Building Immersive Worlds: A Guide to XR Development Tools for 2026

As we race towards 2026, we are looking forward to the development of a new range of virtual worlds dominated by strong game engines, an increase in web-based creation, and the rising integration of artificial intelligence for experiences that are more lifelike. In these worlds, personalised content, intelligent non-playable characters (NPCs), and smarter environment generation are some of the elements that will be made possible by AI. The future starts here, and it’s going to be great!

But what tools are there for these developments? This article will examine the essential tools required to create the next generation of immersive content and look at what will be available in the near future.

The Nuts and Bolts of Building Immersive Worlds

Before we get too far into identifying specifics, it’s always a good idea to have a look at the features that go into developing immersive worlds. What elements do you actually need to get going?  A well-developed XR world will have several fundamental elements that contribute to its overall impact and playability. The construction of XR worlds primarily relies on the following features to support it:

• Game Engines. Game engines are the basis of what makes interactive XR experiences possible. They give you the foundation that you need to combine your 3D models, add physics, and write scripts for interactions. If you learn how to really use a game engine, you’ll be able to make XR worlds that are dynamic and responsive. These engines usually come with built-in support for common XR devices. Major development engines include Unity, WebXR, and the Unreal Engine.  
• 3D Modelling Software. 3D modelling software is essential for making detailed virtual environments and things. You can use these tools to shape, texture, and animate your creations, which you can then bring into XR settings. Being a skilled 3D modeller is essential because it’s the basis for all your XR content and the building blocks for everything else. There are many different types of software out there, so you’ll want to pick one that has a lot of functionality, is easy to use, and works with XR platforms. Amongst the best tools currently available are Blender, Adobe Suite, and AutoCAD Maya. 
• Animation tools are hugely important for making your XR scene come to life. They let you make characters and objects that move smoothly, which ultimately makes your virtual worlds feel more lifelike. These tools let you make your creations move and interact in a way that makes sense, whether you’re animating a small object or a complicated figure. If you want your XR experience to be more immersive and interesting for the user, good animation tools can make the difference between a good virtual experience and a great one. While Cinema 4D is one of the best animation tools on the market, designers are finding more accessible packages such as Tvori and ShapesXR offer comparable results.
• Spatial sounds. Sound makes up at least half of the immersion feeling. Spatial audio is a required feature for XR. It means that sound works how it does in real life: if an entity is approaching the user from behind and to the left, the sound should emanate from that direction. This 360-degree soundscape is essential for directing user attention, creating ambience, and conveying the idea of being somewhere else. There are plenty of software developer kits (SDK’s) available that deliver superb sound solutions for XR experiences, such as the Meta XR Audio SDK, Apple RealityKit Audio, and Google Resonance Audio. 

Away from the standard PC-based packages outlined above, apps such as ARKit are simple and intuitive to use. ARKit is an Apple framework enabling developers to create augmented reality applications for iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS devices. It allows applications to integrate digital content with the physical world by leveraging a device’s camera, motion sensors, and processor to determine the device’s location, comprehend its surroundings, and render virtual objects authentically. Principal attributes encompass motion tracking, scene comprehension, facial and bodily tracking, illumination assessment, and occlusion detection. 

Similarly, Microsoft has developed the Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK) which is also easy to learn and use. MRTK is a suite of tools developed by Microsoft for creating mixed and augmented reality applications on platforms such as Unity and Unreal Engine. It provides a way for different devices like HoloLens and Quest to work together, including tools for 3D interactions, user interface design, and quick testing; this helps developers create immersive experiences faster. The joy of both this and ARKit is that they are highly intuitive and great for building smaller projects.

In addition to these fundamental tools and skills, you will also need to include other media, such as input devices, controllers and their drivers, and visual effects to help populate your environment; however, it also requires something else that not everyone is comfortable with: storytelling. Even if you are creating a commercial XR app, it needs to have structure.

Building immersive environments demands a strong narrative foundation and an emphasis on engaging numerous senses at the same time. The key parts of making immersive environments are adding helpful information, defining character roles, using sensory elements like sight, sound, smell, and touch to make it feel real, and using environmental factors to increase suspense or emotion. Get these right, and you will have an experience that flows and is engaging.

Creating a map of the output is also a great tool for visualising and comprehending the extent of your experience, and ensuring that there is a clear payoff at the conclusion adds meaning.  If you don’t understand it, no one else will either. Apps such as Shapes XR are ideal for creating AI storyboards that are easy to modify and transferable into a game engine.

You are also going to have to consider how emergent technology is going to impact your experience. Specifically, in the current world, such features could include:

• Eye-Tracking and Foveated Rendering: This innovative technology monitors the user’s gaze location. This allows for foveated rendering, which shows a lot of detail in the area where the user is looking while showing less detail in the areas they aren’t focusing on. This replicates the functioning of the human eye and can significantly decrease the GPU workload, allowing for the creation of more intricate and visually impressive environments. 
• Advanced Haptics: The future of tactile interaction in virtual reality extends beyond basic controller vibrations. We are observing the advancement of gloves designed to simulate the sensation of grasping a solid object, as well as comprehensive haptic suits capable of replicating everything from a gentle breeze to the force of a strike, thereby enhancing physical immersion to unprecedented degrees. Powerful packages like Unity have in-built haptics settings, where you can define the form and impact of your haptics.
• Inside-Out Tracking and Standalone Headgear: The prevailing trend is towards wireless, self-contained headgear equipped with cameras that perform autonomous positional tracking (inside-out tracking), thereby removing the requirement for external base stations. This reduces the entry barriers for users and streamlines the setup process, encouraging developers to craft engaging experiences for this expanding market.

And with new features and input methods emerging almost every day, you need to be forward-looking to make the most of them.  

Moving into the Studio

Developing for XR is unlike creating for a flat-screen monitor. It necessitates a thorough re-evaluation of design concepts that prioritise the user’s comfort and agency. There are rising reports of XR motion sickness, and you will need to plan for that. Making your consumer ill is the quickest way to fail in XR developments. Simulator sickness, often known as XR-induced nausea, arises when the user’s eyes and vestibular system are not in sync.  

This condition is effectively a clash between movement in the virtual world and static surfaces. Your design must actively combat this imbalance to avoid the emotional illness that some people experience in a virtual environment. Many of the latest iterations of headsets help combat this nauseous feeling by having smoother graphics, driven by 5G connectivity. You need to ensure that you have as smooth gameplay or object interactions as possible to help cut down on motion sickness, and companies such as Ericsson are working on full 5G packages specifically for XR to help deliver this. 

Your XR environment is nothing without products like LuminousXR’s FLOW package, which comes with a wide range of industrial 3D asset bundles, making it easier to build detailed environments, which saves time in development and makes your training modules more realistic. Flow seamlessly integrates with Unity to facilitate an effortless build and rendering process. 

Furthermore, there are several websites available for acquiring 3D content for your environments, including the Unity Asset Store, Sketchfab, and others. While Unity has a huge stock of assets, it’s always worth looking around to see what else you can get to fit your narrative.

Virtual reality specifically optimises the technique for producing the final image for the HMD. Stereo rendering is a technology that renders the scene twice, once from each eye’s perspective. To improve performance, advanced methods like foveated rendering, which focuses on rendering objects that the eye is looking at first, are used. This method uses eye-tracking technology to display the region of the user’s direct gaze in high resolution while gradually diminishing the details in their peripheral vision. The inability of the eye to discern finer details in the periphery results in a significant enhancement in performance without any noticeable degradation in quality.

The World is Yours

The quest to create engaging virtual reality is a challenging amalgamation of artistry, scientific principles, and human-centered psychology. Building XR experiences compels you to embody the roles of an artist, an engineer, and a storyteller concurrently. It necessitates careful consideration of technical performance and profound empathy for the human experience.  

The tools that you use to create your experience will depend to a large extent on what you are actually trying to achieve. If you’re making an immersive game, you should use a major engine like Unity, as you’ll probably have many inputs at once. If, however, you are planning a work-based tool or something more focused, like an educational app, then easy-to-learn and deploy apps such as ARKit or MRTK might meet your needs.

Although the journey is intricate, powerful resources exist, with more becoming accessible, and the information is readily available. Commence with a fundamental concept, learn the tenets of comfort and engagement, engage in persistent iteration, and perpetually conduct testing. The gateway to the creation of whole new realities is now accessible; the sole constraint is the extent of your imagination and your readiness to go.

In the immediate future, we can look to new tools that will help speed up and refine the development process. Development workflows are already enhancing and implementing the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI). AI assists in the automation of asset production, improves spatial comprehension, and allows for intelligent user interactions as well as avatars that are powered by artificial intelligence in virtual worlds. 

Furthermore, cloud computing streamlines complex XR experiences. The result reduces the need for high-end local hardware and also facilitates real-time collaboration among development teams. And we are now seeing tools like ShapesXR and Bezel allowing designers to create 3D and XR experiences in VR/MR headsets or online. This facilitates a more intuitive spatial design workflow and team collaboration.

If you have an idea for an XR experience and need help with it, why not contact our team of professional designers and graphic artists and see how we can make your development journey shorter and more fulfilling.