The Oculus Rift is a Head Mounted Display (HMD) which allows the user to deeply immerse themselves into the worlds and games they are viewing or playing. The following guide will help to highlight some information that you need to know about when developing content for the Oculus Rift and Unreal Engine 4 (UE4).
Oculus HMD Target Frame Rate
Below you will find the frame rate that your UE4 project must meet when using an Oculus Rift HMD device.
| HMD Device | Target Frame Rate |
|---|---|
| Rift Retail | 90 FPS |
| DK2 | 75 FPS |
| DK1 | 60 FPS |
Oculus Rift Sanity Check
If for some reason the Oculus HMD is not working first check that the Oculus plug-In is enabled. You can find the Oculus plugin under the Virtual Reality section in the Plug-in menu.
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If the Rift is not working in a Packaged game, make sure that Start in VR is checked. Start In VR can be found by going to Project Settings > Description > Settings.
Checking work with the Oculus Rift
The Oculus Rift HMD will not work with any of the UE4 Editor viewports or the default Play In Editor (PIE) session. To view your project on the Rift you will need to use the VR Preview option. To access the VR Preview option you will need to do the following inside the UE4 Editor.
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On the main Toolbar in the Play section, click on the small white triangle that is next to the Play button.
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From the drop-down menu, select the VR Preview option and then put your Rift on to view your project in VR.
Once you have changed the play mode to the VR Preview option your project will always launch in VR, even when using shortcuts like ALT + P.
Oculus Reference
Oculus has put a great deal of time and energy into researching how to give the user the best VR experience possible when using the Rift. If you have not done so already, it is highly recommended that you check out their website as there is a lot of useful information that will help you to develop and deliver the best VR user experience possible.