Oculus VR is, without a doubt, the one who is leading the home virtual reality revolution, but it is not going to be the only contender. Valve does not make it clear whether or not it will enter the hardware manufacturing, but at the software level a few months ago it presented Steamworks VR, an API that allows programming for different virtual reality devices. Now Unreal Engine 4 is also going to be compatible with this API.
The integration with the Steamworks VR SDK will also allow virtual reality experiences standing and moving inside a room, similar to the famous demo created by Valve that allowed the visitor to move within a delimited area. It remains to be known if this Steamworks API will accommodate other devices such as walkers or controllers, since to date, and as far as we know, it is intended only for HMDs.
Palmer Luckey himself commented this weekend on Siggraph that there needs to be more hardware manufacturers apart from Oculus itself, and we couldn’t agree more. In fact, Palmer compares it to the TV market, explaining how there are different manufacturers and everyone buys the one they prefer knowing that it will work for them. Time and agreements are still needed to reach this point, since virtual reality is in its infancy, but we believe that the step taken by Valve is going in the right direction, and the support by Unreal Engine is a sign of this.
