Samsung Developer Conference: Developers Get Real with Gear VR

VR Evangelist Dustin Wish helps attendees on Day 0 of the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco’s Moscone Center during the Gear VR: Developing Apps for the Virtual World workshop.

APK. UI. SDK. JNI. If those acronyms sound foreign to you, don’t worry—you’re not alone. But this is a language easily understood by those attending the “Day 0” hands-on session on developing for the Gear VR at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC).

As one of four interactive workshops designed to kick off this year’s conference, Gear VR: Developing Apps for the Virtual World session drew developers from near and far for the opportunity to learn how to build a fully-functioning game app for the Samsung Gear VR. Using the Unity game engine as the development platform, the session also served as a how-to guide for setting up the optimal environment for creating VR apps, as well as how developers can publish them in the Oculus Store.

Gear VR: Developing Apps for the Virtual World workshop participants get hands-on practice on developing apps from the best in the industry.

“Gear VR is the next big thing for everyone,” said Mark Schoennagel, with Unity. “It’s mind-boggling what you can do today. Today we’re showing people how to create Gear VR applications, enabling them to get their hands dirty, … developing apps and learning best practices.”

Filmmaker and painter, Luska, walked away from the session with a newfound excitement about the possibilities virtual reality could have on her craft.

“I’m trying to combine the elements of game design into VR filmmaking,” she explained.

Gear VR: Developing Apps for the Virtual World workshop participants get hands-on practice on developing apps from the best in the industry.

On top of learning the ins-and-outs of VR app development, five lucky attendees walked away with Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus headsets—giving them the chance to put the skills they learned during the session to real-world use.