2023 Unity VR Basics– Continuous Movement

Summary

This tutorial focuses on setting up continuous movement in XR development using Unity's XR Interaction Toolkit. The instructor starts by disabling hand tracking to conserve battery and simplifies the XR origin setup. They introduce the Locomotion System component to coordinate movement, explaining the Continuous Move Provider for smooth locomotion and the Dynamic Move Provider for varied directional control. Turning mechanics are covered with both Continuous and Snap Turn Providers, highlighting customization options. The necessity of a Character Controller for boundary setting and gravity application is emphasized, along with a new Character Controller Driver for seamless head movement tracking. The tutorial concludes with a functional movement and turning system, ready for further development.

Takeaways

• 🎮 The tutorial focuses on setting up movement in XR using the XR Interaction Toolkit.
• 🔋 The presenter turned off hand tracking on their Oculus Quest to conserve battery and also disabled the XR hands from the previous tutorial.
• 👐 The tutorial reverts to using left and right hand controllers with animations instead of the controller model from the previous session.
• 🚶‍♂️ A Locomotion System is introduced as the coordinator for movement between the XR origin and move providers.
• 🔄 The Continuous Move Provider is added to enable movement in the direction the user is looking, with options to enable strafing and flying.
• 🔧 The tutorial explains how to set up gravity application modes and forward source based on user preferences.
• 🎯 It's recommended to use either the left or right hand for movement to avoid conflicts, with the left hand being a common default in VR games.
• 🔄 The Dynamic Move Provider is introduced as an alternative to the Continuous Move Provider, allowing for different movement preferences for each hand.
• 🛑 The tutorial advises caution when using the Continuous Move Provider due to potential motion sickness and suggests the Snap Turn Provider for a more accessible alternative.
• 🏃‍♂️ A Character Controller is added to prevent the XR origin from passing through objects and to enable gravity effects.
• 🔄 The Character Controller Driver is used to synchronize the character controller's height with the user's head movements for a more natural experience.

Q & A

Why did the speaker turn off hand tracking on their Oculus Quest?

The speaker turned off hand tracking on their Oculus Quest because it was draining the battery a lot.

What is the purpose of the Locomotion system in the XR interaction toolkit?

The Locomotion system is responsible for coordinating between the XR origin and all the move providers to manage movement within the XR environment.

What is a Continuous Move Provider and how is it added in the script?

A Continuous Move Provider is a component that allows for smooth movement in the XR environment. It is added by creating an empty object, naming it 'move', and then adding the Continuous Move Provider component.

What are the options for gravity application in the Continuous Move Provider?

There are two modes for gravity application: 'Immediately' which applies gravity as soon as movement stops, and 'On Movement' which delays gravity until the user moves again.

Why might the speaker prefer using the left hand for movement in VR games?

The speaker finds that the left hand has become the default for movement in VR games, which is why they prefer to use it with the Continuous Move Provider.

What is the function of the Character Controller and how is it added?

The Character Controller provides a boundary to prevent the user from moving through objects and allows for the application of gravity. It is added by selecting the XR origin and adding the Character Controller component.

What is the Character Controller Driver and how does it solve the issue of the character controller not moving with the XR origin?

The Character Controller Driver is a component that synchronizes the movement of the character controller with the XR origin. It is added to the XR origin and linked with the appropriate Locomotion provider.

What are the two types of turn providers mentioned in the script and how do they differ?

The two types of turn providers are Continuous Turn Provider and Snap Turn Provider. The Continuous Turn Provider allows for smooth turning, while the Snap Turn Provider enables quick, discrete turns, which can help reduce motion sickness.

Why might the speaker recommend deactivating one of the move providers if using both is an option?

The speaker recommends deactivating one of the move providers to avoid conflicts and ensure a smoother user experience, as having both active might cause unexpected behavior.

What is the significance of the Radius setting in the Character Controller and how does it affect the user experience?

The Radius setting in the Character Controller determines the size of the collider, which affects how close the user can get to objects without clipping through them. Adjusting the radius can improve the user's interaction with the environment.

Outlines

00:00

🛠️ Setting Up the XR Interaction Toolkit

The paragraph discusses the setup process for the XR Interaction Toolkit, focusing on changes from previous tutorials. The speaker turns off hand tracking on their Oculus Quest to conserve battery and decides to disable the XR hands from the previous tutorial. They revert the controllers to the left and right hand configurations, ensuring the correct hand has the animator and controller components. The speaker then introduces the concept of a Locomotion system, which coordinates movement between the XR origin and move providers. They create an empty child object named 'Locomotion system' and add the Locomotion system component, linking it to the XR origin. The paragraph concludes with the addition of a continuous move provider, which is configured with options for strafing, flying, and gravity application. The forward source for movement is set to the main camera, and the left hand is chosen as the default for movement actions.

05:01

🕹️ Configuring Movement and Turning in VR

This paragraph delves into the specifics of configuring movement and turning in a VR environment. The speaker starts by setting up the dynamic move provider, which allows for different movement preferences for each hand. They experiment with head-relative and hand-relative movement directions for the left and right hands, respectively. After testing, the speaker decides to deactivate the dynamic move provider in favor of the continuous move provider for its simplicity. The paragraph then moves on to turning mechanics, introducing both continuous turn and snap turn providers. The speaker configures the continuous turn provider with the right hand for turning, adjusting the turn speed for a more comfortable experience. They also discuss the snap turn provider as an alternative to prevent motion sickness, setting up the snap turn with specific inputs for quick directional changes. The speaker emphasizes the importance of a character controller to prevent characters from passing through objects and to apply gravity correctly. They add a character controller to the XR origin, adjusting its radius and center to fit the character model and ensure it interacts properly with the environment.

10:03

🎬 Wrapping Up the Tutorial and Acknowledging Support

The final paragraph is a conclusion to the tutorial, where the speaker thanks the viewers for watching and encourages them to like and subscribe for more content. They express gratitude to their Patreon subscribers, emphasizing that their support is crucial for the continuation of their work. The speaker signs off with a friendly 'bye', indicating the end of the tutorial.

Keywords

💡XR Interaction Toolkit

The XR Interaction Toolkit is a set of tools and components designed to facilitate the creation of interactive experiences in extended reality (XR) environments. In the video, the toolkit is used to set up movement and interaction within a virtual scene, emphasizing its importance in developing immersive XR applications.

💡Continuous Movement

Continuous movement refers to the smooth and uninterrupted motion of an object or character within a virtual environment. The video discusses implementing continuous movement using the XR Interaction Toolkit, which is crucial for creating a natural and engaging user experience in XR applications.

💡Locomotion System

The Locomotion System is a component in XR development that coordinates the movement of the XR origin and all move providers. It is central to the video's tutorial, as it is responsible for managing how users navigate and interact with the virtual environment.

💡Move Providers

Move providers are elements within the Locomotion System that determine how control is exerted over the XR origin's movement. The video explains how to set up a continuous move provider, which allows for the character's movement based on user inputs, such as thumbstick directions.

💡Dynamic Move Provider

The Dynamic Move Provider is an alternative to the Continuous Move Provider, offering different movement preferences for each hand. It is mentioned in the video as a way to customize movement based on the orientation of the user's hands, allowing for unique interaction styles within the XR environment.

💡Character Controller

A Character Controller is a component that adds physical boundaries to the user's movement within the virtual space, preventing them from passing through objects. In the video, adding a Character Controller is shown as a necessary step to ensure realistic interactions with the environment, such as preventing the user from walking through tables.

💡Snap Turn Provider

The Snap Turn Provider is a component that allows for abrupt, 90-degree or 180-degree turns in the virtual environment. It is discussed as an alternative to the Continuous Turn Provider, potentially reducing motion sickness and making the game more accessible to a wider audience.

💡Gravity Application

Gravity Application in the context of the video refers to how gravity is applied to the user's movement within the virtual environment. The tutorial explains two modes: 'Immediately' and 'On Movement', which determine when gravity effects are applied to the user's movement, such as when climbing or falling.

💡Hand Tracking

Hand Tracking is a feature in XR devices that allows for the detection and interpretation of hand movements. The video mentions turning off hand tracking on the Oculus Quest to conserve battery, highlighting the importance of balancing functionality with device performance.

💡Oculus Quest

The Oculus Quest is a standalone virtual reality headset mentioned in the video. It is used as an example of a device where the developer chose to disable hand tracking to prevent excessive battery drain, indicating the practical considerations involved in XR development.

💡XR Origin

The XR Origin is a reference point in the virtual environment that serves as the anchor for user movement and interaction. The video explains how to set up the Locomotion System and other components in relation to the XR Origin, emphasizing its role in coordinating user experiences within the XR space.

Highlights

Introduction to using the XR Interaction Toolkit for movement in VR.

Recommendation to disable hand tracking on Oculus Quest to save battery life.

Instructions to turn off XR hands from the previous tutorial for non-hand tracking games.

Switching controllers back to left and right hand configurations.

Explanation of the Locomotion system's role in coordinating movement in XR.

Adding a Locomotion system component to the XR origin.

Enabling strafe and fly options in the Continuous Move Provider for more movement freedom.

Setting gravity application modes for realistic movement.

Choosing the forward source for movement direction based on camera or controller orientation.

Selecting the left hand as the default for movement in VR games.

Demonstration of character movement using the left hand controller.

Discussion on the need for a Character Controller to handle collisions and apply gravity.

Adding a Character Controller component to the XR origin for boundary and gravity management.

Adjusting the Character Controller's radius to prevent clipping through objects.

Raising the Character Controller to avoid falling through the ground.

Introduction of the Character Controller Driver to synchronize head movement with the character.

Setting up the Continuous Turn Provider for smooth turning movements.

Customizing turn speed and adding snap turn functionality for quick direction changes.

Comparison between continuous and snap turn providers for accessibility and motion sickness considerations.

Completion of the tutorial with a fully functional movement and turning system in VR.

Transcripts

let's get moving using the XR

interaction toolkit and continuous

movement a few things have changed from

the previous tutorials so you should

definitely pay attention to this one

booting back into the scene you'll see

nothing's really changed here but

there's a few things I want to go over

and change from the previous tutorial

the first thing I'll mention is I did

turn off hand tracking on my Oculus

Quest I noticed it was draining my

battery a lot so if you're not using

that for your game I would advise you do

the same and since I've turned that off

for my XR origin I'm also just going to

turn off the XR hands that we did in the

previous tutorial the last thing I'm

going to change is I'm going to go over

to my controllers here and if you

remember from the previous tutorial I

changed this to the controller instead I

want it to go back to our left and right

hand that we had before and you'll see

we have two same named ones here but

one's just going to be a model the other

one is going to have the animator and

all the controllers and that's the one

we want so I'm going to select this I'm

going to select the one that had all the

animations and controllers and then do

the same for the right hand

all right and now we're ready to get

moving the first thing we'll need is a

Locomotion system and this is what's

going to be responsible for coordinating

between our Locomotion or moving our XR

origin and all the move providers and

that's how they've structured this so to

do that I'm going to collect this I'm

going to add an empty child I'm going to

name it Locomotion system

with that in place I'm going to add

component Locomotion system

and then it's asking for the XR origin

as simple as that there we go now we

can't move with just that we need

providers so as I said before this

coordinates with move providers and then

this determines what has control over

the XR origin so the first thing we'll

want to add is a continuous move

provider to add that I'm just going to

right click this create empty and I'm

going to name this move and then I'm

going to look up continuous move

provider and you're looking for the

action base now you'll see here we have

some fun things to fill out so first is

The Locomotion system I'll drag that

here next we can enable strafe so that

is being able to move left and right

diagonally but also forward we can

enable fly which is actually pretty cool

you can uh just kind of look around and

fly around use gravity is there and then

it has two modes for Gravity application

so it's either attempting to move so say

you're climbing a ladder and let go

until you move you won't apply gravity

so I find immediately to be more

realistic the forward Source this is

going to determine what is our forward

Source how it says oh you're going to

move forward in this direction when you

press the thumbstick and so I find the

main camera to make the most sense for

that next we have our left hand move

action and right hand move action so you

want to in my opinion pick one or the

other you don't necessarily want both

your thumb sticks to be able to move you

and I find that the left hand seems to

have become the default when it comes to

VR games and so to do that we're just

going to look up move left hand

Locomotion now again you could do this

for the right hand you would just add

this here if you wanted to be right hand

based

there we go and we could select that

there previously let me open this up

really quick you'll see here for our

locomotions and inputs they actually

used to not have anything for the right

hand they just just assumed that you

would use it for the left hand but now

they filled it out so you don't have to

stress about that anymore which is nice

again I said I don't really like the

right hand as the move for the

continuous move provider so I'm just

going to mark this off and if we boot it

up the scene you can see I can move with

my left hand and based on where I'm

looking and pressing forward it moves in

that direction so there you go now I

will say at this stage the gravity will

not work if I walked off the cliff it

didn't work because we do need a

character controller and I'm going to

add that a little later towards the end

of the video but for now I want to

continue on and talk about the dynamic

move provider so the dynamic mode

provider is just a different form of

continuous move provider and how it

works is you could actually do some

interesting things with this essentially

what this bad boy does is is it allows

you to determine what you want as a

preference for each hand you'll see down

here it has a left hand move Direction

and a right hand move Direction and so

we could have one be set to the Head

relative so like the continuous move

provider but then we could have the

other one be hand relative So based on

the right hand's orientation that's what

forward would be I mean it's it's

interesting I don't know what you would

use it for but here it is and this is

how you set it up so again a Locomotion

system you could put it here forward

Source we want it to be the main camera

and then you would add your references

head transform again would be the main

camera

and then you want the left and right

controller

and let's see yeah I'll have the left

hand be the head relative and then I'll

have the right hand be hand relative and

let's boot up and see what we got and

one thing I should do before I boot it

up is just make sure I turn this off so

it's not fighting between the two

scripts but right let me start it up now

you can see that when I start to move

with my left thumbstick I move in the

direction of my headset but when I use

my right thumbstick and press forward it

moves in the direction of where my right

hand is pointed and yeah that's how that

works now my personal preference is just

to use the continuous move provider so

I'm going to go ahead and deactivate the

dynamic move provider and I'm just gonna

go with the continuous move provider

next up we need to learn how to turn so

to do that we can do a continuous turn

provider or a snap turn provider to add

that in I'm just going to right click

here and I'm going to add an empty

object and I'm going to call it turn

starting off I'm going to go with the

continuous move provider

and then we are just going to drag in

The Locomotion system here oh my bad

that made the continuous move provider

so I did that before yeah just make sure

you don't do that it's very easy to do

all right there we go all right and then

next we need to add in the turn and I

found that if you're moving with the

left hand you want to turn with the

right hand and vice versa if we were

moving with our right hand it makes a

little more sense to turn with the left

hand so since I am moving with the left

hand I am going to go ahead and look up

turn here and you want the right hand

turn and so now if we boot up the scene

you'll see that I'm able to turn to my

right and my left coming back to the

editor if you thought that was turning a

little too slow you can change the turn

speed here and then one word of caution

when using the continuous move provider

it has been known to cause motion

sickness so the snap turn provider might

make your game a little more accessible

to others so I'm going to go ahead and

deactivate that and I'm going to add a

Content or snap turn provider again we

add our Locomotion system here you can

change the turn amount here this

debounce time just kind of allows for a

little wait time between each snap turn

so it just doesn't happen in quick

succession we also have a turnaround one

right here and that just allows for 180

so if your player pulled all the way

back on the thumbstick that would allow

them to do a 180 turn and then if we

were doing the reference again since I'm

using the left controller I want the

right snap turn here and this actually

does have its own input and so instead

of just turn you use the right hand

Locomotion snap turn in just like that

when I hit the right or left I'm able to

snap turn right and left just like that

boom so we are now able to turn and move

are we done no so the problem is we are

able to run through this table and also

gravity is not working and that's

because we don't have a character

controller so the character controller

is going to add a boundary for us so we

don't run in into things or through

things and then it will also allow us to

apply gravity to something so to add

that it's as easy as going to the XR

origin then we're going to add component

character controller and you'll see here

we have a few attributes we can play

with starting off we have the slope

limit so this if we were going up a

slanted Hill would determine how steep

of a slope we can go up now one big one

that we should change right here is

probably the radius so as you can see

here in the scene it's a pretty chunky

boy right there and so to reduce that

I'm going to change this radius to maybe

0.2 and feel free to experiment and see

what feels right in your game here and

so if we were able to start up the scene

now we should be able to run into this

table but before we do that we should

probably also raise this character

controller a little higher and I mean

you could do that by raising your XR

origin but I don't think that's too wise

I think it's a little better to move the

center here and so what that'll do is if

we did not move that up we would just

fall through the ground now as you can

see that I am running forward I am

running into this table and not going

through it but there is a bit of a

problem again so when I go to stand up

and move you'll see the character

controller is not moving with it

so let's fix that now luckily for us we

used to have to code this in ourselves

in the previous tutorial but Unity has

added something for us and it is the

character Controller driver so I'm just

going to add that and it's going to ask

for a Locomotion provider and this is

going to be based off of what your move

provider is so I'm just going to drag

that here and you'll remember I'm using

the continuous move provider instead of

the dynamic move provider so if you're

using the dynamic move provider I would

just get rid of this one just use one or

the other honestly and then it is asking

what our Min and Max height is so that

would determine the Min and Max height

of our character controller so let's

start up the scene and see what we're

working with now so

now when I move my head mounted display

I goes up it goes down left right it

doesn't matter where I move this will

now track and follow so that takes care

of a major issue for us and yeah that is

it that's continuous movement and

turning that'll do it oh

if you found this tutorial moving

consider liking and subscribing and to

my patreon subscribers I really can't do

this without you thank you so much hey

I'll see you all in the next one bye

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