Exploring the world of Knightmare with Oculus Rift
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I spy the Arken shield in the distance! Nice touch!
It's not so much a touch as part of the accurate recreation of Julie's team's PYCR, and is of course only in the distance until the player moves closer to it.
Dazzling work as ever, James. Thank you for continuing to share it with us. It sounds like you're gaining plenty of satisfaction from the project too.
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Thanks all so much for your continued support with this.
Apologies in advance for the big wall of pictures that's about to follow but I had another big breakthrough yesterday with my understanding scripting. I now understand "static variables" which are basically variables in a script that can be modified from any script. Such a thing will now eventually pave the way for a functioning inventory system amongst other more complex things. The Great Causeways F-I-N-D puzzle for example could now be replicated in this manner in the future along with Keys and other critical quest items that are required to progress through the dungeon.
Onwards to the update:
The rune puzzle from Series 8 is now fully implemented and functional. You have to touch the runes in order otherwise nothing happens.
The Reach Wand from Series 8 has now been implemented which allows you to interact with the runes from a distance. A laser pointer has been included with it to make aiming it easier.
Before you do all this, you have to give Brother Strange his proverb so he'll give you the combination to the rune puzzle (remember it or write it down!). If you don't give him the proverb, you'll effectively be put in losing status like the original program.
I've included a check in the rune room to see if you've given him the proverb. If you haven't, then the puzzle goes into lockdown and you won't be able to progress any further.
This is to basically prevent cheating and to stop Tim Child foaming at the mouth when the dungeoneer wildly waves the Reach Wand around to try guess the combination. Using my new understanding of static variables, I was able to replicate the behaviour of this puzzle to match the original program which would've been practically impossible before. Naturally, all the original sound effects are intact.
Take too long solving the puzzle or if you don't have the combination............
**BHAL-SHEBAH LIVES AGAIN!! **
He enters the room like the original program with the original voice and sound effects before frying you! It really is a surreal feeling to watch him emerge from the shadows when you're in the room in VR. The watchers get a nice view of the action from the monitor which closely mirrors the original program. Once he enters the room, control is taken away from the player so the player can't run away. The room camera in this room is deliberately off center. The reasoning for this is where Bhal-Shebah is a physical 3D entity in the room geometry instead of a 2D video superimposed over the 2D dungeon graphics, there was initially a problem where he would get in the way of the camera. Regardless though, it really does closely mirror the program
Uh-oh..........
AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!
I was supposed to have shown the Coridoor of Blades room camera in the previous update but I overlooked it by accident
High res images here:
Video here: (Video seems brighter than what it should've been for some reason) Pictures above more closely reflect how it looks in the rift)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1deKsDAeN4
I once told myself a long time ago I'd never ever program. I never imagined I'd be making things as complex as this when I first started using Unity. Once again, I can't thank you all enough for giving me the motivation I need to continue onwards with this project. Motivation is so importent when things in the program start misbehaving leading to hours of debugging and learning new things to do things more efficiently within the progran. If any of you get an Oculus Rift CV1 can you let me know please and I'll start uploading playable binaries. It should be due out sometime in the coming week and I woudl be interested in knowing if SDK 0.8 is compatible with CV1.
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This is so good! Love the dragon and the way this is starting to develop into a quest.
It will be interesting to see how this develops. The challenge will be how to add variety and replayability to the dunegon. I guess this could be done with different dungeon paths or randomisation to ensure each quest is different. For now seeing the rooms in action is impressive enough!
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Thanks again for all your feedback .
Having been relegated to being in a stable for Series 8, Smirkenorf once again takes to the skies to give Dungeoneers lifts to Level 2. \O/
Welcome back 1993 SGI terrain
I've since been learning Unity3D's terrain/foliage system so expect some more terrains to be in line with the original flight sequences at somepoint in the future, maybe Wolfingdon and the castles and Eyeshield sequences in woods.
Along with this, I've made the beginnings of an inventory system that follows the original two item rule. Smirkenorf will say something different depending on wether you give him the Dragon Mint or the Firestone. Taking the key here is required to make the door in the next room open. If you don't take it, you'll technically be in losing status and will have to take the alternative exit as the door will not open otherwise. As seen in the video, the items persist between the clue room and Smirkenorfs flight area which is quite a major step forward with regards to eventually implementing somekind of quest progression. (still need to implement NPCs at somepoint Gulp ) At somepoint, I'd really like to try implement the status bar used in Series 4 onwards to show the items in the players possession and to make it just that extra bit more authentic.
Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UjB3f7bZsc
High-res images : http://imgur.com/a/bzHPu
With the release of CV1, I have now updated KnightmareVR to use the final Rift SDK. I now feel ready to release a beta version of this for you to play around with as long as you have a DK2/CV1 Rift.
Download link:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/2ssr7kzp6fg8qm7/KnightmareVRPrototype.zip
Controls (X-Box 360 pad)
B - Use (Only used in Sewers of Goth slime version and for sitting on Smirkenorfs Saddle)
A - Jump
Left Stick - Move Forwards/Backwards/Strafe
Right Stick - Turn Left/Right
D Pad - Navigate Menus
Keyboard Controls
R - Reset camera position
M - Show room camera on monitor (only on certain rooms right now)
Escape - Quit to desktop
Known bugs:
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You can fall off the Dragon in the test flight area if your not careful. Just stay squarely on his back for now.
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After playing through the smirkenorf item test area, sometimes it still thinks you have the items on a 2nd playthrough. Restart the game to work around this.
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Start Quest button in main menu is a placeholder right now. Pressing it just takes you back to the main menu.
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Before you sit in the boat/saddle, you have to look straight ahead otherwise the camera will go out of alignment.
Bare in mind that a Leap Motion is required for the Play Your Cards Right puzzle room, The Runes Puzzle Room and the Smirkenorf Flight Test areas. When an industry standard can be established in terms of motion controls wether it be the Vives Motion Controls or the Oculus Touch ect ect, I'll update it to utilise them. It's not clear what the universal standard is right now but given how young VR is, it's difficult to support all the standards in one go along with cost limitations of being able to access the hardware itself to test with. Some of the rooms like the Causeways will be undergoing internal restructuring at somepoint as since I made those, I have learnt more about scripting and want to implement a system for myself to make the creation of new causeways much quicker as they're currently tied too closely to the animation.
Having been working on this for the past 10 months, this has progressed well beyond what I originally envisioned. Starting life as a basic room viewer, the foundations/rules of the original program are beginning to manifest themselves through programming/scripting which I never thought I'd be capable of. I once again thank you all for your support for giving me the motivation I need to work on this.
The two pictures below are of the Smirkenorf test area in its earliest form before I started adding all the geometry and voice triggers.
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Wow amazing.
I had a quick look at the beta which is really impressive, it really is great to see these rooms replicated in all their glory. I can't emphasise enough how good your work is.
A few comments if others haven't made these already. Please don't take these as gospel as I haven't yet got an Oculus so can't say if these issues will be replicated if played as intended, best to wait for others who have to make sure any issues are replicated.
-The Block and Tackle is really fun, and very unpredictable.
-Really like the multiples of 7 causeway, quite challenging too and great to see how this might have worked.
-I get stuck on the 5 on the Great Causeway, it seems to block passage.
-Play Your Cards Right is an excellent replication of the original
-The Death by Spears for me is too quick, maybe this should be slowed down?
-The dungeoneer sprite for the moving block puzzle is just a blob. (But fine for the fireball version)
Great work.
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Thanks for the feedback. I think the Great Causeway got broke with one of the updates to Unity a while back. It was one of the earlier rooms I made so have'nt put back a lot of the programming code in that I've since learnt. At somepoint, I am intending to rewrite my causeway system as it's currently tied too closely to premade animations which doesn't give me much control over how it runs. That and it'll allow me to make new causeways much more quickly. Plus when I re-write it, I'll have an opportunity to add in an anti-cheat system to stop the dungeoneer running across the causeway causing Tim Child to scream blue murder
The Death of Spears like the Causeways will again need to be refactored in someway as it's currently a pre-set animation which doesn't give me much control of how it runs.
Could you show me the dungeoneer sprite on the moving block puzzle please. I don't recall adding a dungeoneer in as a sprite. Is it a white cylinder? If so, that was an early placeholder dungeoneer model that I may have overlooked
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The Causeway Update
As I explained previously, one of the problems I originally had due to inexperience was how I made my causeways. I basically animated each block individually which is all fine and good but it meant that I had to keep reanimating them if I wanted to do another Causeway which is more than a bit time consuming and monotonous. I've now written a script for myself which enables me to create new Causeways much more quickly as I'm now dependent on Unitys physics system instead of being tied to pre-made animations.
The Path of Defence Causeway
The Red, Blue, Green & Grey Causeway
The Rock Paper Scissors Causeway
The Great Causeway from Series 6 has been restructured to use the new sytem. Using my new knowledge of scripting, the F-I-N-D puzzle is now fully functional with the same sound effects and the blocks actually change to yellow like in the original program. The background I originally used in my 3DS Max recreation from 2012 has now been added and is visible in the room camera view which gives it a more faithful look inline with the program for the watchers. The background sounds here have been enhanced with crossfades. You'll notice this during the FIND puzzle.
Ragdoll deaths have now been added for all the Causeways which look much more realistic than the original program The ragdolls are still a tad inconsistent for some reason...
Forgot to mention this in the previous update. I started revising the lighting/texturing in some of the CGI rooms using high resolution PBR materials which made them much more visually pleasing to look at. I may consider giving the coridoor of blades/Block and Tackle HD textures at somepoint but I will provide an option to play with the original textures if you wish.
Other changes (some previously forgot to mention):
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Fixed the cylinder bug in the Moving Blocks room (thanks Beefybeef).
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The Great Causeway block bug was fixed duing the restructure (thanks Beefybeef).
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Choosing the wrong card in the Play Your Cards Right room now uses the correct sound.
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Skull death animation added to room view of Block and Tackle to make it more inline with original program.
HD Images:
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2EM5p6mANY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awES-k3o9LU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63dhYvBO7Jk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX2i_zZ1Pz8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbqQo9gV2RQ
Updated demo with new revisions available here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/95diooe4mtd02iy/KnightmareVRPrototype.rar
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Well done, James. Truly stunning. I preferred Knightmare's causeways in their music-free, timer-free state and you've done a great job of capturing their raw tension.
An article came out this week titled Why you really don't want Knightmare in VR. It's hard to tell whether the author was aware of your project when writing it. It seems odd that they wouldn't check, but either way, there's nothing in the article that should discourage you.
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Love the causeways, these were one of my favourites, think I preferred them over the series 6 ones with the numbers. The different themes made things more interesting when worked into the quests.
It would be really good to be able to switch between first person and ragdoll view if this is possible.
This makes me really want an Oculus....
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If you're referring to a first person ragdoll view through the Oculus Rift, it would cause instant motion sickness. One of the main rules with VR development is to strictly avoid moving the players view too much otherwise it will cause discomfort. Even when I was playing Luckys Tale a couple of weeks ago, it took me a while to get used to that due to how the camera moves around.
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