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Week 5: Oculus Launch Pad 2018 - Due Aug 6 @ 11am PST

Anonymous
Not applicable
Starting to see alot of great momentum of art and commitment to project design and direction this week. Nice Work! 
Please share your updates on how things are progressing. 
100 REPLIES 100

maxellinger
Protege
This week I started putting together the very beginning sequence with scratch dialogue (AKA, me with a bunch of silly pitch filters) and the Unity Timeline. I spent a solid day in total frustration with the Timeline. Part of it was me, part of it was the amount of background conceptual understanding of Unity animation it requires (which I didn't have, now do), and part of it was the fact that it can still be kind of buggy. So anyone out there feeling similar frustrations, I FEEL YOU.

For the V/O, I'm committed to using local queer talent and decided to invest in a portable sound booth sphere. It's a relatively new thing. I got this one: https://www.astonmics.com/EN/product/halo/halo but there's a couple. Basically it cancels out room noise, or the acoustics of the space you're in. Otherwise recording in your room will sound like...recording in a room — instead of "nowhere in particular", which you want for a voiceover. I hear sometimes you can get around this by recording in a car with a cushy cloth interior but this seems more practical. I'm really into the result, and it's ultimately a lot cheaper than booking studio time. 

So now I have a draft of the opening of my game! The V/O is temporary, the music is temporary, but I think the look and feel is more or less there. Take a look! 

PASSWORD: cats 
https://vimeo.com/282989275 ;




Anonymous
Not applicable
This week is a little easier for me and I'm able to put more time into my OLP and Start projects (plus two VR project templates I am completing for clients) for the next two weeks. 

My OLP prototype is over halfway completed (code, assets) and now I'm putting my focus onto the documentation to get that ready to submit for our halfway checkin.  I also have a few trips scheduled to gather new content with a samsung 360 camera, android 360 camera and some new audio recordings (yeti microphone / garage band).  I plan to plug that into the temp content placeholders in my Unity3D project next.

That's all from me this week.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Week 5: VR Sea Legs

This week we continued to focus on developing our first areas.

We settled on a basic look and feel for the Conversion Area, and made final decisions on how the player converts from a digital projection. The basic idea here is that the player will need to build a pattern enhancer (yes, I do love Star Trek - why do you ask?). Once the player assembles the pattern enhancer, it will be clear to the player that they should step into the triangle. At this point, the pattern enhancer converts them into their game state, and they end up at the Laboratory.

The Laboratory received upgrades to the hub room - a new portal!

uu61dofrlhj7.pngSo fancy!

A fellow OLP member, Skye Shark, completed this work for us and it’s absolutely perfect. Thanks, Skye!

Seaside Town now has craft areas set up for completing quests. I completed the first draft for the music, placed it in the scene, and so far I’m happy with the results.

On the overall game, we also focused on character voicing requirements. I plan to record the main character in 2 weeks’ time.

vwilb3whtq37.jpg

Content Unlocked!

The area we are unlocking this week uses the basic flight mechanic in space. We’re calling this area SpaceDragon: First Flight. We will use some assets (namely the dragons) from our game SpaceDragon to create this prequel story for how our hatchling space dragons learned to fly.

So then... let’s talk about flight:

VR’s greatest advantage is the ability to experience situations outside real life. Everyone dreams of flying, so let’s talk about flying in VR!

In reality, all of us have a wealth of experience moving on the ground and (most of us) zero experience flying without the aid of an airplane. Because of this, many people feel discomfort when they perceive they have left the ground. Those with vertigo or fear of heights experience increased discomfort. What does this mean for flight in VR?

Movement intention to the rescue! We split our flight systems into Hand-guided and Rubberband, and now we’ll talk about the difference.

In Hand-guided movement, you point the controller and press the movement button. That’s where you go. For flight, you can point at any location in an orb, a full 360 degrees around you... well, until you run into a planet or an asteroid.

With Rubberband, you set an anchor point by holding down a trigger or button, and then pull your controller in the direction you want to travel. The direction and distance you pull the controller from the anchor point determines both your direction and your speed, and it gives you a granular control over your motion and velocity.

Team update:

Robin Moulder - Production, Music, Audio Engineer

Colin McComb - Production, Story, Narrative Design

Chris Castaldi -  Programming, Systems and Game Design

Cordelia Wolf - 3D Art, Animation, Level Design, FX

Christina Irwin - 2D Graphics, UI, Marketing Design, Website

We have several other amazing people lined up for voice acting: Maureen Honoré and O (yes,  he goes by O).

Next week we will focus on grounded FPS and unlock a new area!

beachdaystudios
Protege


Week 5 / Dev Blog Post

We are celebrating
an exciting milestone this week… we have a very, very early prototype! Yay!




00tx36berxmo.jpg




What a great feeling
to go into our vision in VR, even if it is a super early version.




So many emotions and
passion that go into a project like this. I am sure we can all relate to the
blood, sweat and tears that is inevitable when you put your all into something,
when you spend every minute on one goal. It's both exhausting and exhilarating.




Week 5 - Early Prototype




  • We decided on an art style.
  • We have a
    rendered environment model

  • We have a very,
    very early working prototype



Hang Ten!





Keith Patterson




 a3e5f9sjg8j6.png



BeachDayStudios.com

"Make Every Day A Beach Day!"



belmorea
Explorer
Week 5: This week was a bit slow - we are still troubleshooting the audio issues present in remote scenarios. We’ve been soliciting some help from network engineers since the primary issues seem ICE related. Getting this part nailed down is really important for the social element of the gameplay, so we are focusing a lot of energy on getting it right. We have made some improvements to the environment and locomotion as well, but, again, the focus right now is getting the audio fixed. I may have an ask out for some testers who have different cell phone and wifi providers (our team is all AT&T and all have Google Fiber or AT&T wifi) if I can’t find a group locally.

maja_manojlovic
Protege

This past week I
made a decision to purchase a Rylo 360 video camera and a Zoom H2n portable
recorder. I am traveling to Slovenia to visit my family and friends this
Monday, and I decided to get this portable equipment. My goal is to familiarize
myself with the possibilities and challenges of 360 filming. I know my sound
equipment is most likely not going to enable me to experiment much, but, I do
want to figure out how to combine sound and image to enable the user of my VR
project to “enter” the micro-space of the plants, trees, water, and so on.



ypfi0b754bi3.jpeg



Basically, if I’m
trying to enable the user to feel an emotional proximity (and empathy) with her
environment, images are definitely not going to accomplish it. I want the sound
to allow the user to inhabit that plant, tree, etc. An example of the effective
use of sound to move from outside inward is the opening sequence of David
Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986). Lynch is
well known for his experimentation with sound and the importance he gives it in
creating that visceral atmosphere in his films (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwuzI8Y0uW0).
His soundscapes manage to represent the interiority either of the viscera or,
the psyche. Of course, in his films, those spaces are most often troubled,
reprehensible and/or terrifying.



I, on the other
hand, want to create a similar sense of interiority, but with an opposite
effect: it should be soothing, pleasant, beautiful – and different. I want the
soundscape that the user enters to be something distinctly different from what
we are used to and what we know how to “read” automatically.



My overall plan is
to go into the mountains and forests in Slovenia and film a 360 moment that
could work well as a rich VR experience.



4y4begw8wo1d.jpg



 



 

shashkes
Protege
This week we opened our web site: emovji.com
Where you can learn a bit more about the idea's behind the asynchronous messenger platform that will let users send the movements to each other.

We also worked on options for our logo.

We'd love to hear which of the two options you like more.

The top one is inspired by the the movements component of Emovji and the bottom one is inspired by the smily emoji

\

ortht
Explorer
Hello Everyone, hope you all had a good week. I was glad I was able to catch the tech talk this week becuase it seemed to have some relevant information about getting 360 video up and running in Unity. I plan on looking into this more in the coming week. I was able to go out and get some test footage of a bicycle race at the local velodrome which was really cool. I hadn't been there to see a race in ages and now that I have gone I can't figure out why I haven't been there in so long, it was really exciting! Anyways back to the point, I took my camera around to different locations at the track to capture the action from different angles. The sunset was really amazing so hopefully that looks good in the video too becuase part of what makes 360 video so exciting is to really be able to capture the whole atmosphere of the event. Hopefully I can drop these videos into Unity soon and add some interactivity. The footage wont be synced with each other because it was shot with one camera, but hopefully the idea should come across. It will be nice in the future to capture an event with multiple cameras. 

kinjutsu
Protege
0q1wem0atcie.jpg


Hello all,


Hard to believe we're almost to the half way point.
 This past week I've continued on the prototype, but it feels like
progress was slow going.  Hoping to pick up speed again soon.


This week's rundown

  • Worked on the mid-point check in documents
  • Completed a first pass on the hub level art
  • Initial work started on the two NPC character models
  • Started to build the narrative system


lq7ymf0cbx1t.jpg

I finally completed the initial art pass on the hub level, called
"Mulberry Market."  It's still very rough, but the buildings and foliage
are now blocked in, and I've established the color scheme and basic
lighting.  The player will be situated in the middle (the big brown area
in this pic :P) and the terrain sits a little below eye level as they
guide Post through the town.  

 The environment artist in me wants
to keep working on it, but there's more important programming tasks to
move onto for now.  Time permitting, it will be getting a second pass
when the main gameplay systems are all in place. 


Goals for next week

  • Mid-point check in docs submitted
  • Narrative system completed
  • Mail delivery system started
  • Continue on character models and animations

Signing off for now!

@elysebk  |  elysebk.com
Oculus Launchpad Project: Mail Snail