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Codexus
New Participant
September 4, 2014

Developing for the Samsung Gear VR

The Gear VR looks fantastic and it might also be the first opportunity for VR developers to sell VR apps to a broader audience. So I'm really interested in it but I have a few questions:

- Will anybody who buys a Note 4 and a Gear VR be able to just download a sdk and use it for development? Or will there be a need to register as a Samsung Gear VR developer and in that case would that be free and open or only available to some developers?

- Will we be able to just share our demos and games as .apk if we want to or will we be restricted to sharing through the Oculus Store or some other channel?

- Will the Oculus Store be open to all apps that meet some minimum guidelines? Or will only some developers get access to it?

- Will we be allowed to sell our apps through other channels than the Oculus Store?

And now more specific to Unity:

Since the Oculus SDK normally requires the pro version of Unity, I assume we will need the Android Pro license in addition to that to use Unity for Gear VR dev? Is that correct?

This one is going to be very subjective but... Is now a good time to invest into such a license while the Unity 5 pre-order discounts are still available?

I would love to hear both official answers and/or opinions on those topics... :mrgreen:

    4 replies

    Qix
    Up and Coming
    September 4, 2014
    I'm sure we'll hear more details very soon . I just hope we get information on input devices . Will the rift and Gear Vr have input devices bundled with them? This is key information we need. Hopefully Oculus connect will shed some more light on this.

    I am leaning more towards developing for Gear Vr though. At least we know everyone has the same hardware specs.
    hellsplumber
    Participant
    September 4, 2014
    As much as I love my Note and VR, I really can't see myself playing mobile games on a headset.
    The augmented reality aspect may entice me though...but I'll stick to the Rift for now.

    Looking forward to some info from Samsung/Oculus about this, though.
    obzen
    Up and Coming
    September 4, 2014
    It'd be cool if the camera on the phone wasn't blocked off :) Could maybe try some weird AR. And a power connector, going all the way to the back (with maybe an extension cable). If viewing movies in VR become popular, I fear for the battery life!

    But anyway, there is more that just games to experiment with.
    DK1 FREAK ...
    rjoyce
    Participant
    September 4, 2014
    "obzen" wrote:
    It'd be cool if the camera on the phone wasn't blocked off :)


    I thought this too, but one of the hands on videos (engadget maybe) he mentions "oh I just put it in passthrough mode so now I can see my cameraman!" So I guess the camera is accessible. I'm not sure what magic plastic that is that allows you to see through it one way.
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