As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to …
make VR experiences on roblox, even with a lot of experience with the oddities that developing for VR entails. Every now and then while I work on my VR projects I run into certain hurdles that can be easily surmounted with a feature request. But by the time I write the feature request, I’ll figure out some kind of janky solution.
However, I feel like now’s a good time to post this, especially with this
confirmation from staff that VR might be getting more attention in the future. So I figure it’d be good for them to have a list of features that would make Roblox VR development easier for a lot of people.
1: Coregui functions for disabling the UserGui panel.
This one still gives me headaches. I still have found no good way to get around it other than telling users to disable it every time they join. Since users have the option to set it to be disabled, it’s only fair that developers can disable it, as it’s created by the VR core scripts. (PS, if anyone has found a better way to deal with it besides deleting it every frame, let me know)
2: Some kind of info about the hardware.
Developing for the VR platform is very tricky right now, as there’s a lot of controller designs, all of which do different things (and act differently on Roblox). some have as few as 8 inputs. others have as many as many as 18. It’s like trying to develop for a single Switch Joy-con, and full Xbox controller. all while not know what your user is using.
3: VR sort, or some kind of VR labeling for games
This one is more of a website feature, But right now the only way I can spread news about my VR game is through word of mouth or youtubers. I’ve had multiple people tell me “hey, I bought your game, but I didn’t realize it was a VR game”. The only other way for people to explore and discover Roblox VR games is through a third person google site managed by @ZephhyLeo (Link if you’re curious)
4: Ability to adjust/change the spectator camera.
Right now, the spectator camera (what view is on the user’s desktop) Is set to the left eye. it can’t be changed or modified. It would be very helpful if we could either manipulate the spectator camera, or at the very least change the eye it renders from.
5: Get floor Level API
Pretty straightforward. getting floor level lets us know how tall the user is. this is Very useful for stuff like full body VR games (like Edgeworks)
6: Improvements to the default implementation.
one of the biggest things holding Roblox VR back is how… not great the default implementation is. This will likely be someone’s first experience with Roblox VR and It’s functional for sure, but it’s a bad VR experience. Namely… ya know… being in third person by default despite being hardware designed around being first person.
All of these would help greatly with the Roblox VR development experience. and if they are added (especially 1 and 4) it would make the development pipeline a LOT smoother.