Unreal® Engine VR Cookbook: Developing Virtual Reality with UE4

Unreal® Engine VR Cookbook: Developing Virtual Reality with UE4

by Mitch McCaffrey
Released February 2017
Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 9780134649252

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Book description

“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® 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 ® 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!

    Register your product at informit.com/register for convenient access to downloads, updates, and corrections as they become available.

    Table of contents

    1. About This E-Book
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright Page
    4. Contents
    5. Preface
      1. Who Should Read This Book?
      2. How This Book Is Organized
      3. Conventions Used in This Book
      4. Why Blueprints?
      5. Companion Website
    6. Acknowledgments
    7. About the Author
    8. Part I: Getting Started
      1. Chapter 1. Terminology and Best Practices
        1. Terminology
          1. Devices
          2. Software
          3. Unreal Engine
        2. Best Practices
        3. Summary
      2. Chapter 2. Head Mounted Display Setup
        1. Gear VR
          1. Gear VR Project Setup
          2. Gear VR Global Menu Setup
          3. Gear VR Global Menu Progress Material
        2. Rift and Vive
          1. Rift and Vive Project Setup
          2. Rift and Vive Tracking Origins
        3. Summary
      3. Chapter 3. Toolkit
        1. Generic Function Library
        2. Oculus Function Library
        3. Steam VR Function Library
        4. Summary
    9. Part II: Recipes
      1. Chapter 4. Trace Interaction
        1. Understanding Trace Interaction
        2. Understanding Interfaces
        3. Setting Up Trace Interaction
          1. Basic Project Setup
          2. Interaction Interface Setup
          3. Interaction Component
          4. Interaction Pawn Setup
        4. Setting Up a Basic Interactive Object
        5. Summary
        6. Exercises
      2. Chapter 5. Teleportation
        1. Setting Up Teleportation
          1. Parabolic Tracing
        2. Visualizing the Teleport
          1. Visualization Material
          2. Visualization Actor
        3. Simple Teleportation Volume
        4. Summary
        5. Exercises
      3. Chapter 6. Unreal Motion Graphics and 2D User Interfaces
        1. Challenges with 2D UI in VR
        2. History and Compatibility of UMG
        3. Basic VR Menu
          1. Menu Actor
          2. Menu Pawn
        4. Custom Menu Interaction
          1. Implementing Custom Menu Interaction: Approach 1
          2. Implementing Custom Menu Interaction: Approach 2
        5. Summary
        6. Exercises
      4. Chapter 7. Character Inverse Kinematics
        1. Introduction to Inverse Kinematics
        2. Setting Up Head IK
          1. Mirror Creation
          2. IK Pawn
          3. Head IK Animation Blueprint
        3. Setting Up Hand IK
          1. Adding Motion Controllers to Your Pawn
          2. Hand IK Animation Blueprint
        4. Summary
        5. Exercises
      5. Chapter 8. Motion Controller Interaction
        1. Why Motion Controller Interaction Works
        2. What to Look Out For: The Importance of Affordance
        3. Shared Input of the Current Generation of Motion Controllers
        4. Setting Up the World Interaction Project
        5. Interacting with Objects
          1. Creating the World Interaction Interface
          2. Creating the Interactor Component
          3. Adding Interaction to the Interaction Pawn
        6. Creating the Interactive Objects
          1. Creating an Interactive Static Mesh Actor
          2. Creating an Interactive Button
          3. Creating an Interactive Lever
        7. Summary
        8. Exercises
      6. Chapter 9. VR Locomotion
        1. Simulator Sickness
        2. Locomotion Types
          1. Natural
          2. Teleportation
          3. Vehicle
          4. Physical
          5. Artificial
        3. Locomotion Implementation
          1. First Person Template for Snap Turning
          2. First Person Template for Running in Place
        4. Summary
        5. Exercises
      7. Chapter 10. VR Optimization
        1. Requirements of VR Rendering
        2. Latency Mitigation
        3. Performance Improvements
          1. Forward versus Deferred
          2. Instanced Stereo
          3. Hidden Area Mesh Optimization
        4. VR Project Settings
        5. Summary
        6. Exercises
    10. Part III: Appendices
      1. Appendix A. VR Editor
        1. Enabling the VR Editor
        2. Controlling the VR Editor
          1. Navigating the World
          2. Interacting with Objects
          3. Interacting with Menus
        3. Summary
      2. Appendix B. Resources
        1. Epic
        2. Oculus
        3. Valve
        4. Google
        5. Community
        6. Physical Meetups
        7. Conferences
    11. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Unreal® Engine VR Cookbook: Developing Virtual Reality with UE4
    • Author(s): Mitch McCaffrey
    • Release date: February 2017
    • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
    • ISBN: 9780134649252