Building Virtual Reality with Unity and Steam VR

Book excerpt: The golden age of virtual reality is here; take the first step into V.R. programming and development with Jeff W. MurrayBuilding Virtual Reality with Unity and SteamVR. Murray explores some of the topical issues surrounding virtual reality; including V.R. sickness, telepresence, performance issues and practical ways to diminish these detrimental effects to make a more comprehensive experience. Building Virtual Reality also grants readers a hands-on approach with the Unity game engine and programming. The example projects and sample C# code found in the text are compatible with all SteamVR supported virtual reality head mounted displays that are currently available. This text is the essential survival guide to VR and VR development for any reader. Author Bio: Jeff W. Murray has written two books: Game Development for iOS with Unity3D, C# Game Programming Cookbook for Unity3D, both published by CRC Press. In his game development career spanning over 14 years, he has worked with some of the world Murray Key features: Discusses some of the key issues facing virtual reality and provides helpful tips for making better V.R. experiences. Develop V.R. applications with practical examples geared to work with both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, as well as open source virtual reality (OSVR) headsets like the HDK. Find out how to build both standing and seated experiences. Tips on optimizing performance with the Unity Profilers. Explore examples specifically for HTC Vive Controllers and picking up and throwing physics objects, including haptic feedback. Discover how to build user interfaces for virtual reality, as well as discussing some best practices for V.R. based user interface design. Written by a games industry veteran who has been a V.R. developer since the first Oculus development kit.