Creating Augmented and Virtual Realities

Chapter 6. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality: Cross-Platform Theory

Steve Lukas

Jumping straight into building a virtual reality (VR) experience can be very daunting. The same goes for augmented reality (AR), and brainstorming the simple decision as to whether the experience should be done in VR or AR is a good exercise. For the sake of simplicity, this chapter describes VR and AR experiences interchangeably as “immersive” because the majority of immersive content development utilizes the same principles. Where there is a nuanced difference between the two, we explicitly reference it.

The first step of learning immersive development depends on your perspective and what your goals are. You most likely identify with one or more of the following statements:

• I have no development experience.

• I have development experience in 3D graphics.

• I have an app idea in mind for VR.

• I want to learn how to build VR before thinking of an app idea.

If you have an idea of a project that you’d like to build, this is an advantage because you can then target specific milestones while learning your lessons as building blocks toward a completed product. Alternatively, if you want to learn what all of the tools are first, this will aid in the structure of your first app idea because you will understand the features and constraints of VR before committing to ideas that are unfeasible. Regardless, there is no wrong or better way of working, except to go with the system that operates best for you.