Unity Virtual Reality Projects
Learn Virtual Reality by developing more than 10 engaging projects with Unity 2018, 2nd Edition
Jonathan Linowes
- 492 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Unity Virtual Reality Projects
Learn Virtual Reality by developing more than 10 engaging projects with Unity 2018, 2nd Edition
Jonathan Linowes
About This Book
Explore the latest features of Unity 2018 to create immersive VR projects for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Daydream and Gear VR
Key Features
- 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
Book 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.
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
Who this book is 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.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Content, Objects, and Scale
- 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
Creating a new Unity project
The Unity editor
- The Scene panel on the upper left-hand side (highlighted) is where you can visually compose the 3D space of the current scene, including the placement of objects.
- Below the Scene panel is the Game view (lower left-hand side), which shows the actual game camera view (presently, it is empty with an ambient sky). When in Play Mode, your game runs in this panel.
- In the center, we have arranged the Hierarchy, Project, and Console panels (from the top to the bottom, respectively).
- The Hierarchy panel provides a tree view of all the objects in the current scene.
- The Project panel contains all the reusable assets for the project, including the ones imported as well as those that you'll create along the way.
- The Console panel shows messages from Unity, including warnings and errors from code scripts.
- On the right-hand side is the Inspector panel (highlighted), which contains the properties of the currently selected object. (Objects are selected by clicking on them in the Scene, Hierarchy, or the Project panel). The Inspector panel has separate panes for each component of the object.
- At the top is the main menu bar (on a Mac, this will be at the top of your screen, not at the top of the Unity window). There's a toolbar area with various controls that we'll use later on, including the Play (triangle icon) button that starts Play mode.