Visualizing Historic Buildings In VR

Someone asked the other day about Unity and whether it's the right software for visualizing historic buildings in virtual reality, or is there a better option? Before looking at the project in detail, I answered, "That depends".

If the goal is interactive virtual reality with a relatively unrestricted, navigable world-space, then Unity might be the way to go. Like most integrated development environments (IDE), Unity is a hub for connecting components of an app or visualization including a user control interface. The Rift and Vive headsets both have a Unity SDK (software developers kit) that simplify writing interface code objects for their hardware requiring little if any customization for basic VR apps.

If the goal is to passively view a CG rendering of a building with a headset like Google Daydream or Samsung Gear-VR, then omnidirectional stereo (ODS) video might be the way to go. ODS video is an animation rendering technique in programs like Autodesk's 3D Studio Max and Maya. It's sometimes called VR on rails because it's like a train ride where you can look around but you can't get off to explore on your own.

Last semester a student asked how to quickly create a Unity virtual reality app, something he could reuse later to teach others about Unity. He misunderstood what's involved, even for something simple. So I wrote a short paper explaining Unity in general terms. At the moment there are no products like PowerPoint for making VR presentations. Some day soon that should change.

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