Welcome to the the forums Ryan.

Any plans to have more of the ships controls viewable in the hud maybe as an overlay or do you plan on keeping them in the cockpit.

This is looking really promising Ryan! I'd considered supporting Oculus (for the cool factor) in Dominion - but set it aside for later due to the technical challenges (which would be too distracting for the time being!) - so kudos for biting the bullet up front and hitting the beast head on!

I wish you luck 🙂

Thanks for the welcome!

Any plans to have more of the ships controls viewable in the hud maybe as an overlay or do you plan on keeping them in the cockpit.

So the issue is that floating stuff as an overlay is I've found it to be really weird feeling, because it feels like it's floating in space some distance in front of you.  It doesn't fade into the rest of the scene like I'd want informational stuff to do, instead it feels like you should be able to reach out and grab the text.  If I figure that out I'll consider adding more to the HUD.

There's a secondary issue that text really needs to be in the center of your view to be readable (it also needs to be REALLY BIG because of the current resolution of the rift), so I'd have to consider what info to put there. Distance to target and maybe some amount of shield/hull damage for your target? I dunno, would love to hear suggestions.

This is looking really promising Ryan! I'd considered supporting Oculus (for the cool factor) in Dominion - but set it aside for later due to the technical challenges (which would be too distracting for the time being!) - so kudos for biting the bullet up front and hitting the beast head on!

 

I wish you luck 🙂

Thanks!

Yeah working with the rift has been really fascinating so far, but it's definitely time consuming on the project. There are so many little things as a developer that you end up needing to rethink because standard solutions no longer work well.  When I'm done I'm hoping to write up the issues I ran into and the solutions I came up with for others to take advantage of, so hopefully it will help you if you ever decide to add support to Dominion. 🙂

Hey Ryan, please do update us on this project. We should receive our own Oculus Rift soon, and I'm sure that the impact it will have on the game will be HUGE. If you have any example of things you hadn't thought of before starting, I'd love to hear it 😀

Since I forgot to mention it earlier, both Dominion and GoD Factory look fantastic. Nice to find a community of folks who like making and playing these games!

Offhand, here are some quick lessons learned for rift development that may or may not be applicable to you:

• Given the resolution, small text is /really/ hard to read. Where you can communicate something graphically instead of textually it's probably for the best
• Elements in a HUD that are in edges of the rendering area are pretty much unreadable, which is why we've opted to go for trying to make a realistic model of a cockpit and minimal HUD work right now. This is especially true if the HUD ends up moving with the player camera like it does in a game like Team Fortress 2
• You'll want to build a configuration system for people to input (and measure if they don't already know it!) their inter-pupillary distance, lens cups used, etc.
• The less input controls, the better.  I've found in testing even regular gamers get "lost" on the keyboard when wearing the rift and it leads to frustration.  I'm limiting myself to the xbox 360 controller to start with and from there plan on adding joystick support.  Obviously this removes a lot of the commands we're used to playing space sims but I haven't found a good alternative yet
• Stuff that normally gets done in screen space (e.g. targeting reticles) need to be done "in space" with the rift. You can place it in world space where the target is and retain some of the traditional feel (but will need to manually scale it based on distance) or you can keep it close to the player but be aware that it will feel "floaty"
• Early reactions from testers show that things that give a sense of scale in-game are a positive. For example players love flying by giant asteroids because it makes them have a distinct feeling of being in space.
• Quick transitions, jump cuts, and motion that the player doesn't control can lead to nausea really fast.  Like really really fast.
• Given the nausea I've seen people have and I've personally experienced, I'm aiming for shorter missions to start with, hoping that people can use those to get their VR "sea legs."  Hopefully as people get adjusted we can increase the length of missions for more interesting dynamics. Consider having a 'free flight' mode for people to get adjusted to the speed and style of flight in your game.

That's everything I can think of offhand, as I learn more I'll keep folks updated.

The player cockpit isn't in the model yet, but here's a render of our first ship: the kuwagata

Hi everyone,

I've released a new video as well as the first public test build for anyone with an Oculus Rift.

Downloads & Instructions: http://rjevans.net/firstlaw

Latest video:

Looking really great there ryan! Although I won't recommend it - watching the youtube and trying to focus like it's a SIRD image I can just get a glimpse of the motion in 3D - however I think a Rift is probably the safer option long term 😉

Cheers for the comments earlier btw - been wrapped up with "le pitch" of late so not had chance to respond in kind! I'll be watching First Law make no mistake 😉

What's the intent with FL? Is it commercial / hobby / free? I ask because we're exploring "synergy" relationships between Indies at the moment - cross-marketing, etc. We've got one prominent cross-over on the boil already, but can't mention it until they agree in full. They're a bit busy with their Alpha atm though. If that's something you'd be intrigued by - PM me or reply here and I'll pick up.

Thanks!

I honestly don't know what the plans are right now -- over the next month I'm hoping to add in a small series of single player missions to release in a new test build and see how folks respond to that, as well as incorporate feedback from the first test build. I'd love to get funding to work on it full time but I don't know if there's support for it, I'm getting a lot of folks seeing my demo and then talking about how they can't wait for Star Citizen and eVR, not sure if I can compete with that.

So I'm loving the project, but not sure if the support is there to make it into something more. Hopefully I'll have a better idea in the next month or so.

Don't worry about competing with SC - we aren't 😀 - there's plenty of elbow room, spacers have been overlooked by publishers for far too long. Look at the saturated FPS shooter market, it's doing well, despite a glut of derivative gameplay - but the styling, the story, the art - it all sells!

Your project has the cool-factor of being a) ace, b ) rift-centric - and if it's getting exposure, make use of it - build that following. Have you let the Oculus guys see this? I'm sure they'd be helpful and give you a nudge. If you don't ask...

Wow, only just found this and can't wait for my Oculus to arrive now 😀

Yeh, it's making even me want to buy one... 😀

Really interesting stuff! If I can chime in on the HUD design, I think you should keep as much of it on the cockpit itself as possible. Oculus Rift not only offers interesting opportunities for sensorial immersion, but also allows for entirely new gameplay dynamics. By having critical information in the cockpit, it would force you to alternate between looking at enemies and getting critical information. I like the tension that would create. Look away for a moment to check some setting and when you lookg back, the enemy you were tracking is gone. Looking forward to seeing more!

Your project has the cool-factor of being a) ace, b ) rift-centric - and if it's getting exposure, make use of it - build that following. Have you let the Oculus guys see this? I'm sure they'd be helpful and give you a nudge. If you don't ask...

Thanks for the encouragement 🙂  I'm going to keep working on it for now because I'm simply enjoying it - I think if I want to make it a sellable product I'll eventually need to support people who don't have rifts which will be a lot of work. I might get there, we'll see.

Really interesting stuff! If I can chime in on the HUD design, I think you should keep as much of it on the cockpit itself as possible. Oculus Rift not only offers interesting opportunities for sensorial immersion, but also allows for entirely new gameplay dynamics. By having critical information in the cockpit, it would force you to alternate between looking at enemies and getting critical information. I like the tension that would create. Look away for a moment to check some setting and when you lookg back, the enemy you were tracking is gone. Looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks Drehkt! I'm a fan of having stuff be on the screens as well, and I think it's super-important when working with the rift. Floating hud info just doesn't feel very good. So I'm planning on having almost all the information on cockpit screens, and any floating HUD stuff will be really minor/situational.

Really quick update - but here's a short video of the in-progress pilot's body!  It's incredible how much immersion this adds in VR, I don't think I was expecting it to be so effective.  My arms got this weird tingling sensation because my body knew that they were in a different orientation/position than what I was seeing.  I was talking to one of the CCP guys working on EVR and he said they've had similar reactions, and that a fun experiment is to match the pose of the VR body for a while and then move your arms for a really eerie effect. So I'll try that out tonight and report back. 🙂

Instant phantom limbs! 😀

Are you moving the camera locations around as though they are on the surface of a sphere centered where the head is? Or do they just turn as though on a plane through the central head position?

That's a terrible description of what I'm asking I know. What I'm getting at though is that your real eyes move in an arc when you turn your head from side to side so I'm wondering if you do that too.

Also, cool progress!

Andy

The Oculus SDK supports the concept of eye and neck placement, so the cameras for each eye are moved in space like they would if attached to a body. Without it looking around would feel very, very odd. 🙂

Quick update since it's been a while: Been on hold a bit since the guy helping out with the art has been in the middle of job interviews. But we started integrating our first space station recently! It's 4km in diameter, but you still fly by it pretty quickly since the ship at max speed goes like 400 meters per second.  But it's a really cool sense of scale - when you're far away it doesn't look that big, but then as you get close it completely takes over your field of vision.  I'm hoping I get the textured version soon so I can make a video to show it off.

Been playing around with getting the Oculus Rift setup myself, needed to add framebuffer support to the engine etc... anyway reminded me of this so was wondering how you're progressing? 🙂

Been playing around with getting the Oculus Rift setup myself, needed to add framebuffer support to the engine etc... anyway reminded me of this so was wondering how you're progressing? 🙂

Thanks for asking, and sorry it's taken so long to respond!

Project got waylaid for the last two months, my day job had me crunching 7 days a week to get a project out the door. But now that's done and I'm back working on this on a pretty regular basis. Alex (the artist I'm working with) is making up some new assets, and I'm working on integrating flight stick support and making the first single player test mission. With any luck it'll be released in mid to late August.

Pictures & video updates soon!

Cool glad to hear your still working on it. I'm still waiting for my Rift to be delivered! 😀

IT ARRIVED! 😀

I'm a bit tongue tied (and slightly nauseous!) after going through quite a few demos but I was still blown away by your demo! It's a really powerful effect isn't it!

Wow.

Good work on the demo, don't stop because I loved it. The feeling of being in the cockpit of a space fighter is really strong.

Rolling/banking is an odd feeling, much less comfortable than the pitching and yawing but I'm still glad it's in there and would miss it if it weren't.

In a word: Wow 😀

Thanks! Glad to hear you got your rift, and glad to hear you enjoyed it. 🙂

Working hard on the next build and I can't wait to get it to everyone.

Alex is making some progress on the space station, today he finished up the high poly version + normal map. Tomorrow he'll do the diffuse textures - but here's how it looks right now in game