During OC5, Oculus announced a new SDK feature called Hybrid apps. This allowed software developers to enable the same desktop app to run on the desktop and in VR.
For those that create VR content, this will dramatically speed up development, as it opens the door to ending the painful workflow – create, headset on, test, remove headset workflow.
During the demo, we see a 3D model being manipulated in real time, with new textures being placed on the model in real time, from a window from the development application.
This differs from the current desktop mirroring as it doesn’t have to be an entire application, it could be components which make the most sense.
Let’s hope development tools from the likes of Autodesk and Adobe are planning on adapting this. If there’s one addition that could speed up the development of VR applications and experiences, this is it.
There’s also a real benefit to developing on the display your content will eventually run on. Currently developers work on nice big high-quality monitors, but have to jump into VR to see what the end result will be. Developing in the Rift will mean this becomes a real-time, 1-step process. It will test the limits of how long you want to spend inside VR.
