Book Image

Unity Virtual Reality Projects - Second Edition

By : Jonathan Linowes

Book Image

Unity Virtual Reality Projects - Second Edition

By: Jonathan Linowes

Overview of this book

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.

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Free Chapter

Virtually Everything for Everyone

Virtually Everything for Everyone

What is virtual reality to you?

Types of head-mounted displays

The difference between virtual reality and augmented reality

Applications versus games

How virtual reality really works

Types of VR experiences

Technical skills that are important to VR

What this book covers

Content, Objects, and Scale

Content, Objects, and Scale

Getting started with Unity

Creating a simple diorama

Measurement tools

Using third-party content

Creating 3D content with Blender

Creating 3D content in VR

Editing Unity in VR with EditorXR

VR Build and Run

VR Build and Run

Unity VR Support and Toolkits

Enabling Virtual Reality for your platform

Building for SteamVR

Building for Oculus Rift

Building for Windows Immersive MR

Setting up for Android devices

Building for GearVR and Oculus Go

Building for Google VR

Setting up for iOS devices

Gaze-Based Control

Gaze-Based Control

Ethan, the walker

Go where I'm looking

If looks could kill

Short intro to Unity C# programming

Handy Interactables

Handy Interactables

Setting up the scene

Basic button input

Polling for clicks

Using scriptable objects for input

Using Unity events for input

Really using your hands

Interactable items

World Space UI

Studying VR design principles

A reusable default canvas

The reticle cursor

The windshield HUD

The game element UI

Using TextMeshPro

An in-game dashboard with input events

Pointing and clicking with VR components

Building a wrist-based menu palette

Locomotion and Comfort

Locomotion and Comfort

Understanding Unity characters

Using glide locomotion

Adding comfort mode locomotion

Techniques for teleportation

Teleportation toolkits

Resetting center and position

Managing VR motion sickness

Playing with Physics and Fire

Playing with Physics and Fire

Managing game objects

Paddle ball game

Shooter ball game

Juicing the scene

Exploring Interactive Spaces

Exploring Interactive Spaces

Level design with Blender

Assembling the scene in Unity

Adding pictures to the gallery

Managing art info data

Displaying the art info

Moving around the gallery

Using All 360 Degrees

Using All 360 Degrees

360-degree media

Fun with photo globes

Rendering photospheres

Using Unity skyboxes

Capturing 360-degrees in Unity

Animation and VR Storytelling

Animation and VR Storytelling

Composing our story

Timelines and Audio tracks

Using a Timeline to activate objects

Recording an Animation Track

Using the Animation editor

Animating other properties

Using Animation clips

Using Animator Controllers

Making the story interactive

Social VR Metaverse

Social VR Metaverse

Multiplayer networking

Setting up a simple scene

Adding multiplayer networking

Adding a matchmaking lobby

Syncing objects and properties

Advanced networking topics

Options for voice chat

Using Oculus platform and avatars

Building and sharing custom VRChat rooms

Optimizing for Performance and Comfort

Optimizing for Performance and Comfort

Using the Unity Profiler and Stats

Optimizing your art

Optimizing your scene with static objects

Optimizing your code

Optimizing the rendering

Runtime performance and debugging

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Summary

In Unity, user interfaces that are based on a canvas object and the event system include buttons, text, images, sliders, and input fields, which can be assembled and wired to objects in the scene.

In this chapter, we took a close look at various world space UI techniques and how they can be used in virtual reality projects. We considered ways in which UI for VR differs from UI for conventional video games and desktop applications. Also, we implemented over a half-dozen of them, demonstrating how each can be constructed, coded, and used in your own projects. Our C# scripting got a little more advanced, probing deeper into the Unity Engine API and modular coding techniques.

You now have a broader vocabulary to approach UI in your VR projects. Some of the examples in this chapter can be directly applicable in your own work. However, not all need to be home-grown. VR UI tools...