Immersive Exhibit

This step-by-step guide walks you through the setup for creating a slide deck in Unity for display at the CRAIVE-Lab.

Before you begin...

Here is a list of things you should have on your computer:

• A set of panoramic images stored in a designated folder you created in the Assets folder of your Unity project. These images can come from Illustrator, panoramic cameras or V-ray renders. The dimensions of these images should be 15360x1200;

• A scene in your Unity project designated for the slides; and

• The CRAIVE-Lab Special Assets package for Unity.

In general, the procedure is very much a drag-and-drop process, with some preparation of your slide images.

Ideally, our image format should be .jpg or .png. For optimal file size, when exporting your image, please make sure to make its resolution relatively small (ideally 72 ppi).

Sprite Conversion

Step 1

Select your slide image in the designated folder you made in the Assets folder. On the inspector, you should see the image's Import Settings.

The Import Settings interface of the slides with the correct setting.

Step 2

Change the following import setting parameters to their respective values:

Parameter	Value
Texture Type	Sprite (2D and UI)
Filter Mode	Point (no filter)
Max Size	16384

Step 3

When you finish, click on Apply. You should then have a Sprite image with no fuzzy edges and an enlarged file size.

You can select multiple images of the same type and configure them collectively.

Slide Loading

Step 4

Import the special asset package into your Unity project. Under C03_Slides --> Prefabs, you should be able to find the SlideDeck prefab. Drag it to the scene you designated for the slides.

Step 5

Click on the SlideDeck in your scene. In the Inspector, you should see a C# scripting component called Slide Deck Manager.

Slide Deck Manager in the SlideDeck prefab, with 4 placeholder slides loaded.

Step 6

In the Slide Deck Manager component, under Slides, type in the number of slides you have (in the above image: 4). When you do this, a column of input elements will show up prompting you to put Sprites in (in the above image, Element 0-3).

Drag all your slide images, now as Sprites, in the correct order you wish to present.

Optionally, you can change the keys you want to use to control the switching of slides by clicking on the drop-down menu for both Last Slide Key and Next Slide Key.

Step 7

Hit play and enjoy!

Additional process that handle scene transition may be added in this scene for interactive demos using other scenes.

However, this process is not limited to the specific infrastructural requirements of the CRAIVE-Lab and other ROIS, and therefore is not included as part of the special asset package.

Current Limitations

The slide deck is used for panoramic images only.

The slide deck is designed to loop sequentially. However, you cannot jump to a particular slide just yet. Work is underway to address this issue.