Fun with photo globes

To begin exploring these concepts, let's have a little fun as we apply an ordinary (rectangular) image as a texture to a sphere, just to see what it does and how bad it looks. Then, we'll use a properly distorted equirectangular photosphere texture.

Crystal balls

Auntie Em! Auntie Em! cried Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, as she gazed into a crystal ball seeking help from the Wicked Witch. Let's consider making a crystal ball using Unity, my little pretty!

First, set up a new scene for this chapter by performing the following steps:

1. Create a new scene by navigating to File | New Scene. Then, navigate to File | Save Scene As... and name it 360Degrees.
2. Create a new plane by navigating to GameObject | 3D Object | Plane and reset its transformation using the Transform component's gear icon | Reset.
3. Set the Main Camera Position to (0, 0, -1)

You can choose to use the MeMyselfEye camera rig we've been using throughout the book, but it is not necessary in this project. The Main Camera...