Native OSVR support comes to Unreal

Developers can now use Unreal Engine to create experiences for open-source virtual reality platform OSVR.

Epic Games has teamed up with VR tech firm Sensics to add native support for OSVR to its highly popular engine.

OSVR is designed as a universal foundation for a wide variety of virtual reality headsets, with Sensics claiming its integration with Unreal opens the engine up to ‘hundreds’ of devices.

“The exponential increase in the number of VR devices makes it difficult for developers and manufacturers to keep up,” said Yuval Boger, CEO of Sensics and co-founder of OSVR. “New HMDs, motion trackers, hand and finger sensors, eye trackers, body suits, motion platforms and more are coming to market every month.

"By providing native support for OSVR within the Unreal Engine, Unreal users will never have to worry again about keeping up with ever-changing APIs and new devices. Developers using Unreal can now leverage OSVR to easily build amazing VR experiences for hundreds of different devices.”

“We’re excited to announce that OSVR will be natively integrated into Unreal Engine 4.12, based on the contributions of Sensics and the open-source community,” added Nick Whiting, lead VR engineer at Epic.

“Its inclusion in the engine gives developers out-of-the-box access to many more types of VR devices that use the OSVR ecosystem, and helps ensure that Unreal Engine 4 remains the top choice for developing high-quality, cross-platform VR experiences.”

The news closely follows Crytek’s similar announcement that it will also natively support OSVR in its CryEngine platform.