Why Use Unity For AR VR Game Development

Unity is a simple game engine with tools and support that helps the game developers create innovative and interactive games for various platforms seamlessly. The game engine has especially built tools and features that are specific for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality and help bring unrealistic imaginations to reality.

Unity for AR VR game development 

Virtual reality support in Unity

The VR support in Unity provides a single API interface that interacts with different VR devices, a project folder with no requirement for external plugins, it allows the developers to switch between multiple devices, and do so much more. 

Unity bought the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) for Virtual Reality. They are both compatible with one another, HDPR supports the new Unity XR plugin framework that offers multi-platform developer tools, faster partner updates from supported plugins, and more platforms can access this terrific functionality.

Augmented reality support in Unity

Unity’s AR Foundation lets the user create applications for handheld and wearable AR devices. The AR foundation also supports various features like device tracking, raycast, gesture recognition, face tracking, meshing, point cloud detection, and so much more across different platforms. This foundation is available and requires you to download one of the platform-specific AR packages from the Package Manager. The packages available are ARKit XR Plug-in, ARCore XR Plug-in, Magic Leap XR Plug-in, and Windows XR Plug-in.  

XR Development in Unity

XR Development in Unity includes applications to maximize AR and VR experiences. In the case of Virtual Reality, XR does that by simulating a different environment around the user and in AR, the XR application layers content over the digital display of the real world. The Unity game engine provides full support to the creators with XR tech stack optimizations for each platform, deep platform integration, and engine improvements. It supports various platforms for XR except on WebGL. The XR SDK plugin available allows users to directly integrate with the Unity engine so they can use all the features that Unity has to offer.    

The XR plugin framework offers several benefits like multi-platform developer tools, faster partner updates, and more platforms to enhance VR and AR experiences.

XR applications in Unity for AR VR game development 

Virtual Reality development

• Stereo pass stereo rendering (Doublewide rendering) – This feature is available for PlayStation 4 and PC-supported VR applications. The advanced stereo rendering in XR devices maximizes AR and VR performance. XR rendering generates two views, one per eye to create the stereoscopic 3D effect for the viewer. There are three modes of stereo rendering in Unity that are multi-pass, single-pass, and single-pass instancing. The kind of results that we get in all three cases is different as the performance of the three modes varies. 
• Custom shader in Unity – Visual elements and the overall appearance of a game is very important and it is the textures, materials, and shaders that create the look and feel of the game. We are going to talk about shaders here. Shaders in video games are scripts that play an important role in creating interesting visuals for a game project. These small scripts carry mathematical calculations of every pixel rendered in a game which is based on the configuration of materials and lighting input. Visual programming is an interactive way to create shaders  
• Vertex color mode in Unity lets the user set the vertex colors of a mesh by choosing between the modes available on the toolbar under the paint settings. This mode only works if the shader supports vertex colors which most Unity shaders do not. Some default materials in Polybrush in the Unity editor make it compatible with vertex colors and let it paint colors on a mesh. The different settings on the vertex color mode offer you a color palette and brush types that let you brush, fill, and flood colors on a mesh. It also lets you colorize levels of prototyping, zones, team layouts, and more. 
• The Edit Mode Toolbar is a color-coded toolbar in ProBuilder that helps you switch between the four different ProBuilder Edit modes that are Object mode, Vertex mode, Edge mode, and Face mode. The Object mode in the Unity Edit Mode Toolbar lets you select and manipulate GameObjects. The Vertex mode allows you to select and manipulate points (vertices) on a ProBuilder. The Edge mode lets you select and manipulate lines (edges) on a ProBuilder mesh and the Face mode is the element mode that selects and manipulates faces (polygons). The Vertex, Edge, and Face modes together are known as the Element modes. The edit mode hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts) are also available at the toolbar to access various tools.  
• EyeTextureResolutionScale or RenderScale lets users increase or decrease the resolution by controlling the actual size of eye textures by using different levels of eye texture resolutions. Different values of RenderScale use different resolution eye textures.

For dynamically changing eye render resolution on the fly, consider using XRSettings.renderViewportScale instead.

Unlike RenderScale, RenderViewportScale lets you dynamically change eye render resolution during the process. It controls the amount of allocated eye texture between 0.0 – 0.1 for rendering. This can be used to decrease the resolution at runtime like in a case where you want to maintain an accepted frame time. 

• Scriptable Render pipelines (SRP) for VR is the technology that lets you schedule and render commands using C# scripts. This thin API layer lets you create customized render pipelines.

Augmented Reality development

• AR Occlusions – In augmented reality computer-generated objects or materials are placed in a 3D space to add information and depth to a scene. Occlusion occurs when one real-world object or wall hides another object from the view in the virtual world to create more realistic experiences in AR games. AR Foundation in Unity can be used to achieve occlusion by applying shaders to plane objects. 
• AR Lighting and Shadows – We can use virtual lights and cast shadows on them from virtual objects to illuminate a scene and create a realistic look and feel for it. Directional light is used to cast shadows on the real world in which light falls on virtual objects and projects shadows on the floor. Unity’s AR Foundation provides different tools to experiment with the range and intensity values to create that rich and immersive environment for the viewer.   
• Platforms Specific Rendering – Unity for AR VR game development behaves differently on different platforms. Hence, AR foundation offers the users an interface that lets them work with augmented reality platforms in Unity in a multi-platform way. 

The gaming industry is a multifaceted world and Unity provides wonderful opportunities to experiment with various tools, technologies, and functionalities. These contribute immensely to creating smoother and more engaging games for the gamers with 3D, captive experience, real-time interaction, creative content, sound, and other sensations. However, many game development companies in India that use Unity for AR VR game development and you can hire Unity game developers who are creative and hold excellent programming skills to develop games that are interactive and immersive.