No Headset No Problems How to use VRTK Unity Plugin for VR Development without a Headset
Oct 22, 2020
Are you looking to start VR development but feel lost because you don’t have a headset? In this tutorial, I’m gonna work you through a technique that makes it possible to build VR content and test them without the need for a headset. The aim of this article is to introduc vrtk plugin through simple explanatiuons and to detail the steps required to set it up on your own development machine.
Before we begin, Let’s take a better look briefly at what VRTK is and how it aims to simplify building VR functionalities along also enabling Developers without a Proper VR Kit have a chance at Building for VR.
What is VRTK
VRTK is a collection of useful, reusable solutions to common problems found when building for virtual reality. VRTK aims to help productivity by speeding up the creation process from prototyping ideas to building complete solutions.
From this definition, we can see that this helpul tool can be applied for other use-cases and not just for testing during development process, later in this article, we would breifly cover the main use-cases so you can understand better - what can and can’t be done.
How can it be Used?
The VRTK Unity Plugin brings a whole lot of functionalities in a Drag-and-Drop System. It allows compatibility with a set of popular VR SDks like Oculus Plugin, Steam VR Plugin and even for Open VR. The full list of Compatible Unity VR Plugins with VRTK and their Uses are listed below;
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Oculus XR Plugin -
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Steam VR Plugin -
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Open VR -
Install and set up VRTK as a Unity Project
- Download the zip file of the Unity project that contains the VRTK plugin here.
- Extract the file to an easily accessible folder on your computer.
- Open up Unity Hub and select Add, then locate the extracted VRTK folder and finally open it up.
- Before you can use the tool feature, you have to edit the project settings by setting it up for VR; to do that Go to Edit, Project settings, Player, Under XR Settings - Check VR reality supported and Under Other settings Make sure that API Compatibility Level is set to .NET 4
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In the Projects tab, open the folders in this order, Assets,Samples,Farm,Scene - In the Scene folder, Click ExampleScene and open it.
- In the the Game view press play. After about 10 seconds, you can see a farmlike environments and experience it in 360. This process can make development work very easy for you even without a headset. Although, you would need to take a few minutes to learn how the control works, but once u’ve mastered it, this tool can be very effective for testing your virtual reality prototypes.
Let’s look at some other features of VRTK that males it such an important VR Dev tool for every developer.