream in action, and hear why we're excited about the potential of this awesome mobile VR platform."
Hit the play button below to watch this tech demo.
