cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Eden River - An Oculus Rift Relaxation Experience (Xpost)

UnelloDesign
Honored Guest
Eden River is the latest vr experience from Unello Design. It was designed in Unity3D and is intended to induce a relaxed state of mind. You fly above a river through a forest steering left and right by tilting your head.
Collecting the flowers will change the music, but this is a non-essential part of the game. If you wish you can just cruise through at your own pace. If there's any part of the game I'm looking for feedback on it's the flowers. Part of me really likes them and the way they change the music, but part of me thinks they make the game less relaxing.



Check out the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsJ1Ca_6ng4&feature=youtu.be

Download for free for Mac, PC and Linux:
http://www.unellodesign.com/oculus-rift-demos/

Soundtrack is now up as well:
https://soundcloud.com/aaronlemke

Let me know what you think!
8 REPLIES 8

ricard2798
Honored Guest
This demo was really good (in my opinion). this demo is 60% of something I wanted to do for an oculus game. I wish I had the tech know how to do this kind of thing 😞

DeepRifter
Honored Guest
I really enjoyed this as well. I agree with other posters that it would be nice to be able to change the speed. I feel that there is a great market for these relaxing slow paced experiences. I love Half Life and other intense games on the
Rift but am always looking forward to slower paced experiences where I can just relax and enjoy amazing environments. I can't wait to see what else you come up with. Regarding the flowers, I was really hoping that they would give me some sort of longer lasting cool visual effect rather than the blue color that comes and goes so quickly. Kind of a visual payoff for making the effort that also enhanced or altered the mood some. I am not as likely to grab flowers in future plays as the payoff isn't really worth it. Fantastic stuff!!!

AdamsImmersive
Honored Guest
Terrific! Mac version works great. And despite zipping along at a good speed, I felt zero VR symptoms. Maybe because of the lack of starting and stopping, I guess?

I like the giant scoreboard at the end--a neat little touch.

And I'm fascinated by the concepts I've seen here with Rift-only controls. I just have to do something Rift-only! The way you use banking to steer feels neat, plus it lets you freely look to the side and back without changing course.

Suggestion:

The background trees look like normal-sized familiar trees located very nearby--yet they are actually (virtually?) massive and extremely distant, like any skybox.

At first, I thought: the trees should be mountains or something distant. But they feel of big trees arching over (and under) you is part of the artistic experience, something mountains and empty sky can't replace.

So here's a thought: how about mixing some false color into the leaves--make them (partly?) multicolored like the lily pads are. Then they wouldn't tie into our preconceived notion of "normal trees" and would be easier to accept as gigantic distant trees. Also, since they are SO distant, it might feel right to have some distance haze: you could just fade the trees image a bit (uniform 25% overlay of white or a muted color?).

Anyway, thanks! This will be among my top demos to show "newbies" I'm sure.
Morgan Mac OS XUnity

Anonymous
Not applicable
Great experience, very calm and relaxing. One suggestion: It would be nice to see a type of canoe you are in when you look down, and virtual Oars would be great (that you have to use to row the bow) probably that you would have to use with the hydra, or (the lazy way, keyboard button)


cheers!

thelandofthedav
Honored Guest
I loved this. The only thing i wish was available was the ability to slow it down a bit. So you can spend more time enjoying looking around you at the amazing surroundings.
But as someone else mentioned even though it moves along at a decent speed i did not get any VR sickness. Nice Job!!!!

KBK
Protege
next, would be the integration of the tree line moving into the situation, becoming part of the motional aspects of the animation.

Then, to move into the trees, to begin to move above the surface of the water, upward, into the trees.

Then, to move to the treetops. to be moving into the trees and treetops.
To fly among the treetops, or go back down the water. The player chooses.

Then, to move toward slightly mountainous terrain, or undulating. where the treetops go into valley-ish areas, so the person is gently separated from flying among the treetops.

Then to mix small fog like and cloud cover into this now mildly undulating terrain.

Then to make fluffier clouds, and more mountainous terrain, so there is always something to integrate with.

Then to move to clouds, fluffy clouds, to fly in and among the clouds then, just the clouds.

Then, to fly above the clouds.

Keep moving it up.

I liked it very much, but.....wanted more.
Intelligence... is not inherent - it is a point in understanding. Q: When does a fire become self sustaining?

AdamsImmersive
Honored Guest
Oh--and thanks for sharing the soundtrack, too. It's nice work.
Morgan Mac OS XUnity

Dexter111
Honored Guest
Nice experience, the movement is somewhat too fast to be entirely "relaxing" and befitting the music though and the first time around I didn't realize I could change my path by tilting my head left or right. :roll:

And yes, the flowers do make the game less "relaxing" if you are compulsively trying to collect them. 😄