{"id":145,"date":"2018-02-10T12:24:58","date_gmt":"2018-02-10T19:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/?p=145"},"modified":"2018-04-03T01:40:27","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T08:40:27","slug":"getting-started-with-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/getting-started-with-unity\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Started with Unity"},"content":{"rendered":"<hr \/>\n<p>Unity may be a popular platform for VR development, but its impressive functionality comes with a not-inconsiderable learning curve. Luckily, a number of great online tutorials exist to build the foundational knowledge necessary to start creating VR apps on your own:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coursera.org\/learn\/game-development\">Coursera &#8211; Introduction to Game Development, Brian Winn (Michigan State University)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A hands-on, project-based online course (MOOC) geared at teaching learners the fundamentals of Unity; it was my introduction to Unity and I can heartily recommend it. While I have mixed feelings about Coursera as an enterprise, it is not a reflection of the instructors showcasing their work through the platform &#8211; Brian Winn has developed an accessible, well-scaffolded and engaging online course.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lynda.com\/Unity-training-tutorials\/1242-0.html\">Lynda.com &#8211; Unity Training &amp; Tutorials<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another freemium skill development platform offering a seemingly infinite set of tutorials on Unity, available to many through subscriptions held by their public libraries. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lynda.com\/Unity-tutorials\/Cert-Prep-Unity-Fundamentals\/536422-2.html\">Cert Prep series<\/a> and\/or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lynda.com\/Unity-tutorials\/Unity-3D-Essential-Training\/639062-2.html\">Unity3D Essential Training<\/a> are also good place to start as an alternative to the Brian Winn course mentioned above (since many of the same concepts are covered) but there are also a wide range of other tutorials to develop more refined skills (for example, creating architectural models). The website also has numerous tutorials on using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blender.org\/\">Blender<\/a>, an open source 3D modelling software often used to create digital assets for use in Unity. Needless to say, if you&#8217;re working with Blender, you&#8217;re well beyond the &#8216;dabbling in VR&#8217; stage.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/unity3d.com\/learn\/tutorials\">Unity &#8211; Tutorials<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Unity, of course, has its own set of free tutorials that are helpful for delving into specific aspects of Unity development, like designing user interface elements and scripting (there is a series on VR, but it relies on assets that are only available to paying users of the software). There are also paid options for courses offered through site, including a <a href=\"https:\/\/unity3d.com\/learn\/VR-Nanodegree\">VR nanodegree<\/a> offered in partnership with Udemy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unity may be a popular platform for VR development, but its impressive functionality comes with a not-inconsiderable learning curve. Luckily, a number of great online tutorials exist to build the foundational knowledge necessary to start creating VR apps on your own: Coursera &#8211; Introduction to Game Development, Brian Winn (Michigan State University) A hands-on, project-based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43676,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/openarchiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}