Fixing Physics and Headbutting stuff

Fixing the collision issues wasn’t too difficult. I just had to shuffle the layers around so that grabbable things don’t collide with the player.

thanks Unity Manual!

Next I implemented the basic mechanical buttons that are already built into the template I’m using. From a UX perspective I figured it would be feel better to have physical mechanical buttons rather than rely only on UI canvases. I’m also creating a cable that I want the player to be able to plug into their arm to activate the computer screen.

pressing the button turns the fan on

Lastly I got this idea of adding a collider to the head to allow for headbutting interaction. I built a little test zone to try it out.

the button dispenses a ball which you can try to knock through one of the 3 rings.

It works but I want the player to really be able to pop it up when they headbutt the ball but to do that I need to figure out a way to amplify the force that the player moves the Oculus headset with. Increasing the bounciness alone isn’t enough as the maximum is 1. Possibly something like the script here?

Elevator Works… Now everything else is broken.

I got the elevator working!

The following additional article was helpful for me: https://jackpritz.com/blog/unity-colliderrigidbody-setups-in-xr

Unfortunately, everything else doesn’t work because if I pick up an object it immediately starts colliding with me and I get launched into the air like I’m a team rocket villain at the end of a Pokemon episode.

I will need to deal with physics/collision layers.

I’m also working on some other curious interactive content. Stay tuned for that!

Elevating Yourself in VR

I had a dream the other night about riding in a hot air balloon and I thought that might actually be a really cool premise for a VR game! Although I have other plans for feature game content I thought it would be a fun experiment to play around with.

To start I want to experiment with the sensation of going up and down and have a way for the player to control it.

I created a simple block that is tied to a static UI slider which the player can grab and lift to up/down.

Next: body physics for the player.

Right now the VR avatar doesn’t follow any rules of physics so the elevator just passes right through without lifting you up. I found a handy tutorial by BeginnerVR that should help me get things working properly.

Adding a simple HUD

It’s been a while since I’ve used the GUI tools so I practiced by making a simple HUD that tracks how many hits you made on the ball with the stick.

Image showing HUD (position shown is not correct, its actually closer to the left-hand side)

Basically just count each time you hit the ball and update the HUD. Something to keep in mind for future is that HUD breaks immersion pretty hard, I think its better to have things displayed on a screen or scoreboard whenever possible. But its still good to know how to do it.

I am planning to experiment with things like goggle fog, frost, screen cracks, etc.

Let’s Play Tetherball!

After a decent amount of finagling I got the tetherball working. The rope even wraps around the post which was the best I could have hoped for.

The rope can’t handle extreme changes in velocity but for a simple solution it works quite nicely.

Using Jacob Fletcher’s Line Renderer script, here are the settings I used for my tether rope in Unity to get it working in VR (the scale is much smaller than the defaults):

As a side-note, I was so immersed that when I finished I turned around and put my controllers down ontop of a wall I had built in VR without realizing that there was no table there in real life! But I had placed a TV table there earlier and it happened to be at about the correct height. Talk about blending RL and VR!

Buggy Joint Physics

Adding a hinge joint had the unintended effect of picking up both the post and the spinning sign. The simple solution was to make the post static. I do wonder how I could make it possible to pick up the post and move it and then fiddle with something attached to the post without moving it…?

Another thing I did to make it work with the XR Grabbable system is that I switched the movement type from Kinematic to Velocity Tracking for the 2nd sign which seemed to maintain the hinge constraint better.

MY VR Development Journey

So I’m making a VR game… or I have been for a while. I bought myself the Oculus Quest V1 in 2019 specifically because I thought it would be fun to make games with… but up until now it’s been mostly off-and-on with very little progress.

I’ve decided to keep myself more accountable and put in at least 1 hour every day. So this is basically a record of that.

Why VR?

I feel like there is still a lot of unexplored territory when it comes to VR experiences. I get really excited thinking about possible game ideas and I want to try things out!

What Experiences do I like in VR?

I find I’m drawn to immersive experiences that aren’t too fast paced. I think the point of VR is to transport you to a new world. Even in action games such as the Vader Immortal series I find I just want to look around and explore rather than follow the action. Honestly, the First Steps free experience on the Quest is beautifully done and really immerses you in a virtual world. I always get people to try that first. I also like games with fun physics.

Elven Assassin is one of my GO TO games when it comes to a simple and tight gameplay experience with a fun core mechanic.