SteamVR is a virtual reality toolset from Valve Corporation headquartered in Bellevue, enabling users to experience VR content on hardware of choice. SteamVR supports the Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.
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Unreal Engine
Score 8.9 out of 10
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Originally designed in 1998, Unreal Engine is a game engine designed to build games of all type, with sharp graphics and control, using the C++ language.
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Pricing
SteamVR
Unreal Engine
Editions & Modules
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End User License Agreement for Publishing
Free
5% of royalties after gross product revenue exceeds 1M
I wanted to play "Half Life:Alyx" which is the best VR game currently available. I was able to purchase it through steam during a sale, launch it through SteamVR, and stream it to my oculus. This allowed me to use the processing power of my desktop with the mobility of my oculus.
It's really well suited for experiential uses. Sure, games are made with it, but I'm guessing that more non-gaming assets are being made with it than anyone realizes. It's a fantastic post-production for 3d modeling tasks. It's fantastic for fast nearly photo real rendering. It's almost as good at rendering truly photo real assets now that Path Tracing is becoming mature. It's fantastic for creating background and matte plates for video and film production. There are few things that do that as well as it can. It's not well suited to modeling the initial 3d object so you really need to have something to build the 3d assets in. Hard asset modeling and creating is the one area that it's lacking. But, even if it never rises to the level to compete with 3ds Max or Maya, etc., that's ok, because it's just another tool and it does what it does so well, that modeling deficiencies can be overlooked
The modeling tools are getting better but have a good way to go to really be intuitive
They are trying to bridge the gap between coders and artists and have done well but more needs to continue to happen to enable users who have little experience writing code to be able to use it effectively. It's not that this is a "room for improvement" thing per se, it's just that more of it needs to be done and I think they know that and are on it.
It's so powerful, it's difficult to find anything else that needs improvement. It's kind of mindblowing what it's capable of.
SteamVR is the best platform on the market for VR games, and its integration with the already fantastic Steam marketplace makes it piggyback on a very mature product and highly tuned usability. The low-cost, high-reward offering is impossible to beat at this time. There is also a section that is in the works for VR videos, which, once complete, will add additional welcome functionality to the platform.
Steam on the whole is a very mature platform, so SteamVR had a great head start in that regard. I'm used to how Steam operates and that got me most of the way to understanding and navigating SteamVR right from the start. The thing holding me back from a perfect score is the lack of a simple tutorial for those who are not as familiar with the legacy Steam.
The system is easy to download, doesn't take much time to boot up, and is built on the tried and true bones of the Steam launcher. That means great memory of what games you've purchased in the past, and which ones you are currently downloading. Playtime metrics as well are tracked, and the SteamVR has a low crash occurrence, assuming your PC was stable to begin with
SteamVR is fast to boot up, fast to load games, and fast to recover even if you need to restart for any reason. The navigation within SteamVR is quick and responsive, and sifting through have libraries is smooth and fluid. When connected via virtual desktop to an oculus headset, SteamVR still works great and allows for wireless VR Gaming
SteamVR has more volume of games, a variety of games, and quality of games much more advanced than the oculus store. While the SteamVR headset is better than the Oculus, the software (SteamVR) is the better option. Plus, you can utilize your computer storage to hold games instead of being limited by the Oculus internal storage capacity.
Despite the fact that the Unreal Engine user interface took some getting used to, it was rather simple to navigate once we got the hang of it. Furthermore, Unreal Engine offers unrivalled flexibility and fine-tuning tools. Twinmotion has a slightly complicated UI as well, but the number of options for personalization and fine adjustment is limited
One person connection is easy to establish and maintain, however we found that multiple people from multiple locations and internet speeds and troubles connecting to s SteamVR social hub. Ultimately we were unsuccessful, however once in a game we had no difficulty connecting to the social hub within it. For some reason, the connection outside of a game was harder to establish
It's helped a tiny studio like mine to compete with larger and more financially sound studios.
It gives me another product from which I can derive a revenue stream.
Unless you are publishing a game for sale or a packaged product, UE is free to use and tinker with. You can use it to build something amazing to use in your portfolio which in turn can help you sell your skills.
