Unity Developer Requirements for Cardboard app.

First of all I would like to apologize if I posted this at the wrong thread. Please do move this thread if Its in the wrong section.

I am interested in hiring a developer that can help me create a mobile application that makes use of google cardboard sdk using unity. Basically the function of the application would be to simulate shopping in a mall where users are able to navigate from 1 360 view to another based on where they are looking at. They also are able to see information such as price,information and etc of a product if they look at a trigger on top of the product.

Was just wondering what should I look for in the potential developer that I will hire? Like what skill set should I look for or what previous experience of the developer would help in this project?

Thank you for taking the time to read this long post,
Mark

 

For starters you might want to reconsider targeting Cardboard. Google is pretty much leaving it behind in favor of Daydream, and while Cardboard was cool for its cheap-and-simple factor, all the other major VR options offer better interactivity (which I think drove the move to Daydream).

Realistically I think any VR project will need to be multiplatform (which means you're in the right place with Unity).

Not exactly the answer you were looking for, but I'm not sure you were asking the right question.

 

Maybe what Google is leaving behind is the name "Cardboard", but currently it's still there. They certainly will not leave the technology or SDK behind. It's still the same SDK with additional Daydream features. They expanded their ecosystem upwards with higher demanding specs for goggles, phones and controller to make them Daydream conformant.
You still can target all the low level, cheap cardboards out there with the Daydream SDK.

 

If he is generally good with unity (has created / published real unity applications before) then it should be fine..

As creating google cardboard app itself is very easy (especially with the built-in daydream support)..

Most complicated task in your app is probably what happens outside unity, if the data comes from external server,
it needs some web interface where to input all that data (prices, products etc), and which means login systems, securing it, database connections, uploads.. server handling, so need to know web dev stuff also if he should complete the whole project..Also needs some tool to actually insert those products in 360 photos and to load that data..

 

Google is king of the hill when it comes to abandoning APIs. Besides, at Unite I specifically asked about this and the Google rep said Cardboard and Daydream are two completely separate APIs. Granted that was a demo-booth guy, but he seemed to know what he was talking about when I started asking technical questions about "Daydream-ready" (Pixel) hardware versus "Daydream-compatible" (everything else). I was disappointed that Daydream won't support non-Pixel devices until "late next year".

 

At least from the Unity perspective this is not true ( for the current Google VR SDK V1.01 at least ). All the scene setup is the same as it was before , the code has been cleaned up of course etc.. And of course you can't use the controller API if don't have a Daydream controller available. Whats happening internally is a complete different thing, but all documentation and the design of the whole SDK strongly hints that Daydream ready and Daydream compatible both are maintained for the future. And Daydream compatible means exactly that: any android phone that was able to run cardboard previously. And the lack of "Daydream-ready" devices is mainly a tasks for 3rd party companies to introduce such devices

BTW: all my talk is purely from the developer perspective. So whats happening oon the Daydream VR storefront etc.., and if there is even a "Daydream compatible" term by google i don't really know. Only thing i know is that i use the GoggleVR SDK ( latest version) and it perfectly works for the old device i use for testing ( Xperia SP with custom Rom to bring it up to Kitkat , which is a requirement for google VR as it was for cardboard already for a long time )

 

Daydream also involves whole storefront UI specific to VR, and it simply assumes the user has that controller in-hand. I don't know for sure, I didn't think to ask, but my assumption is Cardboard apps won't be allowed (for one thing, Daydream apps require additional icon and banner graphics for use by the store). They are definitely different things.

Google itself doesn't use the term "Daydream compatible" versus "Daydream ready" as far as I can tell. It's either "ready" or "not ready" -- but the rep said they won't differentiate between non-ready devices when they open it up next year. So yes, any Android device will be able to run the "not ready" API but it still won't be Cardboard. If nothing else, they're physically very different (much larger, different eye-to-lens distance, no mag-switch on the side).