Jan 2, 2018 - #2017BestNine, Mixed Reality, Mixed Bag

I'm back! The past few weeks were tough with working full time as a grand juror and the holiday season upon us, I barely had the time or energy to do dev work or write this blog.  But I have a couple cool things to post about not the least of which is this freaking cool video of the "2017 best nine" posts on instagram!:

Click here to go to the original instagram post.

I found the 2017bestnine.com web site and had fun watching it change from day to day as my newer posts picked up more likes. But the image alone wasn't good enough for me so I turned it into a video version which in my opinion is 10 times better.

I am really grateful for the audience I've found via Instagram and Twitter.  It really motivates me when I can connect with people this way. I'm hoping to strengthen my relationship with my audience over the next year while I figure out this social media phenomenon. But it's also really important to me to start generating real tangible work, like playable builds and whatnot. I'm dying to post a build of one of my experiments on itch.io . You might say I'm "itching" to post something, hahahaha!

HTC Tracker and Mixed Reality:

My HTC Vive Tracker finally arrived and so I'm trying to attach it to my web cam and use it for shooting mixed reality videos.  This had me scratching my head at first because basically I was presented with the pieces but had to figure out how to put them all together.  What I knew was that I needed to download the Vive Input Utility but then I basically hacked together my own setup, not knowing if this is the correct way to do it or not but here goes...

Basically, I used the "ViveRig" prefab to get access to my tracker in the unity scene and I parented a unity camera to that GameObject. I eyeballed the focal length and transforms a little and assigned the output of that camera to "Display2".  So when I hit play in the Unity Editor I can open a second Game window set to Display2.  Then in my capture software I'm seeing my webcam, the VR view and also Display2 which is the "tracked" camera within the game.

Using this hacked setup I was able to hack this video together:

The virtual and real-life cameras didn't line up perfectly but I think the effect is still pretty cool.  There was also a lag between the two cameras which I had to adjust in the Final Cut Pro.  As I was typing the above description of my setup I noticed that there's another prefab that comes with ViveInputUtility called confusingly [ViveInputUtility] which has a game object called [ExternalCamera] under its hierarchy. I wonder if that's what I should have been using. I guess I'll be testing that out soon...

But there are a few more things I need to set up to make a really compelling mixed-reality video... I need a way to render foreground elements and/or a depth pass so I can sandwich myself between objects in the final comp.  I also need to capture a proper greenscreen recording of myself so that the background renders behind me.

Here's a video I found about making mixed reality VR:

Big Mistake

The funny thing about the mixed reality lightsaber video was that as I was originally typing up a blog post over a week ago, I commented on the bright bloom of the lightsaber in that video and my disappointment that in my VR rig I don't get the same effect. It was just then that I realized I had forgotten to enable "Allow HDR" on that VR camera rig causing weeks of frustration and several lackluster lightsaber effects in my video posts. Here is a post I made immediately after the correction:

Behind the scenes:

With the return of the hdr bloom (glow) effect, all the work I had done over the past few weeks to dither the trailing edge of the blade trail is difficult to appreciate.  In its current state it deteriorates into an inverted grid pattern which looks more like a particle system which is what I've wanted from the start. Unfortunately it isn't visible in the above video for 2 reasons, 1) the bloom covers it up, and 2) the trail dissipates too quickly.  In the long run I think the dithered energy trails will be useful in another iteration with longer trails perhaps, or they will end up in another game entirely. But I'm actually very happy that I found a way to deteriorate the edge without reducing the brightness of the effect.

Here's an early iteration of the dithered edge that I referred to as a "waffle edge". I considered it a faled experiment at the time but it inspired me to rotate the pattern to make a "crosshatching" effect:

Here is the final dithered edge effect I was looking for. Technically this was a failed attempt to make a "crosshatching" effect which resulted in what I wanted in the first place which proves two wrongs can make a right ;)

What I think I should be doing:

I'm looking into mesh cutting algorithms so I can slice stuff up with the lightsabers.
I'm also researching spline-based procedural geometry because I'm just into that stuff.
Maybe I shouldn't admit this but I kind of want to work on my head-exploding game and make the explosions more spectacular...
I definitely think I should merge the bees game with the lightsaber and make it so you're chopping up killer bees.
I'd really like to spruce up the lightsaber sounds and make them a lot more dynamic, add some sparks too...

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What I'm watching:

With all of my Star Wars Themed posts, and with the recent release of The Last Jedi, I decided to re-watch the original trilogy, i.e. Episodes 4,5, & 6. But to be honest, before that I tried to watch Eps 1 thru 3, an experiment cut short as soon as Hayden Christensen entered the picture.

I can't remember the last time I watched the original Star Wars Trilogy but this time I really loved it. And even though I consider Empire to be the best of the 3, I was really moved by Return Of The Jedi. The pacing and character development is really great. I didn't even mind seeing Hayden Christensen for about 3 seconds.

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What I'm playing

"This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed."

One of the weirdest games of all time is called Doki Doki Literature Club.  I had seen it listed on the Steam charts for several months, but since I'm not into anime or virtual dating games I never investigated it... It turns out it's a horror game in disguise but it's so much more than that! Unfortunately, the game was basically spoiled for me because I had already experienced it in a youtube playthrough.  But that didn't stop me from downloading it and trying to play it on my own for 2 reasons.  It's free, and the game changes based on the choices you make.

But be warned, it is actually very very disturbing.  Make sure you read all of the disclaimers before you download it.  I think it's a work of art, some of the most deeply disturbing aspects of the game are also refreshing if that makes sense. I don't want to ruin it for people who feel like checking it out.