I want to get into VR, where do I start?

Last week I was at an industrial event in Hannover Germany, where I tried Virtual reality for the first time.
And was immediate hook on the idea of getting into it, so I talk with the guy who made the software for the oculus rift development kit and he told me the different software he used, but I don't now how to get fully started since I can't find any specific tutorials covering everything.

I want to do product illustrations / tryouts

I know CAD software (Inventor and Solidworks
Basic of 3ds Max
Very basic C programming (beginner level)

I've unity installed, 3ds max, and inventor.

I know that I've to export my CAD files to 3ds max and export the files in a format Unity will accept.

But I don't own an Oculus rift development kit, and I dont intent on investing in one at the moment, so I'd like to use my android smartphone instead.

What software and plugin do I need to install? Any tutorial on programming for virtual reality for smartphones? how do I get the program working with my phone?

If someone could give me direction to get into this I would be so thankful!!

 

If you're unfamiliar with Unity and only a beginner programmer, I would suggest starting with something simpler than VR. Building a VR experience in Unity isn't generally a "drag and drop" job. Until you are relatively comfortable in Unity you're only going to get frustrated with the extra stuff (building a stereoscopic view for your android phone, reading/using gyroscope data for head tracking, optimizing for high frame rates, etc.)

In my opinion, start here http://unity3d.com/learn and here https://www.youtube.com/

Watch a dozen hours of tutorials, follow along. Play with Unity and (preferably) C#, or UnityScript if that's what you're most comfortable with. Make Game Objects dance around with keyboard input (learn what a Game Object is), and other simple things in Unity. Once you have the basics down, then look into turning your phone into a head mounted display (or better yet, pick up a real HMD like the Oculus DK2, it's awesome). Again, in my opinion, you're trying to tackle too many large tasks at once and in my experience this only leads to frustration and burn out.

Learn Unity first, familiarize yourself with the programming interface, and then look into a building a custom virtual world in said game engine.

Hope this helps!

 

My friend, I was at this same point a month ago. I got into google cardboard as it's cheap as free. I had NO experience of using unity or making an app for android, and it took maybe 3 weeks of googling tutorials and asking communities - but I ended up with a google cardboard environment of my own design with reflective materials, light maps and animation. It was a very good experience and my clients are very impressed as now I can put them 'in' the 3d models instead of showing them visuals. The biggest stumbling block is that android will not do reflections or lights within the model, so you need to work around that - hence lightmapping and cubemaps etc.

here is the Google cardboard development portal
https://developers.google.com/cardboard/

This is a very helpful tutorial to give you a good push

you actually CAN drag and drop already completed and built assets. I drag and dropped the main stereoscopic cardboard cameras from the GoogleCardboard free unity SDK assets.

Attached are 3 images from the app. It's a light installation in a buildings lobby. Basic by the standards of others, it nether the less was true to our concept and really won the client over.

 

You first will ned to feel confortable with unity itself. You need to go trought the basic C# video tutorials. Build a couple of demos to understand basics, build some simple scripts, trigger objects, get familiar with building and blabla. Then, get the DK2 devkit.

 

3d buzz has an excelent introduction video series to unity. They are free. Look for them in their page.

 

Hi,
There are a few tutorials on Youtube on how to quickstart developing for Cardboard. So if you want inspiration fast, I would recommend starting with just building a demo scene from Google Cardboard SDK and playing with it.

After that you will be more motivated to learn Unity deeper.

Check out these tutorials:

Good luck and have fun!

 

A formal education from a program which provides you a degree also is a good place to start. With this, there are two advantages of this. One is you will get actual programming and will develop relationship with the industry peers and participate in internships and other industry programs. Learn basic principles of 3D rendering with C language or JavaScript.

 

check this site out that did a pretty comprehensive article on getting in to vr. prices, brands ad more.
http://galacticbrief.com/index.php/2016/11/13/want-get-virtual-reality/

 

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/cinext-vr-runtime-editor-104328

This is all you need to get started.

Spend 100 hours in this program and you'll be fine. You can literally DRAG AND DROP from within VR to create levels. You'll need a VIVE or Oculus.

Getting a degree or formal education is absolutely the WRONG way of going about it. To anyone reading this: Going to school is a huge waste of money, take it from someone who went that route. You will learn a LITTLE programming and a LOT of filler and lose a ton of $$$ in the meantime. If you spent every day for a year in VR with Unity and Youtube, you'd be WAAAAAAY more proficient then someone who graduates with a general idea of VR. If your goal is to build stuff, teach yourself. I went to school to learn how to code in VR, instead I spent an entire year writing essays on Karl Marx... what a waste of time.