What are the options for making VR content?

#1

Like, you have to make the 3D in a 3D program like Max etc, right? After that, MUST one use a game engine or something?

#2

You don’t HAVE to use a game engine, but there are trade-offs.

You can create spherical video/stills in mono or stereoscopic (with limitations) that will play back in a ready-made player. The benefit of this approach is higher quality/detail imagery. It’s also easier to target a larger variety of HMD’s (from Vive to Cardboard). The limitations of this approach are, no interactivity other than looking around, no head-tracking, and stereoscopy is imperfect.

The game engine approach allows head-tracking, perfect stereoscopy, and interactivity, but is harder to develop for if you come from a VFX/Animation background. You’ll have to deal with the game engine’s performance limitations, ensuring that it can display your imagery at a consistent 90fps.

The best approach depends on what you are trying to produce.

#3

Is it possible to do VIDEO for VR in Unreal Engine, or Unity?

#4

I’m assuming you mean export a video from Unreal Engine for use with a VR headset. In that case, yes.

https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/capturing-stereoscopic-360-screenshots-videos-movies-unreal-engine-4