Category Archives: News

What a weird week.

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Earlier in the week, Facebook bought out Oculus VR for a couple billion dollars. Internet hilarity ensued.

Many people flipped out…

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Some people were catty about it…

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Some people were thrilled at the possibilities…

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Some people quietly despaired…

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Some people tried to bring reason and sanity to the table…

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Some developers distanced themselves from the controversy…

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Some developers enthusiastically embraced the future…

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Others observed the spectacle from the sidelines…

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It was incredible. I haven’t been this shocked, entertained, worried, and bemused by a news story in a while.

I have no idea what will ultimately come out of all this. One thing I’m pretty sure of, however, is that a giant entity like Facebook getting behind VR as a platform and medium potentially means that the consumer version of the Oculus Rift headset would have an even better chance to be something more than a mail order novelty item targeted at a niche subset of hardware enthusiasts.

That, in turn, makes it much more likely that competing hardware will come to market successfully, which will only accelerate improvement across the board and drive costs further down. From where I’m sitting, it seems like the people who have an emotional investment in the future of virtual reality probably ought to be be focusing on that particular upside of the arrangement rather than simply being angry at Palmer Luckey for “selling out” or prematurely grieving for Oculus VR on the assumption that the acquisition will somehow destroy the company.

I’m cautiously optimistic, hoping that this acquisition works out positively, and I suspect the next few years are going to be rather interesting.

A nail-biting ride…

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The Kickstarter for The Gallery: Six Elements ended successfully a couple days ago. We went over our $65,000 target, blew past two stretch goals, and hit a final total of $82,397, with 1568 backers. It was a dramatic, nail-biting, and tense 30 day period that capped off a pretty grueling 5-month grind. Someday people will read about it in a coffee table book. 😆

I have the next few days off. I spent yesterday kicking back with some books that have nothing to do with work, and it was great. (I’m re-reading the Monster Hunters International series by Larry Correia.)

The success of the Kickstarter means I’ve got steady work for the next several months, which is really nice because I was getting a little tired of the unpredictable, constantly fluctuating returns of freelance web development and graphic design. It’ll be really nice not to have to worry so much about that for a change.

Cat’s out of the bag.

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It’s official. The studio I’ve been doing environmental modeling and Unity development work for (Cloudhead Games) started their media push for their first game, The Gallery, earlier this week. It’s an urban exploration game with some interesting twists and mystical touches, and we’re optimizing it to work with the Oculus Rift VR headset.

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More details at The Gallery’s Facebook page and eventually the game’s website.

Down the Silo we go

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I started using a new 3D modeler named Silo for the videogame 3D modeling contract I mentioned a while back, and in order to familiarize myself with its tools, I worked through them one at a time, almost literally with the mouse in one hand and a copy of “3D Modeling in Silo” by Antony Ward in the other. I thought old-school Ebbles Miniatures fans might get a chuckle out of the subject I chose for my in-progress scratchpad build: the torso of a re-imagined Murphy.

(Click to see full size version.)

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It’s an unfinished work in progress. I started out scaling, extruding, and beveling a box into the body’s base shape, and from there, I figured out how to use the rest of Silo’s tools to greeble the body with raised panels, insets, bolts, grills, vents, and flush panels. You know, the usual stuff I texture into my paper models, except in actual 3D.

I’ve just about got my head around Silo’s toolset now. When the video game modeling contract’s over, I’d like to revisit and finish the Murphy so it can be 3D printed.

As The Woof Turns, Season 3

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Both of my hands are very nearly at 100% again after spending yesterday and today recovering from the dog bites. The pain is almost nonexistent. There’s just a slight twinge when I move my right thumb. My dexterity is still not all the way back, but I’m otherwise fully functional. Which is great, because it means I can get back to work without making anything worse. 😀

The doggy drama isn’t over with yet, though. Earlier today, we’d put the dog out in the backyard for a little while, and when I went out to bring her back in, she was gone. I was flummoxed because there aren’t any holes in the fence and the little beast lacks two of the necessary attributes for easily opening and closing gates: opposable thumbs and height. So, I went all over the place looking for her in case she’d somehow managed to phase through the fence, and I came to the conclusion pretty quickly that someone had deliberately taken the dog from out of our backyard.

So I messaged Mrs E and told her somebody’d pinched the dog. She called the church volunteer who was dealing with our neighbor’s financial and medical needs, and he told her the dog was with him at the nursing home. Apparently, our neighbor’s sister in law just brazenly barged into our backyard and took the dog with her for a visit without so much as leaving a note on the back door.

I was pretty pissed about it. No, I don’t particularly like that dog, but still. I was responsible for her, I’m highly territorial, and I resent the fact that I wasted 45 minutes running all over the place because some bulbous, inconsiderate clownshoe couldn’t be bothered to take 30 seconds to leave a quick note letting me know that the dog was OK and with her owner.

The little beast is back here now, safe and sound. I don’t know whether to be relieved or distraught about it, to be honest. 😆

Back to work for me. 🙂