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Welcome to our article on the conceptual ideas behind Figments.nrw. This article explores key components that form the foundation of our immersive virtual experiences - **Spaces**, **Figments**, and **3D-Assets**. Understanding and effectively utilizing these elements is essential for creating captivating and interactive virtual reality environments.
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## [[Spaces]]
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## Spaces
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**Spaces**, in the context of our project, are essentially pre-lit Unity scenes. These scenes encompass a static 3D environment that incorporates pre-calculated lighting, enhancing the visual experience. In addition to serving as immersive environments, Spaces can be utilized to view other contents such as Figments. Moreover, they provide a platform to import and integrate various Assets seamlessly, allowing for a cohesive and interactive virtual environment. By leveraging Spaces, we can efficiently organize and showcase our 3D content while enhancing the overall user engagement within the Unity development environment.
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**Spaces**, in the context of our project, are essentially pre-lit Unity scenes. In addition to serving as immersive environments, Spaces can be utilized to view other contents such as Figments and interactive learning content. Moreover, they provide a platform to import and integrate various Assets seamlessly, allowing for a cohesive and interactive virtual environment.
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## [[Figments]]
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## Figments
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**Figments** within our project assets that contain all components and features to work seamlessly with the networked backend of Figments.nrw, making sure that the state of these Figments is held synchronously across all users currently in the same Space. These Figments can furthermore take on a logical component when integrated with our [Logic Editor](Logic-Editor.md). In it's most basic form each Asset you import at runtime (via our File Browser or WebDAV Browser) gets converted into a Figments automatically. When using Figments as a development framework, you can use a range of Unity Editor methods we developed to convert your assets into Figments.
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**Figments** within our project assets that contain all components and features to work seamlessly with the networked backend of Figments.nrw, making sure that the state of these Figments is held synchronously across all users currently in the same Space. These Figments can furthermore take on a logical component when integrated with our [Logic Editor](Features/Logic-Editor). In it's most basic form each Asset you import at runtime (via our File Browser or WebDAV Browser) gets converted into a Figments automatically. When using Figments as a development framework, you can use a range of [Unity Editor methods](Development/Unity/Unity-Editor-Extensions) we developed to convert your assets into Figments.
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You can use, re-use and adapt Figments as needed. Currently, this only works in the Editor, but we are working hard to make our Logic Editor runtime-capable as well.
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## Assets
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You can, in theory at least, create room-scale environments using this system. But as baking lights (e.g. making environments aesthetically pleasing) is not viable at runtime or on standalone VR headsets, we recommend creating **Spaces**. We will provide additional documentation for this step, as this needs to be done directly in Unity.
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Virtual reality generally heavily depends on **3D assets** for visualization. There is therefore an increased need to be able to use 3D data as effectively as possible. The relation between the creation effort and the added value to be generated from the use of this data must be as favorable as possible. In order to be able to integrate 3D data from external sources, e.g. as open educational materials (OER) and/or in object databases, as many of the common file formats as possible should be supported.
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## [[Assets]]
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With **Figments.nrw** we choose **GLTF** as the main transmission format for 3D assets.
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Augmented and virtual reality generally use **three-dimensional assets** for visualization. There is therefore an increased need to be able to use 3D data as effectively as possible. The relation between the creation effort and the added value to be generated from the use of this data must be as favorable as possible. In order to be able to integrate 3D data from external sources, e.g. as open educational materials (OER) and/or in object databases, as many of the common file formats as possible should be supported.
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GLTF is specifically designed for the efficient transmission and loading of 3D scenes and models in real-time 3D applications. It is an open standard maintained by the Khronos Group. GLTF files are compact, containing both the geometry, appearance, and animations of 3D models. This format aims to strike a balance between file size and rendering quality, making it ideal for VR environments where performance and visual fidelity are crucial. By utilizing GLTF in our project, we can optimize the delivery of 3D assets, improve VR experiences, and facilitate seamless integration with various object databases. The adoption of GLTF helps us streamline the development process and ensures that our VR content is easily accessible and compatible across a wide range of devices and platforms.
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With Figments.nrw we choose **GLTF** as the main file format for 3D-assets.
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> **_NOTE:_** Currently GLTF is the only supported file format for 3d-assets. If you have assets in another format (e.g. fbx, obj) you need to convert the asset into a gltf before importing it in Figments.nrw. One easy and free solution is to use www.blender.org for this. Check our [Tutorials](Support/Tutorials) for more information.
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GLTF is specifically designed for the efficient transmission and loading of 3D scenes and models in virtual reality (VR) and other real-time 3D applications. It stands for "GL Transmission Format" and is an open standard maintained by the Khronos Group. GLTF files are compact, containing both the geometry, appearance, and animations of 3D models. This format aims to strike a balance between file size and rendering quality, making it ideal for VR environments where performance and visual fidelity are crucial. By utilizing GLTF in our project, we can optimize the delivery of 3D assets, improve VR experiences, and facilitate seamless integration with various object databases. The adoption of GLTF helps us streamline the development process and ensures that our VR content is easily accessible and compatible across a wide range of devices and platforms.
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> **_NOTE:_** Currently GLTF is the only supported file format for 3d-assets. If you have assets in another format (e.g. fbx, obj) you need to convert the asset into a gltf before importing it in Figments.nrw. One easy and free solution is to use www.blender.org for this - a tutorial for this will follow. |
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Other assets, such as images, videos or audio files, can also be integrated into your virtual environments using Figments.nrw. |
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