Spinning Up in VR — Part 9: A curated list of VR resources
Hi, welcome to Spinning Up in VR! I am Manorama and this is the ninth of a 9-part tutorial on Virtual Reality (VR) for beginners.
In the previous parts, I had talked about the theory and practice of VR and highlighted the opportunities and challenges. In this chapter, I will present a curated list of VR resources. If you are interested in reading the previous or the next chapters, the links are at the bottom of this article.
Table of Contents
- Courses
- Softwares
- Hardware
- Few demonstrative Videos
- Few Development Resources
- Papers
- Conferences
***Courses***
COURSERA
- Unity XR Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/unity-xr]
- Unity Certified Programmer Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/unity-certified-programmer]
- Virtual Reality Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/virtual-reality]
- Unity Gameplay Programmer Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/unity-gameplay-programmer]
- Unity 3D artist Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/unity-3d-artist]
- C# Programming for Unity Game Development Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/programming-unity-game-development]
- Game Design and Development Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/game-development]
UDACITY
- Human Computer Interaction [https://classroom.udacity.com/courses/ud400]
- Introduction to Virtual Reality [https://in.udacity.com/course/introduction-to-virtual-reality--ud1012]
- VR Software Development [https://in.udacity.com/course/vr-software-development--ud1014]
EDX
- Creating Virtual Reality (VR) Apps [https://www.edx.org/course/creating-virtual-reality-vr-apps]
- How Virtual Reality Works [https://www.edx.org/course/how-virtual-reality-works]
- Computer Graphics [https://www.edx.org/course/computer-graphics]
- Models in Architecture — design through physical & digital models [https://www.edx.org/course/models-architecture-design-through-delftx-spatial101x-0]
- Design Thinking: UX and Advanced Topics [https://www.edx.org/course/design-thinking-advanced-topics]
UNIVERSITY COURSES
- Standford University EE267: Virtual Reality [https://stanford.edu/class/ee267/]
- NPTEL IIT Madras [https://nptel.ac.in/courses/106106138/]
Few Courses to get into applications of Virtual Reality
- Deep Learning in Computer Vision [https://www.coursera.org/learn/deep-learning-in-computer-vision]
- Machine Learning [https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning]
- Welcome to Game Theory [https://www.coursera.org/learn/game-theory-introduction]
- Robotics: Perception [https://www.coursera.org/learn/robotics-perception]
- Image and Video Processing: From Mars to Hollywood with a Stop at the Hospital [https://www.coursera.org/learn/image-processing]
- Internet of Things: Multimedia Technologies [https://www.coursera.org/learn/internet-of-things-multimedia]
- Computational Neuroscience [https://www.coursera.org/learn/computational-neuroscience]
- Medical Neuroscience [https://www.coursera.org/learn/medical-neuroscience]
- Practical Reinforcement Learning [https://www.coursera.org/learn/practical-rl]
- Interactive Computer Graphics [https://www.coursera.org/learn/interactive-computer-graphics]
- Collaborative Robot Safety: Design & Deployment [https://www.coursera.org/learn/collaborative-robot-safety]
- Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/modernrobotics]
- Robotics Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/robotics]
- Advanced Machine Learning Specialization [https://www.coursera.org/specializations/aml]
***Softwares***
- Unity [https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download]
- Unreal Engine [https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/feed]
- Improbable [https://improbable.io/games]
- Vizard [https://www.worldviz.com/vizard]
***Hardware***
- Oculus Rift [https://www.oculus.com/rift/]
- Oculus Go [https://www.oculus.com/go/]
- Oculus Connect 5 [https://www.oculusconnect.com/]
- HTC Vive [https://www.vive.com/in/]
- Google Cardboard [https://vr.google.com/cardboard/]
- Google DayDream [https://vr.google.com/daydream/]
- Samsung Gear VR [https://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-vr/]
- Steam VR [https://store.steampowered.com/steamvr]
- Sony PlayStation VR [https://www.playstation.com/en-in/explore/playstation-vr/]
***VR in action***
- VR Robotics Simulator [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtYBanxukjg&t=1s]
- VR Robotics Simulator Automotive Welding [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpZOgwvbd0A&t=1s]
- Control The Humanoid Robot Using VR And Haptics [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg2FUohljJY&t=2s]
- VR Robotics Simulator on Steam [https://store.steampowered.com/app/683880/VR_Robotics_Simulator/]
- VR and Language Learning: How VR Can Crack the Language Code [ https://vrscout.com/news/vr-and-language-learning/?fbclid=IwAR2Hu3yb1qwhcSASIhaNAO-mrsjxJJZMkcLzBRO3g-UqzSCgg7VUIXfHrIA]
- How to train a robot with virtual reality (no coding required) [ https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-train-a-robot-with-virtual-reality-no-coding-required/?fbclid=IwAR08xDV1G77H2t8VQuZ42eF_2ES2yTGs_4B4t9E_ezAQ2Lo0Ffv2otMnDcY]
- A VR Eye Test? It’s A Reality, And We’ve Tried It [https://www.vrfocus.com/2018/09/a-vr-eye-test-its-a-reality-and-weve-tried-it/?fbclid=IwAR3hxsBxlO4X5yAOiVA-ddUQDVnMEmCFVGodR5oDUc5sBYm_czEPn0JjvFM]
- VR Helps Amputees Suffering From Phantom Limb Syndrome [ https://vrscout.com/news/vr-helps-amputees-phantom-limb/?fbclid=IwAR0yv9W-qJbnbOc-TJift3KWQ77g5djUeHBi0IOaRKAdr7KheG41ThWrJ38]
- FundamentalVR Launches VR Training Simulator for Surgeons [ https://www.vrfocus.com/2018/08/fundamentalvr-launches-vr-training-simulator-for-surgeons/?fbclid=IwAR3cTe43ZvyijcjmImwgJhWM_v-HJgWY9KHTw6q03VGJfOVRtMsqK4KUVw4]
- Microsoft’s AltSpaceVR lets you build a virtual hangout [ https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/10/altspacevr-microsoft-virtual-world-building/?fbclid=IwAR3shu7SHgE9kEHsQBWDj_WjqcDGgKc8Tkw2aQ7LAkpTBNN04Chhy6pyIQk]
- How You Can Explore Nefertari’s Tomb in Hyper-Realistic VR | NVIDIA Blog [ https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2018/10/31/explore-nefertaris-tomb-vr-virtual-reality/?fbclid=IwAR2kYjgcF9f9xllZykgY7oTe-pGcAvhSM_n4O0AVUZNvG6xko9b8GO7IrI4]
***Development Platforms***
Game Engine official Tutorials
Unreal Engine
Unity
Free 3D Assests
- Google Poly [https://poly.google.com/]
- Turbosquid [https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models/free]
- CGTrader [https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models]
- Free3d [https://free3d.com/3d-models/]
- Archive3D [https://archive3d.net/]
- Sketchfab [https://sketchfab.com/features/download]
- Clara.io [https://clara.io/library]
- Unity AssetsStore [https://assetstore.unity.com/lists/top-free-3d-models-5063]
- 3DModelFree [http://www.3dmodelfree.com/]
***Papers***
- Baxter’s Homunculus: Virtual Reality Spaces for Teleoperation in Manufacturing [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.01270.pdf]
- Deep Imitation Learning for Complex Manipulation Tasks from Virtual Reality Teleoperation [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.04615.pdf]
- Investigating the Effects of Anthropomorphic Fidelity of Self-Avatars on Near Field Depth Perception in Immersive Virtual Environments [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8446539]
- Simulating Movement Interactions Between Avatars & Agents in Virtual Worlds Using Human Motion Constraints [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8446152]
***Conferences***
- ACM SIGCHI
- ACM SIGGRAPH
- The ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST)
- Vision VR/AR Summit by Unity
- WWDC by Apple
- Gamescom
- VR/AR Global Summit
- IMMERSED
- VRX
- IEEEVR
- GDC/VRDC
- F8
- VRLA
- Google I/O
- VR World
- SXSW
- World VR Forum
- Augmented World Expo (AWE) USA
- VRTO — Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo
- Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories (FIVARS)
- Virtual Reality Summit
***Facebook resources for latest updates in VR***
Facebook Groups
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/virtualrealitys/?ref=bookmarks
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/ue4devs/?ref=bookmarks
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/U3DTechnologies/?ref=br_rs
Facebook Pages
I will keep this list up to date with the latest and greatest in VR. You can also find this on Github. If you want to contribute, please feel free to send a Pull Request.
Thank you for your time! Hope you enjoyed the series. I will be releasing a follow up tutorial on hands-on VR game development very soon. Please feel free to leave your comments below for feedback. So stay tuned. You can find me on Twitter(@mnrmja007), Facebook(@mnrmja007) and Medium(Manorama Jha).