5 Best Online Lessons to Learn Unity for VR

Are you excited about the virtual reality technology as much as I am? Then it’s time for me to share some of my favorite courses that will show how to create VR games for Google Cardboard on your own!

5 min readAug 24, 2017

Udemy

1. Make Mobile VR Games in Unity with C# for Google Cardboard

Created by: Ben Tristem, Sam Pattuzzi
Language: English
Length: 14.5 hours on-demand video
Price: $95, $10 during current sale

Learn to code in .NET’s C# from scratch. Make virtual reality games in Unity. Google Daydream for Cardboard.

What Will I Learn?
• Choose between the current major VR systems.
• Write basic C# code, even with no prior experience.
• Create a simple 3D game in Unity.
• Design games for Virtual Reality.
• Create a Google Cardboard VR game from scratch.

Requirements:
• Google Cardboard Viewer + 6" or smaller Android or iOS device.
• Android 4.1 / iOS 8 or heigher.
• A phone compatible with your Cardboard viewer (gyroscope commonly required).
• Access to a Mac (and XCode if building to iOS devices).
• A Mac or PC capable of running Unity.
• OPTIONAL: Oculus Rift DK2 or CV1.

2. Build Virtual Reality Games for Google Cardboard using Unity

Created by: Dinesh Tavasalkar
Language: English
Length: 11.5 hours on-demand video
Price: €200, $10 during current sale

Build 4 Virtual Reality VR Games for the Google Cardboard and One Desktop game using Unity.

What Will I Learn?
• Understand basic concepts related to Virtual Reality and Google CardBoard
• Build 3 Virtual Reality Games for the Google CardBoard from scratch
• Understand the difference between different Virtual Reality Headsets
• Build a Computer Game that will run on Windows or Mac Machine
• Best practices in Virtual Reality
• Students will create VR games by writing codes in C# programming language

Requirements
• A Windows or Mac Computer system
• Google CardBoard V2 + Android Smartphone or iPhone
• Basic programming knowledge will be of Great help

YouTube

3. How To Virtual Reality App in Under 15 Minutes — A Maze

Created by: Matthew Hallberg
Language: English
Length: 13 minutes
Price: Free

This tutorial goes through how to make a VR (virtual reality) app for your mobile device using the new Google VR plugin for Unity (previously Google Cardboard). The app can be build to run on Android or IOS phones as long as they are compatible with Google Cardboard. I tried to make this as quick and simple as possible. The game consists of a maze that you can navigate through. Your first person character walks forward in whatever direction your head is facing.
To follow along you will need:
Unity 3D: https://unity3d.com/
The Google VR plugin: https://developers.google.com/vr/unity/download?pageId=102584224362435471985&authuser=3 (click “download the repo directly)

4. How to Virtual Reality App FPS Game for Beginners with Unity and GoogleVR — First Person Shooter

Created by: Matthew Hallberg
Language: English
Length: 30 minutes
Price: Free

Important edit: You must install Blender to import the gun into Unity. Another option would be just to find a free gun on the asset store, then you wont need blender.
This Tutorial will walk you through making your first virtual reality app FPS with the Unity 3D video game engine and the GoogleVR plugin. This game will work for IOS and Android so it will run with traditional Google Cardboard headsets as well as the new Daydream VR headset. This will not require any previous experience with VR development or Unity 3D so I will try to make all the instructions as clear and beginner friendly as possible. The virtual reality game we will be making is a first person zombie shooter. The best part is, all the software we need to create this game is available for free.
I know I learn best through doing projects that I am excited about, thats why I created this tutorial. I will only be able to touch on a lot of the major concepts, so if you want to learn anything more in depth I suggest you do your own research on all the different pieces.

All the code and game assets can be downloaded here: http://wirebeings.com/how-to-make-virtual-reality-game.html
You can download Unity from here: https://unity3d.com/
You will also need the GoogleVR SDK for Unity from here: https://developers.google.com/vr/unity/download?pageId=102584224362435471985&authuser=3
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matthewchallberg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewhallberg/

Zenva

5. Virtual Reality Mini-Degree — Create 15 VR Games with Unity

Created by: Pablo Farias Navarro
Language: English
Price: $803, $149 during current sale

Hands-on training to becoming a professional VR game developer with Unity by creating your own 15 immersive experiences. No prior programming experience is required to enroll!
Welcome to the world’s most comprehensive training on VR game development, where you will learn and master the foundations of C#, Unity and VR by building practical projects. Whether your goal is to make VR games for fun, do a startup in this exciting field, or become a professional Unity development (+160k a year on senior roles), this training series contains everything you need to reach your goals.

Learning goals

• Code in C# and build immersive games with Unity
• Locomotion in VR: teleportation, cabin experiences, arm swinging and much more
• User interface design in VR
• Working with 360° media (photos and video)
• Preventing simulator sickness
• 3D game mechanics and physics
• Room-Scale Experiences with SteamVR and VRTK
• Modular level design techniques
• Performance and industry best practices for mobile and desktop VR
• Basics of 3D game artwork creation using Blender and MagicaVoxel

Platforms covered in the course

• Oculus Rift
• HTC Vive / SteamVR-compatible headsets (2 Room-Scale experiences included!)
• Samsung Gear VR
• Google Cardboard (Android and iOS)
•Google Daydream will be added later in the year