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Unfortunately due to COVID-19 we could not carry this out.

Usability testing allows us to see how easy are game is to use for users.

Types:
Comparative Usability Testing -  We would have got users to try a similar experience and ours. We would have asked them to give the pros and cons of both so that we could make improvements to our own experience.

Explorative Usability Testing - We could give users tasks to complete in different experience (e.g different locations to travel to in our environment) this would allow to identify any functionality or content that our experience lacks.

Usability Evaluation - This would be used after weve made changes to our project, introducing users to our new design and getting feedback.

Advantages -
- issues that we might not detect are brought to light, before deadline.
- Increase chance of identifying problems

Disadvantages -
- Not 100% representative of real life situations.

Source:
https://www.experienceux.co.uk/faqs/what-is-usability-testing/

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19.02.2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKhKJUtaMt0&t=206s

Creating a blue fog when the player enters the area and remove the fog when the player comes out.

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Miro is a visual collaboration software that allows you to communicate, share ideas, write things, add images, documents, gifs and videos from places like YouTube. Sophia Ppali, our client suggested we use it to share our ideas and process in a more visual way. Because our project was very visual we found Miro more useful than padlet. But Yuni found padlet worked perfectly for her because she was doing more coding and technical work that she could blog easily.

Miro is great because the client can communicate with us with no issue and she can comment on our work and give us immediate feedback. We spent more time on Miro whilst developing our project.

Miro does have some disadvantages:

You can't see who added the test, post it unless they put their name - we fixed this by allocated a post it note colour for everyone so we knew who was aaying what. And adding your name after entering text.

Because it's a visual board you cannot see the date things were added.

We will be submitting a pdf off our Miro board along with our project as it best shows the profession that took place from research to concept to development.

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No density in the forest = more kitsune 🦊🌲🌻

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No density in the forest = more kitsune 🦊🌲🌻

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Because of optimisation issues we could not make the forest as dense as we had hoped. The file size became bigger than we could handle. After seeing the environment, it looked good, really good but I thought it would look even better if we increased the number of kitsune.

Creating more kitsune had minor complication: COLOUR!

We one from 6 kitsune to 15. I had to colour 9 extra kitsune and ensure they all looked different. The first few weren't too difficult, but it did get harder and harder to find colours that worked for 9 kitsune. I took some time, and more time was spent ensuring they were all animated. Thankfully I didn't have to worry about rigging.

I was very happy with all the kitsune in the end. And seeing them in the environment was even better! With more kitsune it became easier to spot them as you explored. The new kitsune were all assigned an environment area and given the appropriate symbol to indicate where they belonged.

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Lambert and aiStandardSurface are both shaders in Maya. But aiStandardSurface doesn't appear in Unity. I had already coloured the kitsune when this discovery was made. I had to change all the material to Lambert.

Changing them was an easy but time consuming job. I had to strip the models of colour and reapply it.

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My experience using VR for the first time 🔸🔶🔸

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My experience using VR for the first time 🔸🔶🔸

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VR was completely new to me. It is why I was so excited to do the project. I had never been in a VR environment before. Using VR for the first time was pretty cool! It was even better when I was doing really amazing experience like Where Thoughts Go, which has the most beautiful environments ever! I couldn't believe how amazing it looked and I was immersed. I wanted our user to feel the way I did when they were in our experience. Like they had been teleported to an amazing new environment.

I also tried out  Wolves in the Walls, which is more ominous and has more interaction. I even tried out a free trial for a horror movie game! It was called ABE VR. It was so cool! I even cringed when they chopped my head off, I didn't feel it but I kinda felt it in a weird way!

We tried out a really interactive game called Oculus First Contact. This game was so interactive and the interactions felt so real! I really felt like I was there doing everything. I nearly put the controllers on the floor thinking I was putting them on a real table when the game told me I was done. We were all so inspired by the interactions and they gave us some ideas for our own experience. We were disappointed when COVID-19 affected our ability to add interactions to our project.

3D Modelling in VR
I tried modelling in Google Blocks. It's an interest experience. I was more enthralled by the fact that I was modelling using VR, but it took some getting used to. I really wanted to explore Google Blocks and learn how to use it more, but I didn't get that chance. My focus was modelling the yokai, so I only got to model in Google Blocks once.

It's been fun exploring VR. But the saddest thing is not being able to see our environment in VR because I don't have the headset and the virus stopped everything.

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Because of the rigging issues we had to keep changing the animation. From only having one ear animating moving back and forth to finally being able to animate the tails and the ears.

At first we animated the ears to move in and out, because we couldn't make the ears lie back the way real fox ears do. The tails didn't cause to many problems. But because the rigs weren't exactly right getting the tails to move smoothly was difficult. However we could get away with this because low poly art doesn't require everything to be perfectly realistic.

When we transported the animated kitsune to Unity, we had a problem. The right ear was not moving smoothly and the model was being distorted. How we tried to fix it:

1. Removing the animation on that ear.

2. Changing the animation on that ear

3. Re-exporting

The only solution that worked was removing the keyframes on the the right ear. Because all the models were animated using the same rig, they all had this problem. So this was a con of using the same rig for all the models. If they had different rigs they would not have all had this problem. We know this because all the models used Sho's rig and they had the issue. But when Toh was exported to Unity all the ears worked fine. We are still not sure what cause this problem. And we didn't have time to explore this.

Removing the animation
This wasn't difficult, all we had to do was remove the keyframes. But before the ears were moving in a and out. But with only one ear being animated I thought that may look odd. So I animated the left ear on all the models to move back and forth slightly. Not to the degree that a real fox would. The down side to this was all the foxes would have one ear moving the same way, it could look really repetitive. But to me this was a minor problem cause by fixing a bigger problem.

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One of the plants that i designed and coloured in maya.

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Problem, after problem, until we FINALLY found the SIMPLEST solution at the VERY END.

Problem 1
Well, I only kinda knew how to rig. After watching multiple Youtube videos - again, I was still struggling. In Maya if you  don't know how to fix your problem, its hard to get help without some physically being there to see what's causing your problem and telling you how to fix it, well, even Google isn't much help. I struggled making a full body rig, without the help of TSM3.  I understood the concept, but my rig just wouldn't come out right. And building it from scratch was difficult and time consuming. A solution was needed.

Solution to Problem 1 = Problem 2
Maybe a full body rig isn't my only option, I thought. Maybe I can get away with just rigging the body parts I plan on animating, which are the ears and tails. A solution was found, I was a genius! So I thought. Using a simple YouTube video, that explained how to create joints, add controls and bind the joints to the skin and create a rig, I  made joint for the first ear. It was a beautiful success. The joints bound to the skin perfectly and I was able to animate the ear and it was pretty awesome. It didn't even take long! I moved onto the next ear. And that when I ran into Problem 2. Even if I bound the skin to the joints the ear would not reach to the joints when I was animating. Nothing was happening at all. The joint would move but the ear wouldn't. I tried deleting and doing it again, slower and more carefully. Maybe in my excitement I missed a step, made a silly mistake. No luck. I deleted the rig on the functioning ear and tried to rig the ear that wasn't working on its own. It worked! But when I re-rigged the ear that was working before it wouldn't work. I did some research, I emailed Blaine, I was desperate. I was so close, yet so so far! Finally to no avail, I realised that I just couldn't have multiple separate rigs bound to one mesh. I had no choice, I had to contend with only animating one ear. Sho and Toh at least would look more exciting, but the rest well, only their ears would move. It was better than nothing right? Wrong.

Problem 3 = THE SOLUTION
Problem 3 drove me to consider more options. The other kitsune looked so boring! Thats as a problem for me. As the Art Director for the project, my main role is ensuring that the project looks good. And as the person also modelling and animating the kitsune, I couldn't do a substandard job and expect my group to do a great job. I was bothered. After a cup of tea, some popcorn and a few episodes of Hannah Montana, I found a solution!

THE SOLUTION
It was simple really. I could use either Sho or Toh's rigs. I thought I couldn't do this before. Because I knew I couldn't copy and paste a rig. But all I had to do was take one of their rigged files and save it with a different name like Pond_Kitsune. Then I just had to change the model to look like the pond kitsune, whilst still using the rig that is already there. I was able to us this solution and provide rigs and animate all the kitsune. Not only did I feel better knowing I had done my best, but the kitsune looked more alive in the experience. Meaning the project looked better. Another days, (many days) work, for the Art Director, ending with a success!

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Changes to the Yokai because of COVID-19 😐

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Changes to the Yokai because of COVID-19 😐

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Due to the effects of the COVID-19 on our workflow we have to decided

to change how we create the various Yokais for the experience. Rather than creating a totally different yokai for all the different parts of the enviroment, we have decided to make it a Kistune forest. This is because we have lost a lot of time, and not having access to the compters in Jennison means that I will not have access to the TSM3 plugin that makes rigging much faster and easier. In order to create the other creatures, concept art will be needed and then they will need to be modelled, rigged and animated.

However we have the models for the Kistune twins Sho and Toh and they have also been rigged. Because learning rigging will be difficult without hands on help when I get stuck and the TSM3 plugin, I will be able to rig other Kistunes without struggling as much because I have already rigged Sho and Toh. I can use them as guidelines for the other Kistunes.

The new Kistunes

Our experience has 5 areas that require yokais. Sho and Toh are together at the Mountain of Fire and Ice, so 4 more yokais are needed. These yokais are going to all be different Kistune's that vary in colour and style, to differentiate them from each other.

Our different areas that need yokais are:

1. Forest entrance

2. Mountain of Fire and Ice

3. Pond

4. Crystal Mines

5. Waterfall/Mystical Forest

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https://www.raywenderlich.com/2163461-advanced-vr-interactions-in-unity-tutorial

https://learn.unity.com/tutorial/unit-5-hand-presence-and-interaction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ayGwrHdGVo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tePzyL6dgc

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We chose purple as our main base colour for our project. We thought rather than using normal environment colours we wanted our forest to look more mystical. This would work well with our synopsis that is based the Hyakki Yagyo Japanese folklore.

Our environment needed contrast though. We couldn't just have purples, pinks and blues. We didn't want the environment to be monochromatic or analogous. We chose a complementary colour scheme. Complementary colours are those opposite each other on the colour wheel. With purple being our main focus we decided to compliment it with yellow.

The final look of the project was split complementary. Split complementary is when you have one colour, eg purple and the complimentary colour which is yellow is accompanied by the colour next to each other. So the colour scheme would have purple, yellow and green. Our environment has more green than yellow. But throwing in some yellow Kitsune brought more yellow in.

I really like how the environment looked in the end and how the kitsune look in the environment.

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The forest is split into five parts, and every one of them has its own unique terrain, and a creatures residing in it.

This is the original design of the world. It has a linear path where the user could follow, as I thought that having an open world to explore would be too difficult for the users that are new to VR. Besides, having a linear path forces the user to visit the locations in a specific order, and this could be easier to arrange a storyline. Originally, after the user visits all of the locations, they would reach to a big area with all the creatures they saw before gather. They would be in their own gazebos, where the user can interact with them by opening the doors of the gazebo and revealing the creatures inside.

After talking to the client and the team, we agreed that this map takes away the ‘exploration’ element by forcing the user to go in one linear path. And there are some elements of the map has to be changed.

This is the final version of the map. All the linear paths are removed, and but the locations of the area stays roughly where they are. There are quite a lot of empty spaces in the map, where we will fill it with trees. As this is a forest after all, trees should take up most of the spaces in the map instead of the locations.

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This is the updated tree, I changed the colours in maya. Initially I used an Arnold ai standard surface to colour the tree, however this was not compatible with Unity so I used a lambert shader instead.

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This is another tree that i designed and made. This is what it looked like straight out of google blocs.

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Health effects

- Motion Sickness is one of the problems associated with VR. This is due to the discomfort that could occur when the user is moving (eg. Walking around) in VR but you are stationary in real life. To address this, we will give the user an option of how they would like to navigate through the game, either by teleportation, which should quell any motion sickness or they can use a joystick on a controller to walk around.

Performance (friction)

- Friction is the collection of factors that keep an experience from being effortless. So that the experience runs a lot smoother (without any glitching/flickering), we have opted for a low poly environment which will be a lot less demanding on the software. This will help create a relaxing, calming experience for the users.

Usability

- We opted for a virtual experience rather than a fully-fledged game, this will increase usability as the specs on people’s PC’s won’t have to be as good. Therefore, making it more accessible and easier to run.

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With the changes made because of Corona we now needed new kitsune for each environment. These Kitsune needed to look different each of them needed to have a different symbol on their forehead to indicate which environment they reside in

I actually prefer having only kitsune in the forest. For me it adds more appeal because I love foxes and wolves so the idea of a forest where you can encounter different types of Kitsune is really cool. Of course having different types of yokai would be more exciting for most people because there's a curiosity factor. What will the creature look like here, what colour will it be, will it be big or small, fly or walk? This element was removed from our project. So I had to find way to make sure people still got as excited about our kitsune as I am.

COLOUR!
I love colour, I love how it brings things to life and how it can make something boring fun. I knew I had to have vibrant and exciting looking kitsune. So I became bolder my colour choices. I began to design kitsune that were all green, bright yellow and even dark purple. I wanted people to be drawn to the kitsune and to see them from a distance. I was glad when I saw the project and you could spot the kitsune from a distance (of course this was also because the forest wasn't as dense as we hoped).

Changing the models
We were using Sho and Toh's models and changing the colours to create new kitsune. But as mentioned before each kitsune has a symbol on its forehead that represents where it resides. Using the Multi-cut Tool in Maya I was able to add the edges I needed to the mesh to create the symbols. The symbols are important because along with the colour they differentiate the kitsune.

Choosing colours
At this point the biggest challenge I found was choosing colours. When designing the first new kitsune, which was the Pond kitsune, I played around with colours on Photoshop first. Once I went into Maya and applied to the colours to the models I found conceptualising the colours in Photoshop first was redundant. In Maya I could try out different colour combinations, whilst immediately looking at the model. Not only was the a fast way to do things, but it gave me immediate results which was really helpful! I didn't have to guess if my colours would look good on the models, I saw it right away. When choosing new colours for the Entrance and Waterfall kitsune it was faster process.

When deciding the colours I still had to think about the aesthetic we were going for and the colour of the environment. I didn't want the kitsune to look out of place but I also didn't want them to blend in. I was happy with the colours I chose in the end.

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4 Types:

- Motion-based: Utilises some physical movement to enable interaction while supporting continuous motion in open VR spaces.
- Room-scale-based: The interaction takes place in VR environments whose size is limited by the real environment’s size.
- Controller-based: utilises controllers to artificially move the user in the VR environment. The VR interaction space is open, and the motion is continuous.
- Teleportation-based: the VR locomotion techniques that fall under this type utilise artificial interactions in open VR spaces with noncontinuous movement. The user’s virtual viewpoint is instantaneously teleported to a predefined position by utilising visual ‘jumps’.

source: https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/1/4/24/htm

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15.05.2020

This is the map after setting all the assets

North West - Ice, Fire mountains
South West - Starting Point
South East - Crystal Field
North East - Waterfall
Centre - Pond Area

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10.05.2020

Crystals are made using cylinder shapes, set transparency in Maya and imported to Unity.

Small light orbs placed in the centre of the cyrstals make them to glow.

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08.05.2020

As our mission was making the low-poly assets,

I wanted to make really simple, but also the special trees.

Thus, these trees are made with using basic shapes(Cylinder, Doughnut, Pentagon and Sphere) in Maya. Colors are different in Unity.

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Motion Sickness (also known as cybersickness) is the most common negative health effect due to VR usage. Symptoms include general discomfort, nausea, dizziness, headache, disorientation, vertigo, drowsiness, pallor, sweating, and, in the occasional worst case, vomiting.

From all the different kinds of motion sickness, Visual Scene Motion is the one that can occur in a VR environment.

Scene motion is visual motion of the entire virtual environment that would not normally occur in the real world. A VR scene might be non-stationary due to intentional scene motioninjected into the system in order to make the virtual  world behave differently than the real world, andunintentional scene motion caused by shortcomings of technology (where thescene motion often occurs only when moving the head), such as latency orinaccurate calibration (mismatched field of view, optical distortion, trackingerror, incorrect interpupiliary distance, etc.).

Vection(an illusion of self-motion) does not necessarily always cause
motion sickness. For example, VR often evokes vection when the scene moves at aconstant linear velocity, but such motion does not seem to be much of a factor formotion sickness. Yet, when the scene moves in other ways, motion sickness can be amajor problem.

When a visual scene moves independently of how a user isphysically moving, there can be mismatch between what is seen and what is physicallyfelt.

This mismatch is especially discontenting when the virtual motion accelerates because oursenses do not sense that same acceleration. Virtual rotations can be more discontenting because the semicircular canals detect both velocity and acceleration, one is more likely toexperience motion sickness fromconstant angular velocity than from constant linearvelocity.

Incorrect scene motion also often occurs in VR due to imperfect implementation. Although vestibular stimulation suppresses vection,scene motion due to latency and head motion together can still cause vection and is
a major contributor to motion sickness. Miscalibrated systems can also result in incorrect scene motion as users move their heads..

All the theories about motion sickness try to explain the reasons behind this discomfort in different ways and at the same time they all agree that the motion sickness is due to the difference that our body and senses perceived between the real world and the VR world.

Sensory Conflict Theory
The sensory conflict theory is the most widely acceptedexplanation for the initiation of motion sickness symptoms. The theorystates that motion sickness may result when the environment is altered in sucha way that incoming information across sensory modalities (primarily visual andvestibular) are not compatible with each other and do not match our mental modelof expectations.

Rest Frame Hypothesis

The rest frame hypothesis states that motion sickness does notarise from conflicting orientation and motion cues directly, but rather from conflicting stationary frames of reference implied by those cues. The rest frame is the part of the scenethat the viewer considers stationary and judges other motion relative to.

For example, when a user virtually moves through aworld, the ground moves beneath his feet. If the ground is considered the rest framethat does not move, then it must be the user that is moving. Vestibular cues informthe brain that he is not actually moving over the ground, so his mental model of the world becomes confused by the conflicting information and motion sickness results.

How to Reduce Motion Sickness Effects in VR

·        A good idea is to introduce in the scene a Rest Frame to focalise on to reduce adverse effects of the VR environment.Some example are the cockpit of a plane, the gun in an FPS or the hands and body of the player.

·        Minimize visual acceleration and rotations as they create a sense of sickness very often so it’s suggests to keep them very infrequent and short. If the player has the control of the viewpoint, Visual Accelerations can be less of a problem can still be nauseating

·        Delay Compensation: Because computation is not instantaneous, VR will always have delay. Delay compensation techniques can reduce the deleterious effects of system delay, effectively
reducing latency

·        Warning Grids and Fade-Outs.For a user approaching the edge of tracking, a real-world physical object not visually represented in the virtual world (e.g., a wall), or the edge of a safe zone, a warning grid or the real world can fade in to provide a cue to the user that he should back off. Whereas such feedback can cause a break-in-presence, it is better than thealternative of the loss of quality tracking that results in a worse break-in-presence andinjury.

Source:

The VR Book: Human-Centered Design for Virtual Reality
Jason Jerald, NextGen Interactions
2016

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First, walking-in-place and controller/joystick-based locomotion are the most studied techniques, and they are the main representatives of two different interaction types: physical vs. artificial.

Considering the sum of the reviewed locomotion techniques, physical interaction in VR locomotionis much more utilized and studied, as it can trigger intuitive user responses, and it may not add anextra cognitive load with motion instructions. On the other hand, artificial interaction allows for
a less physically-intense experience, with the user being stationary and simply using a controller;however, it can be cognitively intense, and it can lead more easily to VR sickness.

Moreover, the size of the environment isconsidered significant for the performance of the VR locomotion technique, a characteristic represented
in the theme of VR interaction space.

Consequently, thedocumented VR locomotion techniques were assigned to the classification categories, creating fourdistinct VR locomotion types, which are visualized in Figure 3:

• Motion-based: The VR locomotion techniques under this type utilize some kind of physicalmovement to enable interaction, while supporting continuous motion in open VR spaces. This VRlocomotion type includes such techniques as walking-in-place, redirected walking, arm swinging,gesture-based locomotion and reorientation.

• Room scale-based: This VR locomotion type utilizes physical movement to enable interaction, andit supports continuous motion (as with the motion-based type); however, the interaction takesplace in VR environments whose size is limited by the real environment’s size. The nomenclaturefor this locomotion type comes from the room-scale VR technology, which presents these interaction features. The real-walking locomotion technique falls under this type.

• Controller-based: For this VR locomotion type, controllers are utilized to move the userartificially in the VR environment. The VR interaction space is open, and the motion iscontinuous. This type includes such techniques as joystick-based, human joystick, chair-basedand head-directed locomotion.

• Teleportation-based: The VR locomotion techniques under this type utilize artificial interactions inopen VR spaces with non-continuous movement, as the user’s virtual viewpoint is instantaneouslyteleported to a predefined position by utilizing visual “jumps”. Point and teleport is a VRlocomotion technique that falls under this type.

Source: ‘The New Era of Virtual Reality Locomotion:A Systematic Literature Review of Techniques and aProposed Typology’.
Costas BoletsisID.
SINTEF Digital, Forskningsveien 1, 0373 Oslo, Norway; konstantinos.boletsis@sintef.no; Published: 28 September 2017.

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Creating a skybox
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yjj3
2d
Creating a skybox
 Skyboxes are rendered around the whole scene in order to give the impression of complex scenery at the horizon. Skyboxes are a wrapper around your entire scene that shows what the world looks like beyond your geometry. 

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-Skybox.html



25.04.2020-26.04.2020

1. Using photoshop-cube

I've used photoshop to create a skybox and import it to Unity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZutidNYVRE

However, using photoshop gave me a trouble as I could only make it in a cube shape at that time. 
I could see the difference of each side due to its edges. I pinched in the middle of each sides with photoshop so that it can make little bit of curves. It was better than before, however, I still can see that the edges are not connecting naturally.


2. Using 360 Panorama Image

I was thinking to use 360 panorama image to make the skybox as a sphere shape. Unfortunately, I couldn't make or get 360 lowpoly sky panorama image.




28.04.2020-30.04.2020

3. Using photoshop- creating a perspective view

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yj6LtqeUNk

After some more research, I found a way the make the skybox as a perspective view, however, it was stretching the part of the image.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQUtvyGrusk


02.05.2020-05.05.2020

4. Using Pano2VR6 to create a perspective view
I used Pano2VR6 program to make the skybox as a perspective view.
I had to pay for it, however, I could get a free trial. With this program, I could make it as a panorama and make it as a perspective view.
After I changed the view, the skybox is much more natural, each scene connects well. The edges are difficult to notice.


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Initial Client Research
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yjj3
3mo
Initial Client Research
Andrea G Artz 

Andrea is a German born visual artist and photographer based in London. “My work has emerged out of photography’s’ expanded field and incorporates installation, sculpture, drawing, photography, collage and film. I am interested in perception and ways of describing emotions visually, and through installation bring together different mediums to create experience. The works are created for a specific space to incorporate the sense of place; however transient or permanent, it represents this for the moment the visitor is amongst the work. The human condition and particularly how it is expressed in the human figure is my main interest. Originally trained as a photographer, I am an acute observer of people’s movements, postures, gestures and facial expressions and how they change as history progresses. My work addresses themes like humanness, freedom, limitless possibilities, the expansion of consciousness, and at the same time globalization, displacement, being in exile, impermanence, homelessness, and existential loneliness.” Her latest site-specific installations feature photographic portrait sculptures that are cut out, bent and folded in the third dimension in a playful way that gives rise to filigree, nearly weightless objects, space occupations or conceptual spaces. In her installations the photographic characters are freed from the cold, dead stasis of the still photograph and able to form new relationships with each other and the space on which they have been placed. During the current uncertainty regarding humanity’s future there is a renewed interest in spiritual life and in artists that were inspired by a power that comes from outside them, a reach out for something beyond. In that sense, Andrea would like to look at the magic of photographic portraits and research the philosophical concepts of photographic portraiture throughout history and particularly look at the relationship of photography with death and the notion that “Photography can steal your Soul”. She is currently working on a virtual reality experience that was initially funded by the Arts Council of England. The unique way of developing VR characters from photographic portraits sets them apart from the usual CGI characters and creates photographic sculptures that come alive through movement. Andrea uses colour and space to invite the viewer to understand the photographic image in a contemporary setting such as immersive media technologies. 


The Forest of Query 
The immersive installation features sculpture, print, photography and text in display cabinets and the trailer for a virtual reality experience in progress. During the opening night participants were taken on a sensory and playful virtual journey through a peaceful forest. Yuni’s opinion :In her solo exhibition Farewells, Visitors were able to walk around the sculptures and experience the abstract and unsubstantial back from one angle, and the realistic and more solid photographic one front from another. Maybe she wants the same experience with our VR project?Questions1.Any ideas about users interacting with your artworks?(i.e. Moving hands, talking) 2.Most of them are one-side painted, one-side white as they are folded papers. Will it be a good idea showing the empty parts to the visitors? Any solutions? (We might need to work with limited angle, it doesn’t look nice when every artworks are facing the visitors.) 3. Can you describe us about the atmosphere of the forest that you are trying to make? 4.Do the creatures in the forest have any background stories? 5.How users will be able to move with the equipment? (Flying? Controller?) 6.3d sources (Is there any better quality). 7.Tell us the things that you really need to put. (The most important, special artwork among the others?) 

Her other works FarewellGhost Weight Farewells transforms a large space underneath railway arches into a station where people in transit meet. Theme is the journey in all its aspects. There is a movement of hundreds of three – dimensional figures of various sizes throughout the space. They populate the floor or wall space, while others are ceiling bound. The bending and folding of cut – out photographic prints into three – dimensional sculptures exaggerate the physique and posture of the travellers. Almost all are wired and some seem to be in a praying position. Visitors are able to walk around the cardboard sculptures and experience them from all angles. The title was inspired by Boccioni” work States of Mind: Those who go, those who stay and Farewells. In 1911 the futurists were in awe of new machines and the velocity of speed, museums and everything old was discarded and the future celebrated. Ghost Weight is a wall-based installation comprised of Origami foldings that meander through Crol & Co’s space. “The Lord of the Cactus”, “The Oyster Eater”, “The Possessed Girl” or “The Crazy Corseted Suffragette” were all sculptured after oblivion. Likewise, “The Caged Cool Man” singing Music to Watch the Girls By, or “The Edwardian Yogini” bring us memories doomed until now to disappear. Serving an eternity in the darkest shelves of the cheapest charity shops these historical photographic portraits all emerged from death to reinvent their existence. Some were even less lucky and had to ascend from their graves at the bottom of the deepest forgotten boxes of unknown flea markets. Andrea has helped her characters to regain life, measuring their souls against the heavy Ghost Weight of nothingness that their legacies became. By doing so, the artist has allowed them to be forever free in peace. (Nacho Díaz)
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Yokai Art Style - Low Poly
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Prudence Chikaka
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Yokai Art Style - Low Poly 
Once I had the moodboards for the design, I went on to gain a better understanding of the art style. I couldn't do concept art without taking the art style into consideration, the style affects the designs. The client requested this art style, which was great because that was the same style we wanted to do!

Definition of low poly: 
making use of simple geometric shapes place side by side to create a minimalistic composition, that is usually angular. 
The 'poly' comes from polygon. So there are a no curved edges, just like a polygon. 

History: 
comes from the early days of 3D animation. Creating mock ups of 3D scenes using "low polygonal resolution" lowered the time it took to render. This sped up the development process for animated films and video games.

Advantages of low poly art:
low poly models are of a smaller file size, therefor can run on low-end hardware. 
Requires less time because of the lack of detail and no textures needed. (This gives us more time to focus on other aspects of the VR experience.)
Disadvantages of low poly art:
The style may not appeal to everyone. 
Users may not one able to tell some assets in the experience apart. 

Websites used: 
https://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/whats-the-deal-with-low-poly-art/

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/appstore/post/aaedd3b8-5e3f-4b4b-a567-c3257139cbcf/an-intro-to-low-poly-and-flat-design
 
I made a moodpboard of low poly animals and creatures, so that I could get an idea of what our creatures may look like in this style. 

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Motion Sickness
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ajog2
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Motion sickness occurs when our brain gets confused, because there is a difference between what movement is being perceived visually and what movement are sensory motors detect (and the vestibular system).  This can cause vertigo, nausea and headaches.

Different motion sickness theories:
- Sensory Conflict: conflict between seeing motion but not actually moving.
- Eye Movement: unnatural eye motion viewed.
- Evolutionary: conflicting information initiates our body protection mechanisms.
- Postural Instability: can increase the motion sickness effect. E.g leaning forward when the scene moves forward.

How we will overcome this:

-To try and overcome the possibility of motion sickness, users will be able to teleport around the map, to predefined positions that they choose, through pointing.
-We have also included sounds to try and match the sense of movement

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From an interaction perspective the VR locomotion techniques used are based on physical interaction, exploiting physical motion cues for navigation in VR environments.

We can identify four distinct VR locomotion types: motion-based, room scale-based,controller-based and teleportation-based locomotion.

Point-and-clickteleportation is now a mainstream VR locomotion technique (even because it comes included in the main brands of VR Headset), while motion-basedlocomotion techniques, including swimming, climbing, flying and walking-in-place, have becomemore robust and user-friendly.

Depending on the hardware choices available we can identify 11 main type of combinations:

·        Real-walking: The user walks freely inside a limited physical space. The user’s position andorientation are determined, usually by tracking the HMD’s position or the user’s limb movements.

·        Walking-in-place: The user performs virtual locomotion by walking in place, i.e., using step-likemovements while remaining stationary. The user’s limb movements can be tracked, or stepping
and treadmill-like input devices, such as the Stepper Machine and VirtuSphere, can beused to register the step-like movements and translate them into VR motion.

·        Controller/joystick: The user uses a controller to direct the movement in the virtual environment.The kind of controller can range from a simple joystick to a game controller, a keyboard or a trackball.

·        Gesture-based: The user makes gestures to direct virtual movement. The various gestures (such as tap, push and flying) are tracked by input devices, such as the Leap Motionor Microsoft Kinect, and translated into VR motion.

·        Teleportation: The user points to where he/she wants to be in the virtual world, and the virtualviewpoint is instantaneously teleported to that position. The visual “jumps” of teleportation resultin virtual motion being non-continuous. The pointing can take place by using a controller
or making a pointing gesture.

·        Redirected walking: The user walks freely inside a limited physical space, while being ableto explore unlimited virtual environments by employing so-called redirection techniques.
These techniques try to introduce an unnoticeable mismatch between the user’s real and virtualmovements to compress the larger virtual environment into a limited tracking space.

·        Arm swinging: Users swing their arms while remaining stationary, and their arm movements are translated into VR motion. The arm movements can be tracked by body-tracking devices (e.g., Microsoft Kinect) or wearable and held devices (e.g., armbands and controllers).

·        Reorientation: The user walks freely inside a limited physical space, while being able to exploreunlimited virtual environments by employing so-called reorientation. The reorientation isachieved by modifying the rotational gain of the users, so they physically turn around when they
meet the boundaries of the physical space, thus allowing for continued travel in both worlds.

·        Head-directed: The user uses head movements of the HMD to control movement. The VRmotion speed can be fixed or it can be controlled by the forward/backward pitching of the user’s head.

·        Human joystick: The user stands and leans on a sensing board (e.g., Wii balance board) toproduce forward, backward and sideways (strafing) motions, as well as turning during forward motion.

·        Chair-based: The user sits on a stool chair, which acts as an input device, and the stool rotationand tilt are translated into VR forward/backward and turning motions. The technique canhave various implementations (such as NaviChair, MuvMan, Swivel Chair).

The walking-in-place locomotion technique is the most utilised followed by thecontroller/joystick-enabled locomotion technique.

Source: ‘The New Era of Virtual Reality Locomotion:A Systematic Literature Review of Techniques and aProposed Typology’.
Costas BoletsisID.
SINTEF Digital, Forskningsveien 1, 0373 Oslo, Norway; konstantinos.boletsis@sintef.no; Published: 28 September 2017.

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Description:

VR is a medium that requires a high level of immersion and transitions are a desirable tool.

VR is often from a first person perspective and acts both as temporal and spatial medium.

The way the VR project is intended can justify different type of transition used: Storytelling/Movie style, Open World and free movements, Use of powers/magic

As a result, transitions between scenesconstitute not only a break in timeline but also a change in worldexperience, which can draw attention to the virtuality of the experience, and could break presence.

4 options: SimpleCut, FastMovement,Fadeand Vortex.

Choice:SimpleCut

Reason: The SimpleCut Transition is an appropriate option when amaximum consistent of presence is required, since it is more invisible and has rather limited impact on presence. For instance, hint acontinuous timeline in VR storytelling;

Source:The Impact of Transitions on User Experience in Virtual Reality.
Authors: Liang Men, Nick Bryan-Kinnsy,Amelia ShivaniHassardz,Zixiang Max
Queen Mary University of London, London, U.K.

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This part was easier than rigging and weight painting. But it wasn't necessarily easy. I ran into a problem straight away! Before animating the the kitsune I looked at some vides of foxes on YouTube to see how they behaved, more specifically how their ears and tails moved.

Fox videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AaIM4KP8do&t=29s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhYBX9aoIdY&t=247s

The mistake I made was watching these videos after I had rigged my models. I didn't have the way fox move their ears in mind when I created my rig. I thought their ears just moved forwards and backwards. But I the way they move backwards, is they fold down. When I tried to apply this to my animation, it completely distorted my model and broke it.

At the point that this happened I had already gone home due to COVID, meaning I no longer had access to TSM3 which is a paid plugin. So I couldn't afford to try re-rig these from scratch. My solution was making the ears go in an out, rather than moving back and forth the way they way they are supposed to.

With the tails I did not run into as many issues. The rig wasn't perfect which meant my animation could only be so good. I had a hard time make the tails look like they were moving smoothly. I feel like I can get away with this though, because low-poly art is blocky so the animation doesn't have to be perfectly realistic. Though these issues were a problem for the protectionist in me. I had to work with what I had because I couldn't change the rigs.

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This is technically a part of the rigging process. And it is a very important part of the rigging process.

When you create a rig and try to move it and animate the model, you run into a problem. Different parts of the model might move if you move one part of the rig. For example in the case of Sho and Toh, if I am moving a left ear, the left side of the neck and face might move as well. This is because not the right weight is applied to a bone.

Weights a  measured from a value of 0-1, they follow the influence based on the percentage given. So in my case if I didn't want the neck or face to move when I move the ear I have to redistribute the weight. It cannot just be erased. So I would have to move remove or decrease  the weight on the neck and face  and reapply it to the ear. With the ear carrying the heaviest weight, it means only the ear will move.

I had to do this to the ears and tails and the regions around them on both Sho and Toh. This took me a long time because I was trying to get used to the process and understand how it worked. It was easier to do than it was to understand the technicality of exactly what was being done. But the more I did the more I gained a better understanding.

Explaining weight painting
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-weight-painting-so-difficult

I have uploaded an image of weight painting.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8cmDK_O-1g

With this instruction video, I could easily import Maya animation to Unity for flowers and Kitunes.

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08.05.2020-10.05.2020

https://www.raywenderlich.com/2163461-advanced-vr-interactions-in-unity-tutorial

I've realised that with Oculus controller, the lines of the controller tooltips are not exactly connecting with its buttons. So I had to think another option to guide the player.

I wanted to make an animated controller tooltips so that it will be visually appeared in the player's sight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGYdzTOvKXQ&t=22s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou8VkQB2sos&t=387s

These two video helped me to create a sprite sheet so that I can make an animation in Unity.

Once when I created the sprite sheet and import it in Unity, it was easy to connect it to controller tooltips.

The picture below is one of the sprite sheets.

You can find a video of our animated controller tooltips result in Miro.

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At the first time, we used a free low-poly water assets from Unity asset store.
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/particles-effects/lowpoly-water-107563

We've discussed about it and decided that it doesn't match with our atmosphere so we made our own water.

Water is just a plain, it has some small triangle-shaped sprites moving through the river which shows like the river is flowing. Colliders are off so that the player can go into the water.

In this way, we could make the water as low-poly and change the colour and styles as what we want.

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12.05.2020-13.05.2020

Audio conveys basic information about the environment and user interface without taxing the visual system. The player can be aware of surroundings, feel emotional impact.

Bird whistling
https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/339326/

Footsteps grass forest
https://freesound.org/people/Eelke/sounds/451539/

Wind
https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/405561/

River
https://freesound.org/people/Pfannkuchn/sounds/459408/

Volcano
https://freesound.org/people/GregorQuendel/sounds/421879/

Waterfall
https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/335992/

We have a problem with the sound effect.
When the player goes into the water area, the player can still hear the bird whistling and footsteps sound playing. We could not fix this problem as we had to turn on and off the specific sounds, and we could not figure out the way to do it.

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05.05.2020-12.05.2020

I put assets in the terrain. I had to optimise constantly in the middle of the procedure as it was keep dropping the frame rate.

Free Low Poly Nature Project Pack 2 Swamp

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/landscapes/free-low-poly-nature-project-pack-2-swamp-123765

Free Low Poly - lava Plants

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/fantasy/free-low-poly-lava-plants-145043

Low Poly Rock Pac

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/low-poly-rock-pack-57874

Low Poly Nature Pack (Lite)

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/landscapes/low-poly-nature-pack-lite-40444

Simplistic Low Poly Nature

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/simplistic-low-poly-nature-93894

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https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-TimeManager.html

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/iphone-Optimizing-Physics.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0n4fuC4fNU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmllCooy_UA

https://docs.unity3d.com/560/Documentation/Manual/OcclusionCulling.html

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Due to the COVID crisis, we had to find a way to share our project.

Using Unity Collaborate, we all could access to our project. It was free to invite up to 3 people, however, because we were 6, I had to pay for it.

It is quite complicated to use at the first time. So I made a video about how to use Unity Collaborate and shared with everyone.

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27.04.2020

Creating a logo scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kLQ8gq9xeQ&t=53s

I created an intro scene to display our logo.

10.05.2020

Creating an intro scene
I created entire intro scene so that we can display our logo, game title and story of the game. Each scene has its own fade in and out animation so that they can connect smoothly.

You can find the details in Miro board.

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It is the c concept artist job to convey an idea using illustrations an images. From the concept art created and idea is chosen then created.

Each of yokai would undergo three fazes of development:
1. Concept art
2. Development (modelling, rigging and animating)
3. Conversion to low-poly

Once a yokai was created and all three fazes complete we would move onto the next yokai and redo the process.

The concept art for the kitsune twins, included making use of the mood boards created for inspiration and reference. Using photoshop I sketched out a few different ideas for what the kitsune could look like. In the initial concept art I included fur in the sketches. But after looking at various low poly animals with fur, I didn't quite like the look of it so we chose to forgo the fur and go for a more smooth look.

Once the sketches had be created, we needed to play around with colour. Sho and Toh were from the Fire and Ice mountains and we wanted them to reflect that in their colours. In one of the concept art images below, you will see a version of Sho (fire) where he is mostly black. We didn't go for that option because we didn't want to use such a harsh and heavy colour like black so heavily. We want the VR experience to be colourful and pleasant.

The concept art is a really useful guide for me when I am in Maya and I need to design and choose colours.

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Miro is a platform where we use to communicate with our client, and where we put our visual research and ideas on there.

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Sign up using your Office 365, Slack, Google or Facebook accounts.

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Tree 1

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Initially I was worried about rigging. It was something new to learn and it looked so complicated.
Before diving into the process I wanted to understand what rigging was exactly. I knew what it looked like but not what it was.

What is rigging?
Rigging is the process of creating digital bones/skeleton for a character that is to be animated. These bones are used to control the character and allow for animation. So the animator is a puppet master and the rig, the puppet strings and puppet is the model.

Defining Rigging
https://conceptartempire.com/what-is-rigging/

Once I understood what a rig was , I spoke to Blaine about the process and watched a number of YouTube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c538zkwxgTQ&t=187s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6030JKB5q1I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOokoFED7QE&t=1175s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWrKiOKuK4o&t=1355s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK34DUULP6I&t=292s

Rigging from scratch is not easy and it is time consuming. But Blaine introduced me to TSM3 a plugin available on the Jennison computers. TSM3 allows you to use pre-created rig templates. These templates can be an entire animal, person, or just the leg, the arm, a tail etc. Using a reference picture  of fox's bone structure and TSM3, I was able to rig the foxes. You can't copy and paste a rig so though the foxes had identical meshes, they had to have their own individual rigs.

At first I ran into problems with accuracy when creating my rig. But after Blaine suggested I use a  reference image of a foxes bone structure it became a lot easier. The hardest part was adding the ears to the rig. I thought the tails would be hard since I had three, but TSM3 had a pre-made tail bone , so it wasn't hard.  But there was no pre-made ear so I had to get creative and instead I used the spine bone, scaled down, for  the ears.

Exactly how I rigged in TSM3

1. I added legs

2. Then I added a spine, head  and neck and attached them to the legs

3. I added three tails to the back of the spine

4. I added scaled down spines and attached them to the top of the head as ears.

5. TSM3 added controls once a created the rig. Controls allow you to move around the rig without affected the rig (these are the circles on the rig in the image below.)

What I learned

You can't just rig the ears and the tails, they won't operate properly when not attached to other bones.

You can't duplicate a rig

Concerns I had about rigging future yokai

I would have to create my bone structure for some of the yokai if they are not based on a real animal

Finding the appropriate bone template in TSM3 for the made up bones of a yokai we potentially make up.

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VRTK is  a productive VR Toolkit for rapidly building VR solutions in Unity3d.
Because the code I built was too complicated to control, and it was keep giving me some errors, so I decided to change all the code with using VRTK.

16.03.2020-18.03.2020

Setting up

https://vrtoolkit.readme.io/

I've researched about VRTK. I've got a lot of help from VRTK Youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psPVNddjgGw

With this video, I tried to install  and use the VRTK. At the first time when I downloaded, because of VRTK’s version difference, Oculus asset was unable to find a specific file from VRTK’s Asset folder. So I downloaded VRTK 3.3 from Github from here:

https://github.com/ExtendRealityLtd/VRTK

and just changed the ‘Assets’ file in Unity folder. Although I found a solution, I had to repeat it several times to make it work as it didn’t work until I go through the process at once without any other settings. I think this is because some other settings were interrupting while VRTK was installing. I couldn’t figure out exactly which one it is.

19.03.20-21.03.20

Interaction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7F0KqgNrAk

I had to use local avatar for the interaction. The procedure was similar with the time I’ve made hands avatar before.

24.03.2020-26.03.2020

Locomotion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rtXMzc2mfI&t=188s

With VRTK, making user walk was much easier than using OVR Character Controller. I just had to create empty game object inside the right controller object, add 2 VRTK_Slide Object Control Action scripts, then set each of them X Axis and Y Axis. At the first time, the player was going through the terrain and acting like I was walking on the plain. I realised that the body physics were not connected with the terrain, so I started to sort this out.

https://vrtoolkit.readme.io/docs/vrtk_bodyphysics

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-MeshCollider.html

I turned on Enable Body Collision, which is in VRTK_Body Physics, so that it can check the body collider and rigidbody and be used to check for rigidbody collisions. I also set Mesh Collider in the terrain object to build its Collider based on that Mesh. After that, the player started to walk on the terrain.

28.03.2020-29.03.2020

Teleport

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IWAwFDhX2M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW9lxEUXfe8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0iClkh80gg&t=752s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuDCzRInoE8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-s4tSr9d6g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKOSHaB9kpA

Compare to using OVR Controller, with VRTK, I could control the transition speed, and colour fade in and out on teleport. I felt less motion sickness due to it. It also made me easier to apply a height_adjust_teleport, as the terrain I created was bumpy and without the system, the user teleports through the mesh.

Comparison between VRTK and OVR Controller is available in Miro:
https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_kvKm0xY=/

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02.03.2020

I've done some research about how to increase Frame Per Second(FPS).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR8QVy2LIj4
This video introduces  7 tips to reduce motion sickness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmllCooy_UA
This video teaches the way to increase an Unity Game FPS in with Occlusion Culling.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/OptimizingGraphicsPerformance.html
These are the way to maximize the speed of game render.

Occlusion culling is a process which prevents Unity from performing rendering calculations for GameObjects that are completely hidden from view (occluded) by other GameObjects. Every frame, cameras examine the renderers in the scene and exclude those that do not need to be drawn like the picture below. Occlusion culling stops Unity from performing these wasted CPU and GPU time on rendering operations.

I've used Occlusion culling to optimize our project. After that, the average frame rate increased from 20 to 70.

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Creating the models for Sho and Toh wasn't too complicated because I am familiar with how to model in Maya and  I was able to use a YoutTube video to see the process of creating a low poly fox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNWIKACJ-5k

I didn't realise how difficult it would be to figure out how to add the tails. One tail isn't hard, but three isn't easy!
After trying to add the tails to the same mesh as the body, I realised the best method to apply was to create each individual tail and then add it to the body. I did this by making one tail separately then duplicating it twice so I had three.
The tail and the body were different meshes and it was necessary to combine them for the rigging and animation process but  that was simple. The option to combine meshes is available on Maya. And using that option I was able to add the tails to the body.

Once one kitsune was modelled, I duplicated it so that I could have two.

Colouring the Models
The final stage of completing the model is adding the colour. Using aiStandardSurface a shader in Maya I added colour to the faces of the model. The benefit of low-poly art is not having to texture the models. This means the process of colouring the model is quick and easy. All you need to do is highlight the faces and apply the relevant colour to them.

Though we had concept art we had created that helped decide the colours for Sho and Toh, it was easier to see what colours worked best where when actually playing around with colours on the model in Maya. Because it is easier to discern what looks better. For example in the initial concept art there is no purple on Toh (ice kitsune) but when I was in Maya all blue looked to bland on the model. So added purple added a more colour variation that looked more appealing and stood out well.

With completed models it was time to move onto rigging and animating.

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This records the process of the world design of the Yokai Forest.

The forest is split into five parts, and every one of them has its own unique terrain, and a creatures residing in it.

This is the original design of the world. It has a linear path where the user could follow, as I thought that having an open world to explore would be too difficult for the users that are new to VR. Besides, having a linear path forces the user to visit the locations in a specific order, and this could be easier to arrange a storyline. Originally, after the user visits all of the locations, they would reach to a big area with all the creatures they saw before gather. They would be in their own gazebos, where the user can interact with them by opening the doors of the gazebo and revealing the creatures inside.

After talking to the client and the team, we agreed that this map takes away the ‘exploration’ element by forcing the user to go in one linear path. And there are some elements of the map has to be changed.

This is the final version of the map. All the linear paths are removed, and but the locations of the area stays roughly where they are. There are quite a lot of empty spaces in the map, where we will fill it with trees. As this is a forest after all, trees should take up most of the spaces in the map instead of the locations.

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1.       Area Teleportation

20.02.2020 – 21.02.2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzzxjFD6-Mg&t=128s

I’ve used the same code with this website, however, I was keep falling off from the floor when I teleport.  I made the floor bigger, then realised that during the teleportation, OVR Character Controller stays in the original place and OVR Camera Rig moves to the new place. I grouped them with 3D object and set it to be teleported, however, the result was same.

https://forum.unity.com/threads/oculus-integration-teleportation-not-working.642862/

It was difficult to find the solution for this problem. I changed the “Fixed Timestep” value to match the max frame rate of my device as this website suggested me. However, it was still giving me the same problem.

50Hz (Default) = 0.2

90Hz (Rift) = 0.0111

This is what the website describes. I realised that my default value was 0.02. So I put 0.00111 then the teleportation started to work. However, I still don’t understand how the max frame rate could occur the teleportation problem.

2.       Laser Teleportation

22.02.2020

I found out that it is convenient to use Local Avatar for the laser teleportation, as it already has the settings in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1kF0PhwQ8E&t=6s

This helped me to build the code, however, using arrow the check the direction looks unnecessary. I should to take out the function later (I might try to use Steam VR Asset). There’s an error that pushing user to the back instead of teleporting.

https://forum.unity.com/threads/why-am-i-being-pushed-backwards-by-teleport.765638/

I found a solution from here. I disabled Character Controller, however, user cannot navigate themselves with joystick now. How am I going to solve this problem?

28.02.2020

https://forum.unity.com/threads/oculus-integration-teleportation-not-working.642862/

788| LocomotionController.PlayerController.Teleported = true;

I commented out this line as they recommended.
I found the same problem.

02.03.2020

https://forum.unity.com/threads/oculus-integration-teleportation-not-working.642862/

I used another solution from here, copied the entire Locomotion Teleport script and changed it.

Problem solved. Teleportation works well.

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Oculus Dreamdeck

Liked: ​

Sound and light effect​

Pastel colours​

Relaxing environment​

Low-poly​

​

Didn’t like:​

Animals with no faces​

No interactions​

Animal’s fixed reaction​

Limited only observe​

Lack of story​

Where the thoughts go

Liked: ​

User is stationary, no motion sickness ​

Atmospheric environments​

Colour schemes ​

Voice interaction ​

Interacting with other people's stories ​

​

Didn’t like:​

Users don't get to see the environments fully​

No interaction with the environment ​

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Creating an instant terrain with 3D Maya

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Creating an instant terrain with 3D Maya

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As Sam is in self-quarantine and I need a terrain to test my software, I decided to make an instant terrain with Maya just for testing.

22.03.2020-23.03.2020

Creating a terrain

Sophia taught us how to create a low-poly terrain with Maya long time ago, but I couldn’t remember it. Fortunately, I could find a same method in the Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAnsEjw4IxM

01.04.2020-02.04.2020

Creating a snow effect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxQWSoqFCuo&t=1167s

I created a snow effect using particle system.

Creating a waterfall

After making a snow effect, I thought it might be possible to create a low-poly waterfall using particle system. It worked, however, it causes the frame drops. I will test again this with less numbers and bigger particles.

Creating a fire and a smoke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWUnoYu1IIY

This video helped me to create a low-poly fire and smoke. I could also make a light effect with creating a point light.

The work I've done is available in Miro:
https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_kvKm0xY=/

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1.       Custom Hand

08.02.2020

I tried to use Local Avatar, it was not working.

https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/unity/unity-sf-customhands/?device=RIFT

Above webpage helped me to create custom hands avatar. It displayed the hands, however, they were not able to track. I’ve put each hand in LeftHandAnchor and RightHandAnchor each, and also changed the setting to touch controller. After that, Oculus was tracking my hands.  Rigidbody and OVR Grabber has been used to enable the game objects to act under the control of physics and to allow grabbing and throwing of objects.

2.       Local Avatar

14.02.2020

I tried to use Local Avatar again with an instruction, however, the hands were still not showing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxvKGVDmYfY

After some research, I realised that Unity version difference was the main reason of the invisibility.

https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/unity/as-avatars-gsg-unity/

According to this website, a valid app ID is required to retrieve avatars for specific users from Unity 2019 version. After putting API ID, I could see the avatar.

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Our VR experience has people explore a forest that inhabits creatures, called Yokai. The idea is based on a Japanese folktale called Hyakki Yagyo meaning  the “Parade of One Hundred Demons”.

We wanted the creatures to not look monstrous and scary, but sweet and wholesome. Yet still be creative in appearance.

My job was to design the creatures for our 5 locations:

1. Forest entrance

2. Mountain of Fire and Ice

3. Pond

4. Crystal Mines

5. Waterfall/Mystical Forest

So before plunging in head first, I made some moodboards of all the various creatures from films, games, concept art and cartoons.

My inspiration was drawn particularly from:
Pokemon
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Studio Ghibli films
Legend of Zelda

I used Pinterest and Google Images to find most of the images in my mood boards. To view the other creature moodpboard, you can access Miro. The link is on this padlet.

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Sophia Ppali (PhD candidate)

1. Develops an Augmented Reality (AR) app that aims to reconnect people with nature and with themselves

2. Wants to port some of the content to AR

3. Wants to compare effects of interacting with nature in VR vs AR on well-being

Brief

With this brief, students are invited to explore the creation of an interactive Virtual Reality forest. This can be in the form of an interactive experience or as a self contained game, however some of the interactions should happen between the user and the trees. The virtual forest should be engaging, inviting the users to want to spend time in it. The experience should be as lightweight as possible, in order to provide the possibility of turning it into an Augmented Reality project, later on. This could include the usage of very minimal textures. The style of the game should combine the use of low-poly 3D assets as well as 2D artwork (for example handrawn leaves). The main requirement is that some of the assets are created in Virtual Reality using software like Google Blocks.
In terms of the creation process, storyboards, prototypes and moodboards should be created prior to the development of the final product, in order to be able to test it and come up with an engaging user experience. The files created, should be clean and organised so that they can be reused in the creation of the Augmented reality experience as well. Where possible, comments should be added to the code to explain what each section does.

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Skyboxes are rendered around the whole scene in order to give the impression of complex scenery at the horizon. Skyboxes are a wrapper around your entire scene that shows what the world looks like beyond your geometry.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-Skybox.html

25.04.2020-26.04.2020

1. Using photoshop-cube

I've used photoshop to create a skybox and import it to Unity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZutidNYVRE

However, using photoshop gave me a trouble as I could only make it in a cube shape at that time.
I could see the difference of each side due to its edges. I pinched in the middle of each sides with photoshop so that it can make little bit of curves. It was better than before, however, I still can see that the edges are not connecting naturally.

2. Using 360 Panorama Image

I was thinking to use 360 panorama image to make the skybox as a sphere shape. Unfortunately, I couldn't make or get 360 lowpoly sky panorama image.

28.04.2020-30.04.2020

3. Using photoshop- creating a perspective view

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yj6LtqeUNk

After some more research, I found a way the make the skybox as a perspective view, however, it was stretching the part of the image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQUtvyGrusk

02.05.2020-05.05.2020

4. Using Pano2VR6 to create a perspective view
I used Pano2VR6 program to make the skybox as a perspective view.

I had to pay for it, however, I could get a free trial. With this program, I could make it as a panorama and make it as a perspective view.

After I changed the view, the skybox is much more natural, each scene connects well. The edges are difficult to notice.

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Andrea G Artz

Andrea is a German born visual artist and photographer based in London. “My work has emerged out of photography’s’ expanded field and incorporates installation, sculpture, drawing, photography, collage and film. I am interested in perception and ways of describing emotions visually, and through installation bring together different mediums to create experience. The works are created for a specific space to incorporate the sense of place; however transient or permanent, it represents this for the moment the visitor is amongst the work. The human condition and particularly how it is expressed in the human figure is my main interest. Originally trained as a photographer, I am an acute observer of people’s movements, postures, gestures and facial expressions and how they change as history progresses. My work addresses themes like humanness, freedom, limitless possibilities, the expansion of consciousness, and at the same time globalization, displacement, being in exile, impermanence, homelessness, and existential loneliness.” Her latest site-specific installations feature photographic portrait sculptures that are cut out, bent and folded in the third dimension in a playful way that gives rise to filigree, nearly weightless objects, space occupations or conceptual spaces. In her installations the photographic characters are freed from the cold, dead stasis of the still photograph and able to form new relationships with each other and the space on which they have been placed. During the current uncertainty regarding humanity’s future there is a renewed interest in spiritual life and in artists that were inspired by a power that comes from outside them, a reach out for something beyond. In that sense, Andrea would like to look at the magic of photographic portraits and research the philosophical concepts of photographic portraiture throughout history and particularly look at the relationship of photography with death and the notion that “Photography can steal your Soul”. She is currently working on a virtual reality experience that was initially funded by the Arts Council of England. The unique way of developing VR characters from photographic portraits sets them apart from the usual CGI characters and creates photographic sculptures that come alive through movement. Andrea uses colour and space to invite the viewer to understand the photographic image in a contemporary setting such as immersive media technologies.

The Forest of Query
The immersive installation features sculpture, print, photography and text in display cabinets and the trailer for a virtual reality experience in progress. During the opening night participants were taken on a sensory and playful virtual journey through a peaceful forest. Yuni’s opinion :In her solo exhibition Farewells, Visitors were able to walk around the sculptures and experience the abstract and unsubstantial back from one angle, and the realistic and more solid photographic one front from another. Maybe she wants the same experience with our VR project?Questions1.Any ideas about users interacting with your artworks?(i.e. Moving hands, talking) 2.Most of them are one-side painted, one-side white as they are folded papers. Will it be a good idea showing the empty parts to the visitors? Any solutions? (We might need to work with limited angle, it doesn’t look nice when every artworks are facing the visitors.) 3. Can you describe us about the atmosphere of the forest that you are trying to make? 4.Do the creatures in the forest have any background stories? 5.How users will be able to move with the equipment? (Flying? Controller?) 6.3d sources (Is there any better quality). 7.Tell us the things that you really need to put. (The most important, special artwork among the others?)

Her other works FarewellGhost Weight Farewells transforms a large space underneath railway arches into a station where people in transit meet. Theme is the journey in all its aspects. There is a movement of hundreds of three – dimensional figures of various sizes throughout the space. They populate the floor or wall space, while others are ceiling bound. The bending and folding of cut – out photographic prints into three – dimensional sculptures exaggerate the physique and posture of the travellers. Almost all are wired and some seem to be in a praying position. Visitors are able to walk around the cardboard sculptures and experience them from all angles. The title was inspired by Boccioni” work States of Mind: Those who go, those who stay and Farewells. In 1911 the futurists were in awe of new machines and the velocity of speed, museums and everything old was discarded and the future celebrated. Ghost Weight is a wall-based installation comprised of Origami foldings that meander through Crol & Co’s space. “The Lord of the Cactus”, “The Oyster Eater”, “The Possessed Girl” or “The Crazy Corseted Suffragette” were all sculptured after oblivion. Likewise, “The Caged Cool Man” singing Music to Watch the Girls By, or “The Edwardian Yogini” bring us memories doomed until now to disappear. Serving an eternity in the darkest shelves of the cheapest charity shops these historical photographic portraits all emerged from death to reinvent their existence. Some were even less lucky and had to ascend from their graves at the bottom of the deepest forgotten boxes of unknown flea markets. Andrea has helped her characters to regain life, measuring their souls against the heavy Ghost Weight of nothingness that their legacies became. By doing so, the artist has allowed them to be forever free in peace. (Nacho Díaz)

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Once I had the moodboards for the design, I went on to gain a better understanding of the art style. I couldn't do concept art without taking the art style into consideration, the style affects the designs. The client requested this art style, which was great because that was the same style we wanted to do!

Definition of low poly:
making use of simple geometric shapes place side by side to create a minimalistic composition, that is usually angular.
The 'poly' comes from polygon. So there are a no curved edges, just like a polygon.

History:
comes from the early days of 3D animation. Creating mock ups of 3D scenes using "low polygonal resolution" lowered the time it took to render. This sped up the development process for animated films and video games.

Advantages of low poly art:

1. low poly models are of a smaller file size, therefor can run on low-end hardware.

2. Requires less time because of the lack of detail and no textures needed. (This gives us more time to focus on other aspects of the VR experience.)

Disadvantages of low poly art:

1. The style may not appeal to everyone.

2. Users may not one able to tell some assets in the experience apart.

Websites used:
https://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/whats-the-deal-with-low-poly-art/

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/appstore/post/aaedd3b8-5e3f-4b4b-a567-c3257139cbcf/an-intro-to-low-poly-and-flat-design

I made a moodpboard of low poly animals and creatures, so that I could get an idea of what our creatures may look like in this style.

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​Oculus Rift​

Components​ , 1 Headset​2,  Controllers​, 2 External sensors​
Game development for Windows
It's not wireless
No memory limitation​
Minimum: 1m²​, Maximum: 1.8m²​

Oculus Quest​

1 Headset, ​2 Controllers​
Game development for Android application
It can be used as wireless
Limited memory - 64GB, 128GB​Minimum: 1m²​Maximum: 7.6m²​