Book Image

Virtual Reality Blueprints

By : Charles Palmer, John Williamson
Book Image

Virtual Reality Blueprints

By: Charles Palmer, John Williamson

Overview of this book

Are you new to virtual reality? Do you want to create exciting interactive VR applications? There's no need to be daunted by the thought of creating interactive VR applications, it's much easier than you think with this hands-on, project-based guide that will take you through VR development essentials for desktop and mobile-based games and applications. Explore the three top platforms—Cardboard VR, Gear VR, and OculusVR —to design immersive experiences from scratch. You’ll start by understanding the science-fiction roots of virtual reality and then build your first VR experience using Cardboard VR. You'll then delve into user interactions in virtual space for the Google Cardboard then move on to creating a virtual gallery with Gear VR. Then you will learn all about virtual movements, state machines, and spawning while you shoot zombies in the Oculus Rift headset. Next, you'll construct a Carnival Midway, complete with two common games to entertain players. Along the way, you will explore the best practices for VR development, review game design tips, discuss methods for combating motion sickness and identify alternate uses for VR applications
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Constructing a panoramic skybox

By default, Unity Scenes start with a ground plane, horizon line, sky, and Sun. However, these are not individual GameObjects. Instead, it is a panoramic texture mapped to the inside of a cube and we call it a skybox. The skybox is drawn in the background behind all other objects and rotates to match the current camera's orientation. When done correctly, the skybox creates an immersive environment within the scene.

Skyboxes are materials created from combining six photographs, each at 90° from each other or by capturing a single 360° equirectangular panoramic image. The six-photo method, known as a Cubemap, can be created by shooting images from a single position in each direction; up, right, left, front, back, and down. Equirectangular images are created by capturing or stitching together images into a 3D projection:

Figure 3.5...