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)

Getting started in VR

Our first step is to set up our Unity environment. This is a common process for many Unity projects. It entails creating the new project files and adding asset folders for organizing the various elements needed to bring the project to life. Take the following steps to get started:

  1. Create a new Unity project called VRGallery
  2. Create the following folders within the Project panel:
    • Materials
    • Prefabs
    • Scenes
    • Scripts
  1. Save the scene as WIP_1 and move it into the Scenes folder. We will make incremental versions of the scene to aid in debugging. Work In Progress (WIP).

Creating an organized folder structure within the Asset directory saves lots of time and frustration. This is always the first step when creating a new project. Normally, we would also create a Texture directory, but this time we will import sample textures from the resources section of the supporting...