Pre-requisite:

1. Unity 2019.3.0f1
2. Google VR SDK

So, the very first step to creating a VR app is to set up an environment that could be a plain, terrain, etc. In this post, I will quickly guide you to how to create an environment using free assets of the Unity asset store. For this application, download and Import NatureStarterKit2 into your project from the asset store. At the same time, also import the gvr-sdk package for unity. After that, your project directory would look like this:

For this post, I will be using Demo Scene of NatureStarterKit2 in the given directory NatureStarterKit2>>Scene>>Demo

Within the Demo Scene, you will find two terrains i.e. one with the bigger area and other with a smaller area. So delete the larger terrain for this project. Now, this would be our testing environment.

Another step would be to include GvrEditorEmulator and GvrEventSystem into the Demo scene. After that, create an empty Object named Player and move the Main Camera into the Player object. Within the Main Camera include GvrReticlePointer. Now, the hierarchy would be as shown below:

In the Main Camera, add a component named GvrPointerPhysicsRaycaster. For the Player, add a Character Controller component (would help in navigating the environment)and a script named LookWalk.cs.

LookWalk.cs script would like this:

In this script, Player movement gets triggered only when eulerAngles.x is between 30 and 90 degrees. Then, forward variable stores the Direction in which player has to move and using SimpleMove() method, we move the player in the specified direction with defined speed.

Now, we need to set the boundaries for Player’s movement. This would be achieved using Box Collider. So, we created the boundaries around the terrain to restrict the horizontal motion and in order to restrict the vertical motion, we create a boundary plane at the same level as terrain. By doing such, Player won’t be lost while navigating.

There are total of five Box Collider components around the terrain i.e four around the terrain boundaries and one below the terrain plane.

Now we are done with the preparations for building a VR app for Android. To do so, we need to configure Build Settings in File menu. Follow these steps to build an android package(apk):

1. Switch Platform to Android
2. In Player Setting, within the XR Settings check the Virtual Reality Supported Option and add VR SDK as Cardboard.

At the Build Settings Popup, select (Build and Run or Build) and we are good to go.

Given below is the demo of how the app looks and works.

DEMO_TOUR.mp4