Personal Observations/Progress
- I bit the bullet and bought a higher-end graphics card for my PC. Part of this was based on my desire to see what was possible on the Rift for higher end machines. The other motivation was purely personal satisfaction and a birthday gift to myself! However, playing some of the games and experiences with the higher end card has been eye opening. Although most people may not have the higher end hardware, it is very inspiring to see what's possible with regard to textures, shadows and lighting. The further I go down the Rift rabbit hole, the further away I get from the Gear VR. I'm really drawn by the idea of making my VR experience visually impressive.
- I had a friend try out VR for the first time last night and watched her reactions and wonder with the experience. For the purpose of introducing people to VR, I always use the PSVR and the "Ocean Descent" experience because it doesn't require any interactions and it is really effective at immersing people in an underwater adventure. After that experience, I handed her the motion controllers for another experience and it was interesting to watch how she took to them. She's not a video gamer and it took her a while to just figure out how to hold the various controllers. Afterward, we talked about her experience which was very positive but there were some things she said that were notable. Her initial perception about VR was that it was something for people who play video games. She assumed it was all games and not necessarily something that would interest her. After experiencing it, she said she could see the potential for so many different experiences. Her comments affirmed my thoughts about VR as well. I feel that in order to reach a mass audience, VR has to have many different on-ramps. The VR industry must show the world that it's not just about gaming or fantastic interactive content.
Production Progress
Ongoing Task: Contractors
I have finally secured both a Concept Artist and a Modeler to help me further develop and realize the Angel character I sketched. I'm in the process of drafting agreements for both contractors. The Concept Artist will be working on initial sketches this week and hopefully completing the detail illustrations within a couple of weeks. The Modeler is anxious to get started (which is good) but can't begin until I have a final illustration of the character. The next contract role I need to secure is that of an animator. This role will be key for the project and I may try to tap the OLP group for leads.
Task: Create Characters
It's no secret that Fuse is an amazing tool to create free, Unity-ready models. I spent much of Wednesday creating two main characters and several extras and background characters for my project. My goal is to try to generate as many characters as I can before the Mixamo site change in August.
Task: Begin Scene Construction
This week my focus will be on the creation of the first scene of the experience. I've already started reviewing assets and building of list of elements I'll need. My goal is to have a rough scene mock up by the end of the week.
UPDATE: I spent a full day looking for, filtering through and finally purchasing the key assets for the first scene of my experience. I spent a good part of Thursday and Friday getting everything into Unity and placing them around. The coolest thing about building something for VR is the ability to actually move through the environment as I work on it! Working in Unity with the Rift is an incredible experience, but I wish there was a way to work with the headset on all the time! Perhaps in the future there will be a Unity VR plugin that will allow you to access the tools while standing in the grid. Anyway, I've got the main 'bones' and props of the scene together but now the tedious work of placing everything begins. This will likely take a couple of weeks to complete, light and optimize.
