VR/AR development involves creating immersive virtual or augmented reality experiences for consumers, businesses, and enterprise applications. This type of software engineering is a growing area with exciting potential for the future. This article covers the basics of VR/AR development, some of the technical considerations to keep in mind when designing AR/VR solutions, and some inspiring examples of innovative new uses for this emerging technology.
While VR is a completely digital experience, AR combines the physical and digital worlds. AR technologies allow users to interact with the real world by overlaying virtual objects or elements over a device camera’s view of the environment. Depending on the application, this can include things like a map, a guide to help with navigation, or information about a specific object. Increasingly, apps are taking advantage of the power of smartphones to create these kinds of user experiences.
Aside from the obvious need for performance hardware like headsets, there are several technical requirements for developing VR and AR software. Programming languages like C# and C++ and 3D graphics software like Unity or Unreal Engine are essential for this type of work.
Unity and Unreal are two of the industry leaders in this space, with both offering a variety of features that can be utilized by developers. Unity offers a more approachable environment for beginners due to its support of the C# scripting language, while Unreal provides a more advanced platform with more advanced hardware control.