The full version of Godot 3.0 is available since February and offers VR support via a lightweight, 3DoF, carton-like solution via a GDNative-based plugin (for example 3D configurator). The multi-platform Godot Engine is an open source solution that can be downloaded for free from the official website or Steam.
Godot 3.0 is the result of over 18 months of development, which brings many changes and improvements, with a “brand new rendering engine with state-of-the-art PBR workflow for 3D, an improved asset pipeline, GDNative for loading native code as plugins, C# 7.0 support and many other features”.
VR support originally appeared with the introduction of an “ARVR server architecture” in October 2017 Alpha 2 release, which allows various AR and VR platforms to communicate with the engine. Chief developer Juan Linietsky describes the GDNative AR/VR framework as “tightly knit”, so that support for other VR platforms can be developed “independently of the core game engine“.
Moss breaks into the top 10 PSVR downloads in February after only 2 days in retail.
More information about the team’s plans for AR and VR support can be found in an earlier contribution by programmer Bastiaan Olij describing the “Native Mobile” interface for lightweight mobile VR applications that require only headset alignment and distortion, as well as full compatibility with SteamVR headsets via their GDNative OpenVR implementation.
An “experimental” GDNative module for OpenHMD is also available, the Open Source Project, which provides cross-platform support for multiple headsets, including PSVR. There are other plans to support Gear VR and Daydream in the future. AR is now planned for release 3.1, support for ARKit has been running for several months via Olij’s ARKit account on GitHub.
Olij recently released the video above that shows how easy it is to enable OpenVR in a project after the module has become an official asset in the library and some users, including tutorial producer Game From Stratch, report on the success of using a Windows Mixed Reality headset with SteamVR.