I haven't had as much time or energy for development as I hoped. I started a full time gig for about 5-6 weeks teaching kids how to make games and apps. It's great and all...just draining to be on socially for so long and to have a 2 hour commute. 13 hours of being out of the house is killer! It's also tough being around kids all day, whom I only have for a week, and then to read about all of the gun violence around the country. Not really the time or place for a conversation with them about it (though it would be good for them to be aware!), so I found myself distracted and just sorting through a lot of emotions during my breaks during this past week of teaching. Quite exhausting days.
My strategy has been to keep a log of things I need to do for my project, and just focus on the individual tasks, one at a time whenever I get a chance. Even if I can't lay a brick down every day (to build a metaphorical wall) sometimes I can lay the foundation for the next brick the following day. Next week I get to stay near where I'm teaching, so that'll give me much more freedom and juice to make some VR progress. So in that case, it's actually nice having gotten through some of the set up so next week I can just create!
- I received the replacement phone!!! And it works with the Gear VR! Those of you who have read my first week post might remember that the S6 I received from the Oculus Launch Pad didn't transfer data over USB. I lost about 3 separate work days trying to trouble shoot it. So Now I can actually try out Gear VR apps and even load up my own Unity projects.
- I finished the setup with the OSIG to get this phone and my Unity account synched up and was even able to load some test scenes on it.
- I fixed my desktop computer. It needed a new hard drive to boot the OS off of...and a legit copy of Windows. With my newly working machine, I can use my Haupaugge video capture device to digitize the home movie footage I mentioned in my week 2 update. I can also use that plugin I bought that can supposedly record VR video from a Unity scene. It took photos on my Mac, but wouldn't make them into a video.
- Using the rig pictured below, I digitized one of the few tapes I know of that exists of my dad's side of the family from the 1990s. It's from 1990 to be exact. And there's a couple of good shots of my grandmother! I'll figure out ways to incorporate the footage into my Dia de los Muertos project, but I'm excited to have this and some of the audio I can sample. My sister is pregnant right now and had a dream that my grandmother was visiting and comforting her. So it's interesting and powerful to be doing this project at the same time and kind of channel some of that energy.
