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[CobaltHusky93]

I'm refining the changes to the wheel controls I made the other day. For speed control I can either go with a fixed wheel speed or a desired train speed. I think generally model trains have a fixed wheel speed, but I think it would be more useful to be able to set multiple trains to the same target speed in order to keep them in sync.

This looks super smooth! That's awesome!

[Selkcip]

I'm prototyping a specialized remote for controlling trains. Eventually the grabbing controller will be replaced by hands with a limited range.

I also upgraded to Unity 5.4 so that I can take advantage of the renderer that Valve made for The Lab demos. It supports 18 dynamic shadowed spot lights (that's a lot) in a single pass!

[EvilDingo]

This devlog inspired me to order a Vive for development. I ordered the original Rift (before Facebook purchase) and disliked it immensely. I wrote off VR entirely.

But... now....

Do you have any side effects from using the device? The Rift caused long term disorientation and the community was hostile. I'll be disappointed if the technology hasn't improved in the intervening years.

[Selkcip]

Do you have any side effects from using the device? The Rift caused long term disorientation and the community was hostile. I'll be disappointed if the technology hasn't improved in the intervening years.

A couple games made me motion sick and I never went back to them. Playing other stuff for long periods of time does make me feel weird though. To be honest, I haven't actually played any games in a while. I played through Starseed and that was the longest I've spent with any of the games. There's some fun stuff, but nothing that makes me want to keep coming back to it.

If it wasn't for the fact that developing for it is fun I'd have a serious case of buyer's remorse. That said, I'm looking forward to what becomes of Budget Cuts now that they've been taken under Valve's money-feathered wing.

There seems to be this mentality in the community that you're doing it wrong if your mind isn't blown every day, which is a bit off-putting.

I mean...BUY A VIVE, PLAY MY GAME, GIVE ME MONEY? IMMERSIONNNNnnn!

[CobaltHusky93]

Budget Cuts is absolutely a fantastic game. I hope that when it releases it will be a super hit! Such a fantastic demo.

I just play PoolnationVR Today. That game has so many things they've done right with it. It's another game that's done very well and works so nicely for VR.

[EvilDingo]

A couple games made me motion sick and I never went back to them. Playing other stuff for long periods of time does make me feel weird though. To be honest, I haven't actually played any games in a while. I played through Starseed and that was the longest I've spent with any of the games. There's some fun stuff, but nothing that makes me want to keep coming back to it.

One thing I read since giving up on VR was that if your player is stationary - for example, sitting in the cockpit of an aircraft or car, the sensation doesn't tend to cause motion sickness. I brought up my concerns to a company that was offering VR devices to developers and they mentioned something along those lines too.

It may be that VR is just perfect for simulation types of games and not for anything where you move through the world like a first person shooter.

Is there a market for it? I wonder with how much fans of VR want the platform to succeed. It seems like they would be an easier sell than the typical gamer crowd.

[Selkcip]

Well roomscale is best for room based games. There are some clever ways to allow the player to walk around the game without artificial motion. Unseen Diplomacy tricks the player by having them walk through a series of rooms that are constantly reconfigured around them.

[Selkcip]

Here's a video of some of the stuff I've been working on. There are now in train controls that you can grab with the controllers! I also added some shitty sound effects.

All of them cause haptic feedback when pulled.

[CobaltHusky93]

The bell is actually really cool! What did you use for the other sounds? XD

The in-train controls are an awesome idea! I hope you do that for all of them!

Something that you may want to do, is create a small teleporting system for people with odd shaped rooms and such to move more about the engine and trolley. I know for my scale, I wasn't able to get to the very front of the trolley like I wanted to.

[Selkcip]

The bell is actually really cool! What did you use for the other sounds? XD

Something that you may want to do, is create a small teleporting system for people with odd shaped rooms and such to move more about the engine and trolley. I know for my scale, I wasn't able to get to the very front of the trolley like I wanted to.

The bell is the lid of a pot hit with a spoon, I made the puffing noise with my mouth, and the whistle is me whistling, but I ordered a wooden train whistle so that will be better. The puffing sounds bad because I tied it's pitch to the target train speed, I need to figure out the best way to modulate it.

I'll keep space limitations in mind. It's another thing that I take for granted since I rearranged my living room so that I have something like 2.9mx3m.

[EvilDingo]

The bell is the lid of a pot hit with a spoon, I made the puffing noise with my mouth, and the whistle is me whistling, but I ordered a wooden train whistle so that will be better. The puffing sounds bad because I tied it's pitch to the target train speed, I need to figure out the best way to modulate it.

Unless you love doing this stuff, you might find you're reinventing the wheel. Try a cheap sound discovery website like soundsnap. You can search for sounds you need and if you don't find anything suitable, resort to making them. I think you'll find they have tons of "pull lever" and "train whistle" sounds that sounds authentic and high quality. You generally still need to edit them, but they're a good starting point.

[Selkcip]

Unless you love doing this stuff, you might find you're reinventing the wheel. Try a cheap sound discovery website like soundsnap. You can search for sounds you need and if you don't find anything suitable, resort to making them. I think you'll find they have tons of "pull lever" and "train whistle" sounds that sounds authentic and high quality. You generally still need to edit them, but they're a good starting point.

I did these myself because someone had said that for it to be an authentic toy train it needed someone making train noises. But I probably will hunt down some better noises later on.

[FluffyJenkins]

One thing that I really like about the current design of this is that I don't have to move everything out of the way to play with the trains, as it is atm I just sit on my chair in the middle of my room, before the layout change I could sit on my bed happily and still play this (My VR Playspace is tiny so I have to move my bed if I want to play roomscale)

Although I would still like to be able to teleport even if it is to just align it to my playarea better

[Selkcip]

One thing that I really like about the current design of this is that I don't have to move everything out of the way to play with the trains, as it is atm I just sit on my chair in the middle of my room, before the layout change I could sit on my bed happily and still play this (My VR Playspace is tiny so I have to move my bed if I want to play roomscale)

Although I would still like to be able to teleport even if it is to just align it to my playarea better

This made me think some more about adjusting the play space. I don't think that it will ever be much larger than it currently is so it might make more sense to implement something like H3's grapple locomotion to allow the player to just pull the room around them so that it's more conveniently oriented around them.

[Selkcip]

I accidentally started too many things which is why it's been so long since I uploaded a build (plus I'm a bit lazy). The upside is that the next build will have a number of new features. Case in point:

I'm finally replacing the copiously labeled controller with hands! They still need refinement, but they're getting there.

I had already shown off the prototype remote control and this is the other half to that. Instead of being able to do everything in a single controller mode, there will be hand mode for building and first person driving and the remote control for driving while in overview mode.

[jctwood]

Love the various animations for the hands although they are quite chunky which seems to obscure whatever you are moving in comparison the the little pointer system you previously had. No idea how you could make things more visible without making the hands transparent.

[Selkcip]

Love the various animations for the hands although they are quite chunky which seems to obscure whatever you are moving in comparison the the little pointer system you previously had. No idea how you could make things more visible without making the hands transparent.

Transparent is one option, but I'm thinking about marking objects as either grabbable or pinchable. Smaller items would be picked up with your thumb and index finger so that they are less obscured.

[jctwood]

Ah yes the thumb and index finger pinch sounds perfect!

[CobaltHusky93]

I agree with the hands being a certain level of Transparent; as well as a difference between pinching and grabbing. The hands seem pretty neat though. It would be cool if eventually they were skinned as engineer gloves. =D

[Selkcip]

It would be cool if eventually they were skinned as engineer gloves. =D

That's the plan!