Amazon’s Lumberyard videogame engine has long been tied to virtual reality (VR) development. This week brings news of a huge update that ‘evolves’ the processes involved in using the platform for VR, including support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Set to be available ‘in a few weeks’, Lumberyard Beta 1.3 will make use of the engine’s Gems system – self-contained packages of assets and features that you can drop into your videogame – for both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Furthermore, the implementation of Gems for these devices will act as templates for developers to build their own Gems in support of further VR devices, including mobile VR platforms such as the Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream.
In addition to Gems implementation for VR, Lumberyard Beta 1.3 will add a ‘VR Preview’ option. Previously, developers would have to export a level, load it into the launcher and enable VR in order to explore the design they had been creating. With VR Preview however, developers can simply click the associated button and see their design in VR immediately. This will allow for adjustments to be made within the editor in real-time, significantly reducing iteration time.
“We’re just getting started with VR in Lumberyard, and will be continuing to reduce iteration times, improve rendering performance, and enable new features to take VR to the next level,” states Cody White, Graphics and VR Engineer at Amazon’s Lumberyard team, in an update on the official Amazon Lumberyard blog.
The exact release date for Lumberyard Beta 1.3 has not yet been revealed, however it is clear that the team developing the engine are keen to ensure VR support is a priority. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest updates to Amazon’s Lumberyard for VR developers.
