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Contextual & Theoretical Studies 1

CTS – More thoughts (27/03/22)

I really didn’t have a ton of thoughts from this session. The only thing that really stood out was Steve Jobs presenting the IPhone for the first time. This was one of the biggest steps for touch screen technology and the crowd reflected that with their cheers. Actually something that interested me quite a lot was the unified optimism about this new tech. I think the reason for that was because the world hadn’t seen the dangers of a new tech like this. Nowadays if you presented a social tech that was meant to be widely used it would be met with a lot more hesitance and I think that’s good. Meta is working on AR glasses that are paired with a wrist controller. Based on how you move your hand you can control the AR display on your glasses. An example they showed is overlay of text messages that you can twist your wrist to browse through. I’m not sure how you would type a reply yet though. They also showed that you could take pictures by making a different hand gesture. I’m not sure how this will go down with privacy laws but its obvious Facebook has never cared about that.

Okay so I just went back to re-read the article and found this.

“The glasses will come with a “neural interface” band that allows the wearer to control the glasses through hand movements, such as swiping fingers on an imaginary D-pad.  Eventually, he said the band will let the wearer use a virtual keyboard and type at the same words per minute as what mobile phones allow.”

So there is the answer to how you would reply to messages.

Here is a link to this article, it’s very interesting and I highly recommend taking a look.

This is Meta’s AR/VR hardware roadmap for the next four years – The Verge

The article ends with

“Meta is planning to rely on its existing business model of advertising to help it make money off these future devices. Himel said the company thinks it can make a higher average revenue per user than what it makes currently in social media, thanks to a combination of selling virtual goods, optional add-on’s like cloud backups, and AR ads.

“We should be able to run a very good ads business,” he said. “I think it’s easy to imagine how ads would show up in space when you have AR glasses on. Our ability to track conversions, which is where there has been a lot of focus as a company, should also be close to 100 percent.”

“If we’re hitting anything near projections, it will be a tremendous business,” he said. “A business unlike anything we’ve seen on mobile phones before.””

This is really sad to me and I worry for the future of this tech. VR/AR have so much potential to better understand each other and further the connections humans share. But instead companies are looking at it as a tool of manipulation to encourage people to buy. Maybe this is just what you have to do as a big company to keep the investors happy but damn it is sad. Jaron Lanier talks about an alternative future that is far too complex to explain here. I just wanted state that as some think that this advertised manipulation is the only way, it is not. I will put my energy into tech for good and I hope someday I can make a lasting impact. It’s too bad UAL is such a waste of money and time. The people and content are so basic that I was beginning to think VR was basic as well. If it wasn’t for people like Margaret and Lauren, I would have given up on this field entirely. I worry for all future students that wont reach their full potential due to this class. Not everyone will get a chance to meet Lauren and Margaret.

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Contextual & Theoretical Studies 1

CTS – What caught my attention today (02/20/23)

David had another thought provoking lesson today that I really enjoyed. Half because the material was interesting but also because it was very interactive. A lot of the material provoked conversation and I always love discussing these things with my classmates. It’s really interesting to hear perspectives from people with AND without experience. I love to observe opinions about these topics and more specifically, how peoples experiences influenced them. A couple things that stood out to me from this lesson were:

  1. Thomas A. Furness – I love to research the founders of VR to learn about their original vision for VR. Every time I have done this I find that their original vision offers a refreshing look at what the software could be used for. From what I’ve found, a lot of them would be disappointed with the current state/focus of VR. Terrance Mckenna, an American ethnobotanist, even said in an interview about VR that “ The moment is now come to bring in the playwrights, the artists, the designers, the architects have already been involved, but people in the arts need both to be informed that this is going on and they have to bring their insights into this community. Otherwise, as one of the other speakers said tonight, we’re in danger of seeing it just turn into 3 dimensional computer games.” This interview took place in 1991 at Cyberthon. (I think so at least, it was actually quite hard to find this info)
  2. Mel Slater – I found this guy interesting because he has done a lot of extensive research into what actually makes VR work. I think some of his findings could be very important to keep in mind when I want to create something immersive
  3. McKayla the AI influencer – This was interesting because it made me wonder if there will be a point where there are AI OnlyFans accounts. Then of course I started wondering about AI pornstars. I wonder if the future will host services where you pay for a subscription that allows you to generate your own porn. This would open a real can of worms. I hope this doesn’t catch on.
  4. Proprioception (6th sense) – This was quite interesting and I don’t fully understand the concept yet. From what I took away from it, proprioception is the ability to know where your limbs are without actually seeing them. For instance, you know where your hands are when you are in complete darkness. I think it also ties into how you can navigate your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night as you are familiar with the space. David also mentioned a good point which is that it is easier to navigate your room when you are in complete darkness than when you are in virtual reality. I wonder if this is solely due to the fact that in VR you are distracted by visual things when in darkness you can focus completely. Not sure, either way it seems interesting to explore. I also think there is potential here to use it to my advantage when creating something immersive.
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Contextual & Theoretical Studies 1

CTS – VR Otherworld Review

A couple weeks back I went to Otherworld with a couple of friends. This was the first VR experience I’ve been to. The building is meant to feel futuristic. The room was a long hall with pods on either side. A white table runs down the middle of the hall with an animated purple marble like texture projection mapped onto it. At the back of the hall is a bar.

When we first walked in we were unsure of where to go, very quickly we were met by a guy wearing white robes. He looked like he was part of some cult. Anyway, he gave us a brief rundown of how Otherworld works. He explained that we will all go into an individual pod where we will use controllers, a VR headset and a pair of headphones. He then used an iPad that was built into the table to explain how Otherworld worked, where to find games and what to do if you get lost. Soon enough we were in our own individual pod setting up our gear. One of the cult members helped us put it on though so it wasn’t bad at all. Once we were in, we were met with another intro video meant to familiarize us with VR and the controls. After finishing that, we moved through a portal and were dropped onto a mountain in the Otherworld. Instantly I heard my friends around me as they oriented themselves with the environment. How the map works is that there are different season zones, spring, summer, winter, etc. Each zone has a set of different games that you can choose to play. In order to play them, your whole team has to walk to the zone and all join one of the games. We already had a look at some of the games so we knew where we wanted to go. As we were all at the top of the mountain, we had to slide down a big ice slide in order to get to our destination. As we began to slide, I felt wind blowing past me. Once we were all at the bottom, we had to walk through a gate that had torches on either side. As we walked past the gate I felt heat from the torches. Once we made it to the game, we all tried to play. It turned out I was actually in the wrong game. Long story short we ended up having to press a “Help” button to call one of the “overseers” to help us. He loaded all of our characters into a game called Cook Out. The goal of this game is to work as a team to create unique sandwiches within a timeframe. We had a lot of fun playing this but eventually decided to give another game Hyperdash a try. Eventually our time was up and we had to leave. We all had a lot of fun but agreed that there were some flaws with Otherworld.

  1. The biggest thing for me was that all of the games Otherworld had to offer, were not unique to Otherworld. All of them are public games that anyone with a VR headset can buy and play. We realized that Otherworld isn’t really about playing a game but more so about renting a VR headset. Because all of us already have VR headsets, it felt like a waste.
  2. We got the cheapest time slot available and it still cost each of us 18 pounds for only 40 minutes. Some of my friends were 10 minutes late plus the additional 5 to get set up and say another 5 for the tutorial and actually navigating to the game. This left us with about 20 minutes of actual game play. A pound a minute is far too much to play VR with your friends. Back when I visited Amsterdam, I found that you could purchase sexual favors for this much. Sure this isn’t going to be the highest end lady of the night but it still proves my point that this is an expensive experience.
  3. I mentioned it a bit before but getting into the same game was far too hard. I like the idea and I like how you have to first explore the Otherworld a bit but this function didn’t work great on such a short timeframe. I would also like to state that Cook Out didn’t have any wind or heat added into it, it was only hyperdash that had a bit of wind. I feel like Cook Out could’ve had something really good if they had heat flowing out from the pans that you are cooking on. It felt like only in the Otherworld could you actually experience what the pod was capable of.
  4. The pod was just big enough so if you were standing in the middle in a T pose, your arms wouldn’t touch the walls. This was fine but anyone who plays VR knows you drift around. I kept finding myself hitting the walls with my arms and then immediately apologizing as I thought a worker had come in and I had hit him. Eventually I realized to ignore it and just keep playing but it definitely took me out of the moment a couple times.
  5. Another thing I noticed near the end of the experience was the wire attached to my headset. I must’ve been turning in one direction more than the other because the wire got very twisted and tangled up in my hair. It also kept tapping my shoulder which of course made me take the headset off as I thought it was another cult member trying to get my attention.

Now I would like to note down a couple of things that I enjoyed about the experience.

  1. If you do not already own a VR headset, you get to experience one for 20 pounds rather than 400 which is roughly what they cost new.
  2. Because you have overseers monitoring everything, they can really help/get you what you need. If you all want to join a game, just say so and you can sit back while everything is worked out for you.
  3. The wind and heat was a really cool addition. Specifically the wind though. Something about the wind really took me out of the stuffy pod and brought me into a bigger open space. It also really helped prevent motion sickness for some reason.
  4. The headsets were comfortable and I wasn’t constantly adjusting it.
  5. As you play, you earn points. You can use points to get discounts on real drinks at the bar. The points are also linked to your specific account meaning they transfer from location to location.

Here are a couple ideas on how they could improve the experience. Some of these are not financially possible but I still find it important to write down EVERYTHING as the tech is always improving and maybe in a few years they will be valid.

  1. Make the space bigger and create an X-ray boundary that shows up when you are approaching the edge. The Quest 2 has this function and I find it super helpful in terms of reorienting myself. I would also prefer to be warned by a visual cue that I’m approaching the walls rather than just simply hitting them or running into them.
  2. Create unique games that highly incorporate the immersive functions of the pods. This would cater to people who already have a VR headset as they wouldn’t be paying for something they could just get at home.
  3. Have less focus on the Otherworld and more focus on the actual gameplay. Sure the whole experience of the world with the wind and heat was cool but it felt like a glorified lobby. With only 40 min to play, I had no time to actually enjoy the world as I was rushing to get to the game.
  4. This is a completely new experience for maybe a different company but I was thinking it sure would be cool if there was some type of physical aspect to this stuff. Maybe at one point in VR, a pen shoots out from a wall and you actually have to grab it. (There would be a real pen shooting out at you in the same location). Then you use the pen as a stylist for whatever. I think this exists already but just to reiterate, it would be amazing if you are all in the same room that is roughly the same dimensions as the one in VR. Maybe there is a hologram couch that appears in the space that is actually already there so you can go and sit on it and it really feels like the hologram is real. There are endless number of things you could do with this and I really believe it would make spending the prostitute level of money worth it.
Categories
Virtual Spaces

Searching for Inspiration – Virtual Spaces

Kelvin asked us to come up with a couple of characters we like and add them to the blog. The following list is just a couple of the characters that have impacted me.

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Virtual Principles

Virtual Principles Critical Appraisal

Well, I got to say that I am pleased with how this turned out. It definitely has a ways to go until it is ready for the music video but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. I think adding all the foreground will be a good addition. I also need to fix the sidewalks and maybe even go for a high definition road too, instead of just using the low poly from google. I guess a big thing to mention for what I could’ve done better is to judge the timeframe more realistically. I got hung up on a bunch of small details instead of prioritizing the deadline and now it’s 4:30am and we have class in 5.5 hours. I used to think it looked good to be staying up the whole night before a project is due but in reality it just shows that you didn’t manage your time well. Yes you tried to make it up at the end but it’ll show in your cloudy and tired presentation. I sure hope that isn’t the case tomorrow though, I feel like I did a good job on the presentation. But again I waited until the night before to do it so I really need to get better at that. Something else that I would’ve liked to get to for this deadline was to put the whole experience in VR. I asked Eric to show me how to upload a scene from Maya into the Quest 2 headset. I definitely still plan to do this, I just wish I could’ve had it for the presentation. How cool would that be, pulling out a VR headset that people can pass around. If that wouldn’t get me a 100% I don’t know what would. Oh man I almost forgot to mention this part. The whole beginning steps of separating and animating the textures is only done for one house. The presentation paints the picture that that is the main effect and then I sort of just abandon it. I definitely need to animate the rest of those buildings. I hope to find a faster way because my workflow for the first one is so slow. I also want to learn coding well enough where I can start automating this stuff. Words words words, what are they? Text? Information? Ink on a quill? That makes me think it would be cool if you could be out in an open area wearing VR and look down and you are a crayon and the floor is giant paper. Then you have to run around to draw a picture or maybe a cool shape. It would be cool if there was a game where you put on a wireless headset in a flat area either outside or in a big gym and it’s a physical activity based game. Maybe there are different game modes some of which could be that you are a thief running through a city and VR people are chasing you. You have to navigate around the buildings and hide to escape them. Or maybe you have a nature based one with dinosaurs chasing you. It could be a mix of AR and VR experiences. I’m not sure I want to see a world where outside in the parks people have technology strapped to their face. Although people could say we already have that with smartphones. Nevertheless, a VR/AR cardio experience could be cool.

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Virtual Principles

Virtual Principles Slideshow

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ICw_QKz4N9wkpAJnbc8NVRTgJx2Ztr3dbhyi_mYG-hk/edit?usp=sharing

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Introduction to Virtual Reality

Critical Appraisal

Like most of my projects, everything really started to come together near the end. To be honest, none of these projects really excited me. I feel like with different parameters maybe I would’ve been inspired enough to really dive into them but I just never got there. It always felt like I was just doing work for school rather than work to represent me. I guess that’s ok though as not all work is going to be fun. That being said, I must confess that the second half of the projects was much more fun than the first. Well, the second half of the 360 filmmaking and virtual world building that is. The augmented reality project didn’t take me long enough to where I would consider it 2 parts. Actually I quite enjoyed the Augmented reality project. I Never knew it was so easy to create a real time filter like that. Of course everyone has played with snapchat so it makes you feel like the filters are overly accessible but never before did I know that there was a program specifically designed around making them. I also thought lenslist was cool. A website completely centered around filters, with an emphasis on advertisement. I like this because it promotes the business side of filters, something where it serves a purpose bigger than making someone look different. Exploring the sea of song promo filters and movie promo filters even made my brain start to turn as I wondered how I would choose to advertise something. I personally feel like in this day and age, the best advertisements are the ones that you don’t realize are advertisements. Or even if you do, the filter serves more purpose than that. For example, maybe it’s a hulk filter to promote the new avengers movie. If you created it well enough, people might start using it and sending it to their friends simply because they look funny as hulk. They might not even realize they are promoting a new movie. I took a different path in the end but it did open up my mind to the possibility that someday I could get paid just to brainstorm cool interactive filter ideas.

The 360 filmmaking was probably my least favorite assignment. Not that I didn’t enjoy parts of it, I just didn’t like the parameters of the assignment. Being forced to film entirely on campus put a bad taste in my mouth from the beginning as the LCC campus is so incredibly dull. I strongly believe that each project we create in school should be good enough to add to a portfolio. This was no where close to the standards in which I would want it to represent my ability. And yes, a large part of that is on me for not going above and beyond with staging each environment and maybe even adding a moving shot to the mix. In my defense, had this project given me more creative freedom, I believe I would’ve had more options and more chances to get sucked into an idea. I also feel with less boundaries we could’ve really capitalized on the team aspect of it. Otherwise the teamwork felt forced and unnecessary. We all have our own different skills that we can bring to the table but I think the biggest thing we each bring is our different perspectives. One idea I would’ve liked to explore is maybe having an interactive video where you can explore each persons different lifestyle. For example, maybe each of us film a couple different shots in each of our flats, then the viewer could decide which perspective they want to see the day from. I feel like this idea would really capitalize on the teamwork aspect.

I think out of the 3 projects, I most enjoyed the virtual world building. I enjoyed it because I learned a skill that is not only cool, but will also be important to know moving forward. That skill being the ability to download google map imagery as a 3D model and import it into a project. Another thing I liked about this project was the creative freedom. The assignments rules were to create an environment that represents your hometown and must include text. At first I didn’t like this, but Pierre made some good clarifications that really helped me brainstorm. He said it doesn’t have to literally be your hometown, you can treat it as more of a “what represents you” type of thing. I really liked this as I feel my hometown isn’t very interesting. He also gave us the ability to download any 3D models we needed. I decided to learn how to download portions of google earth that represent important parts of my life. This made adding the text interesting because I had to verbally explain why a specific location on the earth was so important to me that I included it. I liked this project because it really made me think about my life and what shaped me into the person I am today.

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Virtual World Building

End – Virtual World Building

The final part of this project was to get the newly created environment FBX files into Unity. This is where I ran into a couple issues.

Most importantly, google maps generates its 3D models in a grid format. This means, each grid tile has its own individual texture. This isn’t a problem on its own as most programs understand which grid tile is associated with each texture. However, by default, Unity doesn’t. I spent a lot of time researching how to bake textures into models but never ended up figuring out a solution. It’s a bit disappointing as the textures are what really sells each environment and even more frustrating because I’m sure the solution is simple. I guess that’s just how learning goes sometimes.

Here is an example of what I mean when I say “grid tile”. You can see that if I click on each object, it will only select a small square.

As much as I wanted to solve the texture issue, I had to move on. Once the FBX files where imported into Unity, I dragged them into my scene. My scene was created with the First Person Preset so luckily it had good movement built in. At first I wasn’t sure how I wanted to arrange my locations. At first I thought maybe it’s like you’re in a museum of Zach and each location is a different exhibit, then underneath each is the text description as to why it was important to me and why I included it. Maybe if this project was supposed to be bigger it would’ve worked but I realized that a museum with only 3 exhibits would be fairly underwhelming. As I was experimenting in the program, running around and looking at each scene, I realized something. The infinite environment that unity automatically puts you in was actually pretty on brand for my vision. If you are truly meant to be in my brain I feel like that IS an infinite room with memories scattered about. More specifically, if I was asked to consolidate ME into 3 locations, my brain would subconsciously generate the 3 different scenes, with a text description and then I would have to verbally explain what I was imagining. I found it very cool to think that what was once just a thought, generated and rendered in my brain, is now being visually expressed and rendered with code in such a way that the user can walk around and explore it like it’s another dimension.

Birds eye view of my final scene
Here is 1st person view from inside my scene. This is what you would see if you were actually in the game walking around.
Categories
360 Filmmaking

End – 360 Filmmaking

Once we had all of our clips prepared. We began importing them into Eevo. After they all finally imported (it took forever) we started to position them and organize them based on the structure. After positioning them, we added the exit flags and connected all the clips.

Once all the clips were connected, we had to go into each scene and position the exit flag button above our After Effects button as the button we added in After Effects was just a graphic and it was Eevo that was actually adding the ability to click it.

Then all we had to do was save and stage the video. You can play through it by clicking the link below.

https://play.eevo.com?narrative=f4lfldm6&t=TPtl9-2O6NS4CLGEX68saxoQj32cyL81gYyhXiGCCdKOwTyO7cYMCetv6jcto_PT

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360 Filmmaking

Middle – 360 Filmmaking

We began by writing down the structure of our story. Imani did the actual writing as she is so incredibly good at drawing circles.

After determining the structure, we decided to film. We didn’t have tripods so I had to hold the camera as still as possible while we filmed. We got all the shots but had to improvise when it turned out we weren’t allowed to film in the library. Instead we got a shot in the art shop.

After filming, we began to upload the footage from the camera to the computer. Once it was all downloaded we imported them into After Effects where we planned to add clickable buttons to each choice. I did this by creating a shape layer, then a text layer on top of it. We decided that we would want the viewer to explore each scene for a couple seconds before they had the choice to move on so we made the buttons fade in after 5 seconds. Once the first button was complete, all we had to do was copy and paste for each shot, changing the text accordingly. You can see the layer breakdown for one of the shots below.

After positioning the buttons for each shot we exported out each clip to prepare for Eevo.