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ARVRFirefighting
New Participant
April 3, 2026
Question

Firefighter learning VR/AR Advice???

To: Any Available VR/AR Developer,

 

My name is Kyle, and I’m an ARFF firefighter interested in learning AR/VR development to help create better, more realistic training tools for the fire service. Since few firefighters develop—and few developers have been on a nozzle—I think I can bring a useful perspective.

I’m reaching out to this Meta forum because this is exactly the kind of place I think I could get good advice.

 

I’d appreciate any advice on:

  • Where to start learning,
  • Which skills matter most,
  • What can I skip early on,
  • and your view of the current AR/VR firefighting training market.

 

 

Thanks for your time,
Kyle 

 

1 reply

Degly
Degly
Inspiring
April 11, 2026

Great direction and glad to have you here! Your domain experience is a big advantage.

Where to start

  • Unity + C# (focus on XR)
  • Meta Quest + OpenXR (fastest way to prototype)
  • Learn basics of interaction, locomotion, and UI in VR

Skills that matter most

  • User experience (UX) in VR — comfort, clarity, realism
  • Interaction design (tools, hands, equipment)
  • Performance optimization (Quest is limited hardware)
  • Basic 3D/audio (fire, smoke, spatial sound are critical)

What to skip early

  • Advanced graphics/shaders
  • Multiplayer/networking
  • Complex backend systems

For firefighting training

  • Big opportunity in (and some keywords you can use for research):
    • Procedural scenarios (different fire behaviors)
    • Decision-making training, not just visuals
    • Realistic constraints (visibility, heat stress, communication)

Start small: build a single training scenario (e.g., room entry + smoke + decision points). That’s enough to validate your direction.

Your background is valuable, focus on training value over visual polish early and you'll have a lot of people interested

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