Meta provides integrated support for Unreal Engine with the Meta XR Plugin. The integration makes developing XR applications that target Meta Quest and Oculus Rift headsets easy.

This section is your primary guide for targeting these headsets with Unreal Engine, although we provide cross-references for the Meta Quest Mobile SDK and PC SDK developer guides. In addition, you will find links to the Unreal Engine documentation supplied by Epic Games.

The Meta integration provides several Unreal Blueprints to make it easier to start developing using Unreal Engine. Blueprints provide a visual programming system. Here is a portion of a Blueprint script that includes Meta-specific functions:

If you are still unfamiliar with Unreal Blueprints, Epic Games provides several videos and tutorials to help you get started. Before proceeding with this developer guide, you should have a basic working knowledge of Blueprints programming.

Unreal Engine Royalty Payment Program

As an added incentive to develop VR apps with Unreal Engine, Meta pays royalties for any VR app developed using the Unreal Engine and sold through the Meta Horizon Store, up to $5,000,000 USD in application revenue. You must opt in through your Developer Dashboard to participate in this program. Read more on the Unreal Engine Royalty Payment Program page.

Sections in this Guide

We have included the following sections in this guide for Unreal Engine development.

Get Started

See one of these walk-through topics to get you started:

Meta Quest: Quick Start: Contains steps to help you get started developing Unreal applications for the Meta Quest.

PC-VR: Quick Start: Contains steps to help you get started developing Unreal applications for PC-VR applications.

Integration and Tools

This section contains an overview of release versions and the settings and tools provided in the Meta integration with Unreal Engine.

Integration Details - Settings and Development Tools

Unreal Version Compatibility Reference: This section provides version compatibility information for Unreal Engine, the OVRPlugin, and other related SDKs.

Unreal for VR Development Basics: This section reviews the basics for developing Meta applications in Unreal.

Plugin Settings: This section reviews the configuration options for the OVRPlugin with links to more information.

Performance Settings: This section reviews the performance settings options for the OVRPlugin.

Build and Deploy Topics

Meta Quest: Compile and Package Apps: Reviews the basics for developing VR applications in Unreal.

Reduce App Deploy Time During Development: Describes how to configure FASTBuild to reduce your app compile time.

Upload Apps to Meta from the Unreal Editor: Describes how to use a Launch setting to shorten device deployment time while developing your app.

Improve App Compile Time With FASTBuild: Describes how to use the Meta Horizon platform tool integration to upload your apps to the Developer Dashboard.

Building Unreal Engine from Source: Describes how to download, compile, and launch Unreal Engine from the GitHub repository using Visual Studio 2017 or 2019.

Hand Tracking and Controllers

To handle input events generated by Meta Quest Touch controllers and through hand tracking, see:

Input: Hand Tracking and Controllers: Provides general guidance for handling controller input events.

Mapping Controller Input to Blueprint Events: Provides a complete Blueprint reference for all controller input events.

Rendering

To enhance rendering quality and optimize the frame rendering rate, see:

Rendering: Rendering.

Fixed Foveated Rendering: Describes Fixed Foveated Rendering, a rendering technique for improving performance, and how to enable it in your applications for Quest.

Eye Tracked Foveated Rendering: Describes Eye-tracked Foveated Rendering, a rendering technique for improving performance, and how to enable it in your applications for Meta Quest headsets.

Testing and Performance Analysis: Describes how to optimize Meta Quest applications.

PC-VR: Testing and Performance Analysis: This section describes how to optimize PC-VR applications.

Material shader statistics with Adreno Offline Compiler: Describes how to retrieve material shader statistics with Adreno Offline Compiler.

User Experience

To provide the best possible user experience, see:

User Experience: User Experience.

Splash Screen: Describes how to use the splash screen during application load time and Unreal Engine Level transition times.

Social Applications and Revenue: This section overviews the Meta Horizon platform’s social and revenue functions, with links to the Meta Horizon platform SDK documentation.

Mixed Reality Capture: Describes how to incorporate live video feeds into your Unreal applications.

Platform Solutions

The Meta Horizon platform supports security, community, revenue, and engagement, including entitlement checking, matchmaking, destinations and group presence, in-app purchase, VoIP, and cloud saves.

Audio for Unreal Apps

Audio is critical for creating a persuasive VR experience. The audio guide introduces tools to create an immersive audio experience with Unreal Engine apps. This guide includes spatialization plugins for Unreal Engine and other audio editing tools commonly used with Unreal, including Audiokinetic Wwise and FMOD Studio. In addition, it provides details on Lipsync and other audio resources.