"With his YouTube channel, Mitch's VR Lab, Mitch has helped thousands of people understand the foundations of locomotion and interaction mechanics with clear and concise UE4 videos. I'm thrilled that he has taken the time to bring all his knowledge and experience in working with Unreal Engine and Virtual Reality to the Unreal(R) Engine VR Cookbook.... Mitch is uniquely qualified to share this book with the world." -Luis Cataldi, Unreal Engine Education, Epic Games, Inc. For game developers and visualization specialists, VR is the next amazing frontier to conquer-and Unreal Engine 4 is the ideal platform to conquer it with. Unreal (R) Engine VR Cookbook is your complete, authoritative guide to building stunning experiences on any Unreal Engine 4-compatible VR hardware. Renowned VR developer and instructor Mitch McCaffrey brings together best practices, common interaction paradigms, specific guidance on implementing these paradigms in Unreal Engine, and practical guidance on choosing the right approaches for your project. McCaffrey's tested "recipes" contain step-by-step instructions, while empowering you with concise explanations of the underlying theory and math. Whether you're creating first-person shooters or relaxation simulators, the techniques McCaffrey explains help you get immediate results, as you gain "big picture" knowledge and master nuances that will help you succeed with any genre or project.
Understand basic VR concepts and terminology Implement VR logic with Blueprint visual scripting Create basic VR projects with Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Gear VR, Google VR, PSVR, and other environments Recognize and manage differences between seated and standing VR experiences Set up trace interactions and teleportation Work with UMG and 2D UIs Implement character inverse kinematics (IK) for head and hands Define effective motion controller interaction Help users avoid motion sickness Optimize VR applications Explore the VR editor, community resources, and more If you're ready to master VR on Unreal Engine 4, this is the practical resource you've been searching for!
Author(s): Mitch McCaffrey
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 288
About This E-Book
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Preface
Who Should Read This Book?
How This Book Is Organized
Conventions Used in This Book
Why Blueprints?
Companion Website
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Part I: Getting Started
Chapter 1. Terminology and Best Practices
Terminology
Devices
Software
Unreal Engine
Best Practices
Summary
Chapter 2. Head Mounted Display Setup
Gear VR
Gear VR Project Setup
Gear VR Global Menu Setup
Gear VR Global Menu Progress Material
Rift and Vive
Rift and Vive Project Setup
Rift and Vive Tracking Origins
Summary
Chapter 3. Toolkit
Generic Function Library
Oculus Function Library
Steam VR Function Library
Summary
Part II: Recipes
Chapter 4. Trace Interaction
Understanding Trace Interaction
Understanding Interfaces
Setting Up Trace Interaction
Basic Project Setup
Interaction Interface Setup
Interaction Component
Interaction Pawn Setup
Setting Up a Basic Interactive Object
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 5. Teleportation
Setting Up Teleportation
Parabolic Tracing
Visualizing the Teleport
Visualization Material
Visualization Actor
Simple Teleportation Volume
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 6. Unreal Motion Graphics and 2D User Interfaces
Challenges with 2D UI in VR
History and Compatibility of UMG
Basic VR Menu
Menu Actor
Menu Pawn
Custom Menu Interaction
Implementing Custom Menu Interaction: Approach 1
Implementing Custom Menu Interaction: Approach 2
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 7. Character Inverse Kinematics
Introduction to Inverse Kinematics
Setting Up Head IK
Mirror Creation
IK Pawn
Head IK Animation Blueprint
Setting Up Hand IK
Adding Motion Controllers to Your Pawn
Hand IK Animation Blueprint
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 8. Motion Controller Interaction
Why Motion Controller Interaction Works
What to Look Out For: The Importance of Affordance
Shared Input of the Current Generation of Motion Controllers
Setting Up the World Interaction Project
Interacting with Objects
Creating the World Interaction Interface
Creating the Interactor Component
Adding Interaction to the Interaction Pawn
Creating the Interactive Objects
Creating an Interactive Static Mesh Actor
Creating an Interactive Button
Creating an Interactive Lever
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 9. VR Locomotion
Simulator Sickness
Locomotion Types
Natural
Teleportation
Vehicle
Physical
Artificial
Locomotion Implementation
First Person Template for Snap Turning
First Person Template for Running in Place
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 10. VR Optimization
Requirements of VR Rendering
Latency Mitigation
Performance Improvements
Forward versus Deferred
Instanced Stereo
Hidden Area Mesh Optimization
VR Project Settings
Summary
Exercises
Part III: Appendices
Appendix A. VR Editor
Enabling the VR Editor
Controlling the VR Editor
Navigating the World
Interacting with Objects
Interacting with Menus
Summary
Appendix B. Resources
Epic
Oculus
Valve
Google
Community
Physical Meetups
Conferences
Index
