Project 3

Description

The purpose of this project is to develop variations of the insect phobia virtual reality scene created for Project 2. This project was developed using Unity 2019.4.28f1 and the VRTK v4 library.

The project is meant to run on an Oculus Quest headset. All screenshots and the video on this page were captured using an Oculus Quest 2 headset.

The user can teleport throughout the current scene by aiming the left controller and clicking the left joystick button. Some objects are interactable, meaning they can be picked up, moved, dropped, and thrown by holding the lower trigger on a controller while that controller is touching them. The user can open and close a menu to switch between scenes by pressing the X button, and each menu option can be selected by aiming the right controller and clicking the right joystick button.

(More information about the original scene and online resources carried over from Project 2 to Project 3 can be found in the Project 2 documentation.)

Variations

Mego Playset Models from Online

Land of the Giants Models from Online

Build Instructions

1. Install Unity Hub from here.

2. Install Unity version 2019.4.28f1 from here by clicking the Unity Hub button for that version. Add the Android Build Support, Android SDK & NDK Tools, and OpenJDK modules when installing.

3. Install Blender 2.93 here for importing models into Unity.

4. Clone the project's GitHub repository into a folder using the git clone command or by downloading the project ZIP file by clicking Code -> Download ZIP on the GitHub repository page and extracting it.

5. Open Unity Hub, click the Open button, and select the project folder. Click on the project with the project folder name in Unity Hub to open it in the Unity Editor. The VRTK v4 packages should now install.

6. Open Assets/Scenes/ScareCoOffices.unity by double-clicking on it in the Unity Editor Project window.

To use a simulator in the Unity Editor, enable the CameraRigs.SpatialSimulator GameObject and disable the CameraRigs.UnityXR GameObject by selecting each of them in the Hierarchy window and toggling the checkbox in the top left of the Inspector window. Click on the play button at the top middle of the screen to start and stop the simulator. (Press the Escape key to unlock the mouse cursor.) Toggle the GameObjects again to return to being able to build for a headset.

7. Connect an Oculus Quest headset to your computer over USB. Make sure your Quest has developer mode on. Select Allow on your headset to allow your computer to access the headset's data.

8. Click on File -> Build Settings and select the Android platform. Select Oculus Quest in the Run Device menu. (Click Refresh if it does not appear.) Click on File -> Build And Run, select a file name and location for the APK file, and click the Save button. After building, the application should be open on the headset.

Model Requirements

Interactable Items in Land of the Giants Scene

1. Stapler

2. Tape Dispenser

3. Pencil

4. Bottlecap

5. Fork

Interactable Action Figures in Mego Playset Scene

1. Bee - Has animated legs and antennae.

2. Dragonfly - Has animated wings.

Additional Interactable Objects in Mego Playset Scene

• Chairs

• Tables

• Trash Can

• Trash Bag

• Picnic Basket

• Potted Sunflower

Additional Interactable Objects in Dancing on the Ceiling Scene

• Chairs

• Trash Bag

• Picnic Basket

• Plate of Cookies

• Watermelon Slice

Scaled Sounds

In the Mego Playset scene, the fly buzzing sound was changed to be quieter and have a lower max distance. In the Land of the Giants scene, the fly buzzing sound was changed to be louder and have a higher max distance. Sounds from interactions were also made quieter in the Mego Playset scene. Additionally, the ambient fluorescent buzzing sound has a lower pitch in the Land of the Giants scene.

How My Perspective Changes in Different Variations

In the Mego Playset scene, I saw objects in the playset as small toys, rather than life-size objects, as in the original scene. I spent time positioning the furniture and objects in the playset where I wanted them, while I never paid much attention to positioning interactable objects in the original scene. A few times, I used the bee and dragonfly figures to move playset objects around to make a mess. In the original scene, I did not use one interactable object to move another much at all. Additionally, I did not pay attention to the interactable objects or bugs from the original scene in the playset scene, as they are very small in the playset scene.

In the Land of the Giants scene, I could pay more attention to small objects and details than in the original scene. The small bugs in this scene appear larger than normal, which makes them creepier to me compared to the original scene. The interactable objects from the original scene also seem too large to interact with to me or are out of reach, so I focused more on interacting with the new interactable objects. In the original scene, I did not climb much because there is nothing of interest on the second floor. For the Land of the Giants scene, I needed to climb up the gray chairs to access tables with objects on them, so climbing was a significant part of my interaction.

While going through the Dancing on the Ceiling scene in virtual reality, I did not spend much time performing interactions available in the original scene. Instead, I spent time using the rotation menu buttons to rotate the room. Additionally, the objects in this scene feel less static overall than they did in the original scene because they move when the room is rotated and also because more objects are interactable. Because the objects that move tend to slide into corners of the room as the room rotates, I did not interact with or look at these objects much after multiple room rotations. I spent very little time looking at the bugs because they are not affected by the rotation.

I can mainly see perspective changes similar to the ones in the project being useful for creating content in VR. When creating content, it would be helpful for users to have the ability to change perspective on the same scene, so changes made in one perspective would be visible in other perspectives. A user could design an environment with a VR perspective like a playset, where they are much bigger than the environment, and then switch to the life-size perspective an end user would have to see how the final view looks. Then, the creator would not need to move a lot around the environment for placing objects. With a VR perspective where the user is small compared to the environment, a creator could add finer details to an environment such as by precisely positioning objects or painting details into the world.