Learning VR (intro)

Introduction

A few months ago I felt that something was going on. When I started to work in 2007 we needed web developers. Then around 2012 the mobile revolution arrived, luckily I started learning mobile development thanks to a side project (My Laboratory game). I had the opportunity to work with Objective-C and iOS. In 2012, I decided to become a mobile developer.

So here I go, I’m jumping in the unknown again! I will be even more difficult this time because I’m talking about VR.

And VR for me is constituted of two skill I don’t have (yet):

• Math (move objects in space, transformation, rotation, matrices)
• Design (create nice looking objects, 3D interfaces)

The idea

II had a vision when Mark Zuckerberg did the Oculus conference of 2016, I understood VR. I mean, more than only the entertainment aspect of it. I understood that it is a second world, a world of freedom, material freedom, where everything is possible.

In this spirit, I want to create a development environment in VR for VR. The goal is to allow people to develop (and improve) the environment in which they live / work on. At the end they should be able to upgrade it without needing to go out of it, and so iterate very fast, experiment more.

Step by step

So yeah, I know nothing about VR. I don’t know any 3D software, nor 3D engine.

My choice is Daydream from Google for the VR platform, because it is cheap (on the hardware side as well as the software).

I will learn Blender (for 3D modeling) and Unity (for the 3D engine).

I will try to go step by step, and report my finding here.

The first step will be to get Daydream working, to create a 3D model of a keyboard and put it in the VR world and bind a visual feedback (from the real keyboard). I already have a Bluetooth keyboard, so I will connect it to the headset, the Daydream controller will be the mouse.

I will give you more detail on my next report, we will see where this is going.