If you really want to know “How Does a GPU Shader Core Work?” then check out this slide deck from Aras Pranckevičius’ presentations. This is the first thing that has finally made a whole lot of sense to me when it comes to trying to understand GPUs!
I wanted to discuss Pica Voxel which is a great little voxel framework for Unity that I have been using in my latest project. It is written entirely in C# and works pretty well. I have had success with it and plan to use it as the core in my next project. The best thing I like about it is that it has shaders that produce a really nice flat shaded look. The… Continue reading
Here is some concept art from my 8 year old son – two units we will have in the alien invasion arcade game we are working on. He likes to mock things up in Minecraft. I am starting to train him with MagicaVoxel which is what I am using to build the voxel models for the game. These units will likely grow in detail over time. I am focusing on a programmer art approach which is to get things in then refine them over time as the game play takes shape and the fun emerges!
I wanted to share my thoughts on the Magic Leap One. I was able to work with the device as an early access developer at Wayfair and I built an experience for it called Wayfair Spaces that is published on Magic Leap World. These are some of my personal thoughts about the device and the bigger picture of this tech and community of early adopters around it. I honestly believe that Rony and… Continue reading
This latest update to Lost Loot brings CV1 support and a variety of other minor improvements! It also works beautifully with the DK2 if you are still waiting for a CV1. Anyone who purchased at any price can simply login to itch.io and download the new version. If not, now is the time to get it on the itch.io page. Things have been a little slow but there will be more updates soon. I… Continue reading
It has been a while since posting an update on the game. I am making good progress and excited to see it really coming alive. Working on it part time seems to make everything take longer than I would like though. I hope to start showing more details soon. With the switch to miniature scale and third person there is now a main character that the game is focused around. This has both positive and negative… Continue reading
I was very fortunate to be able to attend both Unite 15 and Oculus Connect 2. Unite was is Boston, and since I live there, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a part of that. Unfortunately the two conferences were one after the other and even overlapped for a day. This made for a fun but exhausting week of Unity and VR. There were many exciting moments throughout both events, and way… Continue reading
Two years have passed since the original version of LOST LOOT was created for the 2013 VR Jam and I am now happy to report that we are officially entering Alpha territory! I have made steady progress on a number of areas, but lets start with a few screenshots of the current build and the starting island… These show the new island environment and our protagonist Riley Taylor, who you will learn more about… Continue reading
The next update to Lost Loot is now available. This new version has taken the game in a completely different direction with a miniature world third person design that is extremely immersive and very comfortable. A preview video… Some screenshots… Check out the this new version and let me know how you like it. There are many aspects that improve the overall experience that I covered in my blog post called The… Continue reading
When I put on the Rift and play a game, I want it to feel good. I want to be able to stay plugged in for hours and hours and become lost in another world – to explore, have adventures, do things not possible in the real world. That is the general expectation of the average consumer and at the same time the ultimate dream of any VR enthusiast. So what happens when we have… Continue reading
The initial pre-release is still essentially the VR Jam game I created, although cleaned up and improved significantly. The gameplay is also still simple with only a few basic exploration and treasure hunting mechanics. My plan right now is to continue improving and enhancing the foundation of the game. I also intend to rework the terrain with new shaders, revise the art pack used for the island, and put in a procedural sky system with… Continue reading
So, what does it take to utterly blow your mind? VR! It has happened twice now for me. The last time was experiencing VR for the first time with the Rift a year ago. This time it was experiencing the famous Valve demos that everyone has been talking about since the beginning of the year. I am convinced more than ever that this new wave of VR technology is going to change the world. There… Continue reading
It has been a while since the last update on Lost Loot. I have been hard at work on the game during the little spare time I have available lately and I wanted to show off some of the underwater effects that have been added and discuss some of the progress that has been made. I made a video so you can see the current version in action. I started off with some changes to… Continue reading
One of the major issues with Lost Loot was that when you are on the surface of the ocean your body did not rise and fall with the waves properly and as a result you could often see under the water without the underwater system turning on. This regularly broke the immersion and additionally there was no way to have anything floating on the water either, such as barrels, crates, or even the little red… Continue reading
Yes, you read that correctly! I have been using some of my spare hobby time lately to collaborate on something completely different. I have been working with my good friend Caleb from Part12 Studios to help take their game Sluggo and morph it into a super awesome arcade game for the OUYA, and hopefully other platforms! You can follow the official progress on the Super Sluggo Facebook page. OUYA you say? Yes the little console… Continue reading
Well, this is it. The Oculus Rift has me changing my life already. I have come to the realization that the Rift is going to be such a revolutionary device that I am going to devote most of my attention to it through it’s commercial release. You should watch these videos from GDC this year to get a feel for the energy surrounding it: Oculus VR @ GDC 2013: Behind the Scenes Oculus VR @… Continue reading
I purchased a Google Nexus 7 last summer and purchased a Nexus 4 phone at the beginning of the year. I wanted to relate my experience with this rather famous but not well known Google product and the latest flavor of Android, called Jelly Bean. I normally am not fanatical about things like this, but having had a good experience with both and having had an iPhone since 2009, I thought I would put my two cents… Continue reading
After some time away, I have started to dig back into AOS. Things have been progressing a bit more slowly since the end of last year and I have had a number of side projects going on that are taking away from my time working directly on AOS. However, some of them will eventually be beneficial to this project over the long run. I have reached a point in the development of the framework and… Continue reading
I finally got to my first game jam this year. I have wanted to go before but never took the time out of a hectic schedule and committed to one. I have to say that it is a lot of fun and everyone who gets the chance should try and go to one. It is fun, you get to meet new people, and you really can go wild with ideas and do whatever you want. My only… Continue reading
This entry is a bit of a diversion from gaming, but I wanted to write about the importance of internet security, and also wanted to alert people to the way things are moving in favor of hackers these days. Initially I want to point out a few articles – the first of which was fairly prominent in the news during the summer and the rest which are just good technical articles on how evolved and trivial… Continue reading
