VR career question

I’m a front end developer and I’m really interested in VR development with Unity. My question is do I have to switch fields or can both be done together?

 

VR projects have heavy "front-end" development needs and unique challenges. But, the skills and details of developing VR are quite different than desktop, web, or mobile apps. The good news is that it's all computer science and once you get your feet wet on Unity and 3D concepts, the rest is just programming. ;-)

I should mention that if you are doing the UX design (not the UI coding), the concepts of getting UX right in VR are completely foreign than anything else you have ever done. You cannot learn this from books or watching videos, you need to build stuff, fail a LOT, and keep experimenting, to build competency in VR UI/UX. IMO everything you know about UI/UX from mobile, web, and desktop is wrong. ;-)

Depending on your current skills, you may have a lot to learn first. First, you must be competent in Unity. If you are not familiar with developing Unity apps, I would start there. There's TONS of fantastic videos, tutorials, classes and communities to help you learn Unity. Second, you need to develop competency in 3D graphics concepts and details. If you have never done any 3D development, you will need to learn that too. Once you are comfortable with Unity and 3D, you are then ready to jump in and develop VR apps. Of course, you will need some VR hardware (Oculus Rift, VIVE, etc.) and a computer that is powerful enough to run VR.

 

Hey, @gaming-harp. Sounds like you may be on a similar career trajectory to me, so I'll share my experience with you so you can see if there are any lessons or tips you can pick up.

I graduated from high school and went to a real college for a year, majoring in Com Sci, but I was undisciplined and unfocused, and I dropped out after a year. Went back to working at the restaurant I was at since 16. Joined the National Guard and got deployed to Iraq.

Upon returning home, I enrolled at a community college in their Information Security transfer degree program. After a semester, I switched to their Web Development Associate degree course and graduated after 2 years total. The next month, I got a paid internship as a developer at an advertising agency, and after 6 months, they hired me full time. I did some static HTML sites, but mostly WordPress and Drupal sites. The pay wasn't great, and I knew the amount of stuff I had learned since graduation made me far more valuable, so I found a new job.

The next job was at a major IT staffing and development firm, and it wasn't my style at all. I left after a few months and got a position as a front end developer at a creative agency. There I did mostly WordPress sites again, but I was ready to branch out into more exciting things, so I left after a year and a half. While I was there, though, was when I started really getting into tinkering with Unity and trying to make prototypes of actual game ideas.

Had a filler job doing content entry for a hospital's intranet, then found a job as a developer for a film and animation company that made educational "games" in HTML/Javascript for a home school program. I also got to use Unity a bit there to build a proof of concept for an iPad game that didn't get pursued. While there, I finished my first game (of mine, not the company's) that I released for free on iOS.

That company experienced some financial issues, and I managed to get out just before they let everyone go. Got a job as an application developer in the geospatial division of an engineering firm a mile from my house, that just happens to be the best place I've ever worked.

Someone from another department reached out about an idea for visualizing their data in VR, and a team of me and three other developers put together a plan to prototype what he needed. Being the only one with Unity experience, I built the app in my own time for my Google Daydream and showed it off to him and the vice president in charge of innovation within my division.

The company has since purchased me a Unity Pro license and I'm told there's an Oculus Go on its way here. They also have an extra Rift tucked away somewhere that will likely end up on my desk as well. Nothing's final yet, but it's looking increasingly likely that a good portion of my time could be spent working on VR projects, and I'm well-positioned to be a leader on the VR front within the 2000 person firm.

- - -

So in my opinion, here are things you can do to help get yourself where you want to go.

Start now
If you haven't done any VR development yet, start now. Like, today. If you don't own any VR devices, get one, or get a headset that's compatible with your phone or something. Download the appropriate SDK and get a demo scene built and loaded on your device. Do this on YOUR time, since it's your future you're enhancing here, and software development is a field where you need to prove you can do something before you can expect people to pay you to do it.

Don't wait for opportunities; Make them.
If you're lucky like me, and your company embraces innovation and recognizes the potential for VR as it applies to their business, identify a potential business use case and develop and idea. Try building a proof of concept that demonstrates that product, since the real power of VR isn't obvious unless you actually experience it. Show it off to the higher-ups who have decision-making powers and sell them on your vision. Demonstrate your ability to solve that need they didn't know they had.

Never give up. Never surrender.
If you're unlucky, your company may be shortsighted and won't see the value in VR yet. You may have to be persistent and ruffle some feathers in order to be heard. Just make sure before you do that you can back up what it is that you're saying. If they're unwilling to pursue it, and it's your dream, you might have to be open to the idea of finding a new employer who will allow you to take the career path you want.

- - -

Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions or if there are certain areas you'd like to discuss deeper.