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Cardboard VR Projects for Android
Cardboard VR Projects for Android

Cardboard VR Projects for Android: Develop mobile virtual reality apps using the native Google Cardboard SDK for Android

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Cardboard VR Projects for Android

Chapter 2. The Skeleton Cardboard Project

In this chapter, you will learn how to build a skeleton Cardboard project which can be a starting point for other projects in this book. We will begin with an introduction to Android Studio, the Cardboard SDK, and Java programming. We want to make sure that you're up to speed on the tools and Android projects in general. Then, we will walk you through setting up a new Cardboard project so that we don't need to repeat these details in each project. If some or all of this is already familiar to you, great! You might be able to skim it. In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • What's in an Android app?
  • The Android project structure
  • Getting started with Android Studio
  • Creating a new Cardboard project
  • Adding the Cardboard Java SDK
  • Editing the manifest, layout, and MainActivity
  • Building and running the app

What's in an Android app?

For our projects, we're going to use the powerful Android Studio IDE (an integrated development environment) to build Google Cardboard virtual reality applications that run on Android devices. Woot! Android Studio integrates a number of different tools and processes under one roof.

The result of all your hard work to develop an Android app is an Android application package or an .apk file, which is distributed to users via the Google Play Store or however you choose to distribute your app. This file gets installed on their Android device.

We'll jump to Android Studio itself in a moment. However, in order to shed some light on what's going on here, let's consider this end result .apk file first. What is it really? How'd we get it? Understanding the build process will help.

Keeping this in mind, for fun and to gain perspective, let's start from the end and work our way backward from the APK through the build pipeline to our app source...

The Android project structure

The root directory of your Android project contains various files and subdirectories. Or, should I say, the root folder of your Android project contains various files and subfolders. Ha ha. We'll use the words "folder" and "directory" interchangeably throughout this book, just as Android Studio also seems to do (actually, there is a difference, as discussed at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29454427/new-directory-vs-new-folder-in-android-studio).

As shown in the Android hierarchy, in the following sample Cardboard project, the root directory contains an app/ subdirectory, which, in turn, contains the following subdirectories:

  • app/manifests/: This contains the AndroidManifest.xml manifest file that specifies the components of the application, including activities (UI), device permissions, and other configurations
  • app/java/: This contains subfolders with your application Java files that implement the application's MainActivity...

Getting started with Android Studio

When developing Cardboard apps for Android, there's tons of stuff that you need to track, including all your files and folders, Java classes and objects, and functions and variables. You need a properly organized Java program structure and valid language syntax. You need to set options and manage processes to build and debug your applications. Whew!

Thank goodness we have Android Studio, a powerful IDE (integrated development environment). It's built on top of IntelliJ IDEA by JetBrains, a popular intelligent Java development suite of tools.

It's intelligent because it actually gives you relevant suggestions as you write your code (Ctrl + Space), helps navigate between related references and files (Ctrl + B, Alt + F7) as well as automates refactor operations, such as renaming a class or method (Alt + Enter). In some ways, it may know what you're trying to do, even if you don't. How smart is that?

Installing Android Studio

If you...

Creating a new Cardboard project

With Android Studio installed, let's create a new project. These are the steps you'll follow for any of the projects in this book. We'll just make an empty skeleton and make sure that it can be built and run:

  1. After opening the IDE, you'll see a Welcome screen, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Creating a new Cardboard project
  2. Select Start a new Android Studio project, and the New Project screen appears, as follows:
    Creating a new Cardboard project
  3. Fill in your Application name:, such as Skeleton, and your Company Domain:, for example, cardbookvr.com. You can also change the Project location. Then, click on Next:
    Creating a new Cardboard project
  4. On the Target Android Devices screen, ensure that the Phone and Tablet checkbox is checked. In the Minimum SDK, select API 19: Android 4.4 (KitKat). Then, click on Next:
    Creating a new Cardboard project
  5. On the Add an activity to Mobile screen, select Empty Activity. We're going to build this project from scratch. Then, click on Next:
    Creating a new Cardboard project
  6. Keep the suggested name, MainActivity. Then, click on Finish.

Your brand new project comes...

Adding the Cardboard Java SDK

Now's a good time to add the Cardboard SDK library .aar files to your project. For the basic projects in this book the libraries you need (at the time of writing v0.7) are:

  • common.aar
  • core.aar

Note

Note the SDK includes additional libraries that we do not use in the projects in this book but could be useful for your projects. The audio.aar file is for spatialized audio support. The panowidget and videowidget libraries are meant for 2D apps that want to drop-into VR for things such as viewing a 360-degree image or video.

At the time of writing, to obtain the Cardboard Android SDK client libraries, you can clone the cardboard-java GitHub repository, as explained on the Google Developers Cardboard Getting Started page, Start your own project topic at https://developers.google.com/cardboard/android/get-started#start_your_own_project. Clone the cardboard-java GitHub repository by running the following command:

git clone https://github.com/googlesamples/cardboard...

What's in an Android app?


For our projects, we're going to use the powerful Android Studio IDE (an integrated development environment) to build Google Cardboard virtual reality applications that run on Android devices. Woot! Android Studio integrates a number of different tools and processes under one roof.

The result of all your hard work to develop an Android app is an Android application package or an .apk file, which is distributed to users via the Google Play Store or however you choose to distribute your app. This file gets installed on their Android device.

We'll jump to Android Studio itself in a moment. However, in order to shed some light on what's going on here, let's consider this end result .apk file first. What is it really? How'd we get it? Understanding the build process will help.

Keeping this in mind, for fun and to gain perspective, let's start from the end and work our way backward from the APK through the build pipeline to our app source code.

APK files

The APK file is actually...

The Android project structure


The root directory of your Android project contains various files and subdirectories. Or, should I say, the root folder of your Android project contains various files and subfolders. Ha ha. We'll use the words "folder" and "directory" interchangeably throughout this book, just as Android Studio also seems to do (actually, there is a difference, as discussed at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29454427/new-directory-vs-new-folder-in-android-studio).

As shown in the Android hierarchy, in the following sample Cardboard project, the root directory contains an app/ subdirectory, which, in turn, contains the following subdirectories:

  • app/manifests/: This contains the AndroidManifest.xml manifest file that specifies the components of the application, including activities (UI), device permissions, and other configurations

  • app/java/: This contains subfolders with your application Java files that implement the application's MainActivity and other classes

  • app/res/: This...

Getting started with Android Studio


When developing Cardboard apps for Android, there's tons of stuff that you need to track, including all your files and folders, Java classes and objects, and functions and variables. You need a properly organized Java program structure and valid language syntax. You need to set options and manage processes to build and debug your applications. Whew!

Thank goodness we have Android Studio, a powerful IDE (integrated development environment). It's built on top of IntelliJ IDEA by JetBrains, a popular intelligent Java development suite of tools.

It's intelligent because it actually gives you relevant suggestions as you write your code (Ctrl + Space), helps navigate between related references and files (Ctrl + B, Alt + F7) as well as automates refactor operations, such as renaming a class or method (Alt + Enter). In some ways, it may know what you're trying to do, even if you don't. How smart is that?

Installing Android Studio

If you don't already have Android...

Creating a new Cardboard project


With Android Studio installed, let's create a new project. These are the steps you'll follow for any of the projects in this book. We'll just make an empty skeleton and make sure that it can be built and run:

  1. After opening the IDE, you'll see a Welcome screen, as shown in the following screenshot:

  2. Select Start a new Android Studio project, and the New Project screen appears, as follows:

  3. Fill in your Application name:, such as Skeleton, and your Company Domain:, for example, cardbookvr.com. You can also change the Project location. Then, click on Next:

  4. On the Target Android Devices screen, ensure that the Phone and Tablet checkbox is checked. In the Minimum SDK, select API 19: Android 4.4 (KitKat). Then, click on Next:

  5. On the Add an activity to Mobile screen, select Empty Activity. We're going to build this project from scratch. Then, click on Next:

  6. Keep the suggested name, MainActivity. Then, click on Finish.

Your brand new project comes up on Studio. If required...

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Key benefits

  • Learn how to build practical applications for Google's popular DIY VR headset
  • Build a reusable VR graphics engine on top of the Cardboard Java SDK and OpenGL ES graphics libraries
  • The projects in this book will showcase a different aspect of Cardboard development—from 3D rendering to handling user input

Description

Google Cardboard is a low-cost, entry-level media platform through which you can experience virtual reality and virtual 3D environments. Its applications are as broad and varied as mobile smartphone applications themselves. This book will educate you on the best practices and methodology needed to build effective, stable, and performant mobile VR applications. In this book, we begin by defining virtual reality (VR) and how Google Cardboard fits into the larger VR and Android ecosystem. We introduce the underlying scientific and technical principles behind VR, including geometry, optics, rendering, and mobile software architecture. We start with a simple example app that ensures your environment is properly set up to write, build, and run the app. Then we develop a reusable VR graphics engine that you can build upon. And from then on, each chapter is a self-contained project where you will build an example from a different genre of application, including a 360 degree photo viewer, an educational simulation of our solar system, a 3D model viewer, and a music visualizer. Given the recent updates that were rolled out at Google I/O 2016, the authors of Cardboard VR Projects for Android have collated some technical notes to help you execute the projects in this book with Google VR Cardboard Java SDK 0.8, released in May 2016. Refer to the article at https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/GoogleVRUpdateGuideforCardbook.pdf which explains the updates to the source code of the projects.

Who is this book for?

The book is for established Android developers with a good knowledge level of Java. No prior OpenGL or graphics knowledge is required. No prior experience with Google Cardboard is expected, but those who are familiar with Cardboard and are looking for projects to expand their knowledge can also benefit from this book.

What you will learn

  • Build Google Cardboard virtual reality applications
  • Explore the ins and outs of the Cardboard SDK Java classes and interfaces, and apply them to practical VR projects
  • Employ Android Studio, Android SDK, and the Java language in a straightforward manner
  • Discover and use software development and Android best practices for mobile and Cardboard applications, including considerations for memory management and battery life
  • Implement user interface techniques for menus and gaze-based selection within VR
  • Utilize the science, psychology, mathematics, and technology behind virtual reality, especially those pertinent to mobile Cardboard VR experiences
  • Understand Cardboard VR best practices including those promoted by Google Design Lab.
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Table of Contents

10 Chapters
1. Virtual Reality for Everyone Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. The Skeleton Cardboard Project Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Cardboard Box Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Launcher Lobby Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. RenderBox Engine Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Solar System Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. 360-Degree Gallery Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. 3D Model Viewer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Music Visualizer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Jaak Dec 21, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Read 5 chapters. So far very good. Code is explained well. The topics covered are also good. Will update the review as I work through coming chapters.
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