I am an architect and completely new to game engines. I would like to use Unity for architectural visualization specifically with the Oculus Rift VR HMD in mind. I am anticipating a certain level of spatial confusion among new users (i.e architectural clients). The basic idea would be to have a HUD in the field of view with a 2D location map displaying real-time user location and viewing direction. Sort of like the GPS map in GTA which could be toggled on and off in a floating window.
How would one go about doing this and could anyone point to a working example of this sort of thing in an existing Unity-based game ?
The easiest way might be to search for “map” or “mini map” in asset store and buy a ready solution. Otherwise you can have a picture on screen using a GUI.Label and a texture2D or a GUITexture and then based on relative position of the player in map you can draw an aditional small image on top of the other one.
for example if your texture is 1024X1024 and map is 100X100 metters then at position (25, 25) you should be quarter down and quarter right from origin of top left is origin and world origin is in that position.
The suggested answer using a GUITexture with a small overlaid image is good, and I have used it with success. Another possibility is to put a camera high above the user, facing down, and keep its rotation locked to the user’s orientation. The camera will move about with the user. It will render to a texture, which you can put on the HUD. It would render only layers you select, so it would not show the complete architecture (which would obscure the view of the user) but only an outline of the foundation, perhaps. Whatever would be helpful for orientation. This would give a view similar to a car GPS. You could choose whether the camera should have a fixed orientation or rotate with the user, similar to the option in GPS units.
I’ll be interested to see how HUDs look in Oculus Rift. I use them in stereoscopic applications and find that they can detract from immersion – they remind you that you’re looking at a computer screen. Maybe OR will be so inherently immersive that this won’t be a problem.