Getting Started with Developing in Virtual Reality - VR for Geologic Models Developer Diary Ep. 1

DOWNLOAD THE MODEL OF ONTARIO'S PALEOZOIC BEDROCK:

Getting started in virtual reality. Developing an Oculus Quest app using Unity Professional to explore geological models in stereoscopic 3D!

How can developers get started using Unity and an Oculus Quest headset to develop a virtual geology lab? In the summer of 2020 the OGSR Library assembled a remote team to build a demo app that explores this question. Our goal is to create a virtual laboratory space that allows players to interact with existing geological models created in professional geological modelling software. The virtual laboratory should be an appropriate platform for public outreach and we hope that experiencing geology in stereoscopic 3-D will help the public understand the nature of various geological layers.

The key development steps in our process are documented in this tutorial series to help others build a similar VR experience.

Equipment and software used:
- Oculus Quest headset
- Oculus Link cable
- Unity game engine (Professional, your edition will be as required)
- Microsoft Visual Code (application code is written in C#)
- PC (with reasonable graphics power, we used a Lenovo Legion Y740 with an RTX2070 maxQ)
- Blender or 3-D modelling software for creating virtual lab assets
- Leapfrog Works for creating 3-D geologic models.

VR for Geological Models Developer Diary Episode I:

How to get setup in Unity. We build a simple project and add the Oculus VR addons from the Unity asset store to enable Oculus Quest development. Then drop in a few 3-D assets and enable walking around the scene and picking up some objects. Getting started with this level of functionality requires very little coding knowledge in Unity, enjoy!

We are planning on sharing all the project code and assets on our Github page so stay tuned!

With special thanks to:
Geological Survey of Canada
Ontario Geological Survey
OGSR Library VR team: Ninava, Kyra, Matt and Jordan