I now have the basic terrain system with water working for Zotbox. This all runs very smoothly on the Quest 2 with a lot of headroom for future CPU/GPU needs. I use the Quest 2 for testing since this is the baseline. The terrain is scalable so on Quest 3 there will be a larger view distance for example. Getting to this point hasn’t been easy and I am very excited for where this is… Continue reading
Just relaxing a bit after the holidays and decided to play Lost Loot since I haven’t tried it in a while. It still runs beautifully on the Rift and is so much fun. There is something nice about just sitting back and relaxing with the controller and wandering the ocean looking for treasure in VR. It may not be perfect but it is a fun little game and those megalodons in the depths are still scary!
You can likely surmise from the absence of posts over the last two years that the update to Lost Loot stalled and lost momentum. I ran into too many issues with performance around the terrain and the trees that made it just not workable and I couldn’t reliably meet frame rate on minimum spec machines. Another big reason was that I felt the third person miniature approach I switched to was ultimately the wrong direction and dependent on a controller that wasn’t the future of VR where room scale and hand presence is the standard. I may jump back into it once Unity revamps the whole terrain portion of the engine but that may be a while!
Time for another status update on the game with some cool screenshots of our beloved little red raft. Everyone who has played the Lost Loot pre-alpha has tried to use it in that version. Unfortunately it was never functional except as a travel system to much disappointment and continuous attempts to figure out how to “use” it. I am happy to declare that the little red raft in the alpha version is now fully functional!… 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
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
This pretty much sums up how everyone in the VR community felt on Wednesday. Seeing an Oculus Kickstarter email arrive always makes my day. This time I knew it was going to be something special. I was thinking input, but better than that, an actual release date! Yes, finally a date – Q1 2016! Ever since Oculus Connect last fall I have always been thinking of the amazing demos with Crescent Bay and how… 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
I am still working hard on the Lost Loot Pre-Alpha #2 release which will be landing very shortly. This version switches the game to a miniature world third person design primarily for comfort.Check out my last blog entry on The quest for comfortable VR for more details about why I am making the change and what it looks like. I was lucky enough to get Cymatic Bruce from AltspaceVR to try out this new version at the Boston VR… 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 DK2 compatible version of Lost Loot is here! The 0.4.3 runtime is required and it is built with the 0.4.3.1 version of the sdk. The build is a DX11 build and should run fine using direct mode. If you do run it in extended mode, I recommend forcing it to DX9. I have still experienced problems using DX11 in extended mode. There are details in the instructions on how to force it… Continue reading
Time for another take on Oculus, the Rift, and the new VR industry that is forming. Everything has pretty much exploded since Facebook purchased the company. That put Oculus on the map and brought a great deal of attention to the company and the new wave of VR technology now emerging. We even had the first official conference for consumer virtual reality put together by SVVR. For a complete and well written account of… 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
I have been busy fixing bugs the last few weeks and now have the first pre-alpha version of LOST LOOT ready to go. This version is more or less the same as the VR Jam game however it has been cleaned up, enhanced, and optimized to provide a much nicer experience. I hope you like it! The trailer… Some screenshots… Please try it out and give me feedback. It is… Continue reading
