VR Interactable Classroom

Introduction

This project is intended to showcase my ability to add interactives to a VR environment. The environment is classroom by Arthur Nishimoto. I have added several interactives that the player will be able to play around with.

When in the VR environment, items that glow yellow when you touch them are interactives.

Interactives

There are 10 items on the desk to your left when you spawn. Each of these items are grabbable.

Each item should have fairly realistic physic interactions i.e falls to the ground when dropped.

The items are as followed

Laptop
Mouse
Phone (You will hear it vibrating)
Folder
Pencil
Eraser
Water Bottle
Flashlight (Works when grabbed)
Portable Charger
USB Stick

There 5 students in the classroom that will react and say something when you touch them.

Student 1 will get out of his seat and scream.

Student 2 will laugh.

Student 3 will panic and ask you not to bother her.

Student 4 will be upset that his phone is vibrating.

Student 5 will yawn.

On the right side of the room there is a pirate themed area that has some items you can interact with.

The cannon will fire a cannon ball when interacted with and (hopefully) knock down the stacked boxes.

Fortunately since this is VR you don't have to reload to fire again.

You can also pick up and interact with the cannonballs if you wish. Don't try to reload the cannon with it though, it won't work...

On the table there a phonograph. When you touch the left button it will start playing So Long Oo-Long by Frank Crumit

The right button will pause it.

There is also a table, chair, several gold piles, a treasure chest, two paintings, and a barrel. These are for decoration and cannot be interacted with unfortunately.

Above the pirate area are four lamps there will turn on and off when you interact with the buttons on the north right part of the room

Github

Click here for link to GitHub repo

Download Unity

This project is implemented in Unity 2019.4.1f1 and VRTK 3.

Instructions to run in Unity and VRTK3 Simulator

Download zip from repo
Unzip
Open Unity Hub and add 428VRProject3.1-main folder to projects
You should see a empty scene when the project is loaded
Go to file->open scene, a new window should open with a bunch of folders
Find the virtualuic-evl folder and open it
Open the Scenes folder in the virtualuic-evl folder
Double click the EVL.unity scene file
At this point you should see this in the scene window (See Picture)
Click play to enter VR scene with VRTK3 simulator
If you get an annoying Steam popup when you play the scene just click Ignore All and it should go away.

Assets Used

Animations

Animations from https://www.mixamo.com

Animations used:

Student 1

Sitting
Scared

Student 2

- Idle
- Laughing

Student 3

- Standing Idle
- Focus

Student 4

- Sitting
- Sitting Disbelief

Student 5

- Standing Idle
- Yawn

Prefabs

Portable Charger ,USB Stick, Mouse - Low Poly Office Props - Spike | 3D Interior | Unity Asset Store

Paintings - Pictures | 3D Interior | Unity Asset Store

Flashlight - Flashlight PRO | 3D Tools | Unity Asset Store

Water Bottle - Survival Game Tools | 3D Tools | Unity Asset Store

Pencil, Eraser - School Supplies | 3D | Unity Asset Store

Gold Piles - Gold Coins | 3D Props | Unity Asset Store

Treasure Chest - Treasure Set - Free Chest | 3D Interior | Unity Asset Store

Phonograph - Phonograph Free 3D Models download - Free3D

Lamps - Lamps Pack | 3D Interior | Unity Asset Store

Laptop - HQ Laptop Computer | 3D Electronics | Unity Asset Store

Chair and Table - BarProps | 3D Props | Unity Asset Store

Cellphone - Free Smartphone | 3D Electronics | Unity Asset Store

Cannon, Barrel - Olde Props Pack 1 PBR/Legacy | 3D | Unity Asset Store

Songs and Sound clips

So Long Oo-Long - Free Music Archive: Frank Crumit - So Long Oo-Long

Cell Phone Vibrate Sound - Freesound - "Cell Phone Vibrate.wav" by SmartWentCody

Student Scream - Freesound - "_susto peluquero_ .wav" by juliandmc4

Student Yawn - Freesound - "yawn.wav" by kgatto

Cannon Firing Sound - Freesound - "uncompressed cannon.aif" by baefild

Student Laugh - Freesound - "male_Alphons_laughing.aiff" by thanvannispen

Youtube

Essay

In the real world there are certain expectations when interacting with people and objects. Like objects adhering to universal physics and people acting like real people. All that can be lost in a virtual reality synthetic world, where the laws of physics are at the whim of the developer and “human” interactions can enter the uncanny valley quickly. Being at a 1:1 scale certainly helps with the immersion but can also work against it since it could trigger the uncanny valley feeling since 1:1 just makes everything closer to reality.

Oddly enough, adding all the interactives into this project gave me some new insight. I think people will try to adhere to reality when designing things in VR which I feel is limiting and somewhat funny. Given the ability to alter the literal physics of their world most people choose to stick as close as possible to real life physics. Though perhaps the real strength of virtual reality is letting people experience things that they never could in real life like fighting in a medieval battle or diving in an alien world. Of course, those things would require fairly realistic physics as far as things go, but I think I would enjoy something one hundred percent we would never be able to experience in the real world.

Thought as we move towards the future, it will become more common for people to spend more time in virtual reality. Take for example, VRchat, a MMO where people can become the avatar of their choice and engage in a wide range of activities. It is one of the popular games for those with VR headsets and shows that there is a market for this sort of thing. It would be interesting to see how the next generations will grow up spending more and more thing in VR. It is common trope in sci-fi stories for people to become addicted to being in virtual reality, preferring it to the real world. I wonder if would be true when real life virtual reality reaches the point where someone can spend weeks in virtual reality.

Overall, my experience with virtual reality has been positive. I feel it has not reached its full potential as a medium. Even as I was doing this project, I was coming up with a lot things I thought would have cool to see in VR like a disconnected door that opens to another dimension or having my theme be that the player is ghost and having him spook the students. Unfortunately, I was limited by time and my skill in Unity.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse