Oculus Rift

If you haven't heard of Oculus rift (and managed to avoid videos of screaming YouTuber demo's) it's basically the latest attempt at virtual reality that's been hailed as the future of gaming / entertainment.
The hype started in 2012 on kickstarter pulling in well over 2 million in funding and releasing to date two "developers editions" or prototype headsets.I was pretty interested in getting one but held off until late last year when the last version Dev kit 2 was released and planned on using it with both my Jurassic park map in Cryengine (was never able) and experimenting in Unity with it.

First Impressions

Most of the articles you read / videos you watch of people trying it for the first time will be them saying mind blowing,amazing etc but in truth my first impression was ..its like sitting to close to a old TV screen .The barrier between seeing something believable and staring at pixels was never really broken for me,black images are sharper and more enveloping but white or lighter environments and fonts never appear that sharp and the image pixels always remain.

After a while I did adjust a little,the head tracking kicks in and you find yourself wanting to grab things on screen,duck or move but none of the demo's I tried really felt like a 'holodeck' type experience.Probably the best examples of the rift experience were the ones where you are seated like "Sightline:The chair" where you have time to adjust to the environment and just look around but when I tried anything movement based that's where the real issues hit me.

Motion sickness

It took about 4 demo's before I knew I was selling my rift.
Playing Team Fortress 2 which has a rift beta instantly made me break out in a sweat,feel dizzy and want to throw up all over my keyboard.After taking a break and adjusting the headset,reading up on possible issues I tried another demo and same effect.A few days passed and tried again but had the same feeling in any game that involved movement using the keyboard/mouse.
Apparently I'm not the only one who gets this effect and I tried adjusting to it over time but it never passed.To be honest I was gutted as I had a ton of ideas I wanted to get working in Unity and had managed to implement the actual Unity - Rift setup fairly quickly for a demo of my own work.

The future of gaming?

Rift might overcome the motion sickness issue but is has a long way to go in general,that issue aside it was interesting/impressive piece of hardware at times but its telling that of all the people I let try demo's of Oculus rift not one asked to try it again and most wanted to take it off after less than 5 minutes.
The hardware itself is bulky and while not heavy its also not exactly comfortable,the screen is too low resolution and on a basic level its not something I could see be used for long periods of gaming or watching movies.
It sounds like I've been very negative about Oculus but my lasting impression is that it's been a little over hyped and feels like a gimmick:a cool piece of tech that's limited by its hardware needs and doesn't serve much of a purpose outside of very occasional short experience's - it's miles ahead of a Kinect -Playsation Move in terms of that experience but would end up sharing the same space...under the desk or behind the monitor.

The rift could change if the right software came along and gave it a bigger purpose but as it is I would recommend a demo rather than a purchase if you're considering.

Realtime environment simulation

Earlier this year I worked on a project designing,modelling and texturing environments for a realtime training simulation tool for Imparta Ltd using Unity3D,the environments created were a backdrop to Mecanim character animations that would guide the trainee through various scripted simulations.Below are some work in progress shots of the hotel and office environments showing testing for light mapping / baking in Unity.

Game Modelling 2#

Second set of models built for Unity3d game,the tower model is where the player can rotate around the building and expand by adding on sections of buildings representing skills.The tower was built in parts so that the player can spend experience adding what sections they want.The images show the  tower in its complete stage.

Side and back view of main tower and Arcane tower.

Close up of base,click to enlarge.

Unity Jurassic Park walkthrough

I started a project in my freetime a while back remaking the Jurassic park game Trespasser using Unity3d engine.I haven't had huge amount of time to keep working on it recently but decided to do some quick optimizing of draw distance,billboarding and shadows to get it running smoother and put in a first person camera to take a look at the environment.Still a huge amount of work to do from adding more models and bump mapping to working on the puzzle elements.This is a quick walkthrough video I put together...

Unity 3D: Trespasser environment flythrough

A while back I started a fun little project in my spare time recreating the environment from the game Jurassic park Trespasser,this is a work in progress flythrough of the game map so far.The video is a little long as there was tons to cover,it was created in Maya and Unity3D.
The frame rate is a little jumpy due to compression but check it out in full HD if you can..

Unity3d:Trespasser wip

Some new work in progress images from my remake of the Jurassic park:Trespasser game environment,set on site B from the lost world movie. I'm currently working on adding vegetation and also making a start on getting the dinosaur AI working and building up the detail on this whenever I have any free time.

The second mono rail station leading into the mountains.
Click images to enlarge.

The bamboo guest lodge,adding more trees and plants.

The cable car platform that leads from the visitor centre to the guest lodge.

Jurassic Park:Game remake preview

Working on getting a flythrough of the entire level done at the moment but decided to make a short preview style trailer.Modelling was done in Maya and the game is built in UnityPro.For progress shots click on the "Jurassic park" tags below.

Unity fantasy world update

Finally found some time to update this project,originally this environment was built fairly quickly using Maya and Unity 3D but my old laptop didn't run it very smoothly.I got a new rendering rig from pc specialist last month and made some changes and updated the map.You can still see in the later sections where the environment isn't finished and its missing a lot of bump maps but this was one of my first Unity environments I built just for fun and a challenge.
Check it out in HD if you can...

Coming soon...

I haven't been updating a lot over the last month or two,it's been a bit crazy with some major stuff going on but there's some very big updates coming in the near future.First off I finished off a major project,cant say a lot at the moment but it was some very cool/hard work,also done lots of modelling for another project and should be able to show off some images off that soon.Major change was updating to a totally new computer,invested some serious cash getting a whole new setup that can render nice and fast.One of the first things I wanted to try out was Cryengine 3 so been playing about in that whenever I've had any spare time,just learning the basics of importing,lighting and environments.This is the first thing I put together,just a really quick import of a model built for my Jurassic park Unity project that I used to play around with some of Cryengine's features.

The monorail station I built for Unity engine

Trespasser: Project update

Over the last few weeks I've been working on a bigger project,modelling and texturing so work on my Trespasser game project has came to a halt.Hopefully when I have free time I can return to it and get it moving again,the plan is to get a fully working AI test into the game which means rigging and animating a Raptor as well as scripting its behaviour.This will most likely be included in the first demo version when this section of the environment is finished.

The last stage I worked on was getting progressing through the environment and
adding features like waterfalls.This area still needs vegetation added.

Environment work

A couple of months ago I done some work on a game project,these are some rough versions of a dock environment built for Unity engine.The models are work in progress base versions to be polished as the map comes together,built in Maya.

Work in progress on layout of the map.Screenshot's from in editor.

Above screenshot showing the shipping yard layout.

Trespasser : Landscaping II

More updates on level progress,adding plants and vegetation by hand to keep the polycount in check and game running smooth.When the levels finished I will optimise everything within Unity3D,one of the strengths of the program is that it only takes a few minutes to build the game meaning you can jump in and play a standalone .exe version or webplayer version and check it for problems.

Click images to enlarge

The path to the monorail,I'm working my way through
the level adding foliage and smaller objects.

Trespasser: Landscaping

Spent a few hours working on my Jurassic park game today,mostly adding landscape detailing like rocks and plants and working on textures.The area is coming together slowly ready for some animation tests later this week hopefully.

Shots taken in the program on medium settings.

Overhead of the beach construction site

Jurassic park:Gameplay

I thought I'd add some information on this project since I've had some questions and have only really been showing screenshots here on my blog.
This project started just over a month ago and I've been working about an hour or two a day on the project,its a solo project and the aim was originally to create something for my portfolio and also something Jurassic park based.So far after about 30 hours work the modelling of the first level is almost finished and I'm now adding trees,vegetation and painting the landscape as well as getting the technical stuff sorted like collisions and sounds.I'm using Unity to make the game,for one reason..Cryengine doesn't run well on my laptop,simple as that.
So what about the gameplay?..I've been looking into how dinosaur AI could be done since before the project started and checking out potential prefab sets that could be used in the game,as with the original Trespasser my game isn't intended to be a dinosaur shooter,I'm more interested in creating something closer to survival and exploration game.

Check out the construction site for an idea of scale.

Trespasser:The beach 2#

Click to enlarge.

Trespasser: Low poly props

Adding some more models into my Jurassic park game project,low poly digger and construction site lights and cabin.The digger was built fairly quickly and still needs some texture work and extra detail to the front section,built in Maya.

Click to enlarge images.Shot from in the game engine,terrain is unfinished.

Digger prop needs additional work and bump mapping.

Trespasser:The beach

Work in progress putting together the beach environment for my Jurassic park game remake,sadly not using Cryengine but making the most of Unity3D to get the game looking decent.

Will add smoke particles to the final scene.

The visitors centre 2#

Added the cable car into place.

The visitors centre

Little bit more modelling on my free time game project...This is work in progress on the Trespasser site B visitor centre,similar style to Jurassic park version but much smaller.In the game it would have been aimed at investors and be filled with displays showing of some of site A as well as showing off some of the dinosaurs.

Click to view fullsize.

JP game...

Not a lot of progress on Jurassic park remake game because of other work,another shot of hotel/guest lodge.Still needs a lot of bump mapping and detail.