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SteamVR Unity Plugin

The SteamVR Unity Plugin provides functionality for rendering VR controllers, handling input from VR controllers, and accessing skeletal hand tracking data. It includes sample scenes demonstrating simple VR interactions using tracked controllers, as well as more advanced examples that incorporate object picking up, throwing, and animated hand models. Developers can use components like SteamVR_RenderModel to display controller models and SteamVR_Behaviour_Skeleton to apply skeletal tracking data to animated hand models. The plugin also introduces the SteamVR Input system for simplifying input handling across different controller types through action bindings.

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Lachlan Sleight
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198 views5 pages

SteamVR Unity Plugin

The SteamVR Unity Plugin provides functionality for rendering VR controllers, handling input from VR controllers, and accessing skeletal hand tracking data. It includes sample scenes demonstrating simple VR interactions using tracked controllers, as well as more advanced examples that incorporate object picking up, throwing, and animated hand models. Developers can use components like SteamVR_RenderModel to display controller models and SteamVR_Behaviour_Skeleton to apply skeletal tracking data to animated hand models. The plugin also introduces the SteamVR Input system for simplifying input handling across different controller types through action bindings.

Uploaded by

Lachlan Sleight
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SteamVR Unity Plugin

Render Models
Button Input
Skeleton Input
Interaction System

For the most simple example of VR with tracked controllers see the sample
scene at ​SteamVR/Simple Sample​. For a more extensive example including
picking up, throwing objects, and animated hands see the Interaction System
example at ​SteamVR/Interaction System/Samples/Interactions_Example​.

Render Models
SteamVR works with a wide array of headsets and controllers. When you
have a tracked device in VR it’s nice to have an accurate visualization of that
device. Instead of shipping each individual model and texture for each controller
with each application, SteamVR can manage this for you. We include a
SteamVR_RenderModel ​component that you can put on a gameobject that will
auto load whatever device SteamVR detects for a given Pose. Put a
SteamVR_Behaviour_Pose ​on a gameobject to get the position and rotation of a
controller and then a SteamVR_RenderModel to show the 3d model for that
controller that will animate with button presses. See the simple sample scene or the
SteamVR/Prefabs/CameraRig​ prefab for an example.

Input
Since SteamVR works with so many different input devices we’ve simplified
the process of accommodating all these devices. Instead of referencing the
individual buttons on one controller, with SteamVR Input you reference an action.
This is part of Valve’s implementation of the OpenXR standard. When you want the
user to pick something up, instead of watching the trigger of a vive wand to be
depressed to a value of 0.7 or the grip of an Oculus Touch controller to be
depressed to a value of 0.6 you just wait until your “Grab” action gets set to true.
As a developer you can setup default buttons and thresholds for your Grab action in
SteamVR. Then when users get to run your application they can change those
values to suit their preferences. This also helps you support future input devices
that haven’t been released without requiring you to write additional code or submit
updates.

As an example, this is how it worked before SteamVR Input:


This is how it works now:

For a more in depth tutorial on this system check out the SteamVR Input guide
included with this plugin (SteamVR Input.pdf) or this tutorial online:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1416820276

Skeleton Input
With the Knuckles EV2 release Valve has released a system to get skeletal
hand data independent from the controller you’re using. Some controllers have a
high fidelity for hand tracking data with individual joints, some controllers only have
buttons that we use to approximate joint data. We use whatever is available and
give you two major sets of data:

With Controller: Our best approximation of where the joints in your hand are
wrapped around your controller in the real world.
Without Controller: Based on the With Controller data we estimate how open
or closed your hand is as if you were trying to hold your hand flat or make a
fist.

Included in this plugin are example models of gloves that you can freely use in your
products. In addition we have a helper component that takes the data from
SteamVR and applies it to these gloves: ​SteamVR_Behaviour_Skeleton.​ ​ For an
example of this in action see the Interaction System sample scene.

Interaction System
After Valve released The Lab we took the learnings from that project and
created an Interaction System that others could use in their own projects. This
system has been updated since then to use SteamVR Input and the new SteamVR
Skeleton Input systems. This system can serve as an example of how to use the
these new systems. It includes the following examples:

Interaction with Unity UI elements


Pickup, Drop, and Throw
Multiple variations on throwing velocities
Bow and Arrow
Wheel interactions
Simple buttons
Variety of Skeleton Input examples
Teleporting
Using held objects
SteamVR Input

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