Tutorials

[TU-001] Simplifying VR: MiddleVR for Unity

Instructor: Sébastien Kuntz, " i'm in VR " - The Virtual Reality Company

Length: Half Day (Saturday afternoon)

Abstract:

This tutorial will provide an introduction to Unity (http://www.unity3D.com) (2h) and an introduction to MiddleVR, a virtual reality plugin for Unity (http://www.imin-vr.com/middlevr-for-unity) (2h).

Unity is a feature rich, fully integrated development engine for the creation of interactive 3D content. It provides complete, out-of-the-box functionality to assemble high-quality, high-performing content and publish to multiple platforms. Unity helps indie developers and designers, small and major studios, multinational corporations, students and hobbyists to drastically reduce the time, effort and cost of making games.

[TU-002] All About Avatars, and Why They Are Important

Instructor: Dr. Jacquelyn Ford Morie, University of Southern California  

Length: Half Day (Sunday morning)

Abstract

We navigate virtual worlds (VWs) with an embodied form called an avatar. Many VWs allow for extensive avatar personalization. This raises questions about the effect avatar use has on people inhabiting them, and also how the psychological affordances of avatars can be leveraged to make more meaningful and useful VWs. This tutorial covers history, form and functions of avatars in a range of VWs, including recent research about avatar use. Participants in this session will also be able to contribute to the development of an avatar investment metric being designed for use in future studies about avatars and VWs.

[TU-003] Virtual Reality Technology – An Introduction

Instructor: Prof. Grigore (Greg) Burdea, Rutgers University

Length: Half Day (Sunday afternoon)

Abstract

The tutorial outline is based on the book published by the Instructor, but with updated materials. The topics covered in this tutorial are: 1) Input Devices (Trackers, Navigation, and Gesture Interfaces); 2) Output Devices (Graphics, Three-Dimensional Sound, Haptic and Olfactory Displays);  3) Computing Architectures for VR (graphics and haptics pipelines, Mobile, Game Console, PC and Workstation-based architectures, parallel and distributed systems); 4) Modeling (geometric, kinematics, physical, behavior, model management); 5) VR Programming (Scene graph, Unity 3D, GHOST, PeopleShop, 3DGame Studio); 6) Human Factors in VR (multimodal evaluations, sensorial illusions, cybersickness); and 7) VR Applications (medical, education/entertainment, military, manufacturing, robotics, visualization).

The tutorial in intended for those new to the field of VR/VE, although others may benefit as well.