CSV for VR

Liza Kolev 2023

Description

A comma-separated values file is a delimited text file that uses a comma to separate values. Each line of the file is a data record. Each record consists of one or more fields, separated by commas. 

Use with Development Software

Unity

Unfortunately, Unity 2022.2.6f1 (in 2023) does not have a CSV plug-in that will import your CSV dataset. Some Unity users have created their own CSV-related assets that can be found below and in the Unity Asset store. However, most of these assets will not correspond to the CSV data you might find online, so it would require C# knowledge to edit the script of the asset in order to read the data how you would like it. In addition, if you're taking in CSV data to edit heights of Game Objects, this requires C# knowledge again and you have to ensure that your Game Object even allows a separate C# script to change its proportions.

Plug-Ins, Assets, Packages, etc.

Unity

• CSV2Table

• One-Click CSV Reader Tool 

• Lightweight CSV Reader for Unity

Tutorials

• Converting CSV to JSON in Python 

Structuring Time-Series Data for VR

Use a **long (tidy) format** where each row includes the date/time, ticker (or category) and value instead of a wide format with separate columns for each ticker. This makes parsing and aggregation easier in VR.

1. Use a **dictionary keyed by ticker symbol** to organize multi‑ticker datasets. Each key maps to an array of (date, value) tuples, reducing overhead and keeping datasets organized.

2. **Normalize values to a baseline**: compute the percentage change from the first data point per ticker (e.g. value / baseline – 1). Plotting normalized data helps compare trends across different scales.

3. **Aggregate to weekly averages** (or another sampling frequency) to reduce data points for smooth time scrubbing and improved VR performance.

4. Place your CSV file in Unity’s `Assets/Resources` folder so it is included in builds and can be loaded at runtime on Meta Quest.