Unity 2020 Virtual Reality Projects Third Edition

Explore the latest features of Unity and build VR experiences including first-person interactions, audio fireball games, 360-degree media, art gallery tours, and VR storytelling

▶Book Description
This third edition of the Unity Virtual Reality (VR) development guide is updated to cover the latest features of Unity 2019.4 or later versions - the leading platform for building VR games, applications, and immersive experiences for contemporary VR devices.

Enhanced with more focus on growing components, such as Universal Render Pipeline (URP), extended reality (XR) plugins, the XR Interaction Toolkit package, and the latest VR devices, this edition will help you to get up to date with the current state of VR. With its practical and project-based approach, this book covers the specifics of virtual reality development in Unity. You'll learn how to build VR apps that can be experienced with modern devices from Oculus, VIVE, and others. This virtual reality book presents lighting and rendering strategies to help you build cutting-edge graphics, and explains URP and rendering concepts that will enable you to achieve realism for your apps. You'll build real-world VR experiences using world space user interface canvases, locomotion and teleportation, 360-degree media, and timeline animation, as well as learn about important VR development concepts, best practices, and performance optimization and user experience strategies.

By the end of this Unity book, you'll be fully equipped to use Unity to develop rich, interactive virtual reality experiences.

▶What You Will Learn
-Understand the current state of virtual reality and VR consumer products
-Get started with Unity by building a simple diorama scene using Unity Editor and imported assets
-Configure your Unity VR projects to run on VR platforms such as Oculus, SteamVR, and Windows immersive MR
-Design and build a VR storytelling animation with a soundtrack and timelines
-Implement an audio fireball game using game physics and particle systems
-Use various software patterns to design Unity events and interactable components
-Discover best practices for lighting, rendering, and post-processing

▶Key Features
-Discover step-by-step instructions and best practices to begin your VR development journey
-Explore Unity features such as URP rendering, XR Interaction Toolkit, and ProBuilder
-Build impressive VR-based apps and games that can be experienced using modern devices like Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest

▶Who This Book Is For
Whether you're a non-programmer unfamiliar with 3D computer graphics or experienced in both but new to virtual reality, if you're interested in building your own VR games or applications, this Unity book is for you. Any experience in Unity will be useful but is not necessary.

▶What this book covers
- Chapter 1, Virtually Everything for Everyone, is an introduction to the new technologies and opportunities in consumer VR in gaming and non-gaming applications, including an explanation of stereoscopic viewing and head tracking.

- Chapter 2, Understanding Unity, Content, and Scale, introduces the Unity game engine as we build a simple diorama scene using primitive GameObjects, prefabs, and imported threedimensional content.

- Chapter 3, Setting Up Your Project for VR, helps you set up your system and a Unity project to build and run on your target device(s), including SteamVR, Oculus Rift, Windows Immersive MR, Oculus Quest, and Google Cardboard.

- Chapter 4, Using Gaze-Based Control, explores the relationship between the VR camera and objects in a scene, including 3D cursors and gaze-based ray guns. This chapter also introduces Unity scripting in C#.

- Chapter 5, Interacting with Your Hands, looks at user input events, such as controller buttons and tracked hand controllers using components from the XR Interaction Toolkit. We also build a balloon gun for inflating and popping balloons!

- Chapter 6, Canvasing World Space UI, implements many examples of the user interface (UI) for VR using a Unity world space canvas, including a heads-up display (HUD), info bubbles, in-game objects, a three-dimensional dashboard, and a wrist-based menu palette.

- Chapter 7, Teleporting, Locomotion, and Comfort, dives into techniques for moving yourself around a VR scene, such as glide locomotion, climbing a wall, and teleporting to other locations.

- Chapter 8, Lighting, Rendering, Realism, takes a closer look at the Unity render pipelines and choosing a lighting strategy for your projects. We build interactive controls for environmental lighting, PBR materials, light objects, reflection probes, postprocessing, and more.

- Chapter 9, Playing with Physics and Fire, explores the Unity physics engine, physic materials, particle systems, and more C# scripting as we build a paddle ball game to whack fireballs in time to your favorite music.

- Chapter 10, Exploring Interactive Spaces, teaches you how to build an interactive art gallery, including level design with ProBuilder, artwork lighting, data management using scriptable objects, and teleporting through space.

- Chapter 11, Using All 360 Degrees, explains 360-degree media and uses photos and videos in a variety of examples, including globes, orbs, photospheres, and skyboxes.

- Chapter 12, Animation and VR Storytelling, builds a complete VR storytelling experience using imported three-dimensional assets and a soundtrack, as well as Unity timelines and animation.

- Chapter 13, Optimizing for Performance and Comfort, demonstrates how to use the Unity Profiler and Stats window to reduce latency in your VR app, including optimizing your three-dimensional art, static lighting, efficient coding, and GPU rendering.