Learning resources?

Hi,

For a total newbie, I'd suggest the place to start is learning a game engine. I recommend Unity for that as there's a free version you can use and it works seamlessly with the Rift.

Then simply start following YouTube tutorials. After seeing how a 3d environment is built, you'll get a good introduction to how to start with VR coding.

Here's a really simple video that'll get you on your way in less than 30 minutes (if you have a Rift). Even if you don't own a Rift you can still learn all the Unity 3d stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU5_1ivyItg

As for the hardware, I wouldn't bother unless you particularly needed that knowledge - it's not like you'll need to build you own.

I've got myself to a reasonable standard of knowledge that way after 2 months part time.

Ted.

Getting into computer graphics is not easy, you need a pretty good understanding of mathematics before you can begin to tinker with CG. I would start with the math, then pick up a book on CG, maybe start with WebGL since it uses javascript, or OpenGL or even XNA/Monogame.

"tedfordteddy" wrote:
Hi,

For a total newbie, I'd suggest the place to start is learning a game engine. I recommend Unity for that as there's a free version you can use and it works seamlessly with the Rift.

Then simply start following YouTube tutorials. After seeing how a 3d environment is built, you'll get a good introduction to how to start with VR coding.

Here's a really simple video that'll get you on your way in less than 30 minutes (if you have a Rift). Even if you don't own a Rift you can still learn all the Unity 3d stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU5_1ivyItg

As for the hardware, I wouldn't bother unless you particularly needed that knowledge - it's not like you'll need to build you own.

I've got myself to a reasonable standard of knowledge that way after 2 months part time.

Ted.

Firstly, thank you for your advice. I am without a rift for the moment but if the majority of VR games are made with the unity engine it would only make sense for me to learn the language.

Secondly, I do think having a basic knowledge of the hardware would be helpful. This is a very new field and I would like to know the limitations of the hardware I will be interacting with.

Learning the hardware is basically an academic exercise, unless you plan to go into hardware engineering. It's like, you don't have to know how a sound card works in order to produce electronic music. Though I guess hardware hacking can be fun and rewarding if that's what you want to do. If you do decide to go here, the DK1 code was all open-sourced: https://github.com/OculusVR/RiftDK1

If you are planning on being a software developer, then looking into using a 3D engine could be a good path. Working on a low level with DirectX/OpenGL is interesting, but hard and probably not the best use of time (unless you want to specifically be a 3D engine developer). Choosing an engine like Unity or Unreal is a much better choice in terms of the amount of time it will take you to get something playable.

And you can still learn a lot about game development and 3D math/graphics programming on a more general level with off-the-shelf engines. So don't think a 3D engine will give you a "make cool game" button, you still need to do a lot of work.

Unity has a free version, which may be a good place to start for a beginner. Personally, I like Unreal 4 better since it has visual programming built-in and can use C++ with Visual Studio. The graphics on Unreal look slightly better to me, but Unity 5 is getting more competitive. At this point, I wouldn't worry so much about graphics, rather than learning about game logic and programming and that stuff (which will not be much different whether you use C++ or C# or whatever).

Hope that helps.

If you are going to get into Unity3D, i HIGHLY recommend this course
https://www.udemy.com/unity3d-concepts/ ... LpUpZ2qMqK
Not only is it free, but it will teach you ALL the basics of the Unity engine, including scripting.

If you are looking into 3d modeling, sculpting, rigging, animation, or VFX go grab a copy of blender3d - http://www.blender.org/
its free and opensource so you can commercialize your work from it.

And as far as the CGI stuff goes, i have my degree in Gaming and Animation and currently work as a 3d artist for a small company. The highest math class i had to take was Math 1030- quantitative reasoning. I've never taken calculus or anything higher than basic algebra. Back in the day when you had to run vector code and algorithms to find the proper animation curves the math was important. Things are all very visual now which makes it much faster.

I personally love http://www.Pluralsight.com, which isn't free, but comes with a membership to Digital Tutors as well. But, I'll definitely have to check out the udemy.com course, that looks awesome.

Also, I have personally taken this free course:
https://www.coursera.org/course/gameprogramming

Coursera.org is pretty cool, lots of university courses for free. That course in particular teaches you a the XNA gaming studio, but covers aspects of the open source mono game, which would be valuable information to learn to step into Unity C# scripting. It's more of an intro programming course, but covers it from a gaming angle. I liked it a fair bit.

The new UI system for Unity is pretty amazing too! I found this tutorial to be fantastic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_l9OmLYTE&list=PLt_Y3Hw1v3QTEbh8fQV1DUOUIh9nF0k6c&index=1

Unity is a zero risk tool to start using and would definitely get you started with 3D game concepts, why not give it a shot? The Oculus plugin is pretty straightforward to implement quickly, the trick is getting everything to look nice in VR. Or at least, that's what I'm finding. I learn by doing myself, so I've learned a lot by just trying things and see how they work in Free Unity. It's important to keep in mind that the experienced guys like John Carmack didn't become a genius in CGI overnight. He worked at it and did what he loved for years. Plus, he's a rocket scientist in his spare time, how can you compete with that? :D

Don't forget Unity has a ton of learning resources, the live training sessions are really good for beginners.

What exactly do you want to do as a programmer, in the VR field? If we knew that, we could provide a better direction in where to go. For now though, all of the generic stuff listed above is a good start?

What would I require if I wanted not to create games or applications but be involved in creating the software which makes VR work. System programming.

I can't honestly tell you, but your greatest resource would be the SDK. Another resource is the open-sourced DK1.