2023 Unity VR Basics - Teleportation

Summary

This video script offers a comprehensive guide to implementing teleportation in VR using Unity's XR Interaction Toolkit. It covers setting up a teleportation provider, interactor, and anchor or area. The tutorial explains how to customize teleportation with delay times, interaction layers, and reticle colors. It also details configuring the XR controller for input actions, managing interaction groups to avoid conflicts, and enabling smooth or snap turns for user comfort. The script concludes with a fully functional teleportation system that complements continuous movement and object interaction.

Takeaways

• 🚀 The script discusses implementing teleportation in VR, focusing on the components needed for a functional teleportation system.
• 🛠️ A 'teleportation provider' is essential for setting up teleportation, which can be added to a Locomotion system.
• ⏱️ The teleportation provider includes a 'delay time' feature to add a delay before teleportation, enhancing user comfort.
• 🔭 The 'teleportation interactor' is responsible for the interaction with the environment, shooting out a ray to indicate the teleportation target.
• 🎯 The 'teleportation anchor' or 'teleportation area' are destinations where users can teleport to within the VR environment.
• 🎨 Customization options are available for the teleportation interactor, including colors for valid and invalid targets, and the reticle design.
• 🔧 The script guides on how to fix issues like setting the correct interaction layer for teleportation in the XR Interaction Manager.
• 🧩 The importance of adding an XR controller to the interactor for independent control over select actions is highlighted.
• 🔄 The script explains how to set up a teleportation area to allow for area-based teleportation, rather than just point-to-point.
• 🎮 The process of customizing input actions for the right hand controller to control teleportation is detailed, including the use of thumbsticks.
• 🔄 The video concludes with a demonstration of a fully functional teleportation system integrated with continuous movement and object interaction.

Q & A

What are the main components required to implement teleportation in VR?

The main components required for teleportation in VR include a teleportation provider, a teleportation interactor, and a teleportation area or anchor.

How does the teleportation provider work in the VR system?

The teleportation provider is added to the Locomotion system and handles the logic for when and how teleportation is activated, including a delay time before teleportation occurs.

What is the purpose of the delay time in the teleportation provider?

The delay time in the teleportation provider is used to add a brief wait period after teleportation is activated, which can be used to add visual effects like a vignette for user comfort.

How is the teleportation interactor different from other interactors?

The teleportation interactor is responsible for interacting with the world to perform the teleport action, typically using a ray that shoots out from the controller to select the teleportation target.

Why is the interaction layer mask important for the teleportation interactor?

The interaction layer mask, specifically set to 'teleport', is crucial for the teleportation interactor to correctly identify valid targets for teleportation within the VR environment.

What is a teleportation anchor and how does it differ from a teleportation area?

A teleportation anchor is a specific point in the VR environment that users can teleport to, whereas a teleportation area allows users to teleport anywhere within a defined space.

How can users customize the orientation upon teleporting to a location?

Users can customize the orientation upon teleporting by adjusting the 'Match Orientation' setting on the teleportation anchor, which determines the facing direction based on the anchor's axis.

What is the role of the XR controller in the teleportation interactor?

The XR controller on the teleportation interactor is used to capture input data from the user's VR controller, allowing for actions like selecting a teleportation target.

How can the teleportation interactor be customized to use different input actions?

The teleportation interactor can be customized to use different input actions by assigning specific actions like 'teleport select' to the select action and select action value fields within the XR controller component.

What is the purpose of the XR interaction group in the context of teleportation?

The XR interaction group is used to manage and prioritize different interaction types, such as teleportation, direct interaction, and poking, ensuring that they do not conflict with each other.

How does the action-based controller manager tie together the teleportation system?

The action-based controller manager ties together the teleportation system by assigning specific actions to the right hand controller, allowing for smooth transitions between different locomotion modes like continuous movement, teleportation, and snap turns.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Setting Up Teleportation in VR

The paragraph discusses the process of implementing teleportation in a VR project, highlighting the need for a teleportation provider, interactor, and an area to teleport to, such as a teleportation anchor or area. The teleportation provider is added to the Locomotion system, and a delay time can be adjusted for comfort. The interactor, which shoots a ray for interaction, is set up using a prefab from the XR Interaction Toolkit. The paragraph also covers the creation of a teleport layer in the XR Interaction Manager and the customization of the teleportation interactor, including the reticle and colors for valid and invalid targets.

05:02

🛠️ Customizing Teleportation Controls and Area

This section delves into enhancing the teleportation controls by modifying the select action and adding an XR controller to the interactor. It details the process of setting up the teleportation area, ensuring it's on the correct layer and can be customized for orientation matching. The paragraph also addresses the removal of unnecessary model prefabs and the setup of an XR interaction group for the right hand controller to manage interactions without overlap. Finally, it explains the addition of an action-based controller manager to tie all components together, allowing for smooth teleportation and rotation using the thumbstick.

10:03

🎮 Finalizing Teleportation and Locomotion Integration

The final paragraph covers the activation of both continuous and snap turn providers in the Locomotion system, enabling smooth and snap turning options. It also discusses the setup of the turn system to allow for either smooth or snap turns, with a preference for snap turns as demonstrated. The video concludes with a demonstration of the fully functional teleportation system, where the user can snap turn, rotate the reticle with the thumbstick, and teleport to the selected location. The paragraph ends with an acknowledgment of Patreon subscribers and a sign-off, promising more content in the future.

Keywords

💡Teleportation

Teleportation in the context of the video refers to a method of virtual reality (VR) locomotion where a user instantly moves from one location to another within the virtual environment. This is a key concept as it is the primary focus of the tutorial, with the script detailing how to implement teleportation in a VR project. The video discusses various components needed for teleportation, such as a teleportation provider and interactor.

💡Locomotion System

The Locomotion System is a core component in VR development that handles how users move and navigate within a virtual environment. In the script, it is mentioned as the place where the continuous move provider and teleportation provider are added, indicating its role in managing different movement mechanics in VR.

💡Teleportation Provider

A teleportation provider is a component in the VR system that facilitates the teleportation mechanic. The script explains how to add this provider to the Locomotion System and configure it, including setting a delay time that can be used to enhance user comfort during teleportation.

💡Teleportation Interactor

The Teleportation Interactor is an element that interacts with the virtual world to enable teleportation. It is described in the script as a 'Ray' that shoots out from the controller, allowing the user to select a point to teleport to. The video also covers how to customize this interactor to work with the right hand controller.

💡Teleportation Anchor

A Teleportation Anchor, as mentioned in the script, is a specific point in the VR environment that users can teleport to. The video explains how to set up this anchor using a prefab from the XR Interaction Toolkit, which is a pre-made component that simplifies the development process.

💡Teleportation Area

In contrast to a single anchor point, a Teleportation Area allows users to teleport anywhere within a defined region. The script describes how to create a custom teleportation area by adding a component to a plane in the scene, making the entire surface teleportable.

💡Interaction Layer Mask

The Interaction Layer Mask is a setting that determines which objects in the VR environment can be interacted with by the user. The script highlights the need to create and assign a specific layer mask called 'teleport' for the teleportation interactor to function correctly.

💡XR Interaction Manager

The XR Interaction Manager is a tool used to manage various interaction layers and settings in a VR project. The video script describes how to use this manager to fix issues with the interaction layer and to set up the teleportation layer mask.

💡Reticle

A Reticle in VR is a visual indicator that appears where the user is looking or pointing, often used for aiming or selection. The script explains how to customize the reticle's appearance and behavior, such as changing it when a valid or invalid target is selected.

💡XR Controller

An XR Controller is a device used to interact with a VR environment. The script discusses adding an XR controller component to the teleportation interactor to customize input actions, such as changing the select action from the grip button to a thumbstick input.

💡XR Interaction Group

The XR Interaction Group is a component that manages the interaction priorities between different interactors on the same controller. The video script describes how to set up an interaction group for the right hand controller to ensure that the teleportation interactor does not conflict with other interactors.

Highlights

Introduction to teleportation as a method of movement in VR.

Requirement of a teleportation provider, interactor, and an area for teleportation.

Adding a teleportation provider to the Locomotion system.

Explanation of delay time in teleportation for comfort.

Selection of the right hand for the teleportation interactor.

Use of a prefab for the teleport interactor.

Customization of the interaction layer mask for teleportation.

Fixing the interaction layer in project settings for teleportation.

Customization options for teleportation colors and reticle.

Introduction of the teleportation area and its setup.

Customizing the teleportation area to match user orientation.

Testing the teleportation system in the scene.

Improving controls by changing select action for teleportation.

Adding an XR controller to the interactor for better input handling.

Setting up the XR interaction group for the right hand controller.

Adding an action-based controller manager to tie all interactions together.

Enabling smooth motion or snap turn options for user preference.

Final testing and demonstration of the complete teleportation system.

Acknowledgment of Patreon subscribers for their support.

Transcripts

besides continuous movement the only

other real way to move in VR is

teleportation well I guess there's grab

move but we're not talking about that

today today we're talking about how to

teleport so let's get in it now to get

teleportation to work out our project

we're going to need a few things we're

going to need a teleportation provider a

teleportation interactor and then

finally an area that we can teleport to

such as the teleportation anchor or well

teleportation area which would be like

this plane so let's kick things off and

get a teleportation provider in to do

that I'm going to throw it on our

Locomotion system here and if you

remember this is where I put the move

continuous move provider and then we

also have the turn or snap turn

providers here and so I'm just going to

add a component or actually I'm going to

create an empty child and I'm going to

name this teleportation provider

and then we just add component

and of course it's asking for a

Locomotion system which I can just drag

that here and then we also have this

delay time and you can play with this if

you want this will just add a delay once

teleportation is activated essentially

if you activate your teleportation it'll

wait a second or two before it actually

teleports you and you can use that to

add in a vignette for Comfort but eh I

think it's fine without it now next up

is going to be our teleportation inner

actor and so this is what's going to

interact with the world and teleport

it's going to be that Ray that shoots

out so if we expand out here I think

it's more natural to have it on the

right hand and so we could customize

this Ray that we already have in the

scene I actually found out that there is

a prefab that we can use so if we go

into samples XR interaction toolkit and

then go to prefabs and interactors you

can find this teleport interactor so we

just drag that onto the right hand

controller and it should be set up for

us for the most part one goofy thing

that's not done here is if you look here

it should work on an interaction layer

mask called teleport but we don't have

that and it's kind of funny because you

think that they would just add that in

considering well we're doing the XR

interaction toolkit it should just add

that layer but regardless I'm going to

go ahead and drag in the XR interaction

manager here

let me show you what I'm talking about

when I talk about the teleport layer

needs to be there so if we go to Project

settings and come to project validation

this is where you can find errors pop up

and it's saying right here that the

interaction layer 31 should be set to

teleport for teleportation Locomotion

why they don't add this in because

teleportation is pretty common I don't

know so I'm just going to click fix and

then if we came over here went to add

layer you can see here it added user

layer 31 teleport so I'm going to come

back here and you can see it's already

set itself to that so there you go now

if you wanted to you can also customize

colors and stuff here so this is the

color for when we have a valid Target

invalid Target or something's blocked

you can also change the reticle here so

that's going to be the little thing on

the ground so if I double click this

this is going to appear on the ground

when we have at the very end of our

array and then you can see what it looks

like they also have a blocked one and

it'll look like that and I'll have a

little X now before we can do anything

interesting with this Ray interact

director and the provider we need a

place to teleport to First otherwise

we're just not going to be really able

to interact with anything first let's

start off with the teleportation area

and again you can find a prefab for this

under the xri interaction toolkit so

samples XI interaction toolkit and then

we're going to go into teleport and you

can see here we have a Teleport anchor

and teleport area so I'm going to drop

this anchor into the scene and if I

select it here we can see what we have

we have a teleportation area and that's

about it it's set to the teleport layer

so that's good and then if you wanted to

you can customize how this teleportation

configuration works so match orientation

so based on what we choose here it will

determine how we're going to face when

we teleport to this so right now it's

set to Target up and forward and so it

will use the y axis of this anchor and

then it will use the Z access to

consider what is forward and so when we

teleport to it no matter if we were

teleporting it from this side or this

side once we teleport to this spot it's

always going to be up and forward and

that can be really good if you want to

make sure that your users are going to

maybe have a specific spot and you only

want them to face a certain area and

interact with things let's boot up the

scene and see what we have and yeah now

you can see that I hover over the anchor

and if I press the grip button it'll

teleport me to it so they go it works

there we have it the teleport anchor but

you know we're not really after the

teleport anchor sir you can use it for a

few clutch cases but really you're more

interested in the teleport area in which

we can make this whole area teleportable

and so to do that I'm just going to

select This Plane I'm going to add

component and find teleport area and

since we're not using the prefab here

which well we could but you know I don't

know I like having a custom teleport

area but if we come back to the teleport

area here that's on the plane we just

need to make sure we set this to

teleport and turn off the default there

and now it should be ready now you can

see that when I'm looking around I'm

able to teleport anywhere on the

teleportation area but I can't really

rotate how I teleport and also I still

have to use the grip button which kind

of sucks so let's fix that now in order

to improve our controls we're going to

have to change how the teleport

interactor considers the select action

taking place so currently right now if

we choose this you'll see that it should

be using an XR controller for getting

input data which you can find on the

parent the right hand controller right

here so it's using this and it's saying

oh yeah the select action value is going

to be well the select input which is the

grip button so that's how it's choosing

that but if we want it to have its own

way of doing that then we're going to

have to put an XR controller on the

interactor itself so if we go to add

component XR controller

and you'll see we've put one here and

you know what I do want it to be mostly

based off the right hand controller so I

am going to come back over here I'm

going to select up here and the right

controller default and then we'll just

customize some things so again how this

normally works is it will just go to the

default parent Whoever has the XR

controller but since this has one

directly on it now it's going to default

to this one now the things we need to

customize here we aren't really using

any position rotation anything we're not

really using any of these so we're gonna

go ahead and Mark these off and then for

this the select action and select action

value what we need is the teleport

action and so this is going to be right

here teleport select so I'm going to

choose that for that and then also I'm

going to also choose the same teleport

select and make sure it's the right hand

teleport select and if I double click

this you can see this in the input

actions what this is I'm going to expand

this out and you can see right here for

the teleport select it takes a value and

then coming over here it's using the

primary 2D axis so it is just kind of

using that thumbstick that's how we

select is once we push forward and

release we have selected now another

problem that you'll find here is when

since we've added an XR controller for

some reason by default it loves throwing

in a model prefab here which we don't

need we're going to go ahead and get rid

of that otherwise it's just going to

double spawn some controllers on us and

we also want to change our teleportation

area and make sure that it's going to

match the orientation so if we check

that then we'll be able to use the

thumbstick to rotate the reticle left or

right and so we'll face a certain

direction once we teleport and if you

watched my previous video on XR

interaction groups I added one to our

left hand but we're going to have to add

one to the right hand now since we have

all these different interactors and we

need to decide who is going to be in

charge so they're not overlapping each

other and you can see the one for from

the left hand that I have here but

that's not important we're not playing

with that that was last video this one

we need to add it to our right hand

controller so we're going to start by

adding an XR interaction group

okay and then I'm going to hit the plus

sign a few times and let's see here

right now I only have three active ones

I do have the rate interactor but I

don't want to play with that and have

that inner switch with the teleport I'm

okay with just the teleport active right

now and then I'm going to drag these in

and you want to put these in the

priority that you want them to override

the other ones so teleportation is

pretty important I want that first and

then let's see I want direct and then

poke

now another way you could actually

organize this so you don't have to worry

about which location these are in you

could just dictate who overrides who

here but since I already have these in

the order that I want I'm just going to

leave them like that and then we also

need to get the XR interaction manager

which I have mine up here and then

finally for the group name this is going

to be for the right hand so you just

type in right we are almost done but

we're not quite there yet we still need

to add an action based controller

manager and so this is what's going to

tie it all together and you'll see

there's a bunch of empty slots here and

they're pretty self-explanatory so you

know the manipulation interaction group

is going to be the one that's already

attached here then we have the direct

interactor and I'm just going to fill

these out really quick

now we don't have a ray interactor so

I'm just going to leave that as none

finally we have teleport mode activate

cancel turn snap turn move and UI scroll

and since these are all based on the

right hand when we click this we're

going to be looking for the right hand

so let me look up activate

teleport mode to activate and then I'm

just going to zoom right through all of

these

and so now that I've zoomed through all

these you can see this is all just right

hand Locomotion teleport mode activate

teleport mode cancel turn snap turn move

and UI scroll but we can also turn on

smooth motion enabled or we can also

turn on smooth turn enabled so instead

of doing snap turn that's how you do

that but we do have to activate one more

thing and so if we come over to our turn

under our Locomotion system now I have

it set to continuous turn provider but

now that we have this other thing here

that can regulate that for us we can

actually turn both of these on so with

continuous move providers activated but

I can turn on the snap turn at the same

time and then this script right here

depending on if I choose to have smooth

turned on or off will allow us to do

that no personally myself I like Snap

turns so I'm gonna just leave this as

off and let's boot up and see what we're

working with now all right and as you

can see I can snap turn to my left and

right and then I can also rotate the

reticle with my thumbstick and when I

let go I teleport and they have it we

have a functioning teleporter and with

my left hand I'm able to continuously

move and I can still grab objects so now

we can teleport big shout out to my

patreon subscribers thank you for

keeping me afloat sorry it's taken so

long but I'm happy to be back and I'll

see you in the next one bye

[Music]