Softs was a mixed bag for us. We\nwere running 2 headsets at once to allow for maximum throughput (and as a test\nrun for using multiple headsets for ETC Open House). We were given a much\nsmaller room, and the environment portals scaled with the wall size as\nexpected, and the different sized\/height table was recognized as the main play\nenvironment\u2026a major win for the programming department. Of course, as is the\ncase with beta technology, there were a few difficulties that forced a small\nnumber of the faculty to be unable to participate. For the most part, the\nfaculty seemed to enjoy the experience as a whole. However, there were a number\nof issues brought up during the official feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the main complaints centered around the limited field of view. While technologically, this was not our fault, in practice the way our environment and experience was designed didn\u2019t entirely do much to mitigate some issues. We made sure that all of the items were in the field of view by placing larger items further away and keeping close objects smaller. Horizontally, guests were comfortable looking around, however consistent vertical movement was uncomfortable for a number of guests. We made to distinct areas: the desk, and the wall, and individually they worked for the FOV, however getting between them wasn\u2019t something we had completely considered. We\u2019ll need to look at resizing the elements and bringing them closer together (perhaps with implementing a more seated play position) to alleviate this point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a similar note, Issues with indirect\ncontrol were also brought up. We had implemented a number of audio cues that used\nspatial panning to direct the guest\u2019s attention during crucial story moments.\nWhile horizontally, the 3D audio worked, there was a hardware limitation for vertical\npanning. Simply put, there as none. Because we were subjecting the guest to\nconstant up and down scene viewing, a lot of the spatial audio cues simply did\nnot translate. We hope that the design decisions we create from the previous\npoint will help with this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, there was a bit of a\ndiscrepancy between the overly dramatic voice dialogue, and the more subdued\nanimations. This is something that we have been wrestling with for quite some\ntime. It was a combination of both time as well as some technical issues that\nhave been hindering us in this department. Notably, there seemed to be a\ntranslation error between the animations within Maya, and how the Magic Leap\nread the file. While the animation might have been cycling properly on the\ncomputer, something was destroying the model in the Magic Leap. After much trial\nand error, as well as consulting from fellow peers, the culprit was found to be\na quality setting. This resolution came as a huge welcome to our animator, so\nwe will be able to tackle some more animated animations for the coming week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, pacing was something that\nwas discussed in detail. While we admit that we haven\u2019t focused too much on the\noverall timing of the experience, we received a lot of valuable feedback\nregarding areas that seemed to drag, and others which were glossed over too\nquickly. We scheduled two days additional playtesting with our peers to test\nout some timing changes, especially with regards to the introduction of the\nexperience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, there was a story point\nthat didn\u2019t make sense to a number of the faculty. The ghosts are coming out of\nthe Hell portal to be redeemed. This is an issue because religiously, Hell is\nan eternal holding place. Even though we never explicitly mentioned that the\nportals were Heaven and Hell within the story, the associations stuck, and thus\nwere a point of contention. Having the ghosts come from a more neutral 3rd<\/sup>\nportal would be a good alternative for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We hope that implementing these\nchanges will help strengthen the experience as a whole, and that the playtest\nsessions we scheduled for the end of the week will help solidify the design choices\nthat we make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Softs was a mixed bag for us. We were running 2 headsets at once to allow for maximum throughput (and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-386","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/artales\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/artales\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/artales\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/artales\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/artales\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/artales\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399,"href":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/artales\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/386\/revisions\/399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/artales\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}