Do I need VR camera for VR Project?

Question

I am to make a project involving virtual reality for college, I have a budget of $800, the original idea is to get a VR camera (this camera https://www.stereolabs.com or any other similar camera) and program it with Unity to display objects in the environment and or hide real objects in the room by first recognizing it by the camera.

However while searching I found this product (vuforia) and made a simple demo on unity which accomplishes displaying objects on a certain position, I am not sure if I will need the VR camera after this since this can run on any camera. My expereince with unity is good mainly making games, but I have little information about both VR camera hardware and vuforia.

some features that I need to implement include:

• Displaying objects (virtual avatar)
• hiding objects (real objects that are there like a table)
• be able to control avatar using button (adding button as well)

So, the questions I have:

1- can these VR hardware camera be programmed with unity) ?

2- should I just use vuforia and forget about the VR camera, or are there some feature the VR camera can do that I can integrate with vuforia and unity?

3- is unity personal edition able to handle face recognition ?

Thank you

Answer 1

Do you need a VR camera for a VR game? No. Absolutely not. A VR camera is for recording stereoscopic video and has no bearing on using a 3D engine to create stereoscopic views. This is basically like asking "do I need a 360 degree camera in order to use Google Earth?" No, that would be silly.

Could you combine the two? Sure. The Microsoft HoloLens is doing pretty much that: using multiple cameras in order to map the real world and create immersive experiences by allowing the virtual holograms to "hide" behind real world objects.

Now, you would need a VR headset (such as an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or Google Cardboard) in order to properly test your game. This is the reverse of a stereoscopic camera, and it would be the only way to make sure that your game will feel right and that the controls are appropriate.

As for Vuforia, Vuforia is for determining the 3D position of a target object with respect to the camera. This is done primary for AR not VR (that is, displaying 3D content overlaid on top of the real world). Vuforia can do this with one camera or two or five (as the Microsoft HoloLens has). If your game isn't interacting with the real world at all, you don't need Vuforia.

Depending on what your goals are, you will have to evaluate these options and figure out which one actually fits your project.