Pre-GDC 2019: VR Insights

The Oculus Team will once again take part in GDC 2019 in a major way, and we're excited to connect with all of you in just a few weeks. Where you ask? We will be providing the opportunity (and space) to connect with fellow VR developers and professionals at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts March 20 - 22, while earlier in the week, you can swing by the Moscone Center for hands-on demos of the Oculus Quest March 18 - 22.

Of course, a number of us will also be on hand to take part in panels, presentations and workshops, so be sure to mark your GDC calendar with the VR-enabled discussions below:

To add to the excitement of this year's event, we started to look back at the numerous VR presentations recorded at past GDCs. With topics ranging from VR performance optimization and UI design, to locomotion best practices and the psychology of immersive tech, GDC offers an amazing archive of these presentations, both within their Vault as well as their Youtube Channel. So following all of the great experiences and learnings from GDC 2018, we've provided a snapshot of those VR talks we know you will find extremely informative and even potentially entertaining.

Do you have any favorite “hits” from the GDC archive? What are you most looking forward to at this year's GDC? Jump into the comments section if you're as excited for March 18th as we are.

In this talk, Joost provides insights from his team's experience of releasing a number of twin-stick, RTS shooters. He outlines his learnings of how to design and implement UI elements into an RTS when making the transition from 2D to immersive gaming, the rules for VR HUDs and how they have changed for his team through the production of Landfall. He also provides a series of case studies for what was tested before finalizing these design/interaction decisions, making for an especially insightful talk that just may save you time and money if you're currently developing your HUD UI.

From April 2016, this talk provides a swath of information from the conceptual to the executional, all from the making of I Expect You to Die. We especially enjoy this talk as it does a great job of providing executional insights like innovative methods for playtesting and cognitive embodiment prioritization, but also the conceptual, specifically the absolute need to deliver enjoyable, functional presence in VR. Extra credit to these two as they also do a fantastic job with gif/video support.

From Job and Vacation Simulation to Virtual Rick-ality, the team at Owlchemy labs have learned quite a bit over the past few launches. This post mortem from VRDC Fall (now XRDC) centers on the challenges and enjoyment they had when taking a popular 2D story and transitioning it into a 3D, zone-based teleportation VR game. To add further learnings from the first video on the list, Devin and Alex provide further recommendations for watch-based UI, along with rigging, level design, mirror integration and performance learnings for teleportation experiences.

We hope you've enjoyed this snap shot of experiences to come. Be sure to keep an eye out on the Oculus Developer Blog, Twitter, Facebook and our email program for more info on our plans for GDC 2019!

- The Oculus Team