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Together with my partner, I have carried out a few 3D game-like art projects with DBPro during the last 12 years, which were stable and consumer usable enough (well, mostly...) to set them free in the wild. However, as those years are flying, we feel time has come to break down the DBPro tents and move along: for the next project, we want to give a try at VR, which would also make a good opportunity to switch to AppGameKit, eventually.

Now, since we don't want to spend time and money into the blue, I'd like to ask a few questions to those of you who already have worked on AppGameKit VR projects.

- Would you consider AppGameKit VR fit for projects that can be set up and displayed in public without hassle? The idea is to bring in a PC and the VR gear and stuff, spend half a day setting up an installation, and leave it to the public, as it was possible with DBPro projects.
- Hard- and software: Is AppGameKit and AppGameKit VR, combined with a new, VR enabled PC, and the HTC Vive your choice?
- There has been a lot of talk of VR with Unity or Unreal: What would be the 'selling point' of the AppGameKit VR solution? (mind I am not a friend neither of Unity nor Unreal)
- We are quite familiar with building and controlling 3D worlds within DBPro. If we give ourselves half a year to get into AppGameKit (and VR), would you consider this realistic?
- What other things should I take into account when making a decision for a VR configuration - are there any hardware or software related things to keep in mind?

All your comment on these questions is very welcome

Absolutely.


Personally, I'm using Oculus Rift CV1. It is a long time since I looked into the Rift VS VIVE debate, so I can't really say what would be the best bet.
I think the Rift CV1 offers the most immersive experience. CV1 was easy enough to set up on a new location. One thing you should remember is to create some barriers so that people don't block the sensors or get punched in the face by the guy in VR.
But Rift CV1 has a problem with wires that risk breaking whenever you readjust the right strap on the HMD. This is worth bearing in mind when a lot of people are going to use it.


There's a lot of stuff which barely works in AGK: No true collision detection, no fullscreen shaders in VR, outdated lightning.
Still, I'm sticking to it because it is insanely easy to use, with simple commands like AGKVR.SetPlayerPosition(0.0, 0.0, 0.0)


I don't know how much difference there is between Darkbasis and AGK. My guess is that you will need a week or so. You will need to buy the tutorial guide v2, which describes 3D stuff.


Remember that the pc is going to be transported. So try to go for something that is reasonably small and lightweight, and not too fragile. I guess the smartest thing would be to go for a laptop, so you won't have to bother with mouse, keyboard and monitors.

Thank you, basicFanatic, for your answers. I'm sure my questions had been asked before, and I wouldn't blame anyone for telling me to scan the forum first, so there.

Re: Stuff barely works in AGK: AppGameKit probably does a lot better than my old DBPro. I don't plan to work with the wildest effects; I'm happier with a stable, reliable solution with less features than with a state-of-the-art but erratic system.
Guess I will buy the AppGameKit first and see how I get along, and then find out which gear and PC.

Time for an update:
I ordered a Vive, it came more than a month ago.
I downloaded agk and the vr plugin.
I ordered a laptop with a nv 1070 card. On friday, eventually, the laptop arrived. (Took 5 weeks and about 15 phone calls to arrive!)
On saturday I started unpacking and plugging everything. Setting up the windows pc, rigging the VR space, installing vive and steam vr (which is mandatory for agk vr), toying around with the goggles on steam.
On sunday I installed the agk sw and ran some of the demos. By 2 pm I had my first own VR app running.

THIS IS JUST BRILLIANT!

I reckoned my road to VR would be plastered with weeks of painful, frustrating debugging, and now all it took me was a weekend to get there. My wife, who I asked to have a peek through the goggles, thinks I am a wizard. This is by far the most pleasant experience with setting up new stuff. I know there will be other days, but all I can say for the moment: the learning curve was not steep, since there was no actual curve. It just went on from what I already had.

Side note re SteamVR: Some people on the net have complained that with Vive you need to be connected to the steam website to have VR, which is not true for AGKVR. Once you have made an account with steam and downloaded and installed their sw locally you can run the whole vr installation offline. Being independent from online access is something I really welcome.

Hello dontaskme!

I'm glad to hear that your experience with AppGameKit VR has been good so far! You are correct that you do not need to be on Steam for SteamVR to work. I think most people think that because SteamVR is only available to download through Steam. Once you have it downloaded and installed, Steam isn't needed at all.
I just updated AppGameKit VR to support full-screen shaders as basicFanatic above mentioned that it was not possible before. The process is a little more complicated to setup, but it works well. There is now a demo included to show how to do it.

Good luck! Thanks for the feedback!

Ron