Suggested hardware setup for team

[abhilashca]

Hello,

 

I am new to VR space and require some clarifications regarding the hardware setup for the team.

 

As of now, my development PC is Windows 10 with Intel Core i7u processor. And, most of my team members are having the same spec laptop.

 

 

Now, we are planning to purchase few Vive Ready laptops for development and testing. The Vive Ready laptops are very costly so purchasing for all the team members will be an expensive approach. To best of my understanding, most of the development will be done on emulator and real testing will be done on device. I am planning to buy 2 Vive Ready laptops (to do real testing) and use the current spec laptop for development using emulator.

 

I would like to know what is the suggested approach here and what are the few best approaches others are following in their VR development.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[HackPerception]

, generally speaking, the complexity of your project will determine if it's practical to run the editor on lower end graphics. As a rule of thumb, if using the editor you generally want a dedicated GPU in your system if you're developing a 3D game but you can get away with onboard graphics if developing a simple 2D game (like a sidescroller). I'm not sure which emulation system you'll be employing (just a "null" hmd?) but running a project in the editor will almost always consume more resources than running the compiled binary so in general your workstations actually need to exceed your target minimum requirement due to editor overhead. Intel Graphics really isn't designed for development. 

 

Unless you are making a dead simple project, you'll really want to equip your developers with a GTX 1060 as a modern minimum but a 1070 goes along ways further. There are hidden costs associated with providing your devs with slower gear (namely wait times, inability to provide demos to potential clients and partners, event support, ect...) and a savings of a few hundred dollars can easily be wiped out if your devs spend time having to work around their workstation. 

 

You may be able to get away with the Intel graphics but it will be very very dependent on what you're building. If you're sure you want to go down that route, I would first order a laptop that's a good candidate and verify performance firsthand. 

 

RAM and SSDs are crazy helpful in reducing editor load and processing times. You'll also want a modern CPU (i7 if possible). 

[abhilashca]

Thanks for the detailed reply. It makes total sense on what you have explained from development aspect. I was planning to use the VR Simulator from VRTK for the development. Like you said, in an incompatible PC, running complex graphical model will drag the system irrespective of running in editor or in device.

 

For the laptops, I am planning to purchase 2 units of MSI VR Ready laptops. Do you have any better suggestions that those devices? If you don't might which laptops series are generally preferred for VR. From Vive's website, I can only see MSI laptops and rest of them are workstations.

 

Also, I assume these VR Ready laptops are powerful enough to support Rift also.

 

Thank you.

[HackPerception]

, We use MSI's as our primary vendor for entry level laptops used by our events teams. Overall, the MSI's are a great cost effective option but the value comes from loosing several features such as aluminum/alloy bodies. Overall, I would recommend them and own a GE62VR myself and have been surprised at how much perf I've gotten out of it (the 17' inch model was too bulky for me though). Keep in mind, the 1070 is the min spec if you're trying to run Pros. 

 

Oculus has slightly lower system requirements than most Vive experiences so if it's Vive compatible, it's going to also be Oculus compatible. The real bottleneck with Oculus + Touch on laptops is that you'll likely run out of USB ports if you're trying to connect a third or fourth sensor. 

[abhilashca]

Thanks for the details. That helps. I have ordered for an MSI laptop. :smileyhappy: