Hi guys,

As you certainly know (FB or TW pages), we won an Epic MegaGrant for our First Aid Training project.

We are really proud of this and it convinces us about the potential of such a tool in first aid training classes.

We already made some tests and tryouts with VR devices (Oculus Rift) on the previous version of the First Aid Training. We really loved this new approach of gameplay, and we wanted to continue on this way.

That’s why we bought Oculus Quest devices to migrate the first version of the FAT into a full VR environment. And of course, the first step is to configure a fresh UE4 environment able to compile for this particular device.

Step 1. Set up your Oculus Quest device for development (Oculus Link)

The Oculus support team made a nice guide about this step. You can have a look at it right there: https://support.oculus.com/525406631321134/

  1. Install the Oculus application on your computer https://www.oculus.com/download_app/?id=1582076955407037
  2. Do all the available updates for the Oculus app.
  3. Turn on your Oculus Quest.
  4. Connect your Oculus Quest to your computer using a USB3 type C cable. Be careful, the cable provided with the Quest can’t be used for Oculus Link.
  5. A message should appear in VR asking to allow the access to data, select Allow.
  6. Another message will ask you if you want to enable Oculus Link. Select yes and voilà! The Oculus Link configuration should be done.

Step 2. Set up your computer for development

Of course, you’ll need UE4 to start developing for Oculus, but you’ll also need the Android development environment (because the Oculus Quest is actually an Android device).

  1. Install UE 4.24 (if not already done yet).
  2. Set up Unreal for Android Development. Unreal requires the Android SDK and NDK, Ant scripting and JDK, as well as specific environment variables. Set this up by installing Nvidia CodeWorks, which comes with the Unreal Engine. CodeWorks can be found in the Extra folder of UE4 install directory. By default, for Windows 10 it should be C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.24\Engine\Extras\AndroidWorks\Win64\. Launch this exe and click on next to install the required files.
  3. Set up the Android Debug Bridge (ADB). Download the ADB ZIP file for Windows (https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-windows.zip), extract the content in an accessible folder (for instance c:\adb). Then add this folder to your Windows Path environment variable.
  4. Ensure adb is working and check if the Quest can be recognized. With your Quest turned on and still connected with Oculus Link, open a powershell and,
    1. type adb, the help of adb should be displayed. If not, your adb installation/path could be wrong. Restart your computer and try again.
    2. type adb devices, a message should be displayed in the Quest where you have to allow the RSA fingerprint of your computer. Once done, try the command again and the response must contain a new device: your Oculus Quest.

Step 3. Create a new UE project

  1. Create a new UE4 project with these projects settings:
    • Blueprint
    • Mobile / Tablet
    • Scalable 3D or 2D
    • No Starter Content
  2. Once the new project is fully loaded, check that the OculusVR plugin is enabled
  3. In the project settings, follow the following steps:
    1. Clear the Default Touch Interfaces in Engine>Input menu
    2. Configure the APK Packaging in Platforms>Android
    3. In the same section, set the following settings:
      1. Minimum SDK Version: 25
      2. Target SDK Version: 25
      3. Enable FullScreen Immersive on KitKat and above devices, check for True
    4. Open Advanced APKPackaging and click the + next to Package for Oculus Mobile Devices. From the drop-down select Oculus Go/Gear VR or Oculus Quest, depending on your device. Also check Remove Oculus Signature Files from Distribution APK.
    5. Click on the Android SDK section, and make sure that “Android SDK tools” that are needed to build your project refers to the correct folder on your PC, and that you have set the API levels for your device.

Step 4. Enjoy!

At this point, everything should be ready for your Quest development.

Create a new map, add some blueprints and actors, save this map and set it as the default starting map in the project settings. You can now launch the project on your Oculus Quest (still connected with Oculus Link!).

I hope this tutorial is concise enough, we wanted to detail the steps required to quickly start the development of Oculus Quest apps, and make them as clear as possible.

Have a good day and good luck with your UE4 projects!