Port Translation : VR Room
How does porting a VR game look like?
Let’s first define “Port translation” or “Porting” is? What does it mean to port a game?
Porting is also the term used when a video game designed to run on one platform, be it an arcade, video game console, or personal computer, is converted to run on a different platform, perhaps with some minor differences.
Have you ever wondered why some applications are on Windows but not on Mac? Why you can’t just play an Xbox game on the PlayStation?
This is because there are a multitude of operating systems and computing environments that require different programming for an application to work. So while an application is already working or was launched on one computing environment, it might require additional or entirely different code to be present in order to work on another one.
While these applications generally only need certain software changes, it is entirely possible for it to need to meet certain hardware expectations too.
In software engineering, this process of adapting software or hardware to make these applications usable in another environment is called porting. Software is considered portable when it is easier to add changes to it rather than starting over from scratch. Some environments are so drastically different from each other, or the code wasn’t written with enough portability in mind, that it would be quicker and easier for software engineers to start all over — in that case, porting wouldn’t be feasible.
The requirements and learning objective of the project
As with previous and all VR projects, this project will require you to have a VR headset to test your projects. If you cannot come on site or if you do not have your own headset, an inexpensive option is Google Cardboard.
Depending on your headset, there are different considerations you will need to take into account when developing your VR projects, such as which SDK to use, control / navigation schemes, hardware capabilities, etc. As headsets and SDKs vary, this and future VR projects will not contain specific instructions on how to accomplish the tasks — you will be expected to utilize the Framework and the documentation and tutorials relevant to your hardware.
Note: You do not have to upload your applications to the App Store or Play Store if you are targeting an iOS or Android device. All projects will require you to submit a working build / executable for your targeted device.
What you should learn
- What are the different types of locomotion / movement in VR
- What causes VR motion sickness
- What are the different methods of minimizing VR motion sickness in locomotion implementations
- How to implement a teleportation method of movement in VR
- How to implement interactive objects in VR
All of us were allowed to make this VR experience either a sitting or standing one. In summary, after being provided with a Unity scene and corresponding assets, the mandatory tasks had us implement teleportation, interaction with items, and certain animations to occur on specific user interaction. The advanced tasks had us make it into an actual escape room by making the user interact with at least two items that would open the door in the first room, and another two objects to start the projector in the second room. The interactions with the items in the room had to have some sort of logic to it. It wasn’t supposed to happen randomly or be based off luck.
The VR Headset I Used
The first and only VR headset I have ever owned happens to be the Valve Index, which was created and manufactured by Valve. It goes great with SteamVR, essentially a kind of tool or software made to experience VR content on practically any kind of VR Headset. It makes VR easier to use on PC and is downloaded through Steam.
Headsets with 6-DoF tracks user movement in the x,y, and z axis. If the user walked around, bent over, reached up, leaned to the side, and so on — then all of these actions would normally be tracked in the targeted VR application. On the other hand, these actions couldn’t be tracked by a 3-DoF VR headset at all.