VR Controller Architecture Consulting and Development

Universal controller to interact with virtual reality objects
Compatibility with mobile devices, PCs, and game devices
Diverse virtual reality user experience including playing games, shopping online, and texting

Expertise

Mobility

Verticals

Media & Entertainment

To expand their client base, a European tech startup hires Iflexion to provide VR solution architecture consulting and improve the solution’s performance

Calendar

Duration

Months

Gears

Efforts

Person-months

Context

Our customer is a European tech startup specializing in VR and AR solution development. They created a prototype of a universal controller, a glove to interact with objects in virtual reality. It identifies finger movements and traces hand positions. The solution also includes a multifunctional touchpad to navigate, click, zoom, and swipe.

The glove offers a diverse virtual reality experience when used to play games of any kind, interact with virtual objects, shop online, and send texts. It is compatible with Android and iOS devices, personal computers and game devices.

Having released the prototype, the customer started gathering the feedback from the early adopters. They discovered that the VR objects were loading twice as slow, compared to the competitors’ solutions, and the images froze in 5% of cases. To move on with the VR controller development, the customer wanted to fix the current issues and enhance the solution’s performance. In addition to that, they had plans to expand the user base.

To achieve the set goals, the customer was looking for a service provider with the relevant experience in VR architecture consulting and VR development to take up the solution's architecture audit. They turned to Iflexion with a request to analyze the current state of the solution and offer recommendations on its improvement.

Solution

Iflexion performed:

Architecture and code audit
Architecture redesign
API development
Device emulation engine development
Documentation development

Architecture and Code Audit

We studied the solution architecture, found errors in the code that caused slow performance, and fixed them. In addition to that, we offered security enhancement measures for the glove controls so that the customer’s competitors could not copy the code.

Architecture Redesign

Owing to their hands-on experience in VR architecture development, Iflexion's team performed a module-based architecture redesign. The new architecture allows for:

Adding new features without affecting the performance of the previously developed modules
Using interfaces to standardize functionality when the solution is deployed on different operating systems
Employing testing modules to accelerate the process of finding and fixing bugs in different software parts
Adding support for new devices, equipment, and services

API Development

To simplify the solution’s integration with different platforms, we developed a low-level API on the server-side. It is necessary to build API wraps for various platforms. This allows for developing software in different programming areas and on various platforms faster and easier.

Device Emulation Engine Development

We supplied the customer with a device emulation engine to provide testing and bug fixing. Using the module, we checked the solution’s performance and made sure that the controller worked in line with the customer’s requirements.

Documentation Development

We developed new documentation that covers every module, describing its functionality, technology aspects, structure, and interaction with other modules. In addition to that, the documentation covers potential risks and instructions for their mitigation, as well as the minimization of potential negative consequences.

Development Process

The process from start to finish took only a month. As part of VR controller architecture consulting, our dedicated specialist studied the controller architecture including the solution core, external API, visualization, monitoring, and management aspects. He performed the solution code analysis and discovered errors that hampered the solution’s productivity.

Having fixed the code issues, our specialist worked out a new solution architecture design. After that, he delivered an API for the controller integration with external systems and developed a device emulation module to provide testing and bug fixing. In addition to that, he provided detailed project documentation.

Results

Iflexion delivered virtual reality architecture consulting and development services that included the solution architecture audit and redesign, as well as integration and testing tools and documentation development. Having implemented our step-by-step recommendations for enhancing the solution’s performance and security, the customer released both the developer and commercial versions of their solution and started offering support for games produced by Oculus VR and HTC Corporation.

The virtual reality architecture development and implementation enabled the customer to hit important goals:

User base growing twice
Offering support for 10,000 + sets of related software devices for the Oculus Rift DK1 developer device version
Possible scaling up to supporting 10 million kits for the consumer device version

VR Controller Architecture Consulting and Development

Context

Solution

Development Process

Results

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