HOLOLENS FIRST IMPRESSIONS Bart Trzynadlowski http trzy org
HOLOLENS: FIRST IMPRESSIONS Bart Trzynadlowski http: //trzy. org NYC Holo. Lens Developers Meetup November 28, 2016 New York, NY
OVERVIEW 1. Who Am I? • 2. 3. What Have I Done? What Have I Learned? • • 4. How I am approaching Holo. Lens Unity Holo. Lens Game design challenges in AR Technical challenges Game Concepts
WHO AM I? • I’m Bart! • http: //trzy. org • Twitter: @Bartron. Polygon • Electrical engineer turned software developer • Perhaps best known for my open source Sega Model 3 arcade platform emulator: http: //supermodel 3. com
Video of Sega Model 3 emulator removed. Visit http: //www. youtube. com/Bart. Trzynadlowski for sample footage.
WHO AM I? HOW I AM APPROACHING HOLOLENS My strengths • • • Deep programming background (C/C++, assembly language) Knowledge of 3 D graphics Experienced in high-performance systems (low-latency trading) My weaknesses • • Zero artistic ability Never developed a complete game from start to finish, let alone in a modern development environment
WHAT HAVE I DONE? In the past ~3 months: • Learned Unity • Learned the very basics of 3 DS Max to create simple inanimate objects and rig others’ 3 D models (from http: //www. turbosquid. com) • Holo. Lens: • • Spatial perception Occlusion/3 D hole-in-wall effects
Video of Desert Strike for Sega Genesis removed. The Strike series served as inspiration for my helicopter dem
Holo. Lens demo footage removed. View it at: https: //youtu. be/Ed-7 Rq. Ik 5 Ic
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? UNITY
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? UNITY Impressions: • Very conducive to rapid prototyping • Powerful engine – I feel redundant as a programmer! • Easy to begin learning (start w/ Roll-a-Ball tutorial: https: //unity 3 d. com/learn/tutorials) • Extremely extensive support community – even my ultra-specific, ultraobscure Google “How do I …? ” queries yield useful forum answers! • Overall: very impressed!
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? UNITY Some cons: • Lots of “magic” • Extensive use of C# getters/setters that do heavy/non-obvious work (e. g. , Mesh. vertices[]) • Occasional violation of the “principle of least surprise” • Best practices not obvious • You’ll see some weird, hacky stuff on the forums
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? HOLOLENS Dev advice: • Familiarize yourself with Microsoft’s Holo. Toolkit package! • Learn to save your own room mesh with Holo. Lens web GUI and use in Unity Editor with Holo. Toolkit’s Object. Surface. Observer • #if UNITY_EDITOR Very useful! • Room mapping best done ahead of time (e. g. , Young Conker and Robo. Raid) • • Too slow in real-time Analyzing the environment will be expensive and ought to be done once
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? GAME DESIGN CHALLENGES IN AR • No control over camera! • • • Hard to deliver a cinematic experience User might not care to look where you want them to Also a challenge in VR! • Environment totally unpredictable • • Object placement, level design Spatial meshes can be noisy • Object scale
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? GAME DESIGN CHALLENGES IN AR Holo. Lens specific: • First-time users befuddled by gestures and often have no idea what to do • Instinctively use their hands to grasp and reach for things • Pain in the neck! • Gameplay on floors and tables is awesome but the device is front-heavy and can cause neck pain quickly • Consider having gameplay take place above eye level! (More comfy to look upwards. )
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? GAME DESIGN CHALLENGES IN AR Work-in-progress: Smarter object placement
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? GAME DESIGN CHALLENGES IN AR Work-in-progress: Smarter object placement
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? GAME DESIGN CHALLENGES IN AR Work-in-progress: Real-time spatial mesh deformation
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? GAME DESIGN CHALLENGES IN AR Work-in-progress: Real-time spatial mesh deformation
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? GAME DESIGN CHALLENGES IN AR Work-in-progress: Real-time spatial mesh deformation
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? GAME DESIGN CHALLENGES IN AR Work-in-progress: Real-time spatial mesh deformation
WHERE TO FROM HERE? GAME CONCEPTS Simulation / world-building
WHERE TO FROM HERE? GAME CONCEPTS Simulation / world-building
WHERE TO FROM HERE? GAME CONCEPTS Observation (e. g. , Nintendo’s Fruit from Game & Wario collection)
WHERE TO FROM HERE? GAME CONCEPTS Real-time strategy (I mean, duh…) Ether. Wars
GAME CONCEPTS Physics puzzlers
THAT’S ALL, FOLKS! (ANY QUESTIONS? )
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