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Week 10: Oculus Launch Pad (Due August 27th Midnight)

Anonymous
Not applicable
Looking forward to seeing your updates on Week 10 - As a reminder I, Ebony am on vacation and will be returning Sept 4th. If you have questions ask them directly in the group to Gabor or Stephanie. Thank you 
55 REPLIES 55

kalcantara
Explorer

Hi OLP! This week started off slow but ended surprisingly better than I expected in terms of progress. The part-time programmer I was working with has had to pull away, so I’m back to working solo.

I also was traveling over the weekend and had to set up shop on another desktop computer. To my surprise the computer had Windows 7 running. So after half a day of clearing SSDs, installing a new operating systems, drivers, and Windows updates, and all that mumbo jumbo, I got everything up and running. It was great to finally spend a solid chunk of time on this! Learned some new areas for me: lighting and particle systems.

I also changed the opening scene for my demo. The experience should be like a tale from a storybook, but this wasn’t coming across in my original idea e.g. I’m a fox? I can run around and do what? What’s the point of this story? So I went back to the drawing board and found myself reminiscing on a trip to Japan. I looked through some old photos and found the part where I visited Fushimi Inari Taisha.

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The mountain is covered with hundreds and hundreds of torii gates and these fox statues, leading me to a new opening scene. Quick level thrown together below!

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With two weeks left in the program, I’m sure we’re all feeling the pressure to submit. It’s easy to go back and think about what could’ve/should’ve/would’ve happened. Sometimes things won’t turn out as expected, and you gotta work with what you’re given. At this stage, I'm keeping my head clear and chugging along!


AnwarBey
Protege
Hello. This week has been great. We are fine tuning and getting the experience to a state that has a point that starts and ends. Speaking of "start" menu ours takes place in space and we are working on getting a space ship to crash into a planet after you press start. Time is limited so We will see how that goes. 

More importantly we will be submitting to alpha build soon. We are looking forward to sharing our progress in virtual reality with you soon. Till then cheers and good night

aerialshading
Explorer
WE HAVE PLAYABLE!!!! 
I just got done with a marathon VO session with my audio guy who lives in Australia :open_mouth: It was my first time working with VO and it was a tough, tough session, but my guy is insanely talented and he walked me through the audio mixing process. It was great. Though this week was a general nightmare because I had to move in the middle of it and didn't have internet for most of the time, I'm so proud of my team because we have a really excellent experience so far. Unfortunately the next two weeks are gonna be crunch, which I hate to put us all through, especially since I and my modeler are both sick at the same time. (Here's something they don't tell you about game development- sometimes you schedule international VO sessions when you can barely get out of bed and you still have to do them :neutral:)

psparikh
Protege
Week 10: Tilt Brush Finished + Upload Meetups + Character Animations

During this past week, I began to realize that I simply need to wait for our character animations and tilt brush illustrations to finish in order to make my Unity development (and anxiety) efficient. So, I decided to step outside, take a breath of fresh air and have a short break from intense development. I went to an Upload LA event to hear an amazing talk by Asad Malik - someone I met briefly before once. It’s hard to summarize his incredible life story and vision in VR/AR; however, I was deeply moved. Growing up in Pakistan in the same town where Osama Bin Laden was executed years later, he spoke about the ‘simulated’ nature of war from an American perspective - that, in reality, people here view the war on terror as abstracted pieces on a chess board rather than real people losing families or having their country destroyed. Accordingly, his current passion for AR is an extension of his idea of people living in real simulations. He plans to use AR to help break people’s illusions (i.e. abstracting war) by showing what happens in other countries in real places in America. It was fascinating.


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In terms of project completion, I’m very excited to say that after 10 weeks our Tilt Brush paintings are finished! I repainted the environments (one night and one day versions), while Estella drew new character sequences. This means that the ‘memory’ portion of The Alchemist is now complete. The only thing left are the character animations. Then, I’ll have all the assets to glue everything together into the final film. Since 3D character animation is an intense amount of work, I imagine I’ll receive enough to finish a portion of the film before the Launchpad deadline. Hopefully, upon successfully receiving funding from this program, I’ll be able to finish the piece 🙂 

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madomfeh
Protege

This week, I continued integrating voice commands into the game interface. The team worked on character design and constructing the model for the main character.

We are also working on bringing the environment together, really trying to set up a  tropical scene, and creating an arena for battles.

We found the speech to be a bit tedious for the user in gameplay, so we are thinking of reorienting it as a health/spirit-replenishing mechanism.

virtuallyfifer
Protege

NeuroExplorer Week 10: Script with Narration 

The script and narration are complete! 

ENTER SIMULATION…


From the darkness, a glowing brain emerges from floating particles, turning slowly.


  1. This experience will take you through the evolution of the brain. You can electrocute neurons to activate brain functions with your hand-held brain machine interface, the neuron wand. Point the neuron wand at the brain and press the trigger to begin the experience.


black  to…


Breathing and heartbeats




ACT ONE: THE BRAINSTEM


2) At the beginning of sentient life, the brain stem evolved, ensuring simple creatures the mainframe for survival.


MEDULLA OBLONGATA


Around you materializes a pulsing pink tube, with glittering pathways on synapses, conducting current.


3) Welcome to the medulla oblongata, responsible for the involuntary functions you need to survive. This includes heart beat, breathing and salivation.


Here, the inspiratory and expiratory center control breathing in and out. How do you know when to breathe in and out?

Let’s travel upwards with the neurons to the pons to discover the rest of the respiratory centers.



PONS

4) Here in the pons, the Apneustic center receives signals on the ph level of the blood . Increased carbon dioxide in the blood lowers its pH. So upon receiving signal of low pH, the Apneustic center sends a message back down to the medulla’s inspiratory center to inhale.


The pons also contains nuclei that relay information on muscle and joint placement.



MIDBRAIN

5) These signals pass through the midbrain and on to the cerebellum…

Float upwards.


CEREBELLUM

A complex structure sprawls around you with symmetrical folds like staircases stretches out to your left and right. Along the middle is a pulsing mass of synapses, sending material up and down.


6) Welcome to the cerebellum, the coordinator and predictor of movement. Receiving information on the positioning of muscles and joints, balance signals from the inner ear, and sensory information on the environment around you, the cerebellum creates a virtual model of the body. This allows for your intuitive understanding of where you are in relation to your environment.


Running down the middle is the vermis, governing the muscles in your core.


Below you is the flocculonodular lobe, responsible for balance. It computes the correct position for your muscles and joints, sending a projection of correct movement up through thalamus to the neocortex!


Neurons light up and we move towards the thalamus.







ACT TWO: THE LIMBIC SYSTEM


7) For frogs and other simple creatures, the brain stopped there. The brainstem sufficed for the simple functions necessary for life. Enough to survive, but not enough to learn from past experiences.


Here in the limbic system, a secondary layer of the mind developed that allowed for feelings beyond instinct. This hub for emotion and simple memory gave ancient mammals emotional relationships and  a deeper understanding of their environment.


AMYGDALA


😎 Here we are above the amygdala, two almond shaped nuclei clusters that govern your emotional reactions.


Stimulation of the right hemisphere induces anxiety, sadness, and fear while the left can induce either positive or negative emotions.


Stimulate one of the amygdala to induce an emotional reaction.


9) Watch the central nucleus of the amygdala send a signal to the hypothalamus, the center of hormone production and distribution.





HYPOTHALAMUS



10) Here in the hypothalamus, distinct nuclei synthesize and secrete different hormones.  


When you stimulated the amygdala, it caused the release of hormones associated with fear responses such as sweating (ant. Anterior hypothalamic nucleus), blood pressure (Posterior_nucleus), and heart rate (MED. Dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus).


But this personal potion laboratory goes far beyond fear. It can make you tired, hungry, or even make you fall in love.


Stimulate the nuclei to release hormones from the pituitary. Try to find oxytocin, to counteract the fear hormones you released earlier.


11) Oxytocin is the key to social bonding, and promotes trust and intimacy.


It is here in the hypothalamus where your earliest memories are stored, implicit memories of emotions and associative learning. Let’s visit the other hub of memory!  








HIPPOCAMPUS


12) The hippocampus is the hub for spatial memory and recollection of information within memories. Memories are formed by changing the connections between neurons.


Use your neuron wand to create a new memory of how to get from point a to point B.


13) That Spatial memory is recorded here, but long term memories of events are sent on to the neocortex.


THALAMUS


14) Welcome to the thalamus, the middle man for the senses. Here, the thalamic nuclei receive sensory signals and send them to the neocortex for processing.


The thalamus also works with the neocortex to moderate consciousness.


Use your neuron wand to shut down the thalamus for sleep.


15) As you can tell, in a deep sleep the senses are not getting through to the neocortex. That’s why sound and light touch won’t wake you from a deep sleep.


You see the olfactory send yellow light through to the neocortex and the thalamus reboots.


16) That must be smell, the only sense that isn’t passed through the thalamus. That’s why Smelling salts, travelling through the olfactory bulb, can even wake you when you are unconsciousness.

Trigger to..

17)The olfactory bulb is nestled between the hippocampus and amygdala, which may be why smell has such a strong power to recall emotion and memory.  


Zoom out

18) It is the interconnections between these parts of the limbic system , called the Papez circuit which allow us to react emotionally to the world around us.


ACT THREE: THE NEOCORTEX


19) What allowed humans to build complex civilizations? The answer lies in the 8mm thick coating on the outside of our brain, the neocortex.


FRONTAL LOBE

20) With all the chatter in the limbic system telling us to procreate and eat all nearby sustenance, something had to be developed to give us some restraint. The frontal lobe is where rational thought is formed.


It also contains the most dopamine-sensitive neurons in the neocortex, resulting in an intricate dance between our rational thought and the dopamine rush one craves in the form of junk food, sex, or drugs. When you are low  on dopamine, you get bored and start looking for something to bring more dopamine. This is a primary cause of addiction.


However, during thought or meditation, the frontal lobes form a positive feedback loop with the dopamine neurons, causing a kind of natural high.


PARIETAL LOBE

21) Here in the parietal lobe, your sense of touch is well mapped out. With huge portions dedicated to your face and hands and less to other parts of your body, this describes why you are less sensitive in your knees than on your face.


TEMPORAL LOBE

22) The temporal lobe contains your memories. It receives new memories from the hippocampus and codes them for long term recall.

 

Conveniently located near the ears, the primary auditory cortex receives sensory information from the cochlea in your ears while secondary areas process the information into meaningful units such as words.


OCCIPITAL LOBE

23)The occipital lobe is the vision processing center.


The primary visual cortex decodes a low-level description of the orientation, spatial-frequency and color properties of the light entering your eye along the optic nerve. This then gets transferred to two streams.


The ventral stream deciphers "what" you are seeing, comparing the object to memories in your temporal lobe.


The dorsal stream decodes where it is in space, sending signals to motor actions if you need to move around the object or pick it up.




Zoom Out to full brain model once again.


24) The complex interactions between our three brain systems have allowed us to reshape our world and soon will redefine our relationship with our own brains. Hacking into these systems, could potentiate telepathy, remote mind control, and incorporation of AI as a fourth brain system. So use your neuron wand wisely.


TO BLACK


Replay button or Exit