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VML/Overlay

Purpose

This was created as a final project for Pitt's ENGLIT/ENGFLM/ENGCMP 0712 Critical Making course.

About

VML/Overlay is an immersive Augmented Reality (AR) experience for the Vibrant Media Lab. Posters and pictures around the room can be scanned to be used as AR targets, allowing the room to be transformed in a virtual manner limited only by your imagination!

Technologies

VML/Overlay is a Unity project developed for mobile devices.

Vuforia is used to handle all of the AR overhead. The trackable images are loaded into a Device database in the Vuforia Developer Portal.

As this is an AR venture, there is support for a Cardboard-like VR experience provided the headset of choice gives the camera an unobstructed view.

Supported devices

Refer to Vuforia's Supported Devices list for up to date requirements. The Unity project currently targets and has been tested on Android devices with 6.0 Marshmallow or higher.

Development

Basics

First, you need to have your targets as defined in Vuforia's Developer portal. Upload images there and download the database for Unity. Open it and Unity will import everything for you.

Creating a trackable

Place an empty GameObject in the scene. This is the container that the trackable will live in.

Then, under this container, place a Vuforia Image object. In the Image Target Behaviour script, select the target you wish to use.

Place an ARObjectManager on this object. This will enable and disable the tracked object contents so interaction does not affect this while it is inactive.

Place an empty GameObject under the Image target object. This will hold all of the tracked object contents. Make sure you drag this container into the Disable Object field of the ARObjectManager.

Place whatever trackable contents you want in here! You can make minigames, text elements, image views, you name it. Take a look at the sections below to learn what tools are available out of the box.

Interactors

The main way in which input is handled generically is through Interactor. Interactor is an abstract class which can be extended to implement different means of interaction. Interactors must be polled with <interactor>.IsInteracting(), which has the same functionality as if you are polling a button directly.

There are pre-made Interactors which can be used without modification:

  • GamepadButton: takes a KeyCode as the button to check
  • GamepadJoystick: uses an axis name and a threshold in which the axis must cross. Direction signifies if it should check in the negative direction.
  • KeyboardButton: Uses a button's string name
  • KeyboardKey: Uses a buttons KeyCode type
  • MultiInputInteractor: Takes a list of interactors and can be set to interact if either ALL or ANY interactor is interacting.

Interactables

If you want to have a manager handle inputs and interactions, then you may use Interactable on the object which you want to make do something. Interactable objects may be told to do its thing on call of <interactable>.Interact(). Interactable must be extended to define a specific implementation.

There are pre-made Interactables which can be used without modification:

  • Hyperlink: Open the specific url in the system's default browser

AR Generics

Within the ARInteractables folder there is a Generics collection. Any feature that is generic enough to be shared across different Interactables can be placed here.

Scroll Views

Scroll views can handle any observable media (images, text) that will overflow outside of the viewing area. There are prefabs here that support horizontal, vertical, or bidirectional scrolling.

To use, just drag the type of scroll view you want under a canvas within a Vuforia trackable. Within that prefab is Viewport/Content. Replace the Image or Text attached to this object with whatever content you want to scroll.

Hyperlink

There is a hyperlink object controlled by a UI button. You can play around with the button's texture to make it look more appealing, but the functionality is there. The UI button (under Button) interacts with a Hyperlink Interactable.

Drag the Hyperlink prefab under a canvas under a Vuforia trackable. Just update the link and you are good to go.

Example implementation

The Environmental Humanities Poster has all of the Overlay-specific features required to make a minigame, provided you know how to make a game in Unity.

Under the Vuforia target you can place your minigame. It should contain a game manager/controller that handles input and controls. The manager should use Interactors as described above. The example given uses 2 axes to move a ball around, and a few buttons to do some color swapping.

Gamepad mappings

VRBOX Controller:

in @+B mode:

  • Joystick1Button0: B
  • Joystick1Button1: D
  • Joystick1Button2: C
  • Joystick1Button3: A
  • Joystick1Button4: Trigger
  • Joystick1Button5: Bumper
  • Joystick1Button11: @
  • Joystick1Button10: Power
  • Vertical Axis (-1,1): left-right in single-handed operation
  • Horizontal Axis (-1,1): up-down in single-handed operation