Well… not quite 🙂

Still working on the the controller initialisation and controls, however we have widened the scope considerably to ensure that once complete we don’t need to revist them in the future.

We are now using the latest version of NewtonVR and SteamVR as planned last week. We have also changed the hand models to a unity store asset that has plenty on animations to help the in-game experience.

The cartoon hands were selected as they provided a way to justify the differences from your own hands in game. The theory is that you are better off with unrealistic but well pressented hands, than trying too look realistic and failing. Anyway, ultimately you can be the judge :).

Quick list of updates in bullet form:-

• NewtonVR updated
• SteamVR updaged
• NewtonVR/SteamVR script modifications tagged to support simple upgrade procedure
• Pause scripting improved
• Controller initilisation working in all game modes
• Loading scene processing improved
• Oculus rift controls added

It’s been a frustrating week! We have spent an entire week modifying the control system to improve the way controllers are initiated in game. After hours of modifications we had them working almost flawlessly, but have since decided to go back to the drawing board!

Much of the controller code used had come from a combination of the SteamVR code base and a very early version of the NewtonVR code. Since implementing this over 12 months ago, both have had several updates which our code ignored, because we naively chose to modify code rather than building separate scripts to interact with the base code as required.

Anyway, long story short is that this week will also be lost to updating and rebuilding the controller mechanics. It’s a painstaking task which will show no visual improvement to the game, but will help later should we port to other platforms beyond the HTC Vive.

We continue, steadily, but with renewed optimism and passion. Let’s hope we find the time to make some more visual improvements too!

This week in the big brother house… development continued.

A huge list of bug fixes and improvements to report. I’m pleased to report that the In-game play is now almost flawless. It really has been a busy week!

I can’t say that the long working hours haven’t taken a toll though. I’ve been snappy all week and write this dreading the sight of another line of code. Next weeks report will contain a shorter list I expect, and will probably focus on elements which are enjoyable to develop (not bug fixing).

One of the more notable changes in the game pliability from this weeks changes is the anti cheat system (shown in gif). There is an invisible wall that prevents interation with the ping pong ball beyond it, you can still pass through it, but you can nolonger interact with the ping pong ball. This will ensure a fair system for the high score system, which is essential to ensure true masters of the game get their rewards.

Full list of changes below:-

1. Prevent bat pickup before round starts
2. Balls go red before exploding in out of bounds area
3. Controller enabled during game (hand/controller issue)
4. Delay “Ping pong arcade classics” intro announcement
5. Add Invisible wall appear when at table bounds
6. Add white lines on table
7. Add optional table net for Hard difficulty level
8. Add “At boundary” announcement when at centre of table
9. Destroy balls when over centre table line for more than x seconds.
10. Move all announcement audio to GM
11. Restrict past centre of table (prevent cheating)
12. Increase Blindfold size
13. Speed up intro animation in main menu
14. Fade in on Game scene load
15. Destroy PPAC banner after menu fade in
16. Change loading image to Nextgenclassic
17. Intermittent announcement stop when level load
18. MainMenu menus higher in UI than score boards.
19. Align table with edge of play space
20. Game crashing on load on menu scene – possibly when user has score on HS list
21. Add game load fade in (walls that fade out)
22. Don’t destroy “lets begin” audio from main menu load)
23. Limit volumes to 100% in sliders (menu + ingame)