At this year’s F8 developer conference, Facebook made a bit of a splash. Their long-awaited VR headset — Oculus Go — was released to the public for an affordable price of $199.99. In one stroke, Oculus Go addressed all of the issues that I’ve previously had with other VR headsets: This new headset has the hardware built right into it, so I was no longer tethered to my computer. With the headset being so affordable, there was less financial risk on my part. And, while it doesn’t have the horsepower of my computer backing it, the headset does provide the essence of VR.
The big question: Is it worth the money that Facebook is asking or is it just another piece of tech destined for the attic?
In this article, I’ll provide an overview of the headset and maybe, just maybe, I’ll show you how to get it up and running with the latest version of Unity so that you can build your own VR worlds.
Setting Up the Oculus Go Headset
My Oculus Go experience started with a package left on my doorstep. It was a bit dense, heavier than I expected for what essentially is a headset with a matching pointer. Paying coach rate for VR, I expected to receive a cheap headset thrown together from backroom parts but, opening the box and inspecting the device, it was clear that the headset is more than a plastic knockoff of its older brother.
The box comes with a headset and a simple wand controller, along with a few accessories. I find the headset to be a good size for my face. It has a bit of weight to it — enough to make it feel snug. It also comes with an insert so that I can wear glasses while using it; unfortunately, the headset presses my glasses tight against my ears. For short sessions, this isn’t a problem but, after an hour of using it, my ears begin to throb. Granted there are lots of straps to adjust to decrease the tightness, but I have yet to find my sweet spot.
The headset’s screen is 5.5 inches with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. It looks good, with the projected image being clear with bright colors that don’t look muddled; however, at times, I can see the pixels — it’s most noticeable when there’s a lot of white being displayed. Also, at times, I find occasional light seepage around my nose; most of the time, I don’t notice it but, when I do, it can be distracting.
The headset also features spatial sound. This means I get the full surround sound experience, and it does the job nicely. The sound is piped through speakers, which means everyone nearby will hear any stray gunshots aimed at me. You can provide your own headphones, however; having used both ear buds and stereo phones, I have no issues while wearing the device.
I didn’t know what to expect from the wand controller. It features a touchpad, two buttons and a trigger. Looking at it reminds me of the Wiimote, which isn’t a good thing; the Wiimote was always a mushy experience for me so I was shocked, despite its appearance, to discover that the Oculus Go controller is quite good. It feels like I’m simply holding a laser pointer while in VR. There are times when the pointer loses its orientation, but it’s quite easy to readjust by means a settings option. My only complaint is with the touchpad. Sometimes, it doesn’t feel responsive and, other times, it’s too responsive. Gestures are often muddled. Gestures tend to be confused so a simple vertical swipe won’t register or register as a different gesture. Thankfully, the rest of the controller makes up for the touchpad’s shortcomings.
Before I can power on the headset, I need to install the Oculus Go app on my phone, which is available on iOS and Android respective app stores. Naturally, being a Facebook product, I need to log in with my Facebook account. Unfortunately, this is a requirement as opposed to a suggestion. There’s also a bunch of privacy settings regarding whether I want to connect with my friends and share VR experiences via the social media platform.
Note to Facebook: When I’m using the Oculus Go headset, I’m basically wearing a brick on my face. Socialization is the last thing on my mind.
Unfortunately, even though I am mostly pleased with the look and feel of the headset and wand, my initial experience using them isn’t ideal. The headset has just enough power to get me through the installation process and then it keeps switching to sleep mode. I initially think that the headset is broken because, no matter how I charge it, the headset won’t stay active for more than thirty seconds. I have to charge the device to 100%, after which the sleep issue goes away. Thankfully, the online support forums and Oculus support team are helpful. Submitting a support request was as easy as filing an online ticket, and then working through the issues in a chat interface.
Once the headset is up and running, I really enjoy using it. There are lots of freebies you can download to get started. Some are expereiences like riding a bobsled or a rollercoaster. Additional games cost five to ten dollars. Like other mobile games, some feature microtransactions and the free games have a most of their features gated behind paywalls.
As you might expect, however, being a low-cost VR device, the headset is a bit limited. If you are coming from using the more expensive Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, you’ll be used to six degrees of movement — that is, full rotation and translation. With Oculus Go, you have only three degrees of movement. Moreover, without anything to track your position in real space (a.k.a. meat space), there’s no way for Oculus Go to determine certain movements. This means that, when I move forward in real life, my position in the VR world remains static. If you are used to the more expensive VR headsets, this may feel constrained.
The real question, though: How are the games?
The Games
Out of the box, Oculus Go is said to feature over a thousand games. Oculus Go uses a custom Android OS specifically tailored for the hardware. This means that games developed using Gear VR work out-of-the-box with Oculus Go, which is evident because some games reference Gear VR device controls while failing to even mention the updated Oculus Go controls. In time, this will change as developers update their games but, for the meantime, early adopters have to get used to misleading instructions or prompts.
Purchasing games is done through the integreated app store. Once you’ve setup your account, it’s just a matter of searching the store, finding an app, and clicking the download button. Some cost money and you’ll quickly discover, like mobile, that the free apps aren’t really free.
My biggest gripe with the store is that apps with DLC are mentioned, but store doesn’t list the DLC nor the DLC prices. You’ll never know if whether an app is featuring a one time unlock or
Here are some of the games I played:
Coaster Combat
If you’re going to go on VR, you’re going to go on a few coaster rides. Them’s the rules. Coaster Combat is a fun twist on the genre in that you not only ride coasters (well, mine carts actually), but also shoot at targets and other riders. It’s an enjoyable version of a typical coaster game and the art style is well done. I did experience a bit of slow down, which is a little jarring, but overall, it was a fun experience. It gives you the feeling of motion of a rollercoaster with something to do (shooting targets) as opposed to being a passive experience.
Ultrawings
One of my bucket-list items in life is to earn my pilot’s license. Unfortunately, flying planes is expensive. Until the kiddos are through college, I can play Ultrawings instead. Granted, it’s a very simplified version of flying, but it really gives you the sense of movement. There’s nothing quite like banking your plane over the ocean and looking out the window. The simulated motion can be intense and you may feel a little sick. Thankfully, you can customize how much you see from your cockpit, minimizing the motion intensity.
Rush
Like Ultrawings, Rush features airplanes but, instead of flying them, you jump out of them. You essentially ride a wing suit through rings while avoiding cliffs, houses and other stationary objects. The game loop is fun, but it’s the lobby system that impressed me. You wait in a plane with other competitors and there are Nerf-like guns that fire suction darts. You basically shoot at each other and other targets with the guns. It’s really silly, but a fun way to get into a match.
Overtake: Traffic Racing
Being stuck in traffic, I often have daydreams of dodging and weaving without a single thought of safety. Overtake: Traffic Racing scratches that itch. The game puts you on a variety of maps where you must slalom through traffic to beat the clock or see how close you can get to other cars without hitting them. Out of all the games I’ve played, this one feels most like a traditional console game. This is probably due to the fact that movement is limited to just a few lanes and there’s not a lot of variation — you are always driving straight ahead. That said, the controls are tight and is fun to play.
Overtake Traffic Racing Store Page
Freebies
There are also loads of free games available. Some of these games feature in-app purchases like your typical mobile game, but others also have integrated ads. The ads are a real problem. Whereas you can just put down your phone when an ad pops up, in VR I feel like I’m forced to watch them. It’s an uncomfortable experience and not worth the price of admission.
Some games also require certain permissions: Accessing the file system or using your microphone, for example. One game even wanted to acccess my celluar data. These are clearly holdovers from the apps being ported to Oculus Go, but it still feels intrusive while also vague; with Facebook being under the microscope for all its privacy issues, it’d be nice of them to require better explanations for the requests.
Developing on the Oculus Go With Unity
The big question you may be wondering: “How’s the development?” It’s not too bad, in my estimation, although you are limited in several ways that you aren’t with some other devices:
- First, Oculus Go doesn’t haven access to Google Play Services; it’s just not part of that environment.
- Next, since the device isn’t a smart phone, certain app behaviors, such as phone notifications, won’t appear on the device.
- The device doesn’t have access to a camera, since there isn’t one.
- The device also doesn’t have access to a head-mounted display (HMD) touchpad. The HMD touchpad is a touch-sensitive region on the side of the Gear VR headset that allows for interaction. In fact, some Oculus Go games even reference the surface in their instructions. It’s just not available for developers to use on Oculus Go because, like the camera, it’s not part with the headset.
Getting Started
After you’re set up to start developing, you’ll need to put your Oculus Go headset into developer mode, otherwise you won’t be able to test your games. You’ll do this from the main Oculus app on your phone. This is the same app you used to register headset. In the settings of the app, you select your paired Oculus Go headset, and then select More Settings. From that menu, select Developer Mode and then switch it to On.
At this point, you’ll be prompted to set up your developer account the Oculus webiste. This will require to fill out some information about your company. Once saved, you must return to the app and turn the developer mode on. If you don’t get the prompt, that means that your headset it ready to roll.
Now go ahead and make an amazing VR game. Or you can download one our VR apps from our existing tutorials. Don’t worry, we’ll wait. :]
Configuring Settings
With your game ready, you need to make a few tweaks to the settings.
First, open the Build Settings and make sure your Unity project is using the Android platform. From the Build Settings menu, change Texture Compression to ASTC:
Next, click the Player Settings button and select the Android tab. First, you need to indicate that your game supports VR and you also need to select a VR SDK. You can find this in XR Settings. Simply click the Virtual Reality Supported checkbox and then click the plus sign under Virtual Reality SDKs. Make sure to select Oculus as the SDK:
Now, for the Quality Settings. From the menu bar, select Edit ▸ Project Settings ▸ Quality. Oculus suggests the following settings:
Pixel Light Count: 1
Texture Quality: Full Res
Anisotropic Textures: Per Texture
Anti-Aliasing: 2x Multi Sampling
Soft Particles: Unchecked
Realtime Reflection Probes: Checked
Billboards Face Camera: Checked
To learn more about Unity and Oculus Go settings, check out the Building Mobile Applications guide from Oculus.
Signing Your App
Believe it or not, you still have more configuring to do! Even though you’ve enabled developer mode from the Oculus app, you still need to sign your apps. Thankfully, this particular signing process is very easy. To get your certificate, head over to the OSIG Generator. Once you fill out the information about your headset, you’ll be provided with your certificate. You need to add it to your Unity project. In your Project window, add the certificate to the following location (case sensitive): Assets ▸ Plugins ▸ Android ▸ assets/
Sideloading Your Game
Finally, build your game and save the .apk file to your desktop. Being this is the first time you’ve used your headset for development, you need to sideload your game. You do this via the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), which is part of the Android SDK, which I mentioned earlier. You can find ADB in the Android ▸ SDK ▸ platform-tools subdirectory depending on where you installed the Android SDK. Also, you’ll need to access it via the command line. To sideload your .apk file, just run the command: adb install -r
You’ll receive a message saying that your device is unauthorized. Now, put on your headset and confirm that you’d like to use the device for developing. Make sure to check the USB Debugging option. Once confirmed, run the same ADB command to install your .apk file. It should copy the file with no issues and, once loaded, it will show up in your Oculus Go Library. Better still, you can now build and run inside of Unity and the game will automatically install on your headset. Huzzah!
Where to Go From Here?
The Oculus Go device is a great low-cost vehicle to get on the VR highway. While it’s limited compared to the HTC Vive or it’s older Oculus sibling, Oculus Go can still provide similar experiences. One could even argue that the Oculus Go manages to surmount the hurdles of traditional VR headsets in a way that is accessible and affordable to a wide audience.
For more information about developing for the Oculus Go, check out this article on everything you need to know for Oculus development at developer.oculus.com. The developer site also has some great information for developing with Unity.
The current Oculus store is wide open for opportunities. It feels very much like the opening days of the iPhone app store wherein simple apps were able to find large followings due to the lack of competition. The next generation of Angry Birds is ready to be made. The real question of the hour: Are you going to be the one to make it?
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