https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LeDr5pqDJmT8m-Bk9KCDcsxKdw14j_8IFKrZlnnru6o/edit?usp=sharing
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Power Point Presentation
Hi everyone, here is a link to my nearly finished power point presentation for our upcoming presentations.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Great Week
Welcome to another week of my blog! This was a very unique week. I started off by organizing the survey for Thursday. I had to send out a lot of emails and messages organizing a small group to try out virtual reality. I ended up having about 10 people try out virtual reality.
During the survey I had them try out the viewmaster and the Samsung gear vr. For the viewmaster I had them watch this kind of scary video called Sisters. Basically you sit in a room and watch a creepy doll move around in the dark. Some people thought that the video was actually scary; some thought it was boring because it was basically like watching a video. I wanted to display a video for them to try but I wanted something slightly more interactive. Alternatively, maybe a normal video would of ended up better. This was the slightly worse headset out of the two. This left me a bit restricted of what I could do.
Then for the Samsung gear I had the participants play a game called Smash Hit. It was a game more focused on interaction rather than exploring a 360 degree space, unlike Sisters. You move room to room at a fast speed just smashing through glass and blocks by shooting metal balls. It sounds very simplistic, but everyone had a great time.
After that I would ask everyone just a few quick questions. That concluded my survey. It only took about an hour.
I spent the rest of this week writing down everything from the recordings. I am not finished but I should be sometime next week.
Overall I am really pleased with how it went. I nearly did not have access to a samsung s7, which is needed for the gear vr. But thankfully my friends dad was able to lend me his.
That is all for this week. Only two more weeks! I am very excited to see the conclusion to the senior research projects. Hopefully everyone has a good weekends!
Griffin
During the survey I had them try out the viewmaster and the Samsung gear vr. For the viewmaster I had them watch this kind of scary video called Sisters. Basically you sit in a room and watch a creepy doll move around in the dark. Some people thought that the video was actually scary; some thought it was boring because it was basically like watching a video. I wanted to display a video for them to try but I wanted something slightly more interactive. Alternatively, maybe a normal video would of ended up better. This was the slightly worse headset out of the two. This left me a bit restricted of what I could do.
Then for the Samsung gear I had the participants play a game called Smash Hit. It was a game more focused on interaction rather than exploring a 360 degree space, unlike Sisters. You move room to room at a fast speed just smashing through glass and blocks by shooting metal balls. It sounds very simplistic, but everyone had a great time.
After that I would ask everyone just a few quick questions. That concluded my survey. It only took about an hour.
I spent the rest of this week writing down everything from the recordings. I am not finished but I should be sometime next week.
Overall I am really pleased with how it went. I nearly did not have access to a samsung s7, which is needed for the gear vr. But thankfully my friends dad was able to lend me his.
That is all for this week. Only two more weeks! I am very excited to see the conclusion to the senior research projects. Hopefully everyone has a good weekends!
Griffin
Friday, April 8, 2016
Gear VR and the Viewmaster
Back again this week with some good news! My boss allowed me to take two vr headsets home to take and have a few people test out next week. The two headsets I was allowed to take are towards the bottom of the tier list. But the other two headsets are expensive and delicate. I happy that he gave anything at all to be truthful. Both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are the most expensive headsets available. They also would of been a huge burden to setup and move around. The HTC Vive it has two censors that you need to setup and it is a huge hassle. On the bright side I already had a good amount of people come into the office and try the HTC Vive and give me some feedback.
However, he did allow me to take the Viewmaster and the Samsung Gear VR. I tried out the Viewmaster a couple of nights ago. Thankfully the Viewmaster works with nearly every smartphone. It definitely is not as impressive as the Oculus or HTC Vive but it is a really cool piece of technology for only 30$. I tried out an app called VRSE which is just like a library of cool videos/experiences you can watch. I know that if you got a Samsung Phone recently that it is an option to get a gear vr with them. So if you happen to get your hands on one I recommend that app.
The gear requires that you have a Samsung phone. So I am hopeful I can get into contact with someone who will let me borrow their phone next week. 
above pictured is the Gear VR(top) and the Viewmaster(bottom)
Basically this week I have just been finding people to help me next week. I have sent out a few emails and talked to a couple friends I am hopeful to get 10 people for next Thursday. All they will have to do is use each headset for 4 or 5 minutes. And then answer some questions for me.
Besides that this week my boss just had me do some more social media project. Mostly just really tedious things that would be boring if I talked about them.
Anyway sorry for the kind of short blog post this week. I really did not have much going on. Regardless, I hope everyone has a great weekend! Only two more weeks to go!
However, he did allow me to take the Viewmaster and the Samsung Gear VR. I tried out the Viewmaster a couple of nights ago. Thankfully the Viewmaster works with nearly every smartphone. It definitely is not as impressive as the Oculus or HTC Vive but it is a really cool piece of technology for only 30$. I tried out an app called VRSE which is just like a library of cool videos/experiences you can watch. I know that if you got a Samsung Phone recently that it is an option to get a gear vr with them. So if you happen to get your hands on one I recommend that app.
The gear requires that you have a Samsung phone. So I am hopeful I can get into contact with someone who will let me borrow their phone next week. 
above pictured is the Gear VR(top) and the Viewmaster(bottom)
Basically this week I have just been finding people to help me next week. I have sent out a few emails and talked to a couple friends I am hopeful to get 10 people for next Thursday. All they will have to do is use each headset for 4 or 5 minutes. And then answer some questions for me.
Besides that this week my boss just had me do some more social media project. Mostly just really tedious things that would be boring if I talked about them.
Anyway sorry for the kind of short blog post this week. I really did not have much going on. Regardless, I hope everyone has a great weekend! Only two more weeks to go!
Friday, April 1, 2016
More Work at TimeFire VR
Welcome to another week of my Senior Research Project's blog!
This week I did less independent work and more concentrated projects for TimeFireVR.
Firstly, my company has released their first trailer. I know I did not do the best at explaining what my companies game is, to be honest the entire idea is rather vague to me. But I believe this game will open the door for a new wave of socially interactive games in virtual reality. And doing something this ambitious is a huge risk; however, I appreciate the time and hard work they are putting in to create a polished product. Anyway, here is the link to the trailer, enjoy!
If you are familiar with the game second life, it is similar to that. But the focus seems to be more centered around education.
Coming with the first trailer, typical in the meta of game development, especially with multiplayer games, includes an alpha or beta test for the game to soon follow. This is where my projects became necessary.
But firstly let me explain what an alpha/beta test is. First of an alpha build of a game refers to the earliest playable stage of development for a game. Intuitively, beta is further along the Greek alphabet and therefore further along the development process, but not quite the final build of the game.
Now that you know what a alpha/beta test is, you would wonder to yourself who would participate in this alpha or beta test. More often than not it is open to consumers for free! So it is a win-win situation. The developers record important information given to them by hopefully thousands of people testing their game. Typically the developers monitor bug crashes, glitches, and whatever flaws in their game that they are looking to correct. All this occurs while your testers get to freely enjoy your game.
However this development scheme is a huge plight to the world of gaming. As I mentioned, most studios allow players to participate in the testing for free. Lately this trend as diverted from its original plan, to provide devs with information. Now studios will charge you a reduced price for the game at an uncompleted state and you have unlimited access to the game. This differs from the previous model, because it would be at no cost but would typically last a a couple weeks. Then it becomes closed, no longer to be accessed until the final build is ready for sale.
This becomes a problem because smaller studios tend to sell their game at a discounted price, and promise to continue development. But a lot of games, for example: DayZ: Standalone earned millions of sales within days of opening the alpha. But the game's lead developer has since left and the games development has run off course. Studios tend to "hype" up their game in hope to attain even more sales, this studio was also of guilty of that. My friends and I were victims of this ploy unfortunately.
Sorry for that brief intermission of my ranting at independent game studios. This blog has become horribly off-topic; however, back to selecting individuals for alpha/beta testing.
My job was to research how to create surveys to determine who should and who should not be participating in the beta. It is determined by a lot of different criteria: technical, gender, age, motivation, individual preferences etc. All in order to find the best possible testers for your game.
On top of this my company was interested in creating a news letter for their game. So they asked me to do some research and give my input on how a newsletter should be formatted and distributed. But most importantly what kind of information is being provided when creating a newsletter. The conclusion of what I learned was that useful information should be presented in the most concise way possible. It is also imperative to remain as friendly and natural when presenting the information.
This week did not have as much to do with my project but I don't mind a change of pace. Plus the research of writing a survey should come in handy. Speaking of surveys...
My on site mentor has been extremely busy this week, considering a recently released first trailer. But hopefully he can get back to me by this weekend.
Thanks for tuning in!
Griffin
This week I did less independent work and more concentrated projects for TimeFireVR.
Firstly, my company has released their first trailer. I know I did not do the best at explaining what my companies game is, to be honest the entire idea is rather vague to me. But I believe this game will open the door for a new wave of socially interactive games in virtual reality. And doing something this ambitious is a huge risk; however, I appreciate the time and hard work they are putting in to create a polished product. Anyway, here is the link to the trailer, enjoy!
If you are familiar with the game second life, it is similar to that. But the focus seems to be more centered around education.
Coming with the first trailer, typical in the meta of game development, especially with multiplayer games, includes an alpha or beta test for the game to soon follow. This is where my projects became necessary.
But firstly let me explain what an alpha/beta test is. First of an alpha build of a game refers to the earliest playable stage of development for a game. Intuitively, beta is further along the Greek alphabet and therefore further along the development process, but not quite the final build of the game.
Now that you know what a alpha/beta test is, you would wonder to yourself who would participate in this alpha or beta test. More often than not it is open to consumers for free! So it is a win-win situation. The developers record important information given to them by hopefully thousands of people testing their game. Typically the developers monitor bug crashes, glitches, and whatever flaws in their game that they are looking to correct. All this occurs while your testers get to freely enjoy your game.
However this development scheme is a huge plight to the world of gaming. As I mentioned, most studios allow players to participate in the testing for free. Lately this trend as diverted from its original plan, to provide devs with information. Now studios will charge you a reduced price for the game at an uncompleted state and you have unlimited access to the game. This differs from the previous model, because it would be at no cost but would typically last a a couple weeks. Then it becomes closed, no longer to be accessed until the final build is ready for sale.
This becomes a problem because smaller studios tend to sell their game at a discounted price, and promise to continue development. But a lot of games, for example: DayZ: Standalone earned millions of sales within days of opening the alpha. But the game's lead developer has since left and the games development has run off course. Studios tend to "hype" up their game in hope to attain even more sales, this studio was also of guilty of that. My friends and I were victims of this ploy unfortunately.
Sorry for that brief intermission of my ranting at independent game studios. This blog has become horribly off-topic; however, back to selecting individuals for alpha/beta testing.
My job was to research how to create surveys to determine who should and who should not be participating in the beta. It is determined by a lot of different criteria: technical, gender, age, motivation, individual preferences etc. All in order to find the best possible testers for your game.
On top of this my company was interested in creating a news letter for their game. So they asked me to do some research and give my input on how a newsletter should be formatted and distributed. But most importantly what kind of information is being provided when creating a newsletter. The conclusion of what I learned was that useful information should be presented in the most concise way possible. It is also imperative to remain as friendly and natural when presenting the information.
This week did not have as much to do with my project but I don't mind a change of pace. Plus the research of writing a survey should come in handy. Speaking of surveys...
My on site mentor has been extremely busy this week, considering a recently released first trailer. But hopefully he can get back to me by this weekend.
Thanks for tuning in!
Griffin
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