作者：Alistair Doulin

以下便是我有关虚拟现实开发的技巧。我将它们分成了针对于Vive，一般VR和一些更有哲学逻辑的技巧。

VR（from hexun）

针对于Vive

1.让用户从按压按键开始。执行这一步拥有一些好处：

—确保他们已经戴好耳机并准备好了

—确保他们手上至少拥有一个控制器

—这时候你可以设定任何基于用户高度的目标（例如接近用户的目标高度，因为该目标的高度必须和用户头部高度持平）

—按键按压将被添加到主要控制器上（不管它们是被握在左边还是右边）。如果你的控制器是基于不同方式进行操作，这便会成为你的主要控制器。

2.就像主机控制器那样，有些特定的按键比其它按键更好或更容易使用。所以你可以倾向于更容易使用的按键。当你在游戏中分配按键的使用时我建议你能够遵循以下的优先顺序：

—触发器

—拥有1个按键的跟踪板

—3D世界互动（例如使用控制器按压3D按键）

—菜单按键

—拥有4个按键的跟踪板

—控制按键（如果不是绝对必要不要使用这些按键）

3.为了呈现空间比例体验，致力于以2米x1.5米的规格或更小规格去吸引81%的用户。这能让你尽可能获取更多用户。

4.不要鼓励用户将控制器离彼此过近或离耳机太近。这会导致他们撞到自己并伤到设备。

5.在用户与游戏世界互动 时使用控制器震动功能去提高存在感。一个有效的例子便是Vive的空间比例。如果用户移动设备的速度越快，那么震动便会越快出现。

6.你需要考虑到许多用户都不能有效地盯着控制器。这主要有3种解决方法：

—在按键上添加一行内容并基于用户视角渲染文本。当控制器离开玩家视线时转向侧面视角从而让玩家可以在中心位置上看到文本内容。当玩家未能着眼于控制器时可以呈现出一个控制器图标，如此玩家便会想要使用控制器与游戏世界进行互动了。

—在玩家面前呈现文本内容告诉他们要盯着控制器。

—添加音频去告诉玩家当你提供给他们一个特殊按键时需要盯着控制器看。

一般VR

1.帧率至关重要。比起其它方式，较高的帧率更能创造存在感。不管何时当你添加一些能够影响低于90帧/秒帧率的内容时，你都要问自己它是否真的重要。你应该将970GTX作为最小硬件并确保始终都能达到90帧/秒的最小图像设置。

2.当你在使用屏幕空间效果时一定要谨慎。或许我们可以原谅电脑显示器上的光晕，但是这在VR上却会显得非常不现实。对于那些极端现实的开发者来说这一问题更加严重。不要让你的游戏变得和游戏开发标准一样“优秀”，而是应该让它尽量现实些。你可以参考下面列表的内容去创造后置处理效果：

—反锯齿设置

—色彩校正

—Bloom

—SSAO（因为成本太高了握通常都会放弃这个）

3.确保所有UI都包含了故事内容的。用户设备的分辨率足以呈现3D内容了。但是你需要确保文本内容够大。有些用户不能带上VR眼镜，所以你需要确保文本比实际情况更大一些。将UI附加到控制器上能够让用户去控制文本大小，即他们可以拿近控制器进行阅读。

4.在可以的时候使用音频。尽管UI在VR上表现不错，但如果能够使用音频的话效果会更好。用户可以在执行其它行动时听取音频内容。而如果是阅读文本信息的话他们便需要停下手上的事。

5.当在运输用户时让他们会消失在黑暗中。我会让整个画面暂时（游戏邦注：大概0.2秒的时间）变成黑色的以帮助玩具去想像运输过程。

6.确保目标的最短距离也不会离用户太近，否则这会让他们感到困惑并患上“模拟疾病（游戏邦注：即不愉快，迷失方向，呕吐等症状）。

7.在必要的时候创造细节。如果用户可以拾起或靠近一个目标，他们便会专注于这些目标的细节。其中纹理细节是最重要的。

8.在VR种闭上一只眼睛去瞄准目标很有效。像机瞄和范围（不管是武器，望远镜还是显微镜）都是非常有效的。而比起只是将这些功能用于武器/枪支种，你可以想些更有创意的使用方式。

9.不要只是通过锁定目标而将用户和目标联系在一起。虽然这能避免生硬的体验，但其实非常糟糕。

基于哲学逻辑的VR技巧

1.虚拟现实会放大游戏/体验最棒和最糟糕的部分。当VR有效运行时，它便是真的有效运行着。不幸的是有关糟糕的体验也是如此。像较低帧率，较低质量的资产等问题会完全破坏用户体验，有时候甚至会导致他们患上“模拟疾病”。

2.存在感是最重要的。你应该忽视所有那些会破坏你的应用存在感的规则。

3.我们正身处前沿发展，所以你大可花些时间着眼于每个新问题并思考是否存在具有创意的解决方法。不要只是回到之前的游戏/应用中并基于它们进行创造。

4.尊重用户。尊重它们的私人空间和舒适感。期待非游戏玩家以及各个年龄层的人都能玩自己的游戏/体验。

5.此刻对于VR的最大威胁便是过度宣传以及用户过高的期待值。根据Steam Spy的数据，人们期待最多能卖出1万至2万台设备。尽管用户装备不错，但你必须牢记这是该用户设备的第一代产品，所以不要期待所有的一切都会是完美的。

6.情况总是会发生快速变化，所以要对此做好准备。你最好能够从小做起，即先发行一些产品去提高名声并将游戏体验变成真正的VR内容。

7.观看你的目标用户首次使用VR的情况（包括游戏玩家和非游戏玩家）。尽早观看他们尝试你的游戏原型的情况。VR会最大化你的软件最棒和最糟的地方，所以出现任何问题都是不可饶恕的。

8.当你在进行游戏演示时不要太过凸显体验。或许本来大多数人都会乐意去尝试它，但如果你做得太过火的话人们便会选择忽视它。

9.保持一致性。当下游戏遭受到最多批评的一个地方便是游戏间的不一致。所以你应该与其他VR开发者一起创造一个通用词汇表并制定出我们都能遵循的标准。毕竟我们是一个比起竞争更热衷于帮助彼此的和睦社区。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Virtual Reality Development Tips

by Alistair Doulin

Below are my virtual reality development tips. I’ve broken these up into Vive specific, general VR and more philosophical tips. For more tips follow me on Twitter @Doolwind.

Vive Specific

1.Ask the user to press a button to begin. Doing this has a few key benefits:
- Ensures they have headset on and are ready
- Ensures they have at least one controller ready to go in their hand
- You can set any user height specific objects at this point (ie height of objects close to the user that need to be a height relative to their head)
- The button pressed will be attached to the dominant controller (regardless of whether they are left or right handed). This can then be used as the primary controller if your controllers are handled differently.

2.Certain buttons are better/easier to use than others, much like console controllers. Favor the easier to use buttons where possible. When assigning buttons in your game/experience I recommend following this general order of priority:
- Trigger
- Track-pad as single button
- 3D world interaction (eg pressing 3D button with controller)
- Menu button
- Track-pad as 4 buttons
- Grip buttons – don’t use these unless absolutely necessary

3.For room scale experiences, aim for 2mx1.5m or smaller to capture 81% of users. This will allow you to capture the largest audience possible. More detail on current user stats can be found here.

4.Don’t encourage users to bring their controllers too close to each other or the headset. This is one of the few times they will hit something and possibly damage their equipment

5.Use controller vibration when the user is interacting with the world to increase presence. A great example is the room scale setup with the Vive. The faster the user moves the devices the faster the vibrations occur.

6.Many users fail to look at their controllers, take this into account. There are three main solutions to this:
- Add a line to the button and have the text always render in the users view. Pin to the side of the view when the controller is out of their view frustum so they must look in that direction to centre the text. This can be extended to showing an icon for the controllers any time they are not looking at the controller and they are expected to use the controller to interact with the world.
- Put text in front of them telling them to look at controller.
- Add audio queues to tell the user to look at the controller when you are showing them a particular button.

General Virtual Reality

1.Framerate is paramount. Presence is achieved much more with a high frame rate than any other factor. Whenever you add something that impacts the frame rate below 90fps ask whether it’s important. Target a 970GTX as the minimum hardware and make sure on the lowest graphical settings 90fps can be achieved at all times.

2.Be careful when using screen-space effects. We can forgive lens flare on a computer monitor but it can seem totally unrealistic in VR. This is especially a problem for game developers who sometimes over exaggerate reality (eg bloom). Don’t do this in your game to get it to look “good” as per game dev standards but go more for realistic. If in doubt, leave it out. Use this list as a general guide to importance of post-process effects:
- Anti-aliasing
- Colour correction
- Bloom
SSAO (I usually drop this as the cost is too high for little payoff)
3.Keep all UI diegetic. The resolution of both consumer devices is more than enough to read in 3D. However keep the text extra large. Some users can’t wear their glasses in VR so make sure text is larger than it really needs to be for the “average user”. Attaching UI to the controller is a great way of giving the user control over the size of the text as they can bring the controller close enough to their eyes to be able to read.

4.Use audio when possible. While UI works well in VR, it’s much better to use audio queues where possible. There is no concern with the user missing the popup and users can multi-task, listening to your audio queues while performing another action. They must stop what they are doing to read a text message.

5.Fade to black when transporting/teleporting the user. I also keep the scene fully black for a small amount of time (~0.2 seconds) to help the brain with the transition.

6.Keep objects a minimum distance from the user as objects too close to the viewer can cause confusion and simulator sickness. It’s better to have the near z plane clip than have it get uncomfortably close. Respect the user’s personal space (or explicitly don’t for uncomfortable experiences). The only caveat to this rule is when the user picks up and object to look closely.

7.Build detail where it matters. If a user can pick up or otherwise get close to an object then focus detail in these objects. Texture detail is the most important with model quality a close second.

8.Closing one eye to line up objects works really well in VR. Things like iron sights and scopes (both weapons and telescope, microscope etc) are surprisingly effective. Rather than just using this for a gun/weapon think of novel ways this can be used.

9.Don’t lerp objects relative to user just lock them. I had thought this would give a less abrupt experience however it’s terrible. Keep the rotation locked and lock position on 1, 2 or all 3 axis.

Philosophical Virtual Reality

1.Virtual Reality amplifies the best and worst parts of a game/experience. When VR works well, it works really well. The level of presence achieved with a great project can instantly sell someone on VR. Unfortunately the same can be said for bad experiences. Low frame rates, low quality assets and other issues can completely ruin the experience and sometimes lead to simulator sickness. With great power comes great responsibility.

2.The absolute priority is presence. Ignore any of these rules that break presence in your application.

3.We are on the frontier so spend time looking at each new problem and seeing if there is a novel way of solving it. Don’t just go back to previous generations of games/apps and build upon them.

4.Respect the user. Respect their personal space and their comfort levels. Expect non-gamers and people of all generations to play your game/experience.

5.The biggest threat to VR at the moment is over hype and bad expectation management. Expect to sell a max of 10-20k units at the moment based on Steam Spy stats. While the consumer kits are great, remember this is the first generation of consumer devices so don’t expect everything to be perfect.

6.Things will change rapidly so be prepared. It’s better to start out small and start releasing products to build a name for yourself and get experience actually releasing VR content.

7.Watch your target audience use VR for the first time (gamers vs non-gamers). Watch them play your prototypes as early as possible. VR amplifies the best and worst parts of your software and can therefore be very unforgiving.

8.When demoing, don’t make a big deal about the experience. Most people will happily try it on, but if you build it up too much some will be turned off.

9.Build consistency. One of the major (perhaps overly) criticized areas of current games are the inconsistencies between games. Work to build a common vocabulary with other VR developers and work out standards we can all follow. We should be an inclusive community that helps one another rather than competing.（source：gamasutra）