Week 3 - Quick and Dirty Brief

   Week 3  - Quick and Dirty Brief Hand-in


What I've Done? :

Well, over the last week I did manage to get an F1 Racing Game working Correctly. have spent my time building a Race Course from an assets pack I found online and moved my vehicle blueprint in, created a button to enter the car and attached a throttle and steering wheel to create an F1 Racing Game.... I do sound simple enough, haha, but I was a lot of work on the Vehicle blueprint.

I have managed to get a Load and Save Game feature for Lap and Race Times because creating local connecting games isn't something I have looked into at all.

• Video Showcase for VR Racer:   https://youtu.be/Nt7EQ3E5meQ

As I have been progressing my skills in Blueprints and getting back into the swing of it, i have covered :

• Load/Save Game Features - Lap Save - Race Save forever. for single player competitiveness

Acquiring a Race Track asset Pack - Before this brief, I have created all models and objects myself, textured them in block colors or low-quality textures, i wanted to change this and see what i could create using others models, such as industry would be. this will focus my time on how the game plays.

Why have i done it? :

• Looking further into Immersing the player in VR and Racing Games.

A driving

• Better my skills to progress my overall Games Features and Mechanics 

I am always wanting to learn new techniques and Nodes in UE4, i have been interested in load and save game features for VR games as there is no way for me to create multiplayer VR games in-house at the university. This gives the player a reason to replay games and take turns with friends.

What i am going to do Next? :

Next, i want to start looking into an exploration and discovery game, maybe set in space but will incorporate the driving mechanics as many of the test players for the game spent time just roaming around in the car and ignoring racing altogether.

Why i want to do that? :

i'm wanting to look at if a player enjoys to just roam around a landscape with alot of open space rather than a liner track of the Race Course

MA Organisation

As part of my free time during my MA i am wanting to make sure all the games and projects i have worked on over this time has been recorded and put into a professional and easy to access place

Year 1

UE4 - My First Game
Hammer Girl
Construct 2 Platformer
Construct 2 Top Down Shooter
Games Jam - DR Science

Year 2

BBQ Simulator
Day/Night Scene
The Door Brief
Vampire Conquest
Games Jam - Just a Prank

Global Games Jam

Year 3

Honours Project - Theme park VR

Games Proposal - Heinz VR

Week 7 - Multiplayer Virtual Reality

This past week I have been looking into the use of Multiplayer VR within a Local Shared Space.

I wanted to try to just have another Player Join me within my Mars Rover Game. I first started to look into putting 2 HTC Vives into one PC.

1. I got hold of 2 HTC Vives and Plugged them into 1 PC - This did not work at all.
2. I thought it was down to the PC only being able to run 1 instance of SteamVR - I created a Virtual Machine on the PC with a version of Windows 10 and the correct files but due to only having access to 1 GPU, this wasn't viable.
3. Without 2 GPUS of Nvidia 980 or better, I was forced to use 2 PCs, each with their own Vives but using 1 Local Space.
4. This works within a Stand Alone game but my player always loads in as a Development Player and not in VR
5. I was forced to Package my Game and Attempt to load it. once my Game had loaded in a packaged file. I could not find the servers of the other players....


Why was I Doing this? :

To further push the feedback from players to increase my understanding of how to create exciting and engaging VR gaming Experiences. i have found through just finding players to help me with creating a shared 2 player game, the feedback has been more positive and I have had more people asking to help with playtesting.


What will i be doing Next? :

I am wanting to look at replication of Custom events for each user and understanding how to talk to certain player index depending on which player is interacting with the world.

I will be spending the next few weeks writing for the Design Research Module and Creating a Video of Mars Rover Game Play.

Week 6 - Enhancing Game-play for the User

What I have been doing?:

For my last week, I have been applying "Game-play" to my Mars Rover Game.

The player must use an "Anti-gravity" gun to Collect Broken off Ship Parts to Rebuild the Space Craft. I was having small issues with the "Radar System" not pointing to a correct part as show bellow:

If the user picked up part 1 3 and 4, the radar was originally on a counter so it would ignore part 2 and go for part 5, sometimes it wouldn't remove the part from the list and point the radar to world 0,0,0.

Now i created a parts manager to control each part when the part is placed back to the ship, it is removed from the index, a blank index is added as "0" in the array and the current part to be looking for is set to +1.

I also created multiple live cameras Feeds to run to the user through monitors inside the Mars Rover, the First will display the Radar when the player enters the Vehicle. The Second is a Forward Facing Camera for Standing VR users and the Third is to Relay Mission messages to the Player, through a new Blueprint I learned that will bring a letter of the sentence in per second to give the impression of it being typed rather than instantly posted on the screen.

Why I have been doing it? :

Without Engaging Gameplay, i don't think VR will ever become mainstream. for users to go out and buy a £300-500 virtual reality system they need a real incentive.

I first wanted to create an experience the user can be shut off from the World within VR, on Mars seemed a great location with the overall Mission to escape and return to somewhere with Other Users to interact with.

Here is a Link to the Anti Gravity Gun :   https://youtu.be/PqrWGJtGbUY

Entering and Driving Mars Rover: https://youtu.be/jA-sLr_aAQM

Trying to Refuel / Drive Mars Rover in First Person Mode :   https://youtu.be/j3c5Aof5shA

Blueprints for Creating the Mar Rover vehicle   :  https://youtu.be/P2CmN9-6KKg

Mining for Gold Nuggets   :   https://youtu.be/rRREq3Zq2To


Found issues with VR game mode after upgrading GameFiles to UE4.19  :   https://youtu.be/rheRtH1w8ec     /      https://youtu.be/lkuPbkEioPQ



What will I be Doing Next? :

To explore the use of 2 VR systems within this Game.

Week 4-5 - Exploring Solidarity within Virtual Reality

Using the Blue Prints from the F1 Game, i have created a Mars Exploration Game, Currently including Mining, Driving, Refueling and following a Radar System to new Areas.

As I am wanting to start working on Virtual Reality Gaming Experiences i am heavy encouraged to create Multiplayer games but I wanted to look into "Experiences" as a whole and what they entail. walking before I run.

Experience within Video Games is often a Currency used to rate a player's Progress though that game what I am looking to rate is a physical enjoyment for game-play and to get the general Public wanting to go into Virtual Reality.

I find now that many games Companies create a game for a Console then quickly port to Virtual Reality as an afterthought and that isn't encouraging players to purchase their own systems for the home use quite yet.

I am going to spend the next week trying to create engaging Game-play for this Project while learning about arrays and physics actors. i am wanting to have the ability to find and take parts across the map using the Mars rover and an anti-gravity gun

2 Weeks in to MA Game Design

2 Weeks in.

What I have been doing :

Over this past week, I have been looking at different types of VR Games I could create to keep a player engaged and wanting to stay in the system. I know that Virtual reality is the future of Gaming and entertainment and I want to make sure I am pushing myself in the right direction.

on many of previous projects, I have either become stuck on major issues or I have found ways to optimize my games which would mean I should restart making them. that type of thing. I now feel confident enough to have the right scope and focus when making my MA Games.

I have created a couple of ideas of some  briefs I could progress with


 Work / Projects I have tried :

• Third person RC Game - I looked at remotely controlling a vehicle in UE4 but found this was a very boring driving game

• Third-person Robot Wars Area - Again wasn't fun to play and the control wasn't how I liked, I would need to look at AI and this wasn't the focus i wanted.

• VR F1 Racer - I have set myself on this project for my Quick and Dirty Brief, I am hoping to include - Lap/ Race Recordings - Load/Save Games - Working Driving Physics within VR, and Player Movement, I don't like the Teleport that comes as standard in UE4

Why have I done this? :

I am wanting to make a quick and dirty game that looks good!. Both my 3rd-year playable games didn't look great. i will find a racing track asset pack then build all the blueprints. i am sereching for a game genre that plays well and is enjoyable over a short period of time for development.

Over the Next Week, I will make a full F1 Racing Game. Here We GO!

Day 1 MA Game Design

Just going to write out some paragraphs on my interests and me

MY Skills:

Professionally, I am aiming for a career in Level Design and Blueprints with a focus on Virtual Reality software

I want to cover different areas of Gaming within a VR experience from the General Public Arcades, the high end Gaming Experiences with full Mountable Rigs, new Tech and Keynote Training for Industry.

What Things Interest Me:

What is my initial Idea for MA Study:

To progress my Knowledge and Experience in Unreal Engine 4 within VR Projects, i want to explore what a Gaming experience is over playing a general Virtual reality game, why people are paying for these experiences and what i can do to get into making them.

What Things will I be looking into? :

I have decided i must break this down into 3 categories

• Hardware :

• HTC Vive Pro/Oculus Rift Home- Currently the most powerful systems on the market.

• Lenovo Mirage Solo - This is a wireless system from the Chinese hardware developers, it is new on the market but the advancement for wireless play has taken my interest…. There is also talk of Microsoft, Steam and HTC creating their own Wireless Systems

• Cerevo Taclim  - The Taclim system includes the world's first VR shoes “Taclim Shoes”, and a haptic feedback device “Taclim Module” with a built-in tactile device. “Taclim System” creates touch sensations and functions as a controller. - Taken from the KickStarter Website, these would advance the

• Software :

• VR Cinema's - With the advancement of the 360 video and cinematic, there is  a new market for VR cinema Experiences that can be done from the User's home.

• VR Company Training - Creating In-house Training Software to help with the health and safety in operating through various professional Fields, general Training of new Members of staff upto training the Managers, this will give much more immersive training, unable to be done before.

• Group Meeting and Social Spaces - The advancement in social spaces through Facebook and the VR Chat Rooms that have been created show that people are very interested in bringing the world together for talking to friends and family through to having work and team meeting with members of staff across the World.

• Games

• VR Gaming Experiences - There is more and more of these Companies starting up in cities to bring the feel of an Arcade to the General Public

  
  

• Multiplayer Games within Local Spaces- Playing in Local Space with Multiple VR Systems is currently a costly factor but these are being more and more possible from prices coming down and more games are being created to accompany this.