I’ve been creating some zSpace apps with solid color backgrounds but would now like to incorporate a more detailed world into an app. I basically want a 3D-looking stationary world that forms a backdrop for the app (like the backgrounds in the zSpace Experience demo app). I’ve tried several different ways to do this and none have worked so far. Here are the methods I’ve tried:
Make a terrain. It looks great in the Unity Editor, but on the zSpace it constantly moves the terrain based on the headpose. I looked into frustrum, camera position, and portal mode, but I’m not sure which one is the problem and I’m a bit confused.
Make a skybox. This just looks bad. I took snapshots of the terrain from different angles and strung them together.
Make a 2D backdrop. Similar problem to #1. I took a screenshot of the terrain I made, converted it to a 2D image in Unity, mounted this on a canvas in the back of the scene. Again, the zSpace moves the image based on the headpose.
I’ve tried so many things so feel free to suggest more ideas or enlighten me on what the background-moving problem might be. I appreciate any help!
The phenomenon you describe seems to be normal operation as far as I can tell. The backgrounds in the zSpace Experience are skyboxes implemented by normal means through Unity’s lighting menu. If your own skyboxes don’t behave the same way, I’m uncertain why that would be.
See the diagram below which explains what I believe you’re experiencing.
Objects that are farther away will appear to shift on the display more dramatically than objects that are close to the display. In the case of skyboxes, they are infinitely far away, so when a user moves their head, it will appear, as you describe, to move with the user’s head.
If you believe I’ve misunderstood your issue, please feel free to follow up with more detail, or perhaps a sample project that reproduces the problem you’re experiencing.
If you do believe I’ve outlined essentially that’s going on, then in terms of solutions, I generally recommend minimizing reliance on distant backgrounds like skyboxes. The most optimal stereo experiences on zSpace implement backgrounds that lie close behind the foreground content. For example, in the zSpace Experience, the nature scene with the caterpillar & butterfly, or the tree house scene both avoid especially distant backgrounds.
