Creating VR worlds: Q & A with Jonathan Jennings and Travis Taborek

VR Gamedev is complicated because it creates another layer of immersion for the player. Here’s some tips on creating a VR game world that keeps players engaged.

I had a talk with my friend Travis about the ins-and-outs of creating a VR game world. I spoke with him last year for a series of articles about black game developers. 

VR gamedev is tricky because it adds another layer of immersion for the player: you’re essentially putting them in the middle of a fantasy world that they can see and interact with much like the real one, and any imperfections or flaws can easily take them out of the experience. 

Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re creating a VR game world.

Q & A Interview:

I. Where do you get your ideas for games? What are your sources of inspiration as a gamedev? Do you have books, music, photographs of old memories you look back on to get the creative juices flowing?

Great question, every game is a little bit different. Galactic Bar Fight came to me purely because my friend Chris Coward rendered this visual of a sci-fi diner and I thought it would be a blast to have a gunfight in there so I began building that vision. Another game I worked on called The Amazing Sketchbook was inspired by an old friend from high school who never did his homework or took notes in class but would have all sorts of doodled chaos on his notebook and show it to me after every class and that inspired a game idea later when I was in college. I'm highly suggestible and easily inspired in general though I've definitely conceived game ideas after watching a movie, or listening to a podcast, or reading a book, and yeah even looking at old photographs. I think of the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto who came up with the idea of Pikmin while pulling weeds, I think you can find a game idea anywhere for sure.

II. Is there a gamedev equivalent of writer's block? Do you ever have moments where you want to be creative but the ideas just won't come to you?

If so, what do you recommend for situations like that?

I've never had creators block when it comes to game dev but I have just been too exhausted to activate the gamedev part of my brain. Honestly in those moments, my best advice is to just create space. Take a walk, hop in the shower, go drink and hang out with people you enjoy, and let the computer hangout by itself for a while. Then when you come back renewed and refreshed with a fresh set of eyes look at the problem again. It's always helped me, when the creative battery dies it can be a real challenge, and sometimes the best way to get work done is just to stop working for a while and then come back later and hit it twice as hard.

II. What is the most important quality for a game developer to have? Which programming language do you think is most useful for a career as a gamedev, and why?

It's cliche but the most important quality you can have as a game developer is communication skills. Being able to communicate your vision to fans, communicate your work or tech process to your teams, communicate your goals for the project and your work and I've seen plenty of talented game developers who are limited by their communication skills sadly. So I'd say communication is core even if you just focus on the building you have to be able to express what you built to the people around you.

As for the second question, I'm a Unity fanboy so I think C# and Unity is the most straightforward path to making VR content and I know lots of people with little coding experience and knowledge who've made VR films and small VR games so yeah I think Unity does a great job of making more accessible tools to budding developers and it's always magical once you build a Scene and then get a chance to stand in the middle of it, I think that should be every VR enthusiast's first project: stand in or near your VR project.

III. 60fps is seen as the accepted frame rate for market-ready AAA games. How do you make sure your VR game is optimized for a 60fps frame rate?

Believe it or not, in VR we shoot a little bit higher, the target frame rate I believe is 72 FPS. That has to do with the fact VR is more directly connected to your brain and your eyes' natural refresh rate. Thankfully our eyes and brains don't lag and that's why when VR applications do just seconds of suspension can lead to a night of nausea. 

When it comes to optimizing for VR while world-building I tend to focus on the assets within the space. Mostly the materials which render surfaces and have reflective and shiny properties and the textures, normal maps, and actual visuals are wrapped around 3D models. I like to compress them as small as possible, a Pro-tip I use in Unity is enabling crunch compression on my assets and it reduces the runtime memory footprint of those images exceptionally. 

So if you're making your first VR world then my biggest tip is to keep your texture and material count low 9 (reuse the same assets as much as you can) and make sure the assets in the scene are as small as possible when they are loaded into memory (avoid 4K and 2K textures if you can, try to use mobile shaders/ materials, stuff like that)

IV. VR is a significant innovation in the field of game development because it adds an extra layer of immersion. With this being the case, what are the most significant ways world-building in Oculus Quest VR differs from conventional game development?

We talked about higher frame rates, smoother, more realistic surfaces, and textures for example.

I think the level design is different when you approach it as a physical space a person has to physically navigate rather than just their avatar. I also think the significance of audio becomes vastly more important because in essence VR is a simulation of an entirely alternative yet parallel universe. 

In Galactic Bar Fight for example, you are a space explorer embroiled in a gunfight in a space speakeasy of sorts. I've appreciated that as I create VR content that the players demand a certain level of interactivity and responsiveness from VR applications that doesn't matter as much in games. If a player sees a bottle on the table they want to grab it and toss it at a wall, watch it shatter, and hear the glass clink across the floor. There's a real connection to existing in an environment that needs to feel real even though it isn't.

So I'd argue that kind of attention to detail is not necessary because the non-interactive set dressing is completely ok in traditional games, but in VR you have a direct and very real connection to space, your place in it, and so all the little objects and trinkets around you kind of have an expected added dimension.

I guess that's a long way to say immersion and interactivity matter twice as much in VR haha.

V. What are some of the best ways you can learn game development on your own? Is it possible to enter into a successful career in game development without a formal education?

Oh you can learn game development on your own I'd recommend Youtube tutorials and gamejams, When I've looked at portfolios for new game devs the number one thing I'm looking for is personal projects and an ability to communicate your process, approach, tools. 

I want to know that you care enough to explore the craft on your own time ( because game dev is constantly studying) and that you know how to share your knowledge with others. That skill is the difference between getting an interview thumbs up or having whoever is reviewing you pass.

VI. Best Free Resources for creating an immersive VR game world and why?

Best free resources for creating a game? I'm a big fan of the Unity Asset Store so I'd look at the free assets for test scenes to play within VR and just exist in for your first few demos. I also love opengameart.org and freesound.org both have a wealth of free assets to play with and creative commons 0 licensed assets that allow for free use, and then I guess I might look at the oculus and GDC YouTube channels there are lots of great talks out there focused on how popular VR games were built such as BeatSaber, Superhot, Richie's Plank Experience, and more.