After announcing Daydream earlier this year, Google’s platform for high-end virtual reality on Android, the company has now says the Daydream VR SDK has reached version 1.0 and is now ready for download.
Building upon the prior Cardboard SDK, Google has now combined both Cardboard and Daydream development into the Google VR SDK. The company says the SDK includes “a simple API used for creating apps inserted into Cardboard viewers, and the more complex API for supporting Daydream-ready phones and the Daydream controller.”
The Daydream side of the SDK is a foundation for VR developers, handling important basic functions that every VR app needs, like stereo rendering, spatial audio, head tracking, lens distortion, and asynchronous reprojection.
Developers can get the Google VR SDK over at the Google VR developer site. In addition to the Unreal Engine Daydream integration which has been improving since its launch alongside the Daydream announcement, the promised Unity integration has finally arrived in the form of a ‘technical preview’ which developers can download today. Unity writes on their official blog:
Unity’s native support for Daydream aims to solve the hard problems for you. To get optimal performance and latency from the platform we have done a deep integration with the Daydream SDK to leverage the platform’s asynchronous reprojection and VR performance mode. We have also made it easy to switch in and out of VR mode so that your applications can easily expand to the Google VR audience.
While the Daydream Unity technical preview is currently a separate package, the company says it will ship as part of the standard Unity package at a later date.
The timing of the Google Daydream VR SDK launching out of beta comes just ahead of an October 4th press event hosted by Google which is widely expected to see the announcement of new Daydream-ready phones from the company, amidst other news. This aligns with Google’s promise earlier this year that we’d see the first Daydream phones launch in Fall.
As part of the announcement of the Google VR SDK hitting version 1.0, the company teases, “Stay tuned for more information about Daydream-ready phones and the Daydream headset and controller coming soon.”