Had the gun handle printed this week with a Zortraz M200 and it worked out pretty well. Some common issues with printing, the trigger had the exact dimensions to fit into its slot, so it was too tight and a screw hole was to brittle so it broke off. However, these flaws came in handy because I had two full day workshops on the basics of 3D printing this week. Me and my friend also had the time to sit down with the new Enbarr and RAGE projects together for some after work hacking, and got the handle working.
Going to try and put parts of an actual game together for the gun this weekend.
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Fagerport
So I’ve been quite in the project for awhile now. Reason is that I’ve been occupied with a lot of other things aaand, that the last thing that I did was starting porting it to Unity and this turned out a little bit more challenging that I’d liked it to be. Nevertheless, made quite some progress event though it’s been maybe a month or two since I last made an update now… Well the Unity port is necessary, and it will be great, I promise. : )
Trigger Handle
There are a few parts of the gun that I consider to be core; the recoil system, the tracking system and the handle with the trigger. My goal for Automat is to have a gun that have at least these parts. So I figure it’s better to get a first version of these components done as soon as possible. We have the first working version of the new recoil, and the tracking will be HTC Vive, but the handle still isn’t there. So today I decided to pick one of my favorite candidates from Thingiverse and start a print of it. It should be done by tomorrow morning. Now, if I don’t like the result, there is always the possibility to change just a part of it, also I’m planning to get a NURF gun and salvage it for good looking parts. But it’s good to at least get a first solution out. : )
Welcome to Voodoo Wetlands
The next version of Enbarr will be presented at an event in October with a spooky theme. The new system will require some new digital content to be tried out in, so what better than to design a new Halloween themed racing track? I have chosen a swampy setting and I call it the Voodoo Wetlands. Because it’s supposed to be played on not too powerful phones as VR, the details can’t be that extreme. Yet, I feel that this will be a really cool and maybe even scary stage. : )
Recoil Test
Me and Faggan spent the evening last thursday putting together some solenoids and an aluminum profile to try out the recoil effect. We might want to try a higher amp power source and some stronger coils, but it was very satisfying nonetheless. The idea with the profile is that other modules such as the trigger handle and a htc control holder can be attached firmly to the same profile. We won’t have time to work together until next week, but I hope to have gotten hold of some new parts for the gun by then. : )
General Idea of 2.0
So me and a friend have been doing some small tests, experiments and builds for the next version of the RAGE arcade gun. I’d like to present the general idea of the new gun and what features I would like for it.
The general idea is to stick a bunch of stuff to a rigid stick whereof the most important things are a holder for a Vive controller and a electrical recoil system. To add a bit of functional spice to it I also want to add a cooling system. The recoil system will heat up, and from what I learnt during the tests of the last version, spray cooling is cool in many ways. 2.0 will feature a built in spray cooling system.
My initial approach to this was to look for existing 3d-print models of automatic spray can pushers. That’s how discovered the automatic air freshener, a machine that pushes a spray can with a perfume to advert odor in a room. I bought one yesterday and managed to hack it somewhat.
Will present the recoil system next.
IMU Testing
This evening I did a little testing of IMUs (inertial measurements unit). Reason being is that I would like to explore the possibility of giving the chair it’s separate rotation from the HMD. Imagine that you want to look behind you to see if someone is catching up, that’s the kind of experience I’d like to facilitate for. Unfortunately, the rotation of the head is also the rotation of the horse in the current version. since the only IMU present is the one in the phone.
I got some great help from my good friend and colleague Gunnar (who is somehow both the best and the worst).
The G man have, literally, a box of IMUs always in handy. So I tried two, first MPU 9250 which relies on external code to do sensor fusion with its sensors. Didn’t really work for me, didn’t even say “hi”. So I was hooked up with the lovely BNO 055 with onboard sensor fusion. Easy piecy, locked and loaded. It is a bit tough to get a micro controller to converse with Unity, and in particular to a phone using Unity via pure, serial communication. So I’m doing a little hack around that, emulating a keyboard with the micro controller.
Finally, a little video of it sort of working. Looking forward to see whether it will make one completely nauseous when it turns the VR world.
Update for Automat!
It’s happening! Automat 2017, the indie arcade fest of greatness! I’ve been given the honor to help out in the planning, meanwhile I’ll try to push for a version two of both my arcade gun, RAGE, and the chair-based game Enbarr mac Lir. Me and a friend who also co-built Enbarr will be looking into prepping these game for something a bit more elaborate than a 10 year old school experiment and a 2-day jam result. Looking forward!
Concept of Enbarr
So I figured I should post some concept art for the game. The left one is from when we came up with the idea during the global game jam 2017 and the right one is from later the same year. I wanted to go for some sort of parody of hard body, sci-fi, future form of hard life racing. Inspired by a hat belonging to a home made ostrich rider suit (one of those where your legs become the legs of a creature that’s part of the suit and fake legs hang from your hips) I saw as a kid.
14th place out of 34
So the fantasy console jam is over at itch.io and Un-ion managed to climb halfway to the top with in-jam votes. Not that bad, considering it was my first P8-game and I did not at all expect the competition to get so stiff judging the initial submission (leading to me being a bit relaxed : P). People seem to have expected more from the game due to its, maybe a bit pretantious, opening which only led to a small, score-based shooting game with a single stage. I could easily have added a lot if I had dedicated to it within the time limitation, but but, I’m happy. :)
Looking forward to maybe add some more to Un-ion and new games with the super fun P8 environment.