Virtual reality and augmented reality are already carving out space within social media. Facebook has launched its experimental social VR space and several apps have already implanted a completely functional social VR network, where users can hang out and watch movies together using avatars.
Augmented reality is already mainstream in the social media world. Providing Snapchat users with moving filters, TikTok creators with superimposed characters, and Instagram influencers with snazzy film effects.
Brands can take considerable advantage of this by interacting with their audience in a new and different way that can reshape and mold your brand into something new or better. Without creative constraints, designers and writers can create much more engaging experiences that draw in customers to keep them entertained and listening.
The true storytellers of the marketing profession have had incredible success with VR campaigns that knock their demos out of the park with exciting and awesome virtual events. Most importantly, the increasing value of VR to marketers also comes from its integration into social platforms that allow multiple users to connect in a shared virtual world.
Social VR is a powerful technology and is slowly starting to shape the way that users interact with their social media altogether. This gives marketing teams the unique advantage of being able to create intense VR experiences for multiple users simultaneously. VR is an incredibly powerful technology that, when utilized correctly, can completely change the marketing game for your brand.
The VR development platforms on the market today offer enough distinct variety to allow developers to create whatever they might imagine without limitations. Within these platforms, developers can create games, movies, and other interactive experiences utilizing a full range of ever-evolving VR technology.
Aspiring game developers are in special luck as VR technology is especially powerful through the interactive entertainment format and so are the development platforms themselves.
Oculus Rift offers the best in VR gaming power. developers who want to create the best-looking VR games possible know that they must use the PC VR platforms to achieve that goal, even at the risk of losing market share. VR developers today have the resources and tools available to make incredible games with powerful hardware without breaking the budget.
Here are the top four VR platforms for aspiring game developers and designers:
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Unity
Unity is one of the most popular 2D in a 3-D interactive media programming platform. Users can make movies, games, and interactive environments with three-dimensional, two-dimensional, and fixed perspective three-dimensional games. Users can make fully scripted scenes, games replete with branching quests and winnable levels, and exploitable landscapes without shelling out any cash at all.
Unity is one of the preferred platforms for game development. Itās an open-source platform thatās free to download and has loads of free toolkits, templates, and addons that can help speed up development, enhance aspects of programming, and level up to the technical performance.
A virtual reality starter project is prepackaged in Unityās standard build. Adding free assets or purchasing premium ones can help make your VR project look and feel like a polished enterprise project.
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Unreal
Unreal is another development platform that is preferred for game developers and game designers and creators. Just like Unity, it can be downloaded for free. Akin to Unity, if youāre selling something you produce within Unreal, then you may have to pay Unreal some royalties. Itās a low amount, no more than 15 percent of your gross profit, but itās important to note before you commit to the Unreal Engine.
Unreal, unlike Unity, doesnāt have too many free toolkits, game assets, or templates. Youāll have to shell out some extra cash if you want to leverage Unrealās extremely powerful and versatile engine.
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OpenVR SDK
The OpenVR SDK is a development kit for PC developers. That means, if you have an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, for example, youāll want to use this open-source toolkit to publish your game on Steam or any other PC VR gaming store.
OpenVR is another option for developers who want to create fully open-source experiences that are easily moddable and shared. Many VR game developers recognize the risk of the technology along with the rewards and work diligently to create powerful VR tech that is free to use.
OpenVR is compatible with most editors and engines, so it likely can be appended into your IDE.
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VRTK - Virtual Reality Toolkit
VRTK is a virtual reality toolkit that makes developing virtual reality experiences much easier. It also expands what you can do by adding essential VR functionality by providing VR-specific libraries and API comparability.
VRTK is a useful set of scripts that can be easily appended to your Unity project environment, making it easy to implement in existing projects and development environments.