iMyth

Category: IMyTH

  • What Dungeons & Dragons Can Teach Us About VR

    I just listened to a great pod cast from a Road to VR article, What Dungeons & Dragons Can Teach Us About VR.

    In this podcast the announcer interviews Chris Perkins, Master Dungeon Master and Head Story Creator for Dungeons and Dragons. During the interview they discuss why Dungeons & Dragons is such an effective collaborative storytelling medium and how VR and technology in general can not quite live up to those demands.

    I am inspired by this interview. First it explains exactly where VR needs to be in order to generate a rewarding experience  similar to Dungeons and Dragons. Even more importantly the interview helps explain some of the methodologies of what iMyth is trying to achieve and why they are important.

    One of the comments made near the end of the interview is that whenever Chris Perkins put on the VR headset he was experiencing a situation from someone else’s perspective. He was looking forward to the opportunity to experience that same situation but from his perspective. The individual perspective is what makes the experience memorable and live on in the accounts told about the experience. I can’t help but feel this is the essence of what collaborative storytelling/experiences are all about.

  • 9/16/16 iMyth First! Courier First Dry Run!

    Yesterday was a very exciting day for iMyth. Not only was I treated to the awesome work the artists, producers and engineers were creating, but also we had an opportunity to do the first dry run experience for the Courier. Summan rigged her proxy character to be controlled by. the WASD keys. Chunzi doned the Vive Headset and I played the interactor, Josiah Carter.

    The experience was both wonderful and terrible at the same time. It was wonderful simply because it was the first run. Yeah! We are officially creating VR immersive experiences! We have a preliminary timing of a bit longer than 7:00 minutes. It’s a start! I have a handful more of wonderful things but allow me to digress into the terrible things.

    The art assets are very proxy by now, which is to be expected. Very few of the Blueprint were functioning. The script was not finished. From a pure production perspective we still have far to go. At 7:00 minutes the experience was too short. Probably worse than anything, I don’t think the experience was fun or suspenseful for the participant. There was very little sense of immersion.

    I, however, can not view these things as negative rather than extremely positive!

    • We found out that 7:00 minutes was way too short. The participant wants and needs more time to take in the experience. 15:00 to 20:00 minutes will be outstanding!
    • The script is very important! As far as the interactor was concerned, I was pulling a performance out of my butt. In order to make this flow smoothly we have to have a truck-load of anticipated responses to stay within the narrative and stay true to the character. We will have to really iron this out in the script.
    • Sound is super important! During the experience we were treated by natural thunder. Chunzi thought this was one of the best parts of the experience!
    • Maintaining suspense, tension and curiosity will be very difficult to develop and maintain. This will take time and experience. I am super glad we are starting to work on this now. I’m not sure if anyone knows how to solve this.
    • Having the playspace mapped out 1:1 is crucial. The teleporting mechanic is awkward at best for maintaining immergence. Empowering the participant to walk around freely without concern of controller will be essential.

    This is extraordinarily exciting! Before we can be awesome we need to go through “sucky”. Bring it on! Let’s see all of these problems! let’s grind through these lessons and develop some really functioning skills. There is an epic new media in there. We are on the edge of seeing it in its full glory. This is very exciting.

  • Universal is Jumping In

    Here is an article about Universal in Orlando opening it’s own version of the Void, Universal debutes “The Repository.”

    There isn’t much mentioned about the new attraction. One key note is that the experience will be un-tethered. I believe the wireless experience will dominate V2 of the immersive experience. It’s only a matter of time and money until the technology catches up with demand.

  • Another Motivating Article to Support The Void

    I encountered a great article describing The Void and their operation in NYC, Trippy Ghostbuster’s Experience.

    All in all the Polygon folks seemed very excited. The Void guys described their plans for world domination. This is very exciting. Is Imyth a Wannabe? Sure! However. I have a hunch this is going to be big business. We may not be the first pioneers, but we can create great experiences!

  • Possible new Direction for the Vive

    Now this device definitely looks interesting.

    Intel Scientist Hints new Vive accessory

    Embedding function such as collision detection and hand tracking are definitely directions iMyth would wish to venture towards.

  • iMyth Post 4/29

    I figured I had better be documenting iMyth progress as things move along.

    I suppose I have been lax in doing so:

    • 4/25 – My Vive arrives via Fed-Ex. No one is home to receive it :(.
    • 4/26 – AT the end of the work day, I high-tail it to the Fed-Ex depot and pick up my Vive.
      • Yeah!
    • 4/27 – After spending the bulk of the day with class and students, I start focusing on installing my Vive. It does not work. I put together an impassioned message to Vive Support explaining my dilemma.
    • 4/28 – Muchos meetings all morning. AFter getting back from the meetings, I install the Vive on the Galley PC. It works! The Vive experience is pretty awesome!
    • 4/29 – I try to apply the feedback I received from Vive Support. To make a long story short, my computer is not VR compatible. After all this time I thought it was :(. Boy do I look silly. I Guess that sort of explains why the Occulus refused to work on my machine as well. Bryant, the fello from CAH says my iMyth machine will be arriving from Alienware today. Gotta keep my fingers crossed.

  • Thoughts about Roomscale VR

    We are standing at the precipice of explorations into VR.

    I was originally hoping to be able to exploit the usage of the giant MOCAP stage at FIEA. However, One of the most important elements, getting the track data to the game has to be solved yet. I was hoping to use  Vicon pegasus to do the lion’s share of work. However, a week has gone by and I still can’t get the UE4 plugin to work correctly. This has many implications.

    The first of these implications is that we can’t use the tracking on the mocap stage. This would mean we would need to use the Vive’s tracking capabilities. There are some unknowns about this. Out of the box, how large is the range? There is a video where the folks at stress level zero are experimenting with about a ten yard difference between the length of the lighthouses:

    This might work for the iMyth Prototype. However, we would not be able to use props and sets.

    There is also another thought that the lighthouses can be hooked up to create a matrix of light emitters. This video interview with the lighthouse creator, Alan Yates, hints at some of the unlimited opportunity.

    By this video, in concept, there could be an infinite number of lighthouses providing an infinite amount of coverage. Once again we have the same problem of not being able to use props. However, the video also hints that sensors can be placed on objects and the sensors could report their position. This would take some, ‘hacking” to figure out. However, i Imagine some kind of prop/set system could be created.

    There is one final possibility which I know nothing about. There is the possibility we could use the vicon cameras as lighthouse surrogates. That means we could already have an array of lighthouses already in place. Once again, this implies that props and sets could not be tracked.

    Right now, I’m thinking that the best solution will need to be a home brewed variance from Blade to UE4. We would need to abandon pegasus and write our own solution. Could this be done? Vicon thinks it can be done. We now would need to find an engineer to do the work for us.
     

  • Disney Escape Games

    Hoo wee, I’m really excited about this post. This is all about Disney getting into the Escape Game business.

    This opportunity does give further confirmation that iMyth is on the right track.

    While iMyth is not chasing after the escape game market per se, we are pursuing the immersive theme world market which seems to be the evolutionary next step. Escape games 2.0 and beyond!

    Disney has:

    • Immersive Physical experiences
    • Collaboration with multiple participants and groovy interactors

    The only thing they don’t have is variability and randomness. According to their description, “Although this particular event was themed to the idea of “preserving time,” The Escape Challenge can be completely customized and tailored to fit any group’s event theme, message or objective. The specially constructed set is fully mobile and transportable, meaning it can be built and installed in function space available onsite a Disney convention resort or theme park event venue.” This may be an indication the Disney is starting to work customization and variability into the experience as well. Whether or not they are setting the stage for emergent narrative has yet to be seen.

    I really want to check this out.

    Here is the link to Disney Website.

     

  • Tosca AI Engine

    Part of my research and definitely a focus of iMyth is to be a generator of immersive theme world experiences. These experiences are not games but on-going interactions between the participant the current theme world. The theme world evolves and adjusts to ensure a rewarding and enriching experience for the participant.

    With that thought in mind, enter in the Tosca AI engine created by a Canadian company, Evodant. I was turned on to them through the Gammasutra article, How one studio is building game AI to replicate a human storyteller. The article goes on explaining the goals and ideals of Evodant as they create the Tosca AI engine and their new game, Gyre:Maelstrom to show it off. Ultimately Tosca listens to the participant and watches their activities. From these behaviors, the engine creates subtext in which to influence the participant’s experience unique doctored for that individual. This is just the sort of tool, I believe iMyth is working towards. Combined with Grammar based Universes, technology such as this will help shape the experiences of tomorrow.

  • Experiences First!

    A couple of web article have come out over the last couple days which are really inspiring.

    In a few days, Activity on this web site will slow down in favor for the development of the iMyth experience. The iMyth experience is exactly just that, an immersive, theme world experience. This is not a game. This is not a story. However, this doesn’t mean that one cannot derive narrative or a competitive score while immersed in the experience. These are serendipitous bi-products which may occur but are never the primary focus.

    Evidence of this is expressed in the Upload to VR article, What the Billionaire saw in the Void. Instead of focusing on the sensational aspects of the experience, the article focus closer on the experiential side effects. There is a great quote in the article form Curtis Hickman, the lead designer for the experience, “People in The Void don’t want to rush, they want to take their time and absorb the experience,” Hickman said. “The Void is the exact opposite of where the rest of VR seems to be heading. We don’t see ourselves as making games, we see ourselves as making experiences.”

    In an entirely unrelated article, also from Upload to VR, The VR Scene Is Growing and Getting Weirder, there is a very interesting documentary about legendary film maker Phil Tippet and his experience with VR. In A nutshell, the video displayed Tippet encountering the VR media as less of a story telling devise as an experiential generator. In fact, there was a point in the interview where he found it necessary to abandon linear narrative entirely in lieu of the opportunity presented by this new media format.