Launchapd Dev Blog- 4th Entry- DevLog 757.004

[KingHedleyiii]

Ok- So I did a little math and figured out that in order for me to be able to submit to the Launchpad scholarship portal on Aug. 27, I need to essentially do 13 blog posts between now and that date. A little less than 1 every other day. In order to meet the demand with some expediency I decided to break down the remainder of my blog posts into sections I felt like were the most useful/practical, and most inspirational creativity-wise. I feel like a good balance of the 2 is important to keep the process interesting. With that said, my remaining blogs will be broken down into 6 sections within each post:

1. Audio, 2. Scripting, 3.Git Hub, 4. Made With Unity, 5. Storytelling/Narrative 6. Immersive Experience. In addition to the blog, I’ve decided to start keeping a ‘productivity journal’ on a daily basis to help keep myself accountable for stuff I need to be paying attention to, prioritizing, and *doing*. It’s been a great process for the last 2 weeks or so. You learn a lot about yourself and your process when all you do is write down what you get done. And try not to freak out about what you don’t. That being said, here’s the first install of the new format. I’ll attend to the previous blog’s James Baldwin subject matter in the next post.  That being said….

• Audio  

• Audio for VR talk, VRLA 8/6/16. Skullcandy Presents: Audio for VR: Robert Dalton (Dysonics), Oda Bjorling (MediaMonks), Sam Paschel (Skullcandy), & Martin Walsh (DTS, Inc.)

• sound as the emotional guide of your game/experience

• developed for situational awareness (3d audio); cockpit and fighter pilot training was 1st use

• we listen to music because it presses emotional buttons you want pressed

• BACCH 3D Sound from Princeton- check it out: https://www.princeton.edu/3D3A/Projects.html

• will mass adoption come from mobile deployment? Does it need to?

• Oculus added headphones to shipment kits to have a target marks for sound devs

• audio production going through paradigm shift (and Martin Walsh said he hates using that term); traditional flat viewing is 3rd person, but VR is 1st person

• What’s needed is to storyboard audio into production from get go

• not a single tool that allows you to do that right now (storyboard audio)

• right now all sound production is essentially happening in post production, which is like it's an after thought

• when visuals get shut off, you shift to audio to enhance your perception and experience

• start to push audio forward as critical component of VR is how it's going to push VR field forward

• we know what we don't know about possibilities in 3d audio

• the tools don't work together; even when same formats, channeling ordering is different amongst tools

• have to hack together a bunch of tools to make good 3d audio environment

• Apple 7 phone is talking abt not having a headphone jack, so what does that mean?

• what it HRTF?  (I did some digging- head related transfer functions). And why is it necessary to know about these in sound design?

• Amazon recently patented noise canceling headphones that listen for the sound of your voice; http://bit.ly/2ag3pEg ; “Amazon has recently been awarded a patent for a new design of noise-canceling headphones that can actively listen for distinct sounds — like sirens or someone shouting your name — and stop the noise-canceling functions of the headphones, allowing you to hear the outside world.”

• https://www.princeton.edu/3D3A/Projects.html  -- projects as important to know abt as the lab itself

• Scripting

• Javascript and UnityScript are the same thing

• Name of Classes has to match name of Scripts

• Classes aren’t allowed to have spaces or special characters; doing so causes an error in compiler

• A ‘comment’ is text inside a script, but it’s not code; it’s so people viewing code can read notes from original coder about what’s happening in the script, i.e. “//  Use this for initialization” on a MonoDevelop start page (usually indicated by a lighter grey text)

• Coding in JavaScript and C# is great way to learn both languages, and distinctions in functions, at same time

• You can add Scripts 2 different ways; in Project window, just underneath Project tab, hit ‘Create’ button. OR can hit ‘Add Component’ in Inspector, after you have selected a Game Object in the Hierarchy.

• Made w/ Unity  https://madewith.unity.com/ ;

• I like looking through the Made With Unity section for a couple reasons. First, it keeps you current with the types of games and experiences that are being made right now. They have a ‘Games We’re Playing This Week’ section on the page, so you know it’s super current. Second, when looking at it from a developer perspective, it gives you ideas of what’s possible with respect to all of the new technology that’s coming out, and how you could relate this tech to the experience you’re building yourself. Maybe if I see something that looks like a solution to a problem I’m having, I could reach out the the developer directly and ask how they solved the problem. No guarantee they’ll share their answer, but I hear the Unity community is pretty generous with knowledge. And it never hurts to ask.

• https://madewith.unity.com/stories/attention-unity-devs-submissions-are-now-open -- Unite 16 is the big annual Unity dev conference. This year it’s in LA Nov. 1-3rd. The submission portal to potentially earn you 2 free passes ($950 value), depending on if your submission is selected by the panel, closes Aug. 14th, 2016. More info below that’s from the Unite 16 website.

• What: Unite 16 is our annual developer conference and we're hosting a showcase gallery of up to 45 developers to display their awesome upcoming content. Submissions are open until August 14, 11:59pm PDT! When: Setup is October 31 and the event starts November 1 - 3, at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles Why: Show off what you're creating, be part of Unite, get awesome feedback and exposure to new audiences

• The game I liked looking at the most this week was ‘Inks’; it’s basically a pinball machine game that does some crazy artistry painting as the ball travels around the pinball machine. It’s beautiful, uses lively colors, and is pretty captivating to watch. It’s only for iOS, and I have an Android phone, so I haven’t played it yet, but I will be sure to check it out as soon as it’s available for Android.

• GitHub

• Downloaded and installed GitHub. Created an account (public- which is free. Figured I wouldn’t need the personal account for $7/month just yet until I really start building IP stuff for my company); My username is dhenry21, so if anyone is messing around on gitHub and would like to connect, that’s how you can find me

• Signed up for the ‘GitHub for Everyone’ webinar training Aug. 16 9am-12pm PST as an intro primer to get a good foundation in GitHub. Here’s where you can find more info on training within GitHub: https://services.github.com/

• I’m a little weary of spending 3hrs on a webinar for tech I have no idea about, but Mike Geig (@mikegeig) says that anyone who’s building stuff on Unity needs to know how to use GitHub, or some sort of ‘source control’ so you can keep track of all the code you’re writing in an organized format and be able to share it with others if you’re working in a team. Mike is a great trainer, I’ve learned a lot from his Unity tutorials, so if he says it’s needed, I believe him.

• Found the YouTube channel with the foundational lesson trainings for GitHub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyfwLX4HAxM&list=PLg7s6cbtAD15G8lNyoaYDuKZSKyJrgwB-

• Went ahead and did everything on the checklist for the webinar training so that way I wouldn’t have to worry about installing new tech and scrambling around to get it working the day of the webinar. Checklist can be found here: https://services.github.com/checklists/#everyone

• Installed the Text Editor which they recommend in GitHub called ‘Atom’. Haven’t had a lot of time to get familiar yet, but it looks really cool and I’m excited to check it out. Here’s the website: https://atom.io/

• Storytelling/Narrative  
  

• http://voicesofvr.com/411-living-stories-what-vr-can-learn-from-immersive-theater/

• Interview w/ Charlie Melcher. Founded The Future of Storytelling Summit to gather together the most cutting-edge innovators of telling immersive and interactive stories. For the past four years, they’ve been featuring more and more virtual reality technologies at their yearly summit, which is happening again this year on October 5th and 6th.

• Using code as a canvas for storytelling using interactive media

• A book w/ JJ Abrams called ‘S’; https://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642 ; book that inspired some pretty neat storytelling techniques. I’m looking forward to reading this

• High level take aways in future of storytelling (Melcher): haven’t figured out what the natural language of VR storytelling is. In movies it’s “pans, cuts, or montage’; important to have agency in your virtual space; most of things he’s seen so far in VR would be just as good, if not better, as regular film docs. So many filmmakers are picking up VR and using same techniques and approaches as they would to a film

• How do you let people have control over the narrative that’s happening; VR is ultimately supposed to be social- we’re only seeing beginnings of social now. Alex McDowell worldbuilding is important resource

• Local v. global agency 11:45 w/in podcast. Very interesting distinctions

• AI is tech that’s missing to allow us to have responsive narratives; perhaps read our moods or emotions and respond to us in a way that it doesn’t interrupt our experience or presence w/in story

• Living stories- personalized, responsive, immersive, multi sensoral- you’re living story. Powerful to point of being transformative. To meet emotional complexity of being alive

• Mentioned that The Void could play a big role in this

• Immersive Experience

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k12NZLh_Xvg -- Sleep No More (theatrical immersive experience) mentioned as one of the few experiences allowing viewer/participant to have agency in creation and outcome of story; Mentioned in Charlie Melcher interview of Voices of VR podcast

• http://worldbuilding.usc.edu/ --Established in September 2012 at the University of Southern California’s famed School of Cinematic Arts, the World Building Media Lab has emphasized the power of using technology as a vehicle to enhance storytelling capabilities. With explorations into Virtual and Augmented Reality, the WbML, has established itself as a leader at the forefront of technological-based entertainment.

[aprilarrg]

Loving your insights, I have a background in transmedia so I'm following your creative process and way of thinking regarding narrative storytelling. Will post more on that today, would love to hear your thoughts.  🙂