Valve’s virtual reality platform gets a shot in the arm from a top engine.
Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 now officially supports Valve’s SteamVR headset platform. This move will let developers use Epic’s powerful (and free) engine to create experiences for what many are calling the new frontrunner for virtual-reality platforms, even over Facebook’s Oculus platform. This lets Epic reach even farther into the virtual reality market, one which research firm Digi-Capital says could reach $150 billion by 2020.
While Unreal Engine 4 allows for the creation of experiences across all major VR platforms, plug-and-play integration with SteamVR allows for use of device-specific features such as room-scale VR, motion controls, and Valve’s laser-based tracking technology. Support is also integrated with the engine’s visual scripting, which allows projects to be built without programming. Developers with access to the HTC Vive developer edition kit can immediately use Unreal Engine 4 to create experiences.
Unreal Engine 4 and SteamVR were already paired up for a few experiences at March’s 2015 Game Developers Conference. Fishing simulation Dovetail Games Fishing was on show at Valve’s booth, powered by UE4 and running on the HTC Vive. Epic’s own Showdown demo uses the engine to show what virtual reality shooters could be like.
Official support for SteamVR comes to Unreal Engine with this week’s release of its 4.8 update.