HackPerception

In VR, no-one can hear you scream. Actually, everyone around you probably can. Bear that in mind when experiencing Homebound, an intense VR app that takes you from orbit to ground-level… probably a little faster than you might be comfortable with. Our wannabe astronaut is Wiktor Öhman, who led us through re-entry. Hello Wiktor! What’s your day job, and what did you do on Homebound? My name is Wiktor Öhman and I’m a 3D artist, currently working as an Art Lead at Quixel. On Homebound I was generally the sole developer, taking on all development areas myself, with help from friends and colleagues at Quixel. If you want to stay up to date with my endeavours you can follow me on Twitter on @Disting. How would you describe Homebound? Homebound is a short and intense sci-fi survival VR experience set in a near future aboard a space station orbiting Earth. As disaster strikes you are forced to abandon the station and try and get back home to Earth. It’s a sensory feast and features some of the most realistic graphics in VR to date. What was the initial conception for Homebound – was it VR, the idea of exploring in a zero-G environment, or something else? The initial conception of Homebound was to showcase Quixel Megascans materials, allowing users to inspect the real-world scanned data up-close in VR. As we were exploring the space station in VR we quickly started dreaming up gameplay scenarios one by one and suddenly it was shaping up to be a truly exhilarating experience. Homebound was developed using Unreal 4. Why did you choose the Unreal Engine for development? Seeing as I, as pretty much the sole developer, didn’t have any scripting or programming experience prior to developing Homebound, Unreal Engine 4 felt like a given choice considering its Blueprint system, allowing you to create gameplay and systems with a visual, node-based system. You’re simulating weightlessness here; for the non-developers amongst us, how easy is that to do? Is it just a checkbox to say ‘weightless’ or is it more complicated? Trust me, I hoped it would be a checkbox. The reality is that there are so many variables to keep in mind to make it an enjoyable experience. Acceleration, deceleration, top speed, easing and so on. This was the area that was tweaked until the very end of development, based on the feedback from the testers. Being weightless can cause people to feel motion sick in VR. Any advice for anyone who might get motion sick, or who is worried about it? Motion sickness is and was the main challenge when developing Homebound. Me, personally, never felt a hint of it, nor did the internal testers. Once we started alpha tests it quickly became apparent we needed to focus hard on it. The number of reports have decreased, but there seems to be a baseline that’s hard to break. If you are worried about motion sickness I would say, take it easy and take short breaks here and there. Each experience has its own kind of motion sickness so, according to my own experience, you can’t really get VR legs as many claim. You’ve included a few Easter Eggs in Homebound – or homages, if you like. Want to share any, and why they were included? One of the Easter Eggs we included has quickly become popular among the players – the “Simpsons Crisps”. This was added pretty late in the development, but is something we joked about quite a few times during the development. And if you look closely around the station you can see some photos of parts of the Quixel team. In your view, is what happens in Homebound the worst thing that could happen to an astronaut? Or have you thought of other, more terrible fates? Oh, I’ve thought of many terrible ways to die in space – the worst probably being simply drifting off into the vast nothingness just waiting to die. That seems pretty terrible. What’s next for you in VR – what are you developing next? Glad you had another question, so we get a chance to end on a more positive note! We’re in pre-production on our upcoming full-length VR game which will have the same focus on highly realistic visuals. Thanks for talking to us Wiktor… and good luck getting home!

Normal, everyday mini golf courses are so… dull. Why not play in the clouds? With Cloudlands: VR Minigolf you can do just that (and don’t have to worry about the rain, either). With the latest update debuting on Viveport, we talked to Justin Liebregts, co-founder of Futuretown, about the latest developments. Hello! Let’s start with the origins of your development studio, Futuretown and Cloudlands: VR Minigolf. Myself and a colleague from college founded Futuretown several years back and had the opportunity to participate in the initial launch of the Vive and what we consider the dawn of commercial VR back in 2016. When we first got our hands on an early HTC Vive prototype, I coded about a dozen different test game mechanics in Unity to see what would be fun to make into an actual game. One of those early prototypes was a golf driving range simulator, which ended up morphing into Cloudlands: VR Minigolf. And the rest is history! For anyone who hasn’t experienced it, can you tell us a bit more about Cloudlands: VR Minigolf? We’re positioning Cloudlands: VR Minigolf as the premiere mini golf experience for virtual reality. It’s a really family friendly game, built from the ground up for motion controls. You putt the ball through fantastical levels as you would in real life – there’s no swing meter or power bars. My favorite part of the game is the 1,000-plus user created courses. Our team built one of the first VR level editors and you can build courses as you would build something out of LEGO pieces. The most exciting part about our latest addition is that now, all platforms can create and share courses. Prior to this update, players were locked onto the Steam Workshop platform which was only accessible for Steam buyers. Now, all our players can create and share their amazing courses with one another. While mini golf isn’t quite as demanding as golf, it’s still a real-world simulation. How did you try to simulate a golf club swing? I’m a golfer in real life and as I mentioned earlier, we had started with a driving range simulator. It was super satisfying but we found several technical and user related challenges in the mechanic of swinging in VR. Players would often swing under, over, or through the ball. Game engines can have difficulty detecting collision between two small objects moving fast and there were challenges getting ball hit detection to work well with high velocity swings. There was also the issue of having no weight or being able to “feel” where the end of your club was. Many early play tests left players frustrated. These issues weren’t too difficult to resolve, but as a VR launch title, we felt that mini golf made more sense because the courses would be easier for us to build as a team, and probably be more entertaining while also being more accessible for all ages and skill levels to play. Not everyone plays full on golf, but almost everyone can play mini golf. In your opinion… do you prefer mini golf or ‘real’ golf? (Virtual or real world…) Haha. I’ll probably always prefer real world golf, but I recently went golfing for the first time this season and I realized that all of my putting practice for the winter season came from Cloudlands. Swinging a virtual putter vs a real putter still has its differences and it took me a few holes to re-calibrate to a putter that has weight to it. Did you research actual mini golf courses for inspiration, or did everything come from your imagination? As a team we went to Castle Fun Park, a mini golf / kids entertainment centre in the Fraser Valley, close to Vancouver. We were looking for things like how the ball hits off of the wall, or bounces over elevation changes, and how a course as a whole feels like a cohesive package. The first few holes we designed were heavily influenced by our real life mini golf experience and searching online. However, once we became comfortable prototyping we let our imaginations run free and this is where you get some of the more non-traditional hole designs. Tell us a little more about the level editor. Is it easy to put together a course? How much control does a user have over course design? It’s super easy to put together a course. We have several hundred “pieces” that we’ve organized into categories such as floor pieces, hole pieces, props, landscape etc. The pieces have snap points and you can snap pieces together intuitively using the motion controls – watch this video for reference: If you don’t want to conform to the snap points, we also have a free-mode where you can just place pieces anywhere without any constraints. Have you considered integrating Vive Trackers into Cloudlands? This is a tough one. We love what the Vive Trackers are enabling developers to do. As a company, we’re hesitant on building any types of third party peripherals. We also feel that for golf specifically, you could essentially have the same functionality but with some kind of putter-to-Vive controller adapter, without the need for the tracker since there’s a 1:1 relationship with the controller to the putter already. Good point! We’ll make our own solution. Finally, an important question… who has the best ‘par’ in Minigolf at Futuretown? Haha, I’d say our producer Adrian Ng is the best at the game. When we were creating the first holes and testing the multiplayer, he’d always be a few strokes ahead of me and I haven’t really managed to beat him yet, even with all the user created content. Thanks for talking to us, Justin! Cloudlands: VR Minigolf is available now on Viveport, and also in Viveport Subscription – including the new level editor.

Between apps like MakeVR and Tilt Brush, 3D creation is advancing rapidly in VR. One of the pioneers in the field is Kodon, a room-scale virtual sculpting app that lets anyone shape their own creation… no messy potter’s wheel or sculpting clay required. With their latest update now live, we talked with Gustav Tresselt, lead developer at TenkLabs about what’s new. How long have you been working on Kodon? What initially inspired you? We’ve been working on Kodon for about a year now! The initial inspiration was basically playing around in 3D as an indie dev – I needed 3D models. So I decided to make a program to make them myself – in VR! Your latest major update is v0.50 – you’ve called it ‘50% complete’. What does that mean in terms of current features? What’s been added since your last major update? v0.50 is the product of tight cooperation between me and my sculpting expert, Emil. This version tries to meet experienced sculptors with features like move, inflate, crease and similarly which really speeds up the workflow. We’ve also added some awesome environments that add new lighting and reflection details. If v0.50 is 50% complete – what’s your final vision for the 1.0 version? Are there major features still to be implemented, in your mind? At v1.0, experienced sculptors will prefer Kodon to the established tools, and casual users will get an intuitive understanding of 3D sculpting. And yes, the 50% complete refers to the feature set as well as bugfixing. Some examples: re-meshing feature, surface and voxel tool improvements, major optimizations, and last but not least: geometric sculpting will be back. Who do you see as the primary user of Kodon? Professional 3D artists, hobbyists, or someone else? Kodon has a semi-professional focus. We are trying to reach both long-time professional 3D artists as well as people who have no clue about 3D sculpting, such as myself. Did you draw inspiration from any traditional 3D modeling programs? I had no idea about 3D modeling programs when I started making Kodon. After Emil came into the picture, we’ve focused more on ZBrush. Can you import existing 3D models, then export them again? Any restrictions? Absolutely! Via the PLY and OBJ formats you can easily do this. There are some restrictions on size, and some special form of OBJ files (like ZBrush’s vertex color format) are not supported. The program also does not respect quads at this point. Finally, Kodon has been out for a while – what’s the most impressive project you’ve seen created using it? Emil (and other professional sculptors) have made some amazing stuff already, this is the first thing he made (pictured left). Adham Faramawy earlier this year made an exciting abstract sculpture setup for Royal Academy of Arts “Virtually Real” exhibition. His object was 3D printed to a giant sculpture weighing literally tons! (Click here to see some video of Adham’s creatio Finally, this 3D printed flower pot from an early version of Kodon will always hold a special place in my heart (below). Kodon is available now on Viveport. Read more on 3D creation: Artist Liz Edwards on creating art in Tilt Brush 3D creators go hands-on with MakeVR

This editorial is written by Felicia Miranda, a freelance technology journalist. Follow her on Twitter @FeliciaVagabond. We hope this editorial helps you find the best VR content available! Key moments in history, big and small alike, helped shape the world as we know it today. Previously, we flipped through textbooks and viewed documentaries, but thanks to virtual reality, we can now unravel history in a whole new way. Whether it’s making scientific discoveries about the universe or studying an event that turned into a catalyst for war, these Vive apps will give you a new perspective on some of the most impactful moments in history. We Are Stars Developer: NSC Creative Available on Viveport I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “We’re all made from stars,” and the next thought that quickly comes to mind is something along the lines of, “Can that really be true?” We Are Stars answers that question and much more in one of the most entertaining and educational VR apps on Viveport. We Are Stars takes you on a virtual journey through a billion years of evolution, where you’ll learn about some of the most mystifying aspects of our universe. The experience is enhanced by the brilliant narration of Andy Serkis, best known for his roles as Gollum from The Lord of the Rings and Caesar from Planet of the Apes. Serkis, in combination with the breath-taking 360 visuals, is sure to make a lasting impression as you explore the cosmos. Read our interview with Paul Mowbray, producer on We Are Stars VR Terra-Cotta Warriors Developer: Beijing Virtual Real Space Technology Co. Available on Viveport VR Terra-Cotta Warriors takes you on a trip through ancient China to get an up-close look at the life-sized terracotta statues built for Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. These statues, meant to protect the emperor in the afterlife, resemble various personnel from his army, including warriors, generals, and other military officials. If you enjoy learning about history, then you know how frustrating it might be when you want to get a closer look at an exhibit at the museum. The best part of VR Terra-Cotta Warriors is that it feels like a mini museum without any of the barriers. I marveled at all the stunning details in the sculptures, from the texture of the clothes to the life-like features on each statue’s face. It’s a fascinating first-hand look at the statues that highlighted the burial practices of early China. Remembering Pearl Harbor Developer: LIFE VR Available on Viveport It’s been 75 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and in respect for all the lives lost, LIFE VR and TIME put together a riveting VR experience called Remembering Pearl Harbor. I explored this important part of history through the eyes, ears, and letters of lieutenant and postmaster, James Downing. Using his letters as a timeline, Remembering Pearl Harbor put me in the shoes of a survivor on the shores of Pearl Harbor and in the home of a typical American civilian following the attack on December 7th, 1941, “the day which shall live in infamy”. The most gripping moment was hearing that exact quote in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech on the radio, which makes it seem like the attack on Pearl Harbor happened only yesterday. My Brother’s Keeper Developer: Perception² Available on Viveport Unlike Remembering Pearl Harbor, which focuses on recreating a historical atmosphere, My Brother’s Keeper uses American history to tell a compelling story of two brothers who end up on conflicting sides in the Civil War. My Brother’s Keeper is not only interactive but also remarkably immersive. It’s a short film that uses 360-degree capture and 120 frames per second to drop you right in the middle of one of the fiercest battles of the American Civil War. One of my favorite features is the ability to stop and look around, examining every moment taking place on the battlefield. Faces filled with emotion, followed by a bloody aftermath with casualties demonstrates the power virtual reality has to bring these tragic moments to life. Historium VR – Relive the history of Bruges Developer: Sevenedge Interactive Media Available on Viveport Imagine sailing through the beautiful canals and dimly lit streets of Bruges during the Middle Ages. With Historium VR, you’ll experience the grandiosity of this city during the 15th century. It was built from the ground up by a well-known historical attraction presently located in the market square of Bruges, so you know you’re getting an accurate interpretation of this wonderful moment in time. Although a relatively short experience, I quickly fell in love with the new way Historium VR immersed me in the old world. As I studied architecture, cobblestone walkways, and arched bridges, the narrator took me through a fascinating history lesson that included landmarks such as Dampoort, St. Donatian’s, Waterhalle, Crane, and Belfry. The best part is you can choose to embark on a fully narrated journey or pick between specific locations of Bruges you wish to explore. Definitely a must-have for history students and enthusiasts. Historium VR is available on Viveport. Remembering Pearl Harbor and We Are Stars are also available in Viveport Subscription. My Brother’s Keeper and VR Terra-Cotta Warriors are available for free on Viveport.

This editorial is written by Felicia Miranda, a freelance technology journalist. Follow her on Twitter @FeliciaVagabond. We hope this editorial helps you find the best VR content available! A good story can make you feel something magical. Achieving this through movies and books is quite challenging, but is even tougher to pull off in VR. A developer needs a good story, of course, but he or she must also consider audio, visuals, and overall presentation. With those considerations in mind, here are some of the best story-driven apps you can experience on Vive, all of which create a magical experience in VR. Special Delivery Developer: Google Spotlight Stories Available on Viveport If you’re a Wallace and Gromit fan in search of a VR experience that is sure to bring you a hearty chuckle, Special Delivery is a must. Equipped with only a flashlight and a good ear for sound, our suspicious protagonist spends his Christmas Eve trying to find Santa. You won’t know who to root for, but the plot will keep you guessing at what happens next. I won’t spoil the ending, but this adorable app will give you a good laugh. Special Delivery is a 360 movie with beautiful animation and a clever plot set to a lively soundtrack. It’s not exactly a full-fledged VR experience, but I still enjoyed following the characters around as the story unraveled. Allumette Developer: Penrose Studios Available on Viveport In Allumette, you’re an invisible witness to a moving tale of dreams, love, and tragedy, set within a city nestled in the clouds, where a young girl and her mother sell matches that resemble sparklers. Everything goes well at first, but a tragic event completely changes the story’s tone. However, despite the melancholy vibe, it’s still a heartwarming experience. Allumette’s interactive story encourages you to explore. At the beginning of the experience, as I stood admiring puffy white clouds, I heard the sound of what turned out to be an adorable flying ship. As it approached, I saw a little girl perched on top and couldn’t help but wonder what she was up to. Suddenly, she disappeared into the ship, and instinctively, I leaned forward to peek inside. To my surprise, the story continued inside of the boat! Allumette hooked me from that point forward, and after several viewings, it is without question one of the best apps on Viveport. Pearl Developer: Google Spotlight Stories Available on Viveport Pearl is another 360 interactive story that follows a little girl (named Pearl) and her father as they both pursue their dreams. While short, it’s a remarkably powerful and inspiring tale. You’ll watch as Pearl grows on the road with her musician dad, starting off as a bubbly little child. Soon, she transforms into a teenager with a mind of her own and a love of making music. It’s a story that will pull at the heartstrings, especially when you see the distance between them start to take hold. I couldn’t help but feel for her dad, who began to worry as Pearl showed the same taste for adventure that he had. I also understood what Pearl was going through, as she decided to embark on a journey to find herself. Pearl is an Oscar-nominated story you have to experience in VR in order to witness its full potential. You explore the world using 360-degree views, and you’re sure to notice things that you missed the first and second time through. A Chair in a Room: Greenwater Developer: Wolf & Wood Interactive Available on Viveport A Chair in a Room earned a spot in my Best of the Best: VR games article because it does story-telling so well. Featuring a prickly atmosphere that leaves you in a perpetual state of paranoia, and dark themes that will leave you feeling a bit crazy, you’ll definitely want to immerse yourself in everything this app has to offer. As the story begins, you’ll quickly realize that you’re a patient locked up in a mental institution. Unfortunately for you, your personal demons are a constant, literal threat to your wellbeing. You’ll explore a series of rooms as you try to put together clues, in an attempt to figure out how you managed to get locked up in the first place. What separates A Chair in a Room from your standard atmospheric horror games is the integration of VR. When I’m plugged into that headset, moving forward or opening a door requires more courage than I’ve ever needed to push a button on a controller. There were moments when I was challenged to physically interact with the world around me while immobilized with fear. Overall, it’s a great example of virtual reality horror, and a good indication of where the genre is headed. Airborne 1944 Developer: Virtual Light VR Available on Viveport Airborne 1944 takes you via time machine to June 6, 1944. On this day, more commonly known as D-Day, 1200 planes took off in the night to launch the Allied invasion of Normandy and what many call the beginning of the end of World War II. This virtual story allows viewers to relive a significant moment in history through the eyes, ears, and inner dialogue of a soldier heading straight to war. I remember looking at my comrades as we sat in the darkness of a roaring plane and feeling a pang of anxiety hit me in the stomach. The guy next to me spoke loudly in my direction, “Hey, Jackson!” and pointed at a family photo I clutched tightly in my hand. He pulled out a picture of his own, and my heart fluttered once again at the thought of what was about to happen. It wasn’t long before we heard the whistle and boom of explosions outside as we all lined up to jump from the plane. Although combat is one of the fundamental aspects of military simulations, Airborne 1944 focuses on emotion, and this is what makes it both compelling and terrifying. Arguably, there are plenty of experiences like this in games like Battlefield and Call of Duty, but virtual reality adds a new dimension to the characters, places, and events unfolding around you. The vivid sounds of war, lifelike reactions of your fellow airmen, and Jackson’s captivating dialogue are just a few of the many great elements that bring this story to life. Special Delivery, Allumette and Pearl are available on Viveport for free. A Chair in a Room: Greenwater is available for sale on Viveport. Airborne 1944 is available in Viveport Subscription.

This editorial is written by Felicia Miranda, a freelance technology journalist. Follow her on Twitter @FeliciaVagabond. We hope this editorial helps you find the tougher to pull off in VR. A developer needs a good story, of course, but he or she must also consider audio, visuals, and overall presentation. With those considerations in mind, here are some of the best story-driven apps you can experience on Vive, all of which create a magical experience in VR. Special Delivery Developer: Google Spotlight Stories Available on Viveport best VR content available!

With those considerations in mind, here are some of the best story-driven apps you can experience on Vive, all of which create a magical experience in VR. Special Delivery

This editorial is written by Felicia Miranda, a freelance technology journalist. Follow her on Twitter @FeliciaVagabond. We hope this editorial helps you find the best VR content available! A good story can make you feel something magical. Achieving this through movies and books is quite challenging, but is even tougher to pull off in VR. A developer needs a good story, of course, but he or she must also consider audio, visuals, and overall presentation. With those considerations in mind, here are some of the best story-driven apps you can experience on Vive, all of which create a magical experience in VR. Special Delivery Developer: Google Spotlight Stories Available on Viveport If you’re a Wallace and Gromit fan in search of a VR experience that is sure to bring you a hearty chuckle, Special Delivery is a must. Equipped with only a flashlight and a good ear for sound, our suspicious protagonist spends his Christmas Eve trying to find Santa. You won’t know who to root for, but the plot will keep you guessing at what happens next. I won’t spoil the ending, but this adorable app will give you a good laugh. Special Delivery is a 360 movie with beautiful animation and a clever plot set to a lively soundtrack. It’s not exactly a full-fledged VR experience, but I still enjoyed following the characters around as the story unraveled.

This editorial is written by Felicia Miranda, a freelance technology journalist. Follow her on Twitter @FeliciaVagabond. We hope this editorial helps you find the best VR content available!

This editorial is written by Felicia Miranda, a freelance technology journalist. Follow her on Twitter @FeliciaVagabond. We hope this editorial helps you find the best VR content available!

I experimented with a TPCast unit this morning and can confirm that I was unable to get the microphone to work. We'll continue to experiment and see what impact the TPCast solution has other Vive functionalities including the AUX USB port.

Hi twack3r, I'm looking into this currently and will report back asap.

I dug around some tech sheets and discovered that my previous statements are incorrect. The Vive HMD and the controllers use an HTC/Valve designed light to digital converter and PBC assembly whereas the Vive Trackers are using Triad manufactured TS3633's as well as a new PBC design. This could explain why they're more susceptible to IR interference than the HMD/controller technology. They fundamentally preform the same function but have underlying differences in design. This may mean that other technologies that will use the TS3633 may also face similar interference issues.

I've looked further into this and it appears that both camera systems as well as lighthouse tracking rely on 850nm IR technology which is the root source of your interference problems. The trackers use the same TS3633s that are used in the HMD as well as the controllers and are merely arranged in a different configuration. The shell material for the tracker are the same as the controllers as well. We don't have access to either one of those MoCap systems to run our own tests to attempt to understand the interference but it might be that the Vive trackers are simply more sensitive to 850nm interference than the other Vive hardware due to their slightly different design and layout. For the time being I can only recommend that you disable the IR emitters on the cameras and relying on optical tracking when using trackers. If disabling the IR LEDs in-software is not possible I’d recommend trying to use physical IR filters that absorb 850nm to attempt to block the IR emissions from the cameras or unplugging the LED rings which is apparently possible on some configurations. I'll keep looking into this as I'm sure others will encounter this problem as the trackers become adopted.

We’re excited to announce the release of the latest version of the Viveport SDK (v 1.6.0) that provides additional integration with Unreal Engine as well as new features to aid with in-app subscriptions as well as DRM Error Codes. With the updated Viveport SDK (v 1.6.0), apps and experiences developed with Unreal Engine now have access to several enhancements, including User Profiles, Stats & Achievements, and Leaderboards to seamlessly leverage alongside Unreal Engine’s other powerful features. To download or learn more about the ViveportSDk and view detailed examples about how to integrate it into your project, click here. As always, if you have feedback or suggestions, please visit our Developer Forums and drop us a line.

I believe they're the exact same sensors but will verify. Do the trackers work as designed when the cameras are switched off?

Hi Ruiying, we're looking into it. What type of Vicon Setup are you using? Have you tried disabling the infrared sensors on the cameras and using just the visual tracking system? The Vive Trackers are essentially work the same as Vive controllers so I’m curious if about whether or not you’re having issues with tracking other Vive hardware since any IR interference from the cameras should also affect the headset as well as the controllers similarly… I suspect that you may have to use physical IR filters to isolate the systems from each other.