Deconstructing Google Cardboard Apps

211 Pages·2015·12.61 MB·English

by  Michael Vaissiere

Deconstructing Google Cardboard
Apps
By: Michael Vaissiere, Mike Pasamonik, Oleksandr Popov and
Peter Bickhofe
Deconstructing Google Cardboard Apps
Copyright (c) 2015 Bleeding Edge Press All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of
the publisher.

This book expresses the authors’ views and opinions. The information contained in this book is
provided without any express, statutory, or implied warranties. Neither the authors, Bleeding Edge
Press, nor its resellers, or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be
caused either directly or indirectly by this book.

ISBN 9781939902245
Published by: Bleeding Edge Press, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Title: Deconstructing Google Cardboard Apps Authors: Michael Vaissiere, Mike Pasamonik,
Oleksandr Popov, and Peter Bickhofe Editor: Troy Mott Copy Editor: Christina Rudloff Cover
Design: ZoranFiver Website: bleedingedgepress.com
Preface
Introducing Google Cardboard
Google Cardboard is one of the most accessible ways to experience
virtual reality today, and has been called virtual reality’s “gateway drug.”
Its ease of use and affordability, coupled with the fact that it works with
phones means that almost anyone can now be transported into virtual
worlds. The platform was updated at this year’s Google I/O and was
extended to iPhones, with many companies on board including YouTube
and GoPro. Even educators can now take entire classrooms on virtual
field trips anywhere in the world with the new Expeditions initiative.
This means that Google Cardboard is an exciting platform for
developers, and this book will introduce developers to this new market
utilizing both the Cardboard Android SDK and the Cardboard Unity SDK.
From creating the ambiance and immersion of a virtual landscape, to
using a smartphone camera to layer worlds with different filters, capturing
and controlling speech, optimizing graphics, and even promoting your
app in the Google Play store, this book will provide developers with
everything they need to successfully build Google Cardboard
applications.
What should you know prior to reading this book?
This book is aimed at mobile developers with Unity3D experience. The
following level of knowledge is helpful to get the most out of this book:
3D Authoring--you should know what mesh and a vertex are and
have already played around with a tool like Blender, Sketches, or
something similar.
Unity--you should have completed the basic tutorials and know how
to build the sample scenes from Unity. You should know what a
Prefab and a Shader are. You should know how to send an
application to your phone.
Android--you should know what an apk is and know how to debug
with adb.
Source code
For this book, you can download the source code
at: https://github.com/backstopmedia/cardboard_book.

Authors
Michael Vaissiere
Michael Vaissier (aka Ryan Conrad in VR) has been working in IT for
the past fifteen years, as a developer, enterprise architect, and a project
manager. He is an indie developer creating Google Cardboard apps,
creating the popular Alien Apartment VR. He loves crafting worlds, music,
and stories and is passionate about science and astronomy.
Mike Pasamonik
Mike Pasamonik is the creator of Glitcher VR. He is a computer
science graduate student and a full time software engineer at San Diego
State University’s Language Acquisition Resource Center, where his
duties include writing and maintaining web and mobile applications. His
primary area of study and interests are in artificial intelligence, computer
vision, robotics, and VR.
Oleksandr Popov and Dymtro Popov
Oleksandr Popov and Dmytro Popov are the creators of Lanterns and
Villages VR among many other applications. Dmytro is a 3D artist at
Villages VR among many other applications. Dmytro is a 3D artist at
Axiomworks, Inc. and a software developer at ELEKS Software. He is
interested in creating more friendly and playful web design, Web 2.0,
JavaScript programming, and cross-platform HTML-based mobile
applications. Oleksandr is a PM, Developer at ELEKS Software.
Peter Bickhofe
Peter Bickhofe is the creator of WAA! When Asteroids Attack! He is a
Game Developer, and is interested in Unity3D, VR, Location Based
Gaming, and is the CEO of HighscoreBrothers.
Technical Reviewers
Raka Mahesa is a game programmer for Chocoarts
(http://chocoarts.com/), a small game studio that creates games for
mobile and PC. He is responsible for building new technology for the
games that the studio is working on, whether it’s networking, creating a
map editor, or even integrating VR. He also creates his own personal
games in his spare time and is currently interested in VR since he
believes it will play a big role in the future.
Scott Harber has been in the video game industry for almost 12 years,
serving as a Technical Artist on titles such as Burnout 3, Need for Speed
Hot Pursuit, and Battlefield Hardline. In 2014, he became an indie
developer, where he worked on games for mobile, PC, Mac, and Wii U.
During that time, he developed an interest in VR, releasing a PC game
with Oculus Rift support, and also releasing a Google Cardboard app.
Regarding the latter, he was the first Unity developer to publicly share re-
usable code to reliably support Cardboard’s magnet button. To this day,
multiple apps on the Play Store still run with this code. The app was later
featured by Google, following an integration of the Cardboard SDK. In
late 2014, he ceased indie development and returned to the games
industry.
Casey Borders is professional developer with over 10 years of
experience and has spent almost his entire career focusing on real-time,
interactive 3D applications or mobile development.
Raul and Eduardo Acosta specialize in the creation and optimization
of immersive environments and graphics for virtual reality and AR for a
wide range of devices at Raiz (http://raiznewmedia.com/). They love to
move and create graphics, experiments and exploring new ways in
design environments for the incoming Virtual Reality.
Chapter 1. A VR Introduction
By Michael Vaissiere
I decided to buy Google Cardboard last winter because I already had
fun with some 360 video applications (long before YouTube support) and
thought it ought to be even more fun to add some depth into this thing.
Doing it myself? Well...you have to buy the lenses anyway! So, I decided
to be lazy. The day the package was shipped, I opened it, built it (five
minutes), downloaded the official Google Cardboard application, inserted
the phone, and...it was not working until I figured out that the NFC tag
had to be there for some reason (at that time the application kept looping
a video until the tag gave the NFC detection). Then, I turned on the NFC
and inserted the phone again.
The WOW! effect
This is something you will hear from many people. The first time you
gaze inside of the cardboard you roar a true “WOW!” I think it is mainly
because of the surprise. At least it was for me. I was so far from
expecting that two cheap lenses and a few gyroscopes would really bring
the world of VR into my house. But it did. You see depth. You see things
in the direction you look at. As unexpected as it is truly VR, people say
“WOW!”.
The “Huh” effect
And then, a quarter of an hour passed. A quarter during which I tested
3D videos in YouTube, watched “Windy day” twice, and looked for a few
places in Google Earth. Then I said to myself, “Okay, that’s cool but
looking is not enough! I want to explore, I want to interact and I want to
move just like I do in real life!” So, here I am, thinking that the Google
Cardboard official application is probably just a demonstrator, that the
Cardboard official application is probably just a demonstrator, that the
thing is so cool and that there must be plenty of content in the Play Store,
but to my surprise, there was not. What’s even worse is that after
downloading all of the VR applications that seemed to have potential, I
quickly came to the conclusion that none of them would ever let me
move, or at least not without a Bluetooth controller.
So, after one hour of disappointment, I started to turn over my shelves
in order to find my Bluetooth keyboard in the hope of meeting my initial
expectations. Then things ended up with that “huh” effect. Virtually
walking with a controller while really moving my head around was
disorienting. How could it be that VR was so hopeless?
Then, I thought about something: while it is true that our head is not as
agile as our hands and that our legs are the best way to walk, it is also
true that we use our head to trigger events in our daily life such as
nodding a yes or a no. So why not use it to walk? Well, I tried (along with
other methods) and it proved to be quite good. The concept even stood
up against people rating it on the Play store. Except for the “gamepad
guys"” who kept saying that VR applications must support gamepads. So,
in the end, I found a means to support both methods (more on that later
on).
But what closes the loop here? The apartment. This place that I
created to serve the purpose of testing my head-based control began to
become nice. I mean very nice. I started to receive mail from players
saying that the music was so nice and the place so comfortable that they
were using it to relax themselves in the evening after a day of labor (we
will try to analyze why in the subsequent chapters). On top of that, the
Play store was stunningly devoid of VR applications. Imagine a place
known by billions of people with just a small bunch of VR applications.
Hence, the chances were good to get a pretty decent number of
downloads in that category. And I was right; Alien Apartment reached
several thousands of downloads in a few weeks. Although this does not
compare with “Flappy Bird”, this is pretty descent. And Google continues
to promote the platform.
Why develop for Google Cardboard?
I became part of this adventure more by accident than design. But, that
did not prevent me from taking great pleasure in doing so--the same
pleasure I have with music. Developing for VR is not just making games,
it’s crafting worlds. Just like you can master a music track, listen to it and
appreciate your work (or not), you can craft your world and go and have
feelings inside of it. It’s like Minecraft to the power of ten. That led me to
think about the market and what kind of opportunities could lie ahead.
Insights on the VR market
Let’s consider that you purchased this book and that you also have
experience developing with both Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard.
Criteria Oculus VR Google Cardboard What we can say
It’s not totally
clear, but official
announcements During the last quarter of 2014, almost
Something like a
hinted at a $500 400 million smartphones and around
Nexus 5 ($300) and a
Cost price tag for the 80 million PCs where shipped. This
headset (from $5 to
headset requiring should help you draw your own
around $100)
a thousand dollar conclusion in terms of market size.
PC to run
smoothly.
The final
Middle-end: lower
specifications are If you are in the process of developing
resolution, lower
Quality not known, but a block buster with state-of-the-art
power and screens
they are high- graphics you bought the wrong book.
are not VR specific.
end. Definitely.
Yes, while it’s true you’ll get far more
FPS and polygons out of an Oculus,
it’s also true that we live in a time
Almost unlimited Almost unlimited when people love those retro pixilated
Experience
potential. potential. games provided that it’s fun and the
music is good. And that’s even more
true for VR. You know it, and that’s
why you bought the right book!
Great! And to me it’s
Essentially
almost certain that
because of the It’s totally subjective but my gut feeling