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Export the gallery to a VR headset

Overview

Name of explainer: Export the gallery to a VR headset

Creative theme: Showcase month

Software used (for this explainer): Unity

User level: INTERMEDIATE

This is explainer 8 of 8 in this series

This series includes:

Edit photos to include in the 3d gallery
Edit video clips to include in the 3d gallery
Create a Unity project and import a gallery scene
Add photos and videos to the 3d gallery
Add 3d objects to the gallery
Add sound to the 3d gallery
Export a gallery tour as an mp4 video
Export the gallery to a VR headset

The Software

This series of explainers uses the following software:

Photoshop for image editing. Similar results can also be achieved using Paintshop Pro (available for a one-off fee) or GIMP (free). See image editing month for full details about these applications and step-by-step explainers.

Premiere Pro for video editing. Similar results can also be achieved using VEGAS Pro (available on subscription or for a one-off fee)or Shotcut (free). See video editing month for full details about these applications and step-by-step explainers.

Unity for working with a 3d gallery scene. See Virtual Reality month for full details about Unity and step-by-step explainers for getting up and running. We’re also using Modern Gallery, a PAID Unity gallery asset to import into our project and navigate in VR:

Finally, we’re using AMBIENS AT+ videoclip, a PAID Unity asset that lets us export Unity camera movements as MP4 videos at up to 4k resolution:

At time of writing, the combined cost of the gallery and camera recording assets is approximately 80 GBP / 100 USD. You may also find FREE 3d assets that will work just fine! Have a look at Sketchfab, CGTrader and TurboSquid, making sure to search for FREE or low-cost assets. The Unity asset store has regular sales so keep an eye out for discounts on the above!

The gallery at the end of this series

Here’s how your gallery could look at the end of the project. Tap an image to view it in a larger window:

If you choose to export a gallery tour as a video file (explainer 7) or to a VR headset (explainer 8), here’s how your gallery could look! The VR section is streamed from a Quest 2 headset:

The pre-requisities

This is an INTERMEDIATE explainer series overall, though the individual image editing and video editing explainers are suitable for beginners.

If you’re new to IT / computing, the explainers in this series relating to UNITY are not likely to be suitable. To get started with 3d software in a beginner-friendly environment, we recommend the free Tinkercad. See makeuseof for a helpful overview of 3d design.

Why would I do this?

Enjoy the calming ambience of the gallery by exploring it in VR! By adding additional free and paid assets to the project, we can export the scene to a Meta headset and explore it at our leisure!

Let’s do it!

Click the play icon to watch this video. Subtitles are available – Click the settings cog at the bottom right for options. You can also watch this video full-screen by clicking the full-screen icon at the bottom right.

Good to know

This is a recap explainer and sequences have been shortened. Unity can take minutes to switch to Android output, and the length of time it takes to build the scene will depend on its complexity. If this is your first time setting up a Unity project to work with VR, we recommend following our dedicated VR explainer series rather than jumping straight in here 🙂

In this explainer we use a PAID Unity asset -The ‘Virtual Reality Interaction Framework‘ (VRIF). This includes a character controller designed for VR (so our virtual visitor can literally jump into the VR gallery scene and start moving around). We used this asset in the dedicated VR explainer series to create grabbable objects to interact with:

Ensure you make a backup of your existing Unity project before importing VRIF – You will be warned about this during the installation process. When switching over to Android output, Unity may need to be restarted – This is normal.

Where to next?

This is the final part of this explainer series. We’ve successfully added visual assets to a 3d gallery, exported a tour to an mp4 file and exported the gallery scene to a VR headset.

VRIF supports numerous interactions in VR – See their promotional video above. Apart from adding 3d objects to pick up and examine, you could go on to add slopes, platforms or ladders to the gallery to take the interactivity to the next level!

Thanks for joining us. We wish you well with your Unity and VR journeys!

Remember, this is part of a series of explainers – Join us for the other explainers in the series 🙂

Notes and updates

There are no notes or advisories at this time. This video explainer was last updated in June 2022. This page was last updated in September 2023.

We at pixels.cool are not responsible for the content of any external webpages or software downloaded from third party sites. Links are included in good faith at the time of writing. All explainer content is compiled in good faith using processes and methods used by the team. Modern software offers users many ways to accomplish a single task, and for reasons of clarity we choose not to refer to multiple options. All computer users should run up to date virus / security software at all times to minimise risks of data loss.