Book Image

Unity Virtual Reality Projects

By : Jonathan Linowes
Book Image

Unity Virtual Reality Projects

By: Jonathan Linowes

Overview of this book

What is consumer “virtual reality�? Wearing a head-mounted display you view stereoscopic 3D scenes. You can look around by moving your head, and walk around using hand controls or motion sensors. You are engaged in a fully immersive experience. On the other hand, Unity is a powerful game development engine that provides a rich set of features such as visual lighting, materials, physics, audio, special effects, and animation for creating 2D and 3D games. Unity 5 has become the leading platform for building virtual reality games, applications and experiences for this new generation of consumer VR devices. Using a practical and project-based approach, this book will educate you about the specifics of virtual reality development in Unity. You will learn how to use Unity to develop VR applications which can be experienced with devices such as the Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard. We will then learn how to engage with virtual worlds from a third person and first person character point of view. Furthermore, you will explore the technical considerations especially important and possibly unique to VR. The projects in the book will demonstrate how to build a variety of VR experiences. You will be diving into the Unity 3D game engine via the interactive Unity Editor as well as C-Sharp programming. By the end of the book, you will be equipped to develop rich, interactive virtual reality experiences using Unity. So, let's get to it!
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Unity Virtual Reality Projects
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
11
What's Next?
Index

Field of view – FOV


OK, we looked at spheres, cylinders, balls, and orbs. That was fun! Now, let's talk some more about 360-degree media and virtual reality and why it seems so compelling. There's a huge difference in the experience of viewing a 360-degree video on a flat screen versus inside a VR headset. Why?

In a theater, on a computer screen, or in VR, the angle from one edge of the view area to the opposite is commonly referred to as the angle of view or field of view (FOV). For example, an IMAX cinema theater with larger screens than that of the conventional cinema encompasses more of your peripheral vision and has a wider field of view. The following table compares the horizontal field of view of various viewing experiences. A wider field of view is important to provide immersive experiences.

These FOV values pertain to looking in one direction without moving your head or eyes:

Viewing experience

Horizontal field of view (FOV)

A 27" computer monitor

26 degrees

A movie theater

54...