Thesis Update #14 - 3D Camp/Irish VR - as an exhibitor!!

On Thursday, the 24, we did a user test at 3DCamp. 3DCamp is a meet-up group that is hosted at Work Day. They meet every three or four months and showcase tons of projects on a variety of platforms, even some of the newer and unique ones like the SmartHelmet from Daqri or the HoloLens from Microsoft. There are a lot of projects from local companies, students, and entrepreneurs. We got to talk a bit about the project and then did our first full dress rehearsal. It was cool to finally be on the other side of things, as usually I'm a visitor. 

Needless to say a lot of things weren’t working and a lot of things went wrong. It was a good experience.

We have decided to combine the panel and reference book. It was taking people far too long to find the challenge and then find the panel. So we are going to put the panel page right beside the challenge solution page.

Additionally, people were having a hard time knowing what to communicate to the other players. We are going to make a small webpage or app that has instructions and role descriptions that all the players can look through beforehand. That way they will know the necessary steps, and see photos of the environment and sensors before they begin to play. We’re going try to keep the instructions short, simple, and to the point.

It was also a bit difficult for people to read out the challenge, and then for the second player to match up that challenge to something in the book. We need more of a definite, hard link between what appears on the podium and what is in the book. Eva had the idea to put the panel symbols up on the podium, and then the player one would communicate that to player 2. Player 2 can probably find that easier in the book. I think it eliminates quite a bit of the story, but for the sake of playability and clarity, this change probably needs to happen.

I attempted to enact some of those changes over the weekend but unfortunately fell ill and had to go to the doctor. I have contracted a viral infection (yay mono) and a fungal infection (yay Candida overgrowth). My weakened immune system couldn’t just wait one more week, could it?

Unity3D Workshop at Kitman Labs

Kitman Labs opened up their Dublin office for a Unity workshop. There were several talks and demonstrations and my two favorite were the ones about Google Tiltbrush and Photogrammetry.

The Tiltbrush presenter showed off a 3D space he made in Tiltbrush and then turned into a VR game in Unity; it was fairly cartoonish, but very creative and impressive, especially considering that all the effects were made with Tiltbrush as well, and the environment changed based on what the user did. He admitted he had no artistic background, and while the game still looked fairly good, I can only imagine what an accomplished artist could achieve. It was an interesting medium and something that would be fun to explore (if I ever get my hands on a Tiltbrush of course). 

The Photogrammetry lecture was exceedingly detailed and the 3D models the presenter created were breathtakingly realistic. He also made scenery and cinematographic montages, all based off the pictures he took. It looked like live action! I really want to try it myself now. It'll probably take some practice, but I have lots of notes from the lecture so at least I have a good starting place! I took a picture of one of the art pieces he made from photogrammetry, but it unfortunately didn't turn out so well as there were open windows. 

3DCamp/Irish VR Meetup #4 - Augmented Reality

So my initial post about the latest 3DCamp/Irish VR meetup consisted mostly of fangirling over the HoloLens. But! There was some cool augmented reality content as well. A developer demo'd and did a presentation on his marker-based augmented reality cards. 

Here is a cool video of a holographic video message playing on the marker. 

DUUG #12 starring Bryan Duggan

First time going to a DUUG (Dublin Unity User Group) meetup. It was a playtesting evening and they had some cool presentations. Not gonna lie though, they chose the wrong venue. They chose a section of a lounge, so the place was filled with music and people partying in the room over. Not the best place to conduct a power point on Unity topics. The microphone wasn't really working either. In short, the screen was small, the music too loud, I tried to take notes, but eventually just gave up. 

Thankfully, however, the second presentation went far better than the first. Bryan Duggan is a professor at the Dublin Institute of Technology. He's also the lead AI programmer on a VR experience called DEEP. DEEP is a breathing/meditation experience based on the user's breathing. Dr. Duggan was an amazing speaker - filled with passion for the creatures he created. He broke down his thought processes, explained the approaches that worked or didn't work and how he improved them, and then showed off videos of his programming in action. Really cool!

I thought I had some video of it, but alas, I cannot find it. So here's a video from the creator as a substitute. 

DEEP is a meditive and psychoactive VR game the is controlled by breathing. It is being developed by Owen Harris and Monobanda Play more info owenllharris.com/deep monobanda-play.com

Agile-Lean (starring Pizza)

Another event hosted at WorkDay! This time it was a workshop on Agile development. The workshop consisted mostly of a game in which several groups created a system for making pizza (which we did using paper, scissors and markers!). The presenter gave us some examples for the finished product, and we had to try to make as many pizza slices as we could within a time limit with as little waste as possible. 

We did several rounds of this; at the end of each round the presenter would judge all our slices, and reward or dock points based on the quality of the slices and the amount of waste. 

It was interesting because it forced you to look at where the bottleneck in your chain was, and where the most waste was being created and it forced you to think of different ways of doing things in order to increase speed but decrease waste. We also switched roles based on talent (who could cut straight with scissors and who could color in the lines - like preschool all over again!). It was a fun, loud event. And we actually ate REAL pizza woohoo. 

However, I walked away not feeling fully satisfied. I really wanted some follow-up after the workshop. I wanted examples of agile development in software engineering; I wanted some best practices/tips/things to look out for, I wanted links to more resources, I wanted an actual presentation on what agile development even is. I didn't expect to walk away with a check list or anything, but I wanted to walk away with a more practical grounding. There was a PowerPoint, but it was about 20 slides of the presenter showing him eating pizza in places all around the world. Amusing, but not what I came for. 

So, overall, not a waste of time because I did learn something, I just wish that I had learned more. Although, take note pizza makers of the world...my team did come in first place. We are Pizza Masters!