Why I'm Diving Into AR/VR Development as a Dev and Indie Founder
A beginner's first take on the state of AR/VR in 2023 and why now may be a good time to learn AR/VR skills.
Starting in Feb of 2023, I’ll be diving into AR/VR1 development for the first time on top of my full-time job as a software engineer. In this post, I’ll go over my initial thoughts on the space and why you might want to join me on this quest.
A Quick Take on AR/VR in 2023
Before dedicating days and weeks of my life to AR/VR this year, I wanted to get a basic understanding of the industry.
This post is my initial discovery.
First things first - when we compare AR/VR search trends to a hot topic like AI, we quickly see that while the metaverse had its moment of mainstream popularity, it’s not the star it once was.
This chart is somewhat deceptive though. As an industry, AR/VR has been growing and is expected to grow even more in the coming decade.
Trends may be fleeting, but AR/VR is here to stay.
While the industry report summaries I’ve seen all agree that AR/VR is growing and will continue to grow, they differ on exactly how much.
The average seems to be somewhere between 14% and 24% compounded annually between 2021 and 2030 - from $28.5 billion to $200.1 billion in 2030 globally2.
I’ll call it now though - I think the growth will actually be higher than expected. I think there are a lot of unknown use cases that will become apparent as technologies improve.
While VR’s mainly been used for gaming and entertainment, it looks like AR currently has more mainstream and practical use cases (social media filters, seeing how furniture looks in a room, helping with medical surgeries, engineering, etc.).
This is just a personal observation though so take it with a grain of salt.
To me, AR also seems like a better fit for smartphones, which means more app users.
Main Use Cases Today
At this point, I’m pretty sure there’s some kind of AR/VR app in every industry. But I don’t think that means AR/VR has found a fit in every industry yet.
Some main use cases I’ve found:
Gaming - use case #1. If you haven’t played a Roblox game, Fortnite, or Minecraft, stop reading now and go have fun. Really, I’ll wait.
Entertainment - you’ve probably heard some kind of marketing about a concert or other event in the metaverse.
Education/Training - Instead of having people go on-site and train with physical products, they can train with virtual “digital twins” (or digital replicas) of the physical items. This saves time and in some cases (like cars or medical dissections), a nice chunk of money.
Back in school, did you ever wish The Magic School Bus was real and you could actually do things like go to space or go inside a fellow student’s bloodstream!? VR makes that kind of stuff (sort of) possible!
Healthcare - the big use case often mentioned here is help with surgeries. Surgeons can overlay a patient’s anatomy over the patient’s body to improve visibility and reduce risks.
“Industrial applications” - I see this anytime I read a generic AR post, along with a stock image of an engineer looking at a 3D engine or something. I’m guessing this applies to a bunch of manufacturing and engineering fields. Don’t ask me to give specifics though.
The ones I listed above are only a few of the use cases I’ve seen during my initial discovery phase.
But that barely scratches the surface of cool ways AR/VR has and will be applied.
Industries like real estate, social media, and the military have also seen big advances from the tech and there are thousands of other sub-use cases in each of the above industries I haven’t mentioned.
It’s safe to say that not every AR/VR application will be a home run (*ehem*, selling “virtual” land). But hey - that’s the cost of innovation.
Probably my favorite use case though is the acceleration of remote work.
I’m a huge fan of remote work - and the time, money, and stress you save by not having to commute.
It’s hard to say exactly what will be possible in the future, but there are already a lot of practical use cases today.
AR/VR Development
There are a lot of game engines today3 used to create cross-platform, AR/VR apps. But the main ones seem to be Unity and Unreal Engine.
From what I’m seeing, Unreal Engine 5 has gotten a lot of hype since it was released in April of 2022, but Unity is still more popular.
Unity also uses C# which I’ve used more recently than Unreal’s C++.
In my humble opinion, both are great options to start with. But since Unity is more popular, it benefits from a bigger network effect4.
More users mean more user-made documentation and video content I can use when I get stuck. As a “professional” software engineer for the past 6 years, I know how valuable this can be.
Thus, I’ll be using Unity to start my AR/VR development journey.
In terms of 3D modeling (which I’m still a little fuzzy on), Blender seems to be the go-to tool.
Devs and Indie Founders - Let’s Learn AR/VR
I think now is the perfect time to learn AR/VR. Here’s why:
It’s early. But not too early
From what I gather, AR/VR development was a pretty fringe skillset until roughly 2013, when Palmer Luckey released the first Oculus Development Kit. A consumer version of the Rift wasn’t even released until 2016.
Meta’s released 2 quest headsets at this point, and Apple hasn’t even come out with theirs yet.
I don’t think the boom of devs migrating to the AR/VR field has happened yet.
Getting in now means you’re starting at the same skill level as other engineers just now getting into the space (like myself). You’ll even be ahead of the majority of devs who follow the hype later on.
This means more long-term promotion potential if you get a job in the space (which can already pay multiple 6-figures btw).
There’s also less saturation if you want to build an AR/VR-related business. Indie founders no longer need to compete with thousands of other todo list apps.
There’s also more space to build AR/VR-adjacent ideas like a 3D software engineer job board or Leetcode for 3D engineering.
At the same time, it’s not too early. The industry’s been proven. Major companies like Meta, Apple, and Google have poured a lot of money into validating the space.
Game engines have been developed to a point where it’s not nearly as hard to build AR/VR apps.
I like this balance of risk/reward.
New tech pushing AR/VR forward
In 2018, AR/VR through the web became more accessible with the release of WebXR5 - a device API that lets your browsers interact with a device's (e.g. smartphone's) AR/VR-related sensors.
Basically, you can build a really cool, cross-platform, AR smartphone app and write it once in JavaScript.
I imagine this will accelerate the adoption of AR and VR as the API spec becomes more fleshed out.
It’s not as smooth of an experience as a native app experience yet, but the adoption of 5G networks will likely drive more AR/VR experiences through the web.
On top of that, AI is just starting to move toward 3D modeling. So building 3D apps will only get easier for indie founders/devs.
Who knows what other tech will come out that will push the industry forward? But if the wave is coming, I definitely want to be riding it.
Have fun again
Remember when you were first learning how to code? Seeing “Hello, World!” or changing your website’s background to blue seemed amazing.
I want to go back to that level of excitement.
While there’s always more to learn in full-stack dev, there’s not nearly as much learning as there was in the beginning.
My hope is that starting from scratch, on my own terms, will bring some of the fun back.
Buy Low, Sell High
If you’re into finances and investing like I am, maybe this will resonate with you more.
To me, tech trends are similar to investing. Occasionally, they’re one and the same (shoutout Bitcoin).
At its core, the goal of investing is simple - make money by buying low and selling high. There’s less hype around the product, but you think the perceived value will go up over time.
While I’m not saying the demand for AR/VR is low, I do think it’s low compared to what it will be 5-10 years from now. Sort of like Bitcoin in 2019.
By jumping in now, you get the benefits of being somewhat early. Ideally, that comes in the form of money, opportunity, and fulfillment.
What’s Next?
I’ll be taking a couple of hours each day to learn 3D software engineering skills with Unity.
I don’t think tutorial-based learning is super effective, so I’ll start learning by building an AR clue-game app I have in mind. After that, all content will be driven by you, the audience.
Along the way, I plan on reaching out to engineers and recruiters from different big tech companies, and (assuming they respond) get and share insights on what it takes to become a 3D software engineer there.
I’ll be sharing all of the above each week.
If you’re interested in following my journey and learning AR/VR right alongside me each week, consider subscribing to the newsletter!
You have to decide for yourself whether AR/VR makes sense to you too, but who knows? It might be the change you’ve been looking for. No harm in giving it a shot, right? :)
-Matt
I’m assuming most readers are familiar with AR/VR at a general level so I don’t redefine it here. If you’re not sure though, give it a Google (or ask ChatGPT).
https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/ar-vr/worldwide, https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/augmented-reality-and-virtual-reality-market, https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/virtual-reality-vr-market
They still seem to be called “game engines” even though they’re used to create more than just games.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/network-effect.asp
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebXR_Device_API/Fundamentals. Formerly, “WebVR”, but released as WebXR with AR capabilities as well.