This week was crazy.
From what I heard, Playtech turned out just right but there are still things to work on.
I should also mention at this point that I did try recreating the fish from drawings to 3D models in Rhino in a quite rough way. They didn’t end up imho too bad but still figured I’d mention.
And I had it a bit documented already so I’ll just push here a few emails I’ve done preceding to Playtech:
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Date: 12th April
No, the skybox is not mine. Qiyao worked on it. I’m just putting together the Unity scene, testing it, experimented and made sure it’s stable (and kinda worked a bit with the projection mapping).
I had to set up a new collab environment, check out ASAP if it works, I’m uploading stuff as I’m writing this email (sorry I could not get it set up earlier). Basically, there a few more steps: enabling collaborate function in Unity and setting the seat options (owner).
So, as you join da team I’ve created for this project, you’ll be able to access it from Unity -> In the Cloud -> Ed Tech tesrt. At this point, you’ll probably have a 1 number of 2 number next to In The Cloud.
Once you access it, you’ll be able to download the package by going into Ed Tech tesrt (this will start Unity) and then -> Collab (Dropdown menu) -> Hamburger Icon (next to the three people icon) called View History -> Restore/Install newest commit
In case all of this fails, I’ve uploaded a new .unitypackage on the shared drive folder.
From things to note:
– Qiyao was working on an updated skybox, reflected text, clear sky, perhaps also different colours. To update the skybox you need to:
– Import the video file (just drag and drop into Assets folder, wherever)
– Find on the left-hand side in hierarchy (by searching or scrolling through) test2_2 (Converted)
– Click on it
– In the inspector on the right-hand side Video Player component there is Video Clip (and currently Dome Animation v3)
– All you have to do is drag and drop the new Video file into the box with Dome Animation v3 on it
– The skybox will automatically update, at first it will look black but once you play it, the skybox should run updated
In case you want to mess around with skybox options in detail, the skybox itself can be found in: Materials -> Materials -> Sky; and then you can browse through the shader options like Skybox Cubemap, 6-sided, panoramic etc. You can however, adjust the rotation of the skybox, which can prove useful during the calibration. Once you click on Sky, you’ll have the options visible in the inspector.
From other very important things:
I don’t know if that will happen once you download the project but if you use .unitypackage, it’s very likely your dome projection prefab will not work.
All you have to do, is import from your own hydrodrangeas project the dome projection prefab component, delete the existing one, throw in the new one. You may try doing the same with the existing prefab you import with the Ed Tech tesrt.unitypackage but from what I recall, that would just not work for some reason. If you import it again and add the component to Player in hierarchy, it will work.
I will try to update as much as I can before I go to sleep and perhaps also before the hackathon for Tech Media Democracy starts. But let me know ASAP whether anything doesn’t work, at the latest please text me or anything before 8:30, afterwards I will have very limited availability throughout the entire day.
It’s all a bit wordy but all should be included in case of what if, what may etc.
Post-scriptum:
– You can easily adjust last-minute colours of particular objects, like bottles by changing the material colours for: Plastic, Wieko (you may have to adjust both: Albedo and Emission colors)
– If you see missing scripts or even prefabs, don’t panic, take a look if it runs. I had to carve out GoogleCardboard stuff, so you may come across missing scripts but it works without them
– If you or anyone else hates the raining bottles, just disable ‘vending machine’ object in the hierarchy. The bottles disappear after 60 seconds, the scene runs well on my computer even for longer periods of time but if it doesn’t on yours, just disable this ‘vending machine’. If that doesn’t help, look up also the terrain and disable it. If that doesn’t fix it, idk, disable ‘xbot’ and ‘xbox (1)’ in hierarchy, as the mocap + shader combo releasing particles may be just too heavy
– If you can’t get madmapper configured on time, just use use Game windows in Unity project and adjust the scale slider
With all this, you should be set and be able to madmap anything you need!
I’ll try to push through any updates once I receive, either updated skybox or sound or other stuff. The base is there, even underwater sounds.
Hope all this helps if needed,
Cheers,
Fuad
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Experimentation
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Recreating drawings into 3D models
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Date: Unsent
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So, there are a few other things that I threw in:
– Microplastics: I introduced a particle system that is released based on motion capture data, the particles themselves are squarical but so tiny that should give an impression of microplastics if we want them there
– Plastic bottles: There is a neverending pile of bottles coming down on the camera atm, which piles up around in camera (and kinda cleans itself up, I might reduce the timer on this)
Soon to be implemented:
– Updated skybox with narrative
Considered:
– I thought of having animated fish spawn continuously and after they get hit by the bottle, they would crash into the environment. Unrealistic but could support the narrative.
Will need to be setup on Saturday:
– Madmapper (this application is way to complex),
– Tripod with the mirror
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April 11
Hello all,
I just tested the new skybox and it works really well on its own and with 3D objects in the environment.
Funnily enough, there are a few interesting things happening with Unity when I extend the projection (with the skybox at least). I’ll let others take a look and assess by themselves but it’s as if a good workaround if Madmapper did not pull through (I’ll be experimenting with it very soon, better to madmap this).
A few people came to visit and so a few notes:
– I might have to change the water bottles, as they don’t look like water bottles but like germs or meteors (I have those raining down, which I thought could be an interesting thing, especially that the bottles can react with the fish, I could program them to let’s say, once they hit the fish, the fish changes colour to red and it starts to drop (I know that’s contrary to how it works in real-life, could do either way))
– I was asked if anyone will be giving out snacks outside
– I was asked if the Dome will stay around D12, cause apparently it would be a good meditation space (I second the opinion, it’s an amazing space and I’d say even perfect to project 360 videos, I experimented a lot with my Gear 360 and while experiencing these videos on a phone, VR headset or a computer is just inferior to regular videos, having them projected in a dome-environment? I see potential, although naturally I didn’t test it due to time)
Also, just an update note: we are in fact working with 3 colours here:
– Red
– Blue
– Purple
Each reacts with the blue/red differently:
– Red Glass with Red keeps it Red
– Red Glass with Blue makes it Black
– Red Glass with Purple makes it White
– Blue Glass with Red makes it Black
– Blue Glass with Blue makes it Blue
– Blue Glass with Purple makes it Blue
– without glasses, looks, well, as is.
Interestingly, darker shades of purple with blue glass makes it more distinct blue that differentiates with the lighter purple turning blue, which works well with the fish that have darker purple outlines. It may be hard to picture this with just simple text but my point being is, there are many ways to experiment with the colours here and the experience.
The most important part is, that it actually does work in a very interesting way.
For now I need the narrative, probably a second pair of eyes, in case of the assets, I think we’re set. The skybox contrasts a bit too much with the terrain, though but perhaps I can make both of these work with one another.
Oh, also I mentioned already to Anezka, my laptop works in a weird aspect ratio of 3:2, I won’t be here for Playtech since I have to attend Tech Media Democracy Hackathon on Saturday. So however the experience will be madmapped, it will have to be on a separate computer running very likely in 16:9. Any other projector would have this running in such but since it’s a 4K one, it extends my 3K screen exactly as is, as a result, even without the madmapper and due to a Unity-VideoSkybox bug, the dome is almost entirely, fully projected on, well, right now actually, even without the Madmapper 🙂
That’s all for now.
I’ll be here at the Dome on D12 today and tomorrow if anyone would like to pop up.
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~8 April
On this day I was observing the construction of the Dome. It took them around 3 hours to get it raised, which I found as incredibly impressive (from what I heard, by BFA students from Space/Materiality Course). Impressive! Afterwards it was just setting up the environment and seeing how it looks like within the Dome, additional work and calibration.
Update 1:
Alpha 360 Timelapse from within the Dome
Update 2: Timelapse Alpha