Brandon Li journal

Activity Log

• 1/26, 9:00 PM - 10:30 PM, created Journal page and added bio, read What's Real About Virtual Reality? In the sources page and took notes- What's Real About Virtual Reality? Notes 1.5

• 1/27, 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM, read article Recent Developments in Game-Based Virtual Reality Educational Laboratories Using the Microsoft Kinect, which discussed the merits of using the xbox Kinect as opposed to traditional DAQ systems in educational laboratories. Article here. 2.5

• 1/29, 10:00 PM - 11:30 PM, read 2 more articles, one on immersion through VR HMDs, and another on simulating touch in VR here and here 4

• 1/31, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, attended YURT lunch 5

• 2/3, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM, 8:00 PM-10:00 PM, used Oculus Rift, tried out various apps, then downloaded Epic Games Launcher (Unreal Engine), and started a tutorial series on Unreal Engine  link here.  8

• 2/5, 11:00 PM - 1:30 AM, looked through for various useful tutorials specifically tailored towards VR development in UE4, read Epic Games Faq, edited wiki 10.5

• 2/7, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, attended YURT lunch 11.5

• 2/14. 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM. attended YURT lunch 12.5

• 2/15. 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM, tried to get MinVR running on my computer  13.5

• 2/16, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM, worked on progress report 14.5

• 2/19, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM, looked at apps made with Unreal Engine on Oculus 16.5

• 2/20. 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM, continued Lynda tutorial series on Unreal Engine 17.5

• 3/12 5: 00 PM - 7:00 PM Unity UFO game tutorial 19.5

• 3/13 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Unity 3D game tutorial 22.5

• 3/14 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM Worked on the wiki 23.5

• 3/25 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM, 10:00-12:00 PM Looked through Unity's Script Reference documentation and did the Roll a Ball tutorial in the manuscript page (2.5 hours on the tutorial, although I believe Duncan's evaluation of 2 hours is accurate, since I spent about 0.5 hours on reading through documentation sections mentioned in the tutorial) 27.5

• 3/26 10:00 PM - 1:00 AM Read through more documentation, looked through other unity tutorials, installed Steam and SteamVR (will put sections for these into manuscript) 30.5

• 3/27 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM, 9:00 PM -12:00 PM Played around with SteamVR api, set it up to run on Oculus through Unity, looked through more Unity Tutorials/documentation 34.5

• 3/28 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM - 8:00 PM, 9:00-12:00 PM Played around with SteamVR api some more, did Steam tutorial for Vive, and converted it to Oculus (not as hard as it sounds), did some debugging, looked through Steam forums and other SteamVR tutorials, also looked through Unity XR documentation/tutorials (Specifically the built-in SDK) 44.5

• 3/29 1:00 PM - 7:00 PM, 9:00 PM - 11:00 PM SteamVR tutorial, looked through more documentation on Unity's built-in SDKs, worked on VR tutorial 52.5

• 3/30 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM, 7:00 PM-10:00 PM, 11:00-12:00 PM Worked on VR tutorial. Tried out a couple of different ideas, picked one I believed could best be done in the class period. 62.5

• 3/31 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM, 9:00 - 11:00 PM Continued working on tutorial, tested out tutorial, started transcribing tutorial onto the site (Should be dropdown menu Home>Tutorials>Throw A Ball Unity 69.5

• 4/1 9:00 AM - 11:00 PM, 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM, 10:00 PM-12:00 PM Finalized tutorial, finished transcribing tutorial on the website. (Link here) 77.5

• 4/2 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM Ran through the tutorial one more time, tested program on CCV headsets to make sure the tutorial should run properly. 79.5

• 4/4 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM Read through Oculus' OVR documentation, including the tutorial for building an application using the Oculus SDK in Unity. 83.5

• 4/6 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM Continued reading through Oculus OVR documentation, downloaded Oculus Integration from the asset store, started working on an advanced vr application 87.5

• 4/7-4/8 7:00 PM - 5:00 AM Continued working on the application- implemented "Punching" and enemy spawner 97.5

• 4/8 1:00 PM- 6:00 PM Implemented enemy homing and haptics. (The data I gathered from SteamVR and OVR will be under Manuscript>VRDevelopmentSoftware>Unity3D, and be labeled "SteamVR Plugin" and "Oculus SDK" respectively 102.5

• 4/22 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM, 10:00 PM - 1:00 AM Implemented scaling and rotation functionality for tensor visualization on the Vive 108.5

• 4/23 1:00 PM - 7:00 PM Tried to incorporate sound effects for increased immersion for the OVR application 114.5

• 4/25 8:00 PM - 2:00 AM Looked for an alternative for movement in VR - implemented something I call "Sprinting" 120.5

• 4/28 9:00 PM - 12:00 AM Read through Oculus SDK scripts  123.5

• 5/11 4:00 PM - 11:00 PM Transcribed the Oculus SDK Throw A Ball tutorial onto the website, and then did the tutorial to make sure it worked 130.5

• 5/12 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM Transcribed Unity vs. Unreal Engine comparisons/ Oculus vs SteamVR comparisons 134.5

• 5/13 10:00 PM - 1:00 AM Added some additional functionality to the Punching program, which I plan on showcasing at the demo 137.5

Progress Report

So far I've logged 13.5 hours. I've made some progress into learning about Unreal engine through tutorials.  I plan on catching up over the course of the semester, as I continue learning about specifically Unreal engine, as I have so far completed part of a series of Unreal engine tutorials. Although unrelated, I have also learned more about MinVR through YURT lunches and attempts to install the package on my computer in order to get exposure to multiple VR  software development programs.

Course Deliverables

• A personal comparison of Unity and Unreal Engine in making a simple application

• Survey results from Brown Students on both Unity and Unreal Engine after a tutorial on how to make a simple game. These results will be published in the "Findings" section of the wiki

• Catch up on hours in the activity log

Future Activities/Milestones:

My aim is to gain enough proficiency with VR development software so that I can make a simple game tutorial for both Unreal and Unity, and get survey results comparing how Brown students felt about both. To reach that goal, I plan to learn how to develop with Virtual Reality related software with a primary focus on Unreal Engine, while also learning more about developing with Unity and MinVR.

2/13 -  Spend some time learning about how to use Unreal Engine

2/15 - Spend some more time learning about the Unreal Engine basics

2/22 - Catch up on Unreal Engine tutorials from previous days (8 hours)

2/22 -  Make a bouncing ball or hello world tutorial  (5 hours)

• Put tutorial under Home>Tutorials

2/27- Start working on a more advanced Unreal Engine Project (8 hours)

• Put tutorial under Home>Tutorials

3/1 - Continue working on advanced Project (5 hours)

3/6 -  Complete a rough draft of the survey (3 hours)

• Put survey link on Manuscript>Findings

Total time: 29 hours

To Do's:

A list of things to be done at some point in the future that can't necessarily be evaluated

• Find out how many VR headset's are available to be used for the tutorial

• Find out how where I will host the sessions

• Find some classmates to help out with the tutorials

• Create a tutorial that is simple but captures the immersion of VR

Progress Report

I'll be honest, I have my fair share of catching up to do. However, I am confident that I will make up for lost time, especially over spring break on the new deliverable that I have pivoted to, which is to help out Tom and Jared in linking Unity to the YURT. I have been looking at Unity tutorials, and will delve deeper into Unity in the coming weeks.

Course Deliverables

• A simple class-length tutorial that can teach members of the class who didn't learn Unity a basic understanding of Unity

• Progress into getting Unity to work with the YURT

• Have a basic understanding of MinVR

Future Activities/Milestones:

In the time between now and the end of the semester, my goal is to gain a deeper grasp of Unity so that I can hopefully help link the YURT to Unity, which would allow future Brown VR developers greater latitude in developing for the CAVE. If I can get this to work, it would make the YURT much more accessible to a larger community.

CLASS DATES FOR MILESTONES

3/15- Learn some of the basics in Unity by following one or two of the provided tutorials

• 4 hours

3/20 - Complete the Unity tutorials of classmates that were posted in the wiki

• 3 hours

3/22 - Work on a class-length tutorial, complete a more advanced unity tutorial

• 5 hours for the unity tutorial

• 2 hours for coming up with the tutorial

• 5 hours to write up/include screenshots

• 3 hours for designing assets 

4/3 - Wrap up work for the class-length tutorial

• 2 hours

4/5 - Have a tutorial ready for the class, begin working with Tom and Jared

• 3 hours

4/10 - Compare Unity to MinVR- make a table (not necessarily evaluating what makes one better than the other, but rather, similarities that might make it easier to integrate unity into the YURT)

• 3 hours

MID-PROJECT POINT

4/12  - 4/19 - Synchronize the Unity camera view with YURT projectors

• 10 hours

4/24 - 4/26 - Run tutorial application in the YURT through Unity

• 8 hours

READING PERIOD STARTS