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Which platform? Too many choices?

Discussion in 'AR/VR (XR) Discussion' started by cgeye, Feb 23, 2017.

  1. cgeye

    cgeye

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2014
    Posts:
    76
    Hi all,

    I'm curious to know which platforms VR/AR/MR devs are targeting. Seems to me there are almost too many choices - Occulus, Vive, Gear, Hololens, Daydream, Cardboard etc. I suspect most smaller developerss won't be trying to acommodate all of these (some require different development environements than others), but will want to hit the ones that are likely to have the biggest uptake going forward. Anybody willing to share their thoughts on this?
     
  2. Ostwind

    Ostwind

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2011
    Posts:
    2,804
    Desktop and mobile VR devices are completely different things and HoloLens is not really a consumer thing at all. Mobile has multiple times more customers but also a lot more competition.
     
  3. Selzier

    Selzier

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2014
    Posts:
    652
    I put consumer VR into 3 categories , PC VR, Mobile VR, and Playstation VR.

    PC VR

    Upfront Investment: $800 - $2000 (depending on current PC hardware)
    Primary Store: Steam VR
    Secondary Stores: Oculus Store, Viveport

    Playstation VR
    Upfront Investment: $500 - $1500 (depending on current PC hardware)
    Only Store: Playstation Store

    Mobile VR
    Upfront Investment: $0 - $300 (depending on current Mobile Device, S6 is ~$300)
    Primary Store: Google Play
    Secondary Stores: Oculus Mobile Store (GearVR +$100), Daydream Store (Daydream/Pixel +$700)

    So, for an indie getting into VR, your real decision is whether you want to publish to Steam or Google Play. From there you could release into secondary stores. I think the answer is obvious in the Vive/Rift question.

    Developing for Google Play is great although there are no significant success stories that I know of in Mobile VR Game/App monetization. Nice thing about a Google Play game, you can port to Gear VR.

    Given the cost of a Pixel/Daydream, I don't know if it's worth developing for Daydream just given basic search results like number of ratings at BestBuy.com:



    Hope that helps :)
     
    KillerNads and Ostwind like this.
  4. cgeye

    cgeye

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2014
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    76
    That's great summary Selzier, thanks, and I'm sure this will be a great help to indie developers. The smart money will be on Mobile VR I guess - readily-available hardware, low-cost headgear etc. Monetization will also be a driving factor as well and I know there are a few platforms in the pipeline that will enable this.
     
  5. Gizmoi

    Gizmoi

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2013
    Posts:
    327
    Nice breakdown, but how did you figure PSVR as $1500? Surely it's $500 - $750 depending on if you own a PS4 already or not?

    It's worth noting that for Mobile VR, the kind of experience you can create is very limited.
    With PC + Console VR you have controllers to track your hands and the big 3 (Vive, Rift, PSVR) can do room-scale tracking - although the Rift and PSVR's range is rather limited.
    While the Vive, Rift and PSVR are the much more expensive options, they definitely offer a much more complete experience.

    The Daydream is halfway between, it is still mobile VR and thus offers no positional tracking, whereas it includes a (limited) controller and runs on higher-spec devices only.
     
  6. Selzier

    Selzier

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2014
    Posts:
    652
    Although you don't need AS powerful of a computer for Playstation VR development, I assume there will be some upgrades to the PC needed (video card, etc) so $1500 to make your PC "VR Ready".

    This is what it would cost me to upgrade my PC so that it's "VR Ready" for Playstation VR (or Rift/Oculus) development. Playstation console + PSVR + Video Card + potential motherboard/cpu update.

    So for PSVR I put MY cost to get involved, with note 'Depending on PC hardware".

    Mobile VR, doesn't matter what your PC/mac is because the phone's GPU/CPU will always be less powerful.
     
  7. Gizmoi

    Gizmoi

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2013
    Posts:
    327
    Fair enough. I neglected to consider costs of the development environment only the costs of the consumer. In which case, PSVR is far more expensive. AFAIK you can't run PSVR (officially) on a PC, you must build to your PS4 dev kit. Which are a couple of grand (I forget the exact figure), though rumour has it Sony will loan dev kits for a couple of years to select devs.

    Also I wouldn't be so sure on mobile GPUs being less than a PC. My (4 year old PC) isn't so much faster than my phone, mobiles are a lot faster than you might think.
     
    Selzier likes this.