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Steam VR setup Tutorial - Player camera setup

Aims

The aim of this tutorial is to get you started using Unity and HTC VIVE HDM (Head Mounted Display).

Prerequisites

  1. Download and install Unity 2018.2.21f1.
    More resent versions might also work, this tutorial was made using Unity 2018.2.21f1

  2. Create a Unity personal account. In order to use Unity you will have to create our own personal account as it will ask you to login when you start running the software.

  3. Download and install Steam. Steam platform will install aditional components needed to run the HTC VIVE on your computer. Click here to go to the Steam download page.

Getting started

Create a new Unity project, you might need to login first. Make sure you select a 3D template. Unity-SteamVR-Setup-4.PNG

After your new project opens, locate your mouse coursor on top of the "Hierarchy" panel and right click to create a plane.

Unity-SteamVR-Setup-1.PNG

Unity-SteamVR-Setup-2.png

Now let's place the plane in the middle of the space. Select the plane and chose the Reset option inside the drop-down menu found on the right top corner of the transform component. This will reset all the transform values for the plane.

Unity-SteamVR-Setup-6.png

Now, let's make bigger so your player can have a bit more of space to interact. With your plane selected, look for the Transform component in the "Inspector" panel and change the scale to 10 on all three axis.

Unity-SteamVR-Setup-3.PNG

Now that we have a plane for our player to stand on, it is time to import the Steam VR Plugin from the asset store, this plugin will allow us to integrate and use both the VR Headset and the controllers. Click on the "Asset Store" tab and type "Steam VR" into the search box.

Unity-SteamVR-Setup-7.PNG

First you will need to click the "Download" button, after downloading, the same button will turn into the "Implort" button, click on it, you should see a window displaying all the contents of the package, just clic Import.

Unity-SteamVR-Setup-8.PNG

After a moment, your package should be installed and you will be able to see the "steamVR" folder in your Project panel.

Unity-SteamVR-Setup-9.PNG

Now we are ready to place our player prefab in the scene, you can locate it either by lookin for it inside of the steamVR folder (see paht below) or just by typing "Player" into the search box found on top of the Project panel.

Unity-SteamVR-Setup-10.PNG

After dragging and dropping your player into your "Hierachy" panel, hold the "alt" key and click on the little arrow next to the prefab name, this will unforld/display all the child objects contained inside the player gameObject.

Unity-SteamVR-Setup-11.PNG

We are not going to review these elements in this tutorial, however, it is important for you to notice that they include both controllers and the VR camera.

Finally, you just neet to setup your HTC VIVE, run Steam VR from your Steam VR account, press play in Unity and you will be able to look inside of your new scene.

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