Blog Update 10/02/2025
VR FPS Development
It has been a while since my last update with Christmas and work I have been really busy. I have been testing a different VR framework (hurricane, auto hands and XR interaction) and they do all come with some nice out of the box features but integration to FSM and a the flight system is proving very lengthy as they all have their own supportive features which all need to be changed, I am finding I am having to re-write a lot of the code to a point where there is no real speed using the out of the box frameworks as I lose speed and time reverse engineering the code base. They are good for fast prototyping but in the end you have to re-write a lot so I can get it stable enough to work with my features, like damage, health, FSM (ai) and so on.
Now this does not mean the Assets are bad at all but due to where my skills are and the time I have to spend on the project it is proving to be a very long PoC (proof of concept) of the framework.
This week I have decided to end the POC for Hurricane and start to explore Auto Hands. I have used this in the past and the interactions are very good but does not have many weapons out of the box but I can write them. The time consuming part for this is the IK (full body) and weapons. Ultimately a lot will get re-written anyway and I will write my one weapons scripts but for the demo I can just do enough to get to that milestone.
The video link show the current FPS level with FSM for the video I made the NPCs friends so they will just walk around.
The 3 frameworks have been looking at are Auto Hands, VR Interaction Toolkit and Hurricane and the 4th but is not really a framework asset but is the vanilla XR kit. Each of the kits get you further down the line than starting with the vanilla XR framework and offer different features over each other. Ultimately if a combine all of the frameworks it gives me what I want.
Due to Unity 6 being released I have switch to using it over version 5, this is also causing a lot of change or re-writes as a lot of changes in C# and the engine frame work.
For the Demo Milestone I will just make this part just basic, as the FPS part is a game in it's self.
I want to get this finished or developed to a point where it can be called an alpha so i can get back to the space flight.
Blog 17/11/2024
New Unity Version!!
Well, Unity launched their new version of the engine. I have been busy migrating to Version 6. So far i have only been working on the FPS part but made a lot of progress.
So far i have one scene single player starting to take shape. The level layout did not need anything to migrate but I am using a different XR platform as i prefer it over the last one i was using.
I will be focusing on the FPS part until i get this Act completed. The first Demo which i hope to be finished soon will only have FPS VR in it. Migrating the space flying part will take me a bit longer as i have a lot of code that needs to be updated so it works with Unity 6.
Not much more to add in the way of Text. ill post a link so you can see the new Unity 6 Version
FPS Unity 6 (youtube)
Blog 20/10/2024
Past few weeks have been a busy one
So it has been a few weeks since my last post. I have been busy moving some of my things around, I now have my main PC here and I can start to do things a little bit faster.
One of the strange things I have had was a lot of hardware failure on the main PC, I have had to replace some of the RAM so down to 96gig for now.
I have managed to salvage most of the dev work since i have been living out of a laptop. As I have not done any FPS Dev work I have spent that last few weeks thinking about how I am going to do this. I have a Demo Scene with VR working in it. there is not much there for a player to do but it is starting to take shape. I have written a Demo plan so I know what I want to deliver and it makes things easier for me to prioritize what I should be doing. I can state it enough about having a good plan.
I am still developing the VR Player Controller and weapons. I am also working on the task or puzzles to be put in to the game. I am still on target to release something around the xmas or new year so Dec 2024 or Jan 2025. I need to start looking at the GUI and the GUI flow but that will be the last thing I do prior to the Demo going out.
Any Questions or suggestions please let me know.
Video of what i have done so far:
thanks
John
Blog 28/09/2024
This weekend is about design
So I have been working on the joystick i built and trying to get it to work with one of the frameworks, well this is proving to be troublesome for a framework build for FPS to be used in a space flight model. so I have decided to just build my own. if i am going to have to spend months learning someone else code structure i might as well just write my own. so the FPS will use the frame work as this will save me a lot but the spaceship side ill just write my own, unless i can fine one that fits the flight side.
I have also been thinking about the Demo. There are a few things i want to deliver first off
Space Mining
this will be a intro to the mining in the game with the current mechanic, a simple mission to collect materials.
A combat Scene
This will be two side killing each other in a endless fight where one defends the other attacks where you are start off neutral.
A Race Scene
This will be where you race around a course and it will time you.
As the Joystick is going to take a bit more time to develop i will use keyboard and mouse for this version of the demo.
Nice things to have
if i get time ill be looking at VR/2D menu where you can load for VR or 2D so traditional Screens can be used. Just to be clear the priority is VR but i will add 2D.
Blog 22/09/2024
VR Interactions
I have been testing VR interactions toolkit/framework. Now i like this one it has a lot to offer although the examples scenes it gives does have a lot of bugs. I have been working through a few interactions
Joystick
Sliders
Dials
Buttons
The joystick is ready for me to write the control scripts for the ship so the VR joystick can be used. now i hit a problem and that is yaw, now on a joystick most have a yaw feature where you twist. I am going to have a look at adding this but for now ill use the throttle to control the yaw and thrust.
Sliders work as expected.
Dials for smooth rotation work but working on snap rotation and haptic feedback.
Buttons just went wrong, i am going to start again with the models i have and see fi i can work them out better.
To get this framework to run well i have had to fix about 30 bugs with models and strange things in the components of the models but this is path of the course with development but it does slow down progress. I wanted to have at least one Virtual Joystick working in the ships this weekend.
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