Virtual Reality - Apache Helicopter Creation

Array of Helicopters
Control Room
Storage Room
Machinery
Top View

Inspiration

Lockheed Martin was challenging us. How could we not meet it? Also got to play with an HTC Vive for a day and a half.

What it does

Simulates a factory that builds and tests military style helicopters.

How I built it

We created the VR application in Unity, C#, and Javascript. VRTK and SteamVR were libraries that proved immensely helpful.

Challenges I ran into

The Vive's software is buggy as heck. For the first six hours, no team could get the controllers to show up. It was only solved by returning to a previous version of the SteamVR library.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Just finishing this project. VR is amazingly fun to interact with. It's sometimes hard to remember that the scene is fake, even when the pixels are right in front of your eyes. I'd also say that getting through 35 hours of straight coding with maybe three hours of sleep is an accomplishment.

What I learned

This is our first team using Unity, and for most of us, it's the first time using C# and virtual reality. We're hyped to continue working on VR applications in the future.

What's next for Virtual Reality - Apache Helicopter Creation

With Virtual Reality, the world is an oyster, ready for cracking. There's so many applications. Wherever people need to better understand and interact with information, especially in a visual sense, VR can succeed.