Virtual Reality with Vrtk4: Create Immersive VR Experiences Leveraging Unity3d and Virtual Reality Toolkit

Virtual reality is quickly becoming the next medium to communicate your ideas. Once siloed in make-believe worlds of science fiction, virtual reality can now touch any aspect of your life. From game design to education to healthcare to human resources, virtual reality offers new and creative ways to engage users, students, patients, customers, and more. Contrary to what you may believe, you do not need to be a computer or graphics whiz to begin creating your own virtual reality experiences. This book is designed to introduce creative professionals or students to the accessibility of creating original virtual reality content using the Unity game engine and the Virtual Reality Tool Kit.

In this book, you will learn to create your own virtual reality environments for use on headsets such as those from Oculus and HTC. Using the Unity3D game engine and the Virtual Reality Toolkit (both of which are available for free online) on a computer or laptop, you will discover how to manipulate 3D models, insert virtual lights in a space, interact with virtual objects, and much more. You will walk through the fundamentals of virtual reality with as little code as possible. That is the beauty of Unity and the Virtual Reality Toolkit. Through a simple interface of drag and drop functionality, the Virtual Reality Toolkit melds with Unity to remove the hard math and science of VR programming.

By the end of this book, you will feel empowered to create your own virtual reality experience using the fundamental building blocks introduced to you in this course. A familiarity with the principles of computer programming and the C# programming language is encouraged but not required. This is not a coding book. This book is for creative professionals and students with an interest in creating VR yet without the time or resources for committed study. Through guided tutorials and original exercises, this book will accelerate one’s grasp of the basics of both Unity3D and the Virtual Reality Toolkit. Upon reading, anyone can begin prototyping their own virtual reality work as quickly and easily as possible.

Rakesh Baruah is a writer and creator with 15 years of experience in new media, film, and television in New York City. After completing an MFA in screenwriting and directing for film from Columbia University. Rakesh joined the writers’ room of a hit, primetime, network drama as an assistant. The experience opened his eyes to the limits of television and the opportunities promised by 3D, immersive content. In 2016 he began a self-guided journey toward virtual reality design that has taken him through startups, bootcamps, the Microsoft offices and many, many hours in front of a computer. He shares what he’s learned with you in a style and format designed specifically for the person who in high school, preferred English class to Trigonometry.