Supporting VR and flatscreen in the same application

I'm in the planning stages of a game that I want to release on Steam with optional VR compatibility — kind of like Elite: Dangerous, Payday 2, Project Cars, etc. I'm wondering how difficult it would be to do this sort of thing in Unity, and how one might go about it? Would you detect whether SteamVR is running on wake, and enter VR or flatscreen mode respectively? Or would you make two separate builds of the game with different options in the launcher? Just trying to feel out what my options are and see if anybody here has some experience to share. Thanks!

 

I really don't know the answer to this but I will give you my input. Also, you might try asking in the game forums of steam on games like subnautica that have both 2d and vr modes. The devs usually respond to questions on those forums.

First, steamVR plugin now has a 2d fallback mode that initiates if no HMD is detected. I only use this mode for development so I don't know how it translates to a finished game but I would imagine it wouldn't be that difficult.

In either case, it should be easy just to implement a ui/preload scene that pops up and ask for VR/2d mode. Then load the scene based on the user input.

I personally wouldn't think two separate builds would be a good idea but I could be wrong.