Oculus Rift Experience

Oculus Rift: A month in review


Day 1: I got my Oculus Rift developers kit! I was literally waiting by the front window all day. I moved a chair so I could read while viewing my front door, to make absolutely sure I didn't miss the delivery.

Day 2: What genius chose the machines for Full Sail? Welcome to the year 2010, everyone: I DON'T HAVE AN HDMI PORT. Honestly, why????

Day 3: I've ordered some dongles online that should enable my computer to be Rift-compatible. In the meantime, my little sister got a new computer maybe 6 months ago, and her (3-4 year) old one has HDMI.  So, (with permission) I'm wiping it completely clean of everything and installing Unity and the Oculus SDK.

Day 4: It is an amazing experience. Really, truly. The sense of realism is fantastic. I don't even have a proper 'gaming' computer, but the Tuscany demo provided by Oculus and Unity works great and I can't wait to get started.

Day 6: So far, this is almost suspiciously easy. Delete 'main camera' from scene, replace with the Oculus player, and go.

Day 8: First bump in the road: attaching a spotlight to the player. I essentially was aiming for a flashlight effect in my scene. Interestingly, I had to play around with all sorts of combinations before discovering that only using the camera of the right eye will actually allow my spotlight to aim where ever my head is looking. Apparently my left eye doesn't have an x-axis. Shhh, no one tell it- my brain may get confused.

Day 15: The Oculus has had next to zero issues- instead, I've been primarily working with and concentrating on Unity and Mecanim.

Day 20: I finally find something with a serious problem to it. I've been searching the internet and put up a forum topic, but apparently no one has used the accelerometer in the Rift. Or, if they have, it hasn't worked out. I was hoping to be able to sense velocity in addition to rotation, but I may have to put this aside for now.

Day 22: So. I bought a Razer Hydra. I am weak. DON'T JUDGE ME.

Day 29: I got my Hydra! It wasn't a simple process, either- apparently Razer is completely sold out, but I was able to buy through Sixense. Here's more what I was expecting from new tech, though: even keeping my hands completely still, the Hydra will send my mouse jumping all over the screen. I'm a little disappointed, but I've seen games where the peripheral is used well, so maybe a fix already exists.

Day 31: On review of my month, I'm honestly surprised at how little had to do with the Oculus Rift. An amazing technological breakthrough, with such flawless integration I had nothing further than a drag-and-drop to complete for the gyroscope and camera to be working and synchronized in my Unity application. Sure, I had occasional instances of frustration or confusion, but I can only assume that is exactly what Oculus is working on now, in their quest for an improved consumer version.

When I first heard about the Rift and decided to work on it, I was looking forward to joining a small group of forward-thinkers. Looking online today, I am overwhelmed by how not small this group is. The Rift hasn't even been commercially announced yet, and there are already 210 apps and games listed on the website Rift Enabled - with plenty more being worked on. I'm actually a little intimidated- how will my tiny puzzle game measure up to ports of Half Life 2 and Mirrors Edge? - but mostly I'm excited. We are living in the future, and I am a part of developing it.

All right, over the past two weeks, I've finished up my fireworks demo! I have a build from Unity that I can put online, so I'll figure out how to get it up here.

My time is up with it, but there are still a few bugs, so I might wait until I choose to fix the last few issues before putting up a build.

In more exciting news, I'm moving on to my next project: a jewelry creation and shop simulator game. There are a lot of things to work out with it, primarily involving the tech, but I'm really excited to get started!

This week in Masters' Studio at Full Sail, I continued working on my Firework Demo, a small application in Unity. My purpose in pursuing the demo is just to learn more about Unity and gain some experience with the software. However, I do have high hopes for it when I get the Oculus Rift dev kit.

Last week I had a trail following my firework into the sky, but it was not yet customizable. This week the trail can be altered using the color palette in the creation screen. Additionally, I've put in a total of 3 firework shapes. Accessed by using the left/right keys in the viewing screen, the firework will go from a spherical explosion to a ring to a cube, then back to a sphere. My major goal for the week was having varying shapes, so I'm pleased with the result.

The only downside for the week is a very confusing little bug with the UI in the creation screen. The gameplay code works accurately and the bug does not change or alter anything, but for some reason, when you select the buttons to change either the stars or the tail, the highlight which is supposed to show which is selected disappears. The button is still selected and works properly, but the visual element is having a slight issue that I've admittedly spent far more time on already that it should have taken to fix.

For next week, I plan on finishing the program by adding a second burst in the firework, with a customizable color of course, and adding some polish. For the polish, I hope to have my UI bug fixed, and have more visual indicators for the user as to what the selections are and what they do. I'll probably add some sound effects as well.

Intro

Hello hello, people I don't know! And, perhaps, maybe some I do. This is a blog about my professional life and current projects.

For reference, my name is Alicia Avril, and I am currently enrolled as a Masters student in Full Sail University's program for video game production. My current expected graduation date is June of 2013. I'm excited to be finished with school and start building a career! I have an undergrad, also from Full Sail, in video game programming.

In my undergrad, I learned C++ programming, as well as basics for using C#, DirectX, OpenGL, and XML. In my masters, I learned production methodologies and how to lead a team, including agile techniques, waterfall planning, and the details of how to put together the documentation of production such as a task list, production schedule, capacity plans, etc.


My current hope is to, after graduation, get an entry-level position in either a production or QA role at a game studio, or possibly a software or simulation company. I mostly want to learn how the theoretical approaches I know work in the real world, and gain some experience. At the moment, I'm less concerned with the product I'll be working on than the people I'll be working with- I want to make sure I make good friends and find helpful people to learn from.

Long-term, I hope to make games that could be used in education, particularly to improve the lives of people with disabilities. My little brother has Down Syndrome, and video games are pretty much his entire existence! If I could make a game that would improve his speech, for example, or his social interactions, I would consider myself as having had a successful career.