Thought Experiment: Which VR Platform To Choose
When you are on a crossroads, it is always difficult to decide which way to go.
Every beginner VR developer sooner or later faces with the necessity of chosen VR platform, he will develop for. Today I will do a small thought experiment to decide which platform better fits me.
In the experiment I will imagine that I’m going to build an education app called “TelescopeVR”.
TelescopeVR is a an application for astronomy amateurs, that teaches them to locate various space objects on a night sky (constellations, deep-sky objects, planets).
For this experiment I created a user persona called Eugene. He is a 35 years old engineer, who lives in USA. His hobby is astronomy. Eugene owns a telescope and loves to spend hours outside the city, looking at deep-sky objects. But it is very difficult to find time to go out for stargazing as often as he wants. So Andrew practices his hobby at home with different desktop apps. He wants to try some VR to make his home practice as close to real stargazing, as possible.
So, lets answer some questions.
How accessible would each VR platform be to Eugene?
Eugene is a well paid specialist, so he can afford any modern VR headset, whether it’s mobile or high immersion VR. At the same time, he is not a VR fan, and does not want to spend much money on a VR hardware for now. So mobile VR headset seams to be the one that Eugene most likely will use.
How interactive TelescopeVR needs to be?
There is no need in complex interactions in such an app. Moving head around, clicking, zooming in and out is enough for TelescopeVR.
How realistic do visuals need to be in TelescopeVR?
Of course, an app to learn space, should have nice visuals with high resolution and a lot of details(the more the better). There is no doubt, that high immersive VR platforms like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive will provide the best picture.
At the same time it is possible to make app visuals quite nice even on modern mobile phones, that are used in Gear VR and Daydream.
Verdict
Taken into account the answers below, I can make a conclusion, that mobile VR platforms fit better for my educational app TelescopeVR. Of course, HTC Vive or Oculus Rift will provide better visuals and much more interactive controllers, but, because of there high price, they are less accessible for people, who are not VR fans. The other advantage of mobile platforms is that they are easy to use and always ready to use, which is very important for simple apps, like TelescopeVR.
Choosing between two high end mobile VR platforms, I would take into account that TelescopeVR will have rather passive experiences, and there is no need in Daydream controller for it.
So, my final choice for this app is Gear VR. Cheers!
This is the end of my today thought experiment. It was a real fun for me! Fill free to share your thoughts about choosing right VR platform or just leave any other comments :)
