Approaching Photorealism in Virtual Reality

The hardest part of creating virtual reality (VR) is making it look real. This course will discuss methods used to add as much realism as possible to VR environments created in Autodesk software, such as 3ds Max software and Maya software, and viewed through game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine. Truly photorealistic VR may still be a ways off, but there are a number of techniques pulled from visual effects and gaming that can add crucial realism to your environments. This course will discuss how we see and interpret reality, and then go into pipelines and techniques for creating content. The course will cover topics such as the following: adding life and realism through textures; creating rich lighting models; understanding how stereoscopy affects perception; examining software versus game engine rendering; maintaining interactivity; and adding realism with animation and special effects.