In the world of VR games, “porting” is on everyone’s lips. But what exactly is all this “porting” and why is it so important? We will try to present and explain this popular issue in this post.
Consumer choices
Technological development contributes to the emergence of an increasing number of devices, apps and games. On the one hand, it is good for users who have a lot to choose from, but if the user wants to use several services or devices, he must take into account that the process of consuming technology and other experiences will be burdensome. Here is a simple example – in order to watch the latest productions – TV series and movies fan must have an account on HBO GO, Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney + (who bought the rights to the Star Wars, Marvel and National Geographic brands) etc.
Crossplay and crossinteraction in digital content
It seems to be a matter of time before a single platform is developed that allows viewing of each vendor’s content, while with software, it is much more difficult. Software developers have a choice of many languages in which to write the code. A great facilitation is the presence of the React-Native platform created by Facebook, which allows you to create cross-platform applications (running both on Android and iOS).
Without environments such as React Native, creating applications would take twice as much time, assuming that we have a team that is proficient in writing applications for both Android and iOS.
Is your computer good enough for VR?
Hardly anyone is surprised that games on a smartphone do not look like they do on a PC computer, but still, it is not obvious to everyone that inside every device, there are components that determine how much they can deliver in terms of gaming experience.
The processor, graphics card, RAM memory, or the hard disk’s size are important but are not the only elements that affect what kind of games we can play on our device.
We will not go into details of which element is responsible for what, but the better the components, the more complex the programs and the more visually attractive games you can experience.
In VR both GPU and CPU matter
Each platform has its criteria. Not only the criteria for what types of games and software can be published there, but also the criteria for their technical characteristics.
Cyberpunk proved two things: how important graphics cards are, and that even if you have the best card on the market, the frame rate can be relatively low.
Now, let’s imagine that we would like to run Cyberpunk on a smartphone …
Different types of VR content
VR is a technology that is relatively new to the market, and the consumer does not realize that “VR” is not always equal to “VR”. After all, we have sets that we connect to the computer, thanks to which we use powerful PCs, on the other hand, we have mobile devices such as the recent best seller Oculus Quest. Consumers often do not realize that mobile VR headsets are sometimes basically goggle-shaped smartphones with additional cameras and lenses that have limited performance in terms of graphics
Standalone VR might be awesome
And that’s not bad. There are various devices on the market to meet different needs. Anyone who wants to play Cyberpunk should have a very good computer. If someone wants to play Minecraft or just surf the web, all you need is a laptop or a smartphone. And with the development of new VR devices, the quality they deliver is getting higher and higher. A great example is the above-mentioned Oculus Quest – a mobile device which “mobility” and display quality are the main factors of its gaining popularity on the consumer market. Anyone who wants to play VR games does not have to spend a few (ten) thousand zlotys on equipment and get frustrated with tangled cables. EUR 350 is enough, and the consumer can explore virtual spaces and play really interesting games that engage the body and mind.
What is VR porting
VR porting is a series of programming and graphics processes that optimize the original game to run smoothly on a VR platform (in this case a mobile one). Let’s imagine that an Oculus Quest user wants to play a successful PC game in virtual reality. Is it possible – yes, thanks to porting the game to Oculus Quest. As we mentioned in the first paragraph, if a game is built for one platform, porting it to another may require rewriting the code. It is much easier if both games were created in one environment, e.g. Unity or Unreal. Therefore, both the processes in the game (day and night mechanisms, appropriate shading, etc.) and often, most of all, the 3D models themselves and their textures require optimization.
Model optimisation examples
An example of how much different 3D models can be, even though they look the same on the outside, is shown by our optimization of the MMA fighter model.
3D model before retopology
The Farm 51 company scanned the player and provided us with a source file weighing over 900 MB and 11,327,892 triangles – the character grid was very dense.
The entire model needed to be “thinned”, because as you can guess, 900 MB for a smartphone is a place worth its weight in gold. In addition, such an amount of triangles can kill even the most powerful gaming machine.
Initial effects of the model optimisation
The photo shows the effect of model optimisation / retopology. The character is clearer, but to work on any smartphone that supports augmented reality applications, we had to be even more radical.
Decreasing size of the file even more
The final result is a model that is only about 25MB and 19,492 triangles and shows every hair on the body and tattoo details.
Thief Simulator Oculus Quest VR port
We are currently working on porting the popular PC and PCVR title – Thief Simulator.
A game that has achieved very good sales results may reach an even larger group of people, but it requires meticulous optimization.
An example of one of the characters shows the first stage of optimization.
In addition to characters, the game features elements of nature, real estate and everyday items that must also undergo the VR optimization process.
In this photo you can see how the same places can look differently in the PC version and after partial optimization for Oculus Quest.
Each texture is subjected to a detailed optimization process to meet the rigorous requirements of the Facebook platform – Oculus. One of the biggest challenges is achieving a constant number of displayed frames per second (FPS) in the amount of 72 FPS, thus reducing the known phenomenon of “motion sickness”, especially among new VR players. Trying to achieve this goal, we “compete” with Electronic Arts or with Facebook’s – Ready at Dawn. The word “competition” is in quotation marks because it is not competition per se, but by providing a professionally optimized VR port of Thief Simulator for Oculus Quest, we will show the world-class level of game development.
