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Unity Virtual Reality Projects
Unity Virtual Reality Projects

Unity Virtual Reality Projects: Learn Virtual Reality by developing more than 10 engaging projects with Unity 2018 , Second Edition

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Unity Virtual Reality Projects

Content, Objects, and Scale

You may remember building a diorama project for school from a shoebox as a child. We're going to make one today, using Unity. Let's assemble our first scene, which is composed of simple geometric objects. Along the way, we'll talk a lot about world scale. Then we'll explore various 3D content creation tools that developers and artists use for assets imported into Unity. In this chapter, we will discuss the following topics:

  • A short introduction to the Unity 3D game engine
  • Creating a simple diorama in Unity
  • Making some measuring tools, including a unit cube and a grid projector
  • Using Blender to create a cube with texture maps and importing it into Unity
  • Using Google Tilt Brush to create a 3D sketch and importing it into Unity via Google Poly
  • Using the experimental Unity EditorXR tools for editing scenes directly in VR
...

Getting started with Unity

If you don't have the Unity 3D game engine application installed on your PC yet, do that now! The full-featured Personal Edition is free and runs on both Windows and Mac. To get Unity, go to https://store.unity.com/, select the version that you want, click on Download Installer, and continue following the instructions. This book assumes you have version 2017.2 or later of Unity.

For you beginners out there, we're going to take this first section nice and slow, with more hand-holding than what you'll get later on in the book. Furthermore, even if you already know Unity and have developed your own games, it may be worthwhile to revisit the fundamental concepts, since the rules are sometimes different when designing for virtual reality.

Creating...

Creating a simple diorama

Now, we will add a few objects to the scene to set up the environment, including a unit cube, a flat plane, a red ball, and a photographic backdrop. Here is a photograph of a physical mock-up of the diorama we will build in VR:

Adding a cube

Let's add the first object to the scene: a unit-sized cube.

Within the Hierarchy panel, use the Create menu and choose 3D Object | Cube. The same selection can also be found in the main menu bar's GameObject drop-down menu.

A default white cube is added to the scene, centered on the ground plane at the (0, 0, 0) position, with no rotation, and a scale of one, as you can see in the Inspector panel. This is the Reset setting, which can be found in the...

Measurement tools

We've created a Unity scene, added a few primitive 3D objects, and created a couple of basic textures, including a photograph. Along the way, we learned about positioning and transforming objects in Unity's 3D world space. The problem is that the actual size of stuff in your scene is not always obvious. You could be zoomed up or you may be using either a Perspective or Orthographic view, or other features that affect the apparent size. Let's look at ways to deal with the scale.

Keeping a unit cube handy

I suggest keeping a unit cube handy in your Hierarchy panel. When it's not needed, just disable it (uncheck the checkbox in the top left-hand side of the Inspector panel). It can be used...

Using third-party content

So far we have shown you how to use Unity and be productive creating a scene, but with pretty simple content. Inherently, Unity is not a 3D modeling or asset creation tool. Rather (as the name Unity suggests), it's a unified platform for pulling together content from a variety of sources to assemble and program a game or experience involving animation, physics, rendering effects, and so on. If you are a 3D artist you may know how to create content in other programs like Blender, 3D Studio Max, or Maya. If not, you can find a plethora of models on the web.

One terrific source is the Unity Asset Store (https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/). Many asset packs are free, especially starter ones, with possible paid upgrades if you want more. If you are looking for a few things to get your learning and experimental projects going, here are some of my free...

Creating 3D content with Blender

Unity offers some basic geometric shapes, but when it comes to more complex models, you'll need to go beyond Unity. As we discussed, the Unity Asset Store and many sites have tons of amazing models. Where do they come from? Will you run into problems while importing them into Unity?

I know that this book is about Unity, but we're going on a short side adventure right now. We're going to use Blender (version 2.7x), a free and open source 3D animation suite (http://www.blender.org/), to make a model and then import it into Unity. Grab a coffee and strap yourself in!

The plan is not to build anything very fancy right now. We'll just make a cube and a simple texture map. The purpose of this exercise is to find out how well a one-unit cube in Blender imports with the same scale and orientation into Unity.

Feel free to skip this section...

Creating 3D content in VR

In addition to traditional 3D modeling software like Blender (and ZBrush, 3D Studio Max, Maya, and so on) there is a new generation of 3D design apps that let you to directly create inside VR. After all, it's pretty awkward trying to use an inherently 2D desktop screen with a 2D mouse to form, sculpt, assemble, and manipulate 3D models. If only it could be more like real-life sculpture and construction. So, why not just do it directly in 3D? In VR!

Like other digital platforms, we can categorize VR apps into ones that present an experience, ones where you interact to engage with the environment, and ones where you actually create content, for yourself or for sharing. An example of the latter and one of the first to be widely successful is Google Tilt Brush (https://www.tiltbrush.com/) where you paint in 3D. This is one my favorite go-to apps when...

Editing Unity in VR with EditorXR

In this chapter, we have learned about the Unity Editor—a tool for creating 3D scenes and projects on a 2D computer screen. We also learned a bit about Blender—a tool for creating 3D assets on at 2D computer screen. Then we progressed to the new generation of 3D asset creation tools in virtual reality including Tilt Brush and Poly. Now we'll explore creating VR scenes directly in virtual reality too!

Unity EditorXR (EXR) is a new experimental feature of Unity (at time of writing) where you can edit your 3D scenes directly in VR rather than on your 2D monitor. In this section, we may be getting ahead of ourselves in more ways than one. This is both an advanced topic and an experimental one. If you are just getting started with VR, or if you are just getting started with Unity, you may want to skip this topic for now and come...

Summary

In this chapter, we built a simple diorama, became more acquainted with the Unity editor, and learned about the importance of world scale in designing your scenes, including several in-game tools to help us work with scaling and positioning.

We then emphasized that Unity is not so much an asset creation tool. Developers typically use tools outside of Unity and then import their models. We introduced you to the free and open source Blender modeling app as well as Google Tilt Brush and showed you how to export assets and then import them into Unity, including cloud services like Google Poly.

One of the really cool things about developing for VR is how quickly things are changing. It's the burgeoning of a new industry, a new media, and new paradigms evolve year to year as VR comes into its own. New devices are being introduced every quarter. Unity is updated every month...

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Key benefits

  • A project-based guide to teach you how to develop immersive and fun VR applications using Unity 3D
  • Build experiences with interactable objects, physics, UI, animations, C# scripting, and other Unity features
  • Explore the world of VR by building experiences such as diorama, first-person characters, 360-degree projections, social VR, audio fireball game, and VR storytelling

Description

Unity has become the leading platform for building virtual reality games, applications, and experiences for this new generation of consumer VR devices. Unity Virtual Reality Projects walks you through a series of hands-on tutorials and in-depth discussions on using the Unity game engine to develop VR applications. With its practical and project-based approach, this book will get you up to speed with the specifics of VR development in Unity. You will learn how to use Unity to develop VR applications that can be experienced with devices such as Oculus, Daydream, and Vive. Among the many topics and projects, you will explore gaze-based versus hand-controller input, world space UI canvases, locomotion and teleportation, software design patterns, 360-degree media, timeline animation, and multiplayer networking. You will learn about the Unity 3D game engine via the interactive Unity Editor, and you will also learn about C# programming. By the end of the book, you will be fully equipped to develop rich, interactive VR experiences using Unity.

Who is this book for?

If you're a non-programmer unfamiliar with 3D computer graphics, or experienced in both but new to virtual reality, and are interested in building your own VR games or applications, then this book is for you. Any experience in Unity is an advantage.

What you will learn

  • Create 3D scenes with Unity and other 3D tools while learning about world space and scale
  • Build and run VR applications for specific headsets, including Oculus, Vive, and Daydream
  • Interact with virtual objects using eye gaze, hand controllers, and user input events
  • Move around your VR scenes using locomotion and teleportation
  • Implement an audio fireball game using physics and particle systems
  • Implement an art gallery tour with teleportation and data info
  • Design and build a VR storytelling animation with a soundtrack and timelines
  • Create social VR experiences with Unity networking
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Publication date : May 24, 2018
Length: 492 pages
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Language : English
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Table of Contents

14 Chapters
Virtually Everything for Everyone Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Content, Objects, and Scale Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
VR Build and Run Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Gaze-Based Control Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Handy Interactables Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
World Space UI Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Locomotion and Comfort Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Playing with Physics and Fire Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Exploring Interactive Spaces Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using All 360 Degrees Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Animation and VR Storytelling Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Social VR Metaverse Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Optimizing for Performance and Comfort Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.3
(4 Ratings)
5 star 25%
4 star 0%
3 star 50%
2 star 25%
1 star 0%
GA Jul 17, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
A great book for best practices in Unity VR dev. The author does a nice job of breaking down concepts for beginners.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Victor Feb 01, 2020
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
Good examples to use in class. Maybe could have more ilustrations
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Notrenneks Jun 14, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
I echo what others have said about this book, good but could have been great if it wasn’t for all the errors.Only given 3 stars because there’s no errata on their website correcting these mistakes / technology advances since it’s been published which is a shame.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
J. lee May 28, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
This book could have been a great book, but it lacks accuracy. You cannot get complete any, if not all examples in the book. Perhaps VR is still relatively new and things change a lot. But the book's specifics are just not good enough.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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