Hand-tracking

Let’s cut the noise. You want quick, clean, and painless Unreal Engine APK builds and packaging? You’re in the right place.

A while back, I released two videos: one on deploying Unreal Engine projects to Android and Meta Quest, and another on enabling proper hand-tracking using the Meta XR Plugin and HTC VIVE OpenXR plugins. I also tackled a frustrating issue on HTC VIVE devices, where APKs were launching as 2D apps instead of immersive VR experiences.

That first video blew up; it became one of my best-performing uploads to this date, with tons of positive feedback. But one thing stood out in the comments: Unreal developers everywhere are struggling to set up the Android development environment and package APKs correctly.

So, back by demand, and with something even better, welcome to the Ultimate Guide for deploying Unreal Engine projects to Android standalone-mode.

This video combines everything from the previous tutorials; refined, updated, and streamlined. And to make things even easier, I’ve just open-sourced a brand-new one-click installer that sets up your entire Android development environment for Unreal Engine automagically. It downloads, installs, and configures Android Studio, SDK, NDK, and JDK, so you don’t have to lift even a finger.

Whether you’re building for Meta Quest or HTC VIVE, this guide takes you from zero to packaged APK, with full VR support, working hand-tracking, and seamless integration of both Meta XR and HTC VIVE OpenXR plugins.

Let’s dive in.

Building on the Introduction to Virtual Reality, OpenXR Hand-Tracking, and Gesture Recognition in Unreal Engine tutorial, this slightly more advanced tutorial will dive deeper into the following topics:

• Transitioning seamlessly between motion controller and hand-tracking modes in Unreal Engine.
• Adding custom debugging gizmos to improve development and testing workflows.
• Visualizing debug virtual hands by incorporating the custom gizmos.
• Animating virtual hand meshes with OpenXR hand-tracking data, moving beyond basic joint representation with cubes.
• Re-using and adapting the gesture recognition code from the introductory tutorial to integrate with the new animated virtual hand meshes.

This guide will help you take your VR projects to the next level with polished and practical implementations.

Here’s a lesser-known fact about me. Once upon a time, when it was just me and the dinosaurs… Okay, maybe not that far back, but long before VR headsets, the Metaverse, and the social media craze, I used to teach people things for 8 years! I loved it so much that, honestly, I could talk for hours (don’t worry, I won’t in this video)!

Anyway, enough of my rambling! Recently, I rediscovered that passion for teaching, and I’m thrilled to kick off a VR tutorial series in Unreal Engine. That’s why, as the introductory step into this series, we’re diving hands-first into the fascinating world of virtual reality.

But, before we jump in, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any of my VR adventures.

Ready? Let’s bring those virtual hands to life!

Find the link to the video tutorial and the project repository down below.