I thought I’d upload this little demo and begin a discussion about experience and ideas using the Oculus Rift in 4V. I’ve got a handful of observations that may be useful, and I’ll try to put on a couple more demos that might be of interest to you. Nothing super fancy, but hopefully clear enough take and use elsewhere.
I’ve included a located sound patch and it isn’t perfect. Its been kept very simple, so the depth of the objects may not be quite right to your ears, overhead sounds aren’t as simple as adjusting panning, and reverb hasn’t been implemented here. It keeps the patch readable for now.
If you don’t here anything, try re-banging the OnOpen node near the bottom. Feedback is welcomed.
Also, I’ve adjusted the “OCRift Setup” module so translating or rotating the position won’t effect the point of of interest.
We could start by getting into limitations of the Oculus Rift (res, screen refresh rate), but they can and have been covered elsewhere. We can’t get around them, and they may only be temporary. I’d rather talk about problems specific to designing for it for what it is as much as what it promises. Issues like motion sickness, mobility, and in-world interaction - how to work through these matters would be illuminating. Its late/early. I’ll probably go there in another post.
So far had a couple of different workflows while developing. The first involves simply using 4V to set up scenes and play around object transformations, lighting and a bit of shader stuff. The second involves using Cinema 4D to pre-bake animations and using the camera path to set up the position of the Oculus view point.
The first is fun if you have someone testing the Oculus at the same time and making suggestions. In effect you’re creating a world for them and the collaboration itself can be creatively enjoyable. On your own else you’ll have to take off the goggles to make adjustments, so its a slightly laboured process.
The C4D workflow means you navigate the scene and set up set pieces more easily, before hand, and so long as you’re used to jumping through a few hoops to get you scenes out to 4V I found it a good option. And seeing what you’ve designed stereoscopically for the first time genuinely exciting.
I’ll try to expand both of these workflows more soon.
I’d like to hear what you’ve enjoyed been inspired to try out, what issues you’re coming across and what projects you foresee being possible. Also practical matters like exhibiting, and getting papped by friends.
Thanks
H
(Disclaimer: At the moment, sadly I am Riftless, and I’m waiting for my loaner to get too busy to use it again. So I might be out of my depth (pun not intended) when it comes to new developments.)
RIFT_TEST_2_01 (Audio).zip (14.1 MB)