VR: The Future

VR is the next computing platform. The future of gaming and computing, at minimum, are about to be completely overturned by VR.

The metaverse, the OASIS, cyberspace. Formerly the realm of science fiction, these three visions of the future all are suddenly within sight.

VR development seems overwhelming

But the thought of making anything substantial for VR is overwhelming! The list of concepts to master is dizzying: animation, modeling, programming, hardware, game engines, and more. Where to even begin?

Should I just use Unity?

Everyone seems to think that Unity is the easiest way to to learn, but there's something about Unity that just doesn't sit right with you.

Maybe it's the fact that the editor isn't so great and you're always plugging holes by buying plug-ins on the Asset Store. Maybe it's that you're not a fan of C#, the closed source, or the former-EA CEO. Or that you have to pay money for the dark theme.

"Unreal is so hard to learn!"

You've heard that Unreal very powerful, and better in the long run, but you're worried that you might have to spend the next ten years climbing the learning curve!

C++ instead of C#? Sounds like a nightmare.

Blueprints? Visual programming? Weird. And completely unlike any other programming language you've ever learned. And when was the last time there was a visual programming language that didn't suck?

To learn, you spend lots of time Googling around for tutorials, but 95% of what you find is designed for flat-screen, not VR. So you have to piece your own curriculum together, piece by piece.

Glory seems out of reach

Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine runs on Unreal Engine 4

You know UE4 is capable of creating the best VR games out there, but it just seems impossible to get over the hump.

You've seen that many of the most incredible VR experiences are made with Unreal Engine 4, such as: Batman: Arkham VR, Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine, Raw Data, and Henry.

But, surely these aren't anything like what you'd be able to make.

After banging your head on VR dev, even indie titles like Brookhaven, Realities, Island 359, and The Solus Project seem to be out of reach.

What If

What if your VR creations could WOW people?

But what if you knew exactly how to deliver a beautiful, immersive VR experience that you made yourself?

What if you knew UE4 like the back of your hand?

What if you knew every nook and cranny of Unreal Engine, able to call upon Cascade, Sequencer, Blueprints, and even C++ when the moment called for it?

How awesome would that feel?

You'd feel like a total VR badass, with the knowledge of how to ship a complete VR experience, front to back.

It's true, building your first VR experience can lead to disaster... but it doesn't have to.

There are some gotchas in Unreal VR development that can lead to wasted hours and dollars.

But you don't have to step on those landmines and spend your time in development hell!

The Course

Everything you need to know

I'm developing an online video course that will teach you how to make room-scale VR experiences, soup to nuts, using Unreal Engine 4.

By the end, you'll be able to take any idea from dream to (virtual) reality with total confidence.

This VR dev course will teach you:

• How to get started with VR
• Programming with Blueprints
• Using the VR Editor
• Level Design Workflow
• Rapid prototyping
• Importing Assets
• The basics of creating your own meshes, materials, and animations
• Polishing your prototype
• Making interactions "juicy" and enjoyable
• The Basics of Optimization
• Debugging your game code
• Extending Unreal Engine using C++
• Sharing your game with beta testers
• Publishing on Steam

Blueprints

To move at a rapid pace in this course, we'll be doing our programming using Blueprints, the visual programming language that is tightly integrated in Unreal Engine 4.

To the hardcore programmers, I know you may be skeptical, but I assure you that you'll find Blueprints very easy to learn as they are built on top of the same C++ API calls that make up the entire engine! And if you ever want to use a text-based language, you can use C++ or SkookumScript. (Topics which we may cover in more depth in a future course!) But don't write off Blueprints -- many hardcore developers find them to be extremely handy for prototyping.

Island 359: 100% Blueprints, 100% Unreal

To the non-programmers: don't be too intimidated. The programming we'll be doing in this course is relatively simple, the instruction will be thorough, and many non-programmers have found Blueprints easy to use. You'll have to work a bit harder than the students with programming experience, but this is completely within your grasp. A word of encouragement: CloudGate Studios, the developers of Island 359, is made of two non-programmers and they credit Blueprints for their ability to develop a full-blown game without any programming background!

Make more than just an "asset flip"

A big part of VR dev is creating the look. Many other courses completely punt on this topic, deciding that programming and art are two different skillsets. The result: many VR titles that use the same assets, over and over, pulled straight from the Unity Asset Store.

No more.

While this is not a course on 3D art, I think it's really important for all VR developers to have at least a very basic familiarity with how meshes, materials, animations, and particle effects are created, so that you can more deeply understand the "asset pipeline" and troubleshoot things when they break.

Perhaps you decide that art is not your cup of tea. No matter: this experience will improve your ability to communicate with the artists you work with in the future.

But if you do decide you enjoy the process of making VR art, you may feel empowered to start bringing your own artistic vision into your project.

Compelling, Working Examples

I find that people learn best when they're working on a real-world project instead of simply performing exercises in the abstract.

Thus, once we have our bearings in Unreal, we'll make three sample games, using them as a way to explore the development process, from prototyping to polishing.

Our sample games are:

• VR Painting - Learn to make a creative tool to let your users express themselves! Skills learned: Creating custom geometry and making beautiful materials and particle effects.
• Escape the Room - Solve puzzles using room-scale item interaction, movie playback, and basic animation. Interactable objects include: drawers, keys, doors, and more.
• Zombie Wave Shooter - Who doesn't love a little bit of violence? We'll learn to implement shooting, reloading, blood effects, location-based damage, character animations, haptic feedback, and more.

When we're done, they won't be 100% ready for release on Steam, but you will have the skills you need to continue their development, if you choose to do so.

Polish

Through this course, you'll learn exactly how to design and program a polished VR experience that stands out from all of the Unity "shovelware" on the market today.

Enrollment

Enroll now and you'll always know the next step for your VR project

Just pick the concept of your dreams, strap on your HMD, and buy this course.

We have everything you need to get up and running quickly.

Unlike the makers of some other courses out there, I value your time. We know that every hour you spent learning is an hour you could have spent making your project even better. So, this course has been pared down so that anything you learn is directly practical to VR development. Optional sections are clearly marked and and I don't spend hours when minutes will do.

You'll be getting little wins from the very first hour. And, if you work hard, you'll be publishing your first VR experience before you know it.

BONUS: All buyers will get access to a private forum and an exclusive monthly AltspaceVR event where we can hang out and discuss VR development.

Hardware

This course is taught on the HTC Vive and makes extensive use of the motion controllers.

If you use Oculus Touch, the information will be largely the same as Unreal and SteamVR/OpenVR provide the same interface to working with Oculus Touch as with the HTC Vive controllers. If there are enough Oculus Touch users, I will shoot some additional instructions regarding Oculus Touch.

Do you want to learn how to build a seated, gamepad-based experience? Not here. You want the upcoming Gamepad-based VR course.

Do you want to learn how to build a mobile VR experience? Not here. You want the upcoming Mobile VR course.

Coming Q1 2017

This course is currently in development and will be released in Q1 2017.

EARLY ACCESS

This course normally sells for $378.

However, I've only recently started filming, and I need some brave adventurers to be my first students.

In order to entice the first 20 buyers to join, I am discounting it to $189, which is 50% off!

The first 20 will work with me to shape the material to make a killer product for everyone in the end.

I hope you'll join me on this journey. I think we all have a lot to learn together.

My Style

While I'm not yet ready to release the first chapter from the course, here are some UE4 tutorial videos I've already released.

For the real course, I'll be going into more detail, covering more ground, and using higher production values. But these should give you a feeling for who I am and what my style/personality is like: