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Installation 86 - Oculus VR University Project

Zupecki
Honored Guest


EDIT: We have since finished University and have reached a level of quality that we are quite happy with... being our first 3D project! The framerate needs some attention (apologies) and we have another month until our graduation show. Below are some amendments to make the post more relevant, while also illuminating what we plan to address in the coming month. As always, feedback is welcome!

Requirements - Xbox 360 Controller, Oculus Rift.

So this is a third year, 12 week project for 1/4 subjects that my team and I are working on at University at the moment. (We've since finished, woooo!).

Last semester we did a 2D platformer (http://www.qdotbit.com - site and game still under development and requires Xbox360 controller) and made the transition to the 3D Oculus project this semester.

The goal;
A passive, space flight simulator where the user can explore and discover native flora and fauna. The experience will be a three stage experience, culminating the journey to the discovery of a colossal sized creature.

The experience is intended to be slow, exploratory and relaxing.

edit: An embedded narrative has been implemented and we hope to heighten this even more. The theme is "Human Impact" which you'll discover throughout.

--

General attention list;

1) Load-freeze at half way point.
2) SFX removed/tweaked/added/created etc.
3) Another lighting and art pass.
4) A new start area, before the 'Building' area - this area will be full alien ecosystem without a human element - so as to bolster the embedded narrative more strongly.
5) Art asset pass - some assets require updating.
6) Controls - need optimizing/orientation reset needs to be implemented.
7) Mouse cursor remove.
😎 Controls screen to be added.

--

So that's pretty much it, I guess.

I hope you enjoy where it's at and we'd love some feedback - be brutal, yet constructive... we welcome that!

Windows - https://www.dropbox.com/s/7pdyqujpp8pvd2h/I-86.rar

Let me know if anything is funky with the link!

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CONTROLS
RT - Accelerate
LT - Decelerate
Sticks - Orientation
A - Stabilize to horizon (little buggy)
B - Flashlight ON/OFF
X - Held with RT is a speed boost.
Y - Turn on HUD locators for areas of interest.
Start - Quit.

Thanks guys,
~ Zupecki.
14 REPLIES 14

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hey

First off, overall I really like it. Feels like a great way to get into the rift. No real motion sickness and it looks pretty good!

As far as thoughts...

1) The "ship" seems to respond almost a little too fast. It feels less like a ship and more like a controllable camera in that respect. Not sure if that makes sense.

2) If that's supposed to be a chair I'm sitting in (behind me) it's huge. In fact the ship just seems to big.

3) Maybe add the ability to boost, for those open areas where you may want to go a little faster.

Overall nice work, I will sticky this thread to see how it progresses 🙂

Zupecki
Honored Guest
"nerocom" wrote:
Hey

First off, overall I really like it. Feels like a great way to get into the rift. No real motion sickness and it looks pretty good!

As far as thoughts...

1) The "ship" seems to respond almost a little too fast. It feels less like a ship and more like a controllable camera in that respect. Not sure if that makes sense.

2) If that's supposed to be a chair I'm sitting in (behind me) it's huge. In fact the ship just seems to big.

3) Maybe add the ability to boost, for those open areas where you may want to go a little faster.

Overall nice work, I will sticky this thread to see how it progresses 🙂


Hey!

Thanks so much for taking the time to try our little project and offer your thoughts!

1) This is definitely a good piece of feedback as we were having a brief 'ship physics' discussion the other day! Hopefully we have enough time to give it some inertia - but I'm glad you raised it because we weren't giving it enough attention. Hopefully we have time to get this happening!

2) Great point! We did just throw the mesh in the other day (it was just finished) and in all honesty we haven't played with the scale yet but this is a great point and one we'll keep in mind going forward!

3) I'm glad you mentioned this! Originally it was too fast and people had trouble maneuvering, but now I think it is definitely too slow. Especially considering we're looking at adding a larger open space to the final. My original line of thinking was that the ships A.I would tighten/loosen the speed of the ship based on the space you're in - essentially looking out for the Player and ensuring the experience remains a fluid and passive as possible... so people don't bump into things a whole heap. But in saying that, it might be really nice to offer control of the speed variable over to the Player - we'll have a test!

--

Lastly, thanks again - we reallllllllly appreciate this! I was beginning to get worried that no one would offer their thoughts so I can't thank you enough for participating!

I'm glad you liked it overall and there'll be more to come soon 😄

~ Zupecki

Anonymous
Not applicable
Of course! I've got this thread subscribed, so when you do your next update, I'll check it out. I really do think you guys did a great job. One of my favorites so far.

If you need someone to test let me know. I have a mac as well, can test with both 🙂

drash
Heroic Explorer
Ouch, almost a month and I finally got around to trying this one out. Been too busy! I see that the download link is now down but I still had a copy from before. I'm guessing your 5 weeks is almost up at this up, but I'll list my thoughts anyway just in case:

1) I could look around, but I couldn't move around, even with a wireless 360 controller plugged in before starting up the experience. I tried every key and every gamepad button. 🙂 Nothing seems to do anything. Running on Windows 8 64-bit. Not sure what I missed?

2) Agree with nerocom on the issue of the chair's scale. Looking behind you, the back of the chair looks like a giant granite slab several feet away.

3) Despite #1 and #2, I had a nice time just taking in the initial view and the music you've chosen really pairs well with the visuals. Things in the distance were interesting enough to want to go there to take a closer look.

4) When the music loops, it's obvious (it fades out, then restarts, kind of kills immersion).

5) The mouse cursor is visible and I have to move it out of the way.

6) No way to quit unless I do Alt+F4 (which not everyone is going to know to do).


Looking forward to more of this! 🙂
  • Titans of Space PLUS for Quest is now available on DrashVR.com

Zupecki
Honored Guest
Hey man, thanks for the feedback - much appreciated!

I'll address your points one at a time for convenience!

1) This issue should be resolved in the latest build - I'm not sure why your input wasn't working, but lets get you to try the latest when I upload very shortly! Sorry about this and if the problem persists, again, I'll get deeper into sorting it out!

2) The chair scale has been fixed - yay 😄

3) Thanks for the compliment - very appreciated!

4) The non-looping music was an early test and our sound guy since moved away from music to work on SFX for our final presentation. Due to this, the music is currently removed and will be added again very soon. The SFX in there at present also needs a lot of tweaking for appropriate levels, and some SFX need another pass altogether.

5) The mouse cursor was visible inside the Oculus? This isn't something I've had happen for me - so let me know if it happens for you in the latest build and I'll look further into this one, too!

6) The alt+f4 quit is still there as we pushed our final time into real-time quality and haven't addressed any sort of usability like this, yet.

--

Our University puts on a presentation night with dinner and drinks, and public access, in around a months time. In the next month (after taking this week off) we aim to have some more things done. These include, but are not limited by, the following;

1) Framerate address. The current build gets a little hitchy at times, so we'll be optimizing the build.
2) Music loops completed and implemented.
3) SFX removed/tweaked/added/created etc.
4) Another lighting and art pass.
5) A new start area, before the 'Building' area - this area will be full alien ecosystem without a human element - so as to bolster the embedded narrative more strongly.
6) Art asset pass - normal maps haven't been applied to everything yet, and some of the low poly assets need a bit of technical attention (silhouette, more efficient UV unwrap etc).
7) Controls - during production, the controls kind of slipped by the wayside and I'd like to implement more intuitive controls.
😎 More inertia on the ship.

If you think of anything I've missed, please let me know!

Thanks again for having a go!

Zupecki
Honored Guest
Update coming very soon!

Zupecki
Honored Guest
New and final version linked to thread - we'd love some feedback on this guys!

Thanks a bunch 🙂

Anonymous
Not applicable
Just saw this linked from a Reddit thread on the most recent Rift demos, and decided to try it out.

Really cool atmosphere / visuals, and good music too. It feels very much like an alien world (and a bit like flying around on the world from the movie Avatar). Super nice just to fly around and soak in the atmosphere, and since it's a cockpit-style game there's no motion sickness either. I can see this becoming a demo I show off to people (my current default cockpit-style demo is First Law).

I ran into some yaw drift after 5-10 minutes of flying around, which resulted in my having to turn sideways on my couch to keep looking forward. Adding a key to recenter the Rift camera view / yaw would be much appreciated.

DillonRobinson
Honored Guest
I'm going to be totally honest about how I experienced this demo, and hope I don't come off as a turd.

I was downloading demos left and right last night while smoking copious amounts of ....something..

And then it peaked when I played your demo here.

Holy shit.

I'm sure on its own it's fantastic. But in the state of mind I was in while playing this last night...that was phenomenal. I was completely 100% immersed. It felt bizarrely real and alien. Very cool! Great atmosphere.

I just couldn't figure out how to actually play the game, though. I eventually was chasing sky-jellyfish, and an arrow popped up directing me to one of them, but nothing happened when I touched it.

Good work!
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