Every course, I will start by making announcements about current news on virtual reality as well as opportunities relevant to students.

Recommended literature and cinema dealing with VR (optional):

  • Serial Experiments Lain (シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン) (1998).
  • Son Hee-joon and Kim Youn-kyung’s Yureka (유레카) (2000–Present).
  • Kōichi Mashimo’s .hack//Sign (2002–2003).
  • William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984).
  • David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999).
  • Satoshi Kon’s Paprika (パプリカ) (2006).
  • Shinobu Takayama's Amatsuki (あまつき) (2008–2017).

Tutorial for adding SteamVR, building, and zipping a Unity project.

Shadertoy is a great resource for understanding shaders thoroughly. (Generally recommend Íñigo Quílez's website.)

Need to brush up on exporting to Google Cardboard? Check out: Szasz, Teodora. “Introduction to Virtual Reality.” Research Computing Center, University of Chicago, 15 Aug. 2017.

All SAIC students receive access to Lynda Online Software Training, which has solid tutorials for Unity, Unreal Engine, scripting, 3D modeling, etc. Similarly, I would

Stack Overflow is everyone's best friend, as is the Unity Forum.

Be sure to check out Voices of VR, Kent Bye's impressive podcast on everything virtual reality with loads of guests.

Anything you use for a project must be credited without exception. When submitting in a study, please include a detailed bibliography in MLA format citing what resources you have used. (This includes information such as the creator, where it was procured, and a URL to the resource.)

Free 3D Models

Be sure to clean all models downloaded: take into account texture sizes, polygon counts, etc. Free models are often not optimized for virtual reality, and it's up to you to make sure your VR experience runs smoothly.

3D Modeling Software

You may use whatever modeling software you are used to. However, Rhino requires you shine two lights on opposite ends of your target object. When the object's mesh is fully illuminated by the lights, only then will the object be fully exported (beware of animations). For this reason, I strongly recommend avoiding Rhino. (If you do use this software, please refer to Zhong for his familiarity and help.)

Models made in SketchUp are fine, but must be exported in a compatible file type for Unity. Be careful: it's hard to re-edit a SketchFab model that has been exported for Unity.

Photogrammetry Software

Game Engines

Free Motion Capture Data

Forums