Tunnel VR

This project is a short experience for Google Tango. I wanted to play with the link between tango and the real world, so I decided to create a VR space where the motion of the user was more controlled. Building some kind of tunnel seemed like a good way to do that. Also, the assignment for this project was to tell a story and moving between two spaces seemed like good way to convey transition.

Like all of the other projects this semester, I spent a lot of time setting everything up. I hadn’t installed anything for developing on Android, so installing that was a pain. Also, finding the file path for the Android SDK and Java SDK, then putting that information into Unity took more time than I would like to admit. I think the only reason that process wasn’t soul crushingly frustrating was that a bunch of us sat down and did it together.

After I got everything installed things went pretty quickly. I decided to build my space using only Unity default meshes. I created and moved a bunch of cubes to create a short stretch of the tunnel, then copy/pasted that section to make a longer tunnel. I wanted to emphasise the change of space for the big room at the end, so I made the room very tall and added the large sphere. I hopped it would be a cool space, but I’m not sure it achieves that. I added the glowing pink balls and the particle systems to up the ‘cool factor’, I think they ended up looking pretty magical. Finally, I made the lighting in the big room very pink and put a teal light at the beginning of the tunnel. That way, you move into a pinker and pinker space.

I like how this turned out, especially so since making I was able to concentrate on building and lighting for a lot of the time instead of fighting bugs. I think that audio is the only thing missing from this little sketch.