Although virtual reality has not yet stretched to the visions of Sci-fi, it’s proven to provide an unprecedented realistic gaming experience in the computer and console gaming spheres. Big technology behemoths, including Google, HTC, and Facebook, have significantly contributed to the growth of this industry and released their own cost-effective and easily accessible VR mounts to impart stereoscopic vision to users as well as deliver an immersive game experience.

The concept of VR game development has been around for decades, despite the fact, 2016 was the year when the industry grew substantially with the launch of many high-profile VR headsets. Facebook and HTC kick-started the modern consumer VR era after introducing high-end Oculus Rift and HTC Vive mounts in 2016, thereby setting even higher expectancies for VR technology. Let’s take a look at VR market statistics and trends:

a) The virtual reality software market is projected to continue to grow strongly and reach a value of around 24.5 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.

b) In 2018, the virtual reality software market is estimated to reach a value of 1.3 billion U.S. dollars.

c) Revenue generated from VR video gaming sales worldwide is expected to reach $22.9 billion by the end of 2020.

d) The VR products sales revenue is estimated to grow to $5 billion by the end of 2018.

e) The North American market, led by the United States, was valued at an estimate of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.

f) By 2018, the total number of active VR users will reach around 171 million.

While taking into account these stats, it’s clear that VR industry won’t see any dip in its popularity and will continue to evolve. VR technology is an intricate filed that holds a high bar to entry. Nowadays, there are tons of platforms available for developers in the market to choose and use from when it comes to developing a virtual reality game. In this blog post, we’ll disclose three of the most widely used VR headset for game development. So, without wasting much time, let’s begin!

1) HTC Vive Pro

HTC Vive Pro is the product that was developed by the collaboration of Valve with the HTC. It conceives a fully immersive and virtual reality gaming experience using its dozens of infrared motion tracking sensors. It runs at 2,880 x 1,660 on a dual-OLED display, with a 90 Hz refresh rate and has dual cameras on the front.

The headset runs through the Steam Store (owned by Valve) and is built using ‘room-scale motion’ sensors that enable users to physically move in the environment. Additionally, HTC Vive Pro allows developers to design a single interface that works on various VR headsets as well as preview content in Unity play mode. It’s not wrong to say that the Vive Pro is the most advanced VR mount out here, but it’s also extremely expensive, sitting at $799.

2) Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift is the high-tech gaming headset that set off the new epoch of VR. Designed by Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe and purchased by Facebook for a massive amount of $2 billion, the Rift is power-driven by PC processors of a different order of magnitude. By plugging rift into a computer’s HDMI or DVI and USB ports, developers can track head movements in order to display interactive 3D depictions on its stereo screens.

The Rift headset functions at 2160 x 1200 resolution with a 90Hz refresh rate, consuming 233 million pixels/second. From a technical standpoint, this advanced gizmo is identical to the HTC Vive in terms of refresh rate; however, it’s advocating more pixels than PlayStation VR.

3) PlayStation VR

Sony’s PlayStation VR is a comprehensive package consisting of a headset, controllers, the PlayStation (or PS4 Pro) console, and an outward-facing camera for motion tracking. It’s a standalone headset that has set a benchmark for mainstream console VR and offers quality audio-visual experience. Although PSVR hit the market by the end of 2016, it won the war on sales by selling more than 3 million VR headset up until now. Additionally, around 15 percent of VR developers are currently using this hardware for game development.

Compared to the Oculus Rift and Vive, the PSVR comes with a 120 Hz refresh rate that offers a visually appealing virtual reality experience. While Rift and Vive have an impressive screen resolution of 1080 x 1200 pixels and 1400 x 1600 pixels per eye respectively, the PSVR system uses a single screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Thinking about building a fully immersive VR Unity game? Look no further. Give us a call @ +1 800-559-5582 or drop us an email at info@rockonit.com.