Build your own customized VR home and play multi-roomscale minigames! · By
So, I imagine you are using this software in a tonne of ways that I never expected. I plan to be updating this project frequently over the next six months, and this first couple weeks is gonna be a bumpy ride, guaranteed.
Please, please, use this thread to complain endlessly about everything that pisses you off. I'll do my best to fix it.
thanks
Today, I'm trying to get the 'Replay' buttons and High score functions working properly across all the games, there's significant issues right now. I should have an update for the end of the day, update will also include some new tools in the settings menu for removing/replacing wall sections, as well as removing/replacing the barrier cubes.
First of all, thanks for this amazing expansion of the limits of VR, in more than one sense. I have been trying it for a couple of hours now.
1. Yes, eagerly waiting for a wall editing option
2. Unable to undo the first corner, after that I can undo but not the first one
3. Sometimes when making cubes, the third point makes the cube flow in the opposite direction than I'm moving my control
That's it for the moment, eagerly waiting your updates!
Wall editing will be in the next update, which i'm uploading right now! yay! spent today and yesterday working it out, it's still problematic but it'll allow you to open up new sections or close out other ones. I need to communicate that you need to stand in front of the cube when doing first two clicks, it will try and decide which was it facing you and which was is 'away'. It used to work both ways and then I spent a long time 'fixing' it for a reason i forget now.
This update also fixes the bug that was bothering me the most:
REPLAY button is working for most apps now. I haven't taken a look at highscore but I know they are all over the map.
Other bugs I've made progress on:
ARCHERY The logic that decides to put a short wall/outlook VS a tall wall/narrow slit was super biased towards tall walls, making a lot of the field out of range. I'm still tweaking this, but hopefully it should be a bit better. Its still broken, admittedly, just less broken.
LUNAR red marker was being terrible and sending off error beeps on repeat sometimes. Hopefully it behaves now.
Bugs on my list for next update, maybe tommorow (I wanna push this one out so you can edit walls (open the console panel without a game loaded) cross your fingers:
HIGHSCORES - broekn
CREATOR : blue slider value for texture color doesn't work in many cases, gotta fix so you can use all the colors.
ARCHERY: archers tend to 'forget' to look for you once they've first seen you, and will keep firing arrows at your original location. Arrows don't make a cool 'wshhhhh' sound.. they should... this bothers me
LUNAR : obstacles are uninspired, soul-less and don't give the player any sense of satisfaction for overcoming them. I need better ideas, the potential here is crazy, and i'm stuck in basic brain.
VORTEX : level progression is a mess, used to be better in the closed beta but then i forgot how the programming works for spawning. It'll get fixed eventually, right now its just an onslaught of mostly the same ships. Sorry bout that.
Ok. Fix incoming today for everything listed above, except for the Lunar Ball improvements.
I *STRONGLY CAUTION against using the wall editor in the last build. It can result in walls that are placed facing the wrong way, which will confuse some of the games and cause spawns outside the map. Update today will fix the issue, and it _should_ be very possible to redesign and replace walls however you want, without needing a hard reset / loss of high scores / loss of custom apartment save setup.
Hey Mr t, big fan!
Which walls? Things always tend to look better in video. I definetely notice some of the textures are still super low res, should be easy enough to upscale them without affecting performance. I'll start working on them, let me know what you think in the next update.
Edit: added 9 new textures, spaceship and neon kinda styles. Adding detail to some old textures, next update should look nicer.
Not max yet. Still room for more.
The little fighting game is admittedly pretty bare-bones right now. Bunch of new challenges with character animations and triggers that I'm picking away at. .. at the end of the Day, these kinda miniature 3rd person games don't really feel like they take advantage of the freedom of multiple room-scale, since your head is just a camera, and don't interact with the world. I think it's a cool platform for playing with more ideas, I have a tonne of thing I will add, but I'm not just not sure miniatures is a good fit.
Anyways, certainly will appreciate the feedback and you can go crazy with feature requests, lot of experimenting will happen in the next few weeks.
My biggest req probably isn't possible. But that would be to have this with 2 players in the same room and procedural generated labirints where you would fight "troopers/aliens" outside your windows (almost like the space shooter game in there today).
And second request would be some kind of multiplayer FTL within your house.
Whenever I re-load the app and attempt to re-anchor my playspace, the walls and objects are about a foot off from where I had originally set them. So basically I have to do the initial setup every time I want to use the app (or bump into everything lol)
Are there tips/best practices for the initial anchor placement? I have the controllers facing ring down on a table, the exact location marked out with tape about a foot apart (right controller on the right side, left controller on the left side). Maybe adding a way to move the entire playspace location while you're in it would be a way to make sure everything lines up too
hey mosquito. So, i've been playing around with the 'set new anchor' function in the upcoming build, and while I never thought i'd need a fine tuning system (logically, anchors "should' be quite precise, but i'm finding that if i set an anchor against a wall, or too close together, then things get mis-aligned slightly) Problem becomes... once it is misaligned and you have an anchor that isnt working for you, well, there's no point in just setting a new anchor position when things aren't lined up correctly. Agreed, if you're gonna play around with swapping anchors, some fine-tuning tools are needed.
I'll be back to regular small updates once 2.0 drops (still lots of things i want to fix on the little fighting game) so i'll see if i can get these fine-tuning tools in this week.
Hey Griffey. Yes I really should make a best practices guide.. but I'm still experimenting and learning how this system actually functions.
You will benefit from when i add the "change anchor positioning" menu option, so you'll be able to experiment with different points without needing to undo everything each time. It's coming in the next few updates.
From my tests, I've learned:
Too close can cause the problem you've mentioned. Use at least 3 or 4 feet. Not sure about maximum.
Rotation of the controllers can be a factor. Try to line them up "straight" when placing them ring side down, so the controllers are parallel.
I've had issues with quest2 where the controllers don't like sitting upside down, and lose tracking , which throws off the points. You'll see the controller jump around if this is the issue.
If it isn't because of these problems then im beginning to suspect there might be a bigger issue with shadows, and the quest setting wierd offsets , but in theory, the world will spawn in absolute positions related to the controller , so even if oculus think you're 2 feet left compared to "normal", the you're still placing controllers 2 feet left, and world will be aligned correctly with 2 feet offset
Would love to hear what other people are using as an anchor point. I have a large black rug on a wood floor that never moves, so I put the controller at each corner and line then up between the grooves in the wood floor panel.
In my 1000sqiare foot 2 bedroom apartment, alignment can sometimes be off by an inch at areas further from my anchor , and I tend to check doorways and sometimes just repeat the load anchor a few times until I get it right.
Thanks for the advice! I tried again with your recommendations (on the floor, 3 feet apart, controllers facing "straight")..It's a little better, but am still having the same problems with things being far enough off after restarting the app that I have to re-do each it time.
Also noticed the Quest 2 controllers jumping around, so I'll definitely benefit from the "change anchor positioning" option when that gets added.
Either way am loving the potential of this app - I'm sure you've thought about this or had it suggested before, but is there a way to export the space to a home environment for the Oculus? I've seen some tutorials on creating custom ones, so even a way to export the 3D map/unity file would be awesome (can't seem to find if the 3d map is saved in 'sdcard/Android/data/com.curiousvr.homespace')
This app (Custom Home Mapper (Oculus Quest)) does not contain Quest 2 specific string in AndroidManifest.xml:
<meta-data android:name="com.oculus.supportedDevices" android:value="quest|delmar"/>
Meaning it was build with an old version of sdk and might not be optimized for Quest 2. This message was send semi-automatically.
yep. Runs fine on quest2 but not optimized to take advantage of hardware yet. In fact, my Q2 runs vortex without any frame drops and other issues that the Q1 has. Right now I'm building and testing on Q1 mostly, I want everything to run smoothly on the old hardware and don't want to "miss" any issues that are specific to Q1. Plus, black levels are much preferred.
I'll get around to updating the SDK eventually. Hand tracking is an option I want to use inside the custom home app.
hi , this is a new one for me. Just make sure they are working in other games./the main menu... It's only in the app they won't show up?
Make sure you disable the guardian using settings/see all/developer/guardian(toggle off) my only guess right now is that you've disabled tracking instead of guardian.
Otherwise, I'm gonna have to do some tests with my Q2 tommorow and see if I can replicate this problem. A video would be helpful, if you get time to record one (startrecord, disable guardian, launch app, show that you can walk around but no controllers)
My Guardian is disabled. I hit the record in share. I saw a large blue square with building shapes arising around this 9x9 blue flooring. A red vertical line was present in middle of the grid. No controllers appearing meant I had no way to stop the recording and had to push the HMD OFF/ON SWITCH to restart. The video was corrupted. I may have to reset because for many games works perfectly but some have no controllers. Finally It's not easy finding an app to open any Sidequest offerings in Oculus TV.
hi again. Thanks for the details. Seems like the app is loading normally, the blue area you describe is the setup screen, but the red line should be connected to your controller. As you said, system just can't track your controller, and I'm puzzled. If it is happening in other games, I would suggest contacting oculus support as well?
Send me an email at curiousvrlabs@gmail.com. I'll refund you for the troubles, but might ask to do a few more tests.
Hello everyone, I'm in love with this experince/game/app/omg thing, so thanks a lot for create this, I'm testing v2.3 beta atm in my q2 (I will in my q1 later), and performs great but I did experienced some troubles with tracking, but I'm guessing that it maybe caused by the fw v23, I did observed playing other games that I also lost traking for 1sec ramdomly, and another error that I did saw was that the top and the bottom of the map goes around 1m down below the level of the walls, and we dont have any way to recalibrate the floor again.
Thanks4all.
hi alogeno! Glad you are having fun.
Firmware 2.3 freaks me out.
There is no way to reset floor, and the system just gets crazy confused if you try and re-center with the oculus button. Unfortunately, resetting the app is only fix right now.
I had a "floor fix" that I wrote, but it caused other problems, so didn't make it into release. I'll spend time today trying to rework it. Cross our fingers that this firmware gets patched.
In regards to floors, should the virtual floor typically be in line with the actual floor? I find that the ground is a little far away and all the furniture floats a foot off the ground. I’ve also been having an issue where after setting my space up and logging out, after I log back in my room is really zoomed out and tiny looking below me. Any advice? Thanks for the hard work, the software is amazing.
Hi man! So I'm trying a few different floor fixes, basically the oculus software tends to forget where the floor is, and you cant reset it until you turn guardian back on. So one fix is to turn guardian on, set floor, turn off, then start the app.
For your second question, this miniature view is intentional. The system should be prompting you to re-align with the anchor points. So you might have to push down on the right thumbstick, and then place the controllers down on the floor / whatever position you chose in the setup.
Hope that makes sense! Have fun with all the stuff in there!
Hello! I'm really excited to try this out, but I can't successfully map either floor of my home. The areas I'm trying to map are not huge, but they are "open floor plans", and I suspect the tracking is getting thrown off somewhere during the mapping process, as the walls tend to shift way out of position in the middle of mapping, with no way to recover them. I have tried mapping off smaller spaces without success. :(
Along the same lines, the UNDO functionality does not work properly for REDOing the very first wall. I can undo subsequent walls, but if my first wall gets messed up, I have to kill the app and start over. This has been especially troublesome for me as I have had to restart several times while trying to map my playspace.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how I can get this working. I am a software developer myself, so I'm willing to dig into testing a bit, if that's helpful.
Thanks!
Hi GeekyTime.
So, there's a bunch of issues happening all at once. I have noticed a significant change in tracking quality since firmware v23 hit.
A really good base test is just to load a default oculus home environment, disable the guardian, and just walk around carefully to see if/where tracking falls apart. Up until two weeks ago, the only problematic areas of my own apartment were dark rooms, and near large mirrors... but i've been noticing new issues recently, nothing game-breaking for me, but the tracking will jump to a slightly of a different position, usually snapping back to the correct alignment once i take a step out of the problematic area.
Its frustrating because this device was SOLID up until the recent firmware. Not only tracking, i have frame skips and other issues across almost all apps right now. So, fingers crossed, we can just wait until Oculus fixes a few issues on their end. Your device should be able to track reliably in a wide range of different rooms setups, lighting setups, and right now it isn't functioning as well as it should. Open gymnasiums, large outdoor fields, rooms with huge windows.. none of this should be causing problems. The open floor plan layout might be the real issue. For my understanding of how the quest tracks, its looks for points of contrast, edges and other visual markers when figuring out its alignment. I had to help another user who had a problem similar to yours, her issue was a single wall in her living room (plain white, large wall with no details/pictures/decoration) would cause tracking to freak out when she was standing right on front of it. Ultimately, she ended up just mapping a layout that didn't include this area near the wall, but still included most of the living area and a few connected rooms.
So, I'm assuming your problem is similar to hers, but because your place is even more 'open', there's a bunch of different areas where the cameras dont have enough visual info to get good tracking data. If you do the tests without loading into my app, i wanna know if you can always identify the same areas the give you trouble?
You've said you tried the app setup in smaller areas.. is this still within the open floor plan environment? Do you have a normal playspace that you use for playing games, and does the app setup work if you just create a single room mapped in that area? Trying to figure out if it is (a) something different about your space, (b) something different about your hardware, or (c) something about the recent firmware. Sounds like a combo of A and C.
I wonder, if you want to test a really hacky 'fix', could you just make a bit of a mess? Like, clutter up your open floor plan space with a few 'things' in the corners, on table surfaces, just anything to add more visual contrast points in different parts, does this affect the tracking quality? If you do this in a single room, just put stuff in the corners and along the edges of the wall, can you convert it into a 'trackable' space?
We can discuss further, and it would probably help to see a quick photo of the space... so email me at curiousvrlabs@gmail.com and we'll go from there.
Sorry you're having so much trouble, REALLY REALLY hope i can get you past this hurdle and you can experience the neat stuff that i've got going on in there.
Thank you very much for that clarification, I just purchased the program and I thought that I was doing everything wrong because I can't even map my room, I'll wait for this to be corrected and I can't wait to try it.
I have seen some videos and I am enchanted by the work that you have done !!congratulations!!, I would still like that we could use the computer by wifi to be able to give it all the processing capacity it requires to have impressive graphics : )
I don't know how to program, but if I can help with something. :)
Only had it a week but it is the primary app i'm am playing with right now and I love it. I have spent a lot of time in the mapping stage, and user error forces me to restart the map many times. I'm actually getting better at it and found that even lighting is key as well as changing the Oculus tracking from automatic to 60hz helps a lot. Still I wonder if there is a way to implement multiple save and restore points without having to redraw from scratch every time. I also wonder if there is a way to have multiple maps to account for other floors or areas in a home. I am not a programmer so wouldn't have clue how to help. Keep up the great work
I'll try to brush up on my bug reporting skills from the early 2000's! Heh.
Steps to reproduce.
1: Set up a room.
2: Select settings.
3: Select 'Edit Walls'.
Now when pressing B to set the controller to 'delete walls' we can delete them with the trigger. However, after placing 3 new walls, we can only delete 2 walls and now have a wall we cannot delete. You can repeat this over and over by placing lots of little walls, only ever being able to delete the final two that you laid.
Hope that helps! I'm absolutely busting to get my house mapped out as this concept is something I have been evangelising about since I first bought a Vive! Can't believe I've missed it for so long! Feel free to bang on my e-mail door if you need any more information on the issue!
