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Sunshine Observation Deck

JulianB
Protege
This is my fan tribute to the solar observation deck concept and set depicted in the 2007 movie Sunshine, directed by Danny Boyle. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448134/

I claim no ownership over the intellectual property depicted in this demo. I just wanted to make it to spend some time looking at the sun. This is meant to be one of the more calm oculus experiences - seated or not[!]. This is my first Unity project and my first Oculus project so there's not a whole lot of interactivity at the moment. See below for a list of potential future enhancements.

sunDressedUp.jpg

There was also a redditor in /r/oculus or /r/elitedangerous who excited warp too close to the sun after a hard day at work and just sat there peacefully thinking while their cockpit eventually heated up, shattered and they perished. I can't remember who you were, but this is for you too :shock:

Here's a youtube clip showing a brief glimpse of the whole deck including the science lab:



This demo contains publicly available imagery and data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

I've used Sonic Ether's Natural Bloom and Dirty Lens from the Unity Asset Store :
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/17324

Also Proflares for corona and prominences + lateral halation : https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/12845

Links to builds:
This demo was built in OSX using Unity4.6Pro with the current 0.4.4beta SDK and Unity integration. I get 75fps with no issues on a GeForce680MX [2gb] and I've had users testing who reported solid framerates on a 660 also.

EDIT: Now available on Oculus Share:
https://share.oculus.com/app/sunshine-observation-deck

OSX:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ptsph0fkn0r3yob/AABQfls0b3SY2s92KeP9nFQma?dl=0

Win7/8: Note: This demo runs great in win7, I've not tested in win8 however.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s9gpcjt67phby5z/AACt8otcG3wwwxg2kFC1g5Rya?dl=0

--------------------
Keys and Controls:

Mac/OSX
The xbox360 controller integration is missing here so it's mouse and keyboard for you.

Win7/Win8 - Note: this build has not been tested on win8 Xbox360 controllers work fine here with the standard mapping in place. Mouse and keyboard also works.

Hotkeys:
'WASD' - Forward, Strafe Left, Backwards, Strafe Right.
'Q/R' - Comfort turn 45 degree increments left/right.
'F' - FPS and Oculus diagnostic display - does seem to open lateral portals to the next dimension though, so use with caution.
'G' - Oculus cube/grid diagnostic.
'C' - Reticule.
'Esc' - Quit.

'R' - Reset View [note: this is performed upon launch anyway but if your DK2 camera is in a non-standard location or you find yourself staring into the floor, press this to reset].
--------------------
VFX switches - I've left these active so interested parties can see the difference they make to the demo appearance.

'L' - Toggle tone-mapping on/off [this will make the scene a little brighter, but lose highlight detail in the sun etc].
'O' - Toggle bloom on/off.
--------------------

Possible future additions:

- player avatar so you can sit on the couch and have legs!
- swap the demo couch guest for someone a little better dressed for space travel.
- solar viewport magnification controls
- solar viewport exposure controls
- player-triggerable Mercury transition

--------------------

You can read on my blog about some things I learnt and discovered on my trip into realtime rendering, alpha transparencys, reflection mapping, PBR shading etc: http://blog.julianbutler.com

Questions/comments are very welcome, and thank you! Please go and spend some time looking at the sun 😉

-julian

Julian Butler
-j www.julianbutler.com Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.
41 REPLIES 41

Tamulur
Explorer
That is a fantastic demo, definitely a keeper.

As to the eyes, I wrote up the mechanism behind Coffee without Words here: http://tore-knabe.com/experiments-with-head-animation If you don't want to implement all this yourself, you can get the asset I made from the Unity Asset Store: http://tore-knabe.com/unity-asset-realistic-eye-movements

The current female model looks like she is a non-rigged mesh of a 3D scan. It should be possible to cut the polygons containing her eyes and put eyeballs in their place and animate them, but I suspect that a character that shows no movement other than the eyes (no breathing etc) might look a bit creepy, like someone was trapped in a paralyzed body. I would replace the model with a rigged one and add a subtle sitting idle animation. It might be difficult to find a model and an animation that look as good as the current pose though. I am actually surprised how well the static model works in this demo. It might even be that an animated model draws too much attention away from the sun, but that needs to be tested.

JulianB
Protege
Bud01, thank you for your kind words and the invite for Tore. I absolutely appreciate the feedback and contact. I've not dealt with skinned meshes in the game context yet so this will be a good place to start. Tore, thanks for turning up and offering your tips. As I said earlier I was blown away by Coffee Without Words and the female character in my scene could really use this sort of motion. In order to use this model and not have to turn the neck too much I might have to have her stare at you disapprovingly if you get between her and the sun which should add to the presence! 🙂

I have much to learn yet about game dev and making decent interactive characters is on my list.

And Panmaster, I'm sorry but I don't really understand the context for Gohan's scream so I probably won't be doing that but with regard to your scale feedback, it may help if you experience this demo standing up as I do not have a sitting down motion in place yet for the couch proximity. That might help make the scale feel better.

-julian

EDIT: modify/remove signature
-j www.julianbutler.com Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

Futuristichub
Honored Guest
This is fantastic work! Im a huge fan of this stuff and it reminded me of some Doctor Who stuff! Great job. Loved it. I seriously loved it thank you so much for the experience. I used this demo to fine tune my oculus rift and it works smooth and with no glitch or lag. Well done!

Anonymous
Not applicable
hi Julian + tore

I would like to send you both $30 dollars on Friday towards any online screen share you may have between yourself to talk VR in detail, I am not involved only as a seed towards VR progression.

Tore your blog is universally respected for its interesting content, you are an interesting person !

tore this looks to be some thing new to Julian, would you be available to talk vr in two weeks if Julian is available, let him check your data, Even if you are to talk on Skype for a few minutes in two weeks and review any works on the progression of Subshine Observation deck and eye tracking by dev

I will check both your profiles for relevant details for PayPal $30 on Friday else if it is not online PM me those details.

If you have any questions post them here.



thank you
bud

Tamulur
Explorer
Thanks, but save that money for something else, I really love this demo so if there is anything I can contribute, I would be very happy to help for free of course. I am myself very curious what effect an animated character has. Julian, I'll send you a prefab that you can drop and place in your scene as a quick test. It's a female with a sitting animation and eye movements. Let me know if it is worthwhile exploring the direction of animated characters in this demo further and feel free to ask me anything if you have questions.

anthonyp01
Honored Guest
This is an excellent demo. Thank you for making it for us to experience.

I especially like going up to the door and peaking through the small window. On the DK2 with the sensor 5ft a way makes you think your almost there!

My only criticism is that I am experiencing ghosting on the tablet device and the lights on the floor near the control room. It seems pretty extreme so wondered if you have Low-Persistence on? This demo is the only one where I experience it, but a minor gripe considering how brillienat it is.

I'd love to see this developed more! 🙂

Well done!
Creative Director at CMSi & occasional freelance graphic designer http://www.door15studio.com

qsek
Honored Guest
I'd love to see an implementation of the low persistance off option like in Titans of Space. When you stand still and look at the sun, low persistance isnt that necessary but the increased brightness of the screen would have an impressive impact. In Titans its so bright it almost hurts your eyes and you have to squint a little. Maybe you can make it triggerable like a mouse click on the display or the girl uses a voice command: "Icarus, increase brightness by 50%" and the whole room is lightening up (but a key function would be great for the start 😉

@anthonyp01: There is no blurring effect therefore i think persistance is on the whole demo.

anthonyp01
Honored Guest
@qsek No it's not motion blur. It only does it on the tablet device and the lights on the floor in the control room. If you move your head left to right you get like a black shape moving around it. Almost like a shadow effect.

Edit: It seems to be bright static objects, that if you move your head quickly you get black outline shapes. Really strange as this is the only demo that does it like this for me 🙂
Creative Director at CMSi & occasional freelance graphic designer http://www.door15studio.com

grodenglaive
Honored Guest
very nice diorama.
As no one else has mentioned it this may be an issue particular to me, but the girl's complexion looks very mottled; like the colour is only 16 bit. I've tried turning up everything in the nvidia control panel, toggled things on/off - nothing seems to have an effect. Oddly enough, I also see that mottled shading on the desk lamp in the oculus configuration utility demo scene. Any ideas why I'm getting that?
GA-Z97X-gaming gt; i5-4670k; Nvidia780Ti; 16GB PC3-17066; win7-64 bit; DK2

diogofigueiredo
Protege
"anthonyp01" wrote:
@qsek No it's not motion blur. It only does it on the tablet device and the lights on the floor in the control room. If you move your head left to right you get like a black shape moving around it. Almost like a shadow effect.

Edit: It seems to be bright static objects, that if you move your head quickly you get black outline shapes. Really strange as this is the only demo that does it like this for me 🙂


That's the infamous "black smear effect". It's been discussed a lot already. It's a "characteristic" of the display used in the Rift. Any image with bright objects against a pure black will show that.
If you want to know more about it, just search for "black smear" on the forum.
Owner of a DK2 since October 2014. Anxiously waiting for the delivery of the CV1.