12.2 Recommendations for Developers

With the widespread availability and affordability of VR headsets, the number of people developing VR experiences has grown dramatically in recent years. Most developers to date have come from the video game industry, where their skills and experience in developing games and game engines are ``ported over'' to VR. In some cases, simple adaptations are sufficient, but game developers have been repeatedly surprised at how a highly successful and popular game experience does not translate directly to a comfortable, or even fun, VR experience. Most of the surprises are due to a lack of understanding human physiology and perception. As the field progresses, developers are coming from an increasing variety of backgrounds, including cinema, broadcasting, communications, social networking, visualization, and engineering. Artists and hobbyists have also joined in to make some of the most innovative experiences.

This section provides some useful recommendations, which are based on a combination of the principles covered in this book, and recommendations from other developer guides (especially [367]). This is undoubtedly an incomplete list that should grow in coming years as new kinds of hardware and experiences are developed. The vast majority of VR experiences to date are based on successful 3D video games, which is evident in the kinds of recommendations being made by developers today. Most of the recommendations below link to prior parts of this book, which provide scientific motivation or further explanation.