I’ve been playing computer games since the days of the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. Recently I delved into the world of VR, I had always thought VR was a niche gimmick. Turns out, not really. VR is awesome, the immersion and vast varieties of experiences you can have in VR are just crazy.
There are interactive animated stories that surround you and bring you into the story (a very cool Native American one called the Crow is my favorite), be it serious or whimsical. The games pull you in and very quickly the line between the real world and the one inside the helmet blurs and fades away. My HMD (Head Mounted Display) has a very wide FOV (Field of View) with built in headphones and mics. I don’t have haptic feedback like in The Oasis quite yet, but the controllers do vibrate to things I interact with inside the environment. Love killing some Zombies!
I’ve also recently started my own channel on YouTube, which has involved learning graphic design, video and sound recording, marketing strategies and best video production practices. I spent 4 hours creating my first, semi-professional play through gaming video, using various free programs and copyright free assets.
It was a lot of fun. And here it is.
So yeah, like the title says: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU1FPaS5wCoZGX6VIOGDwTA
Not much at the moment, but I feel it will lead to bigger and brighter things.
So I picked up a Windows Mixed Reality headset for dirt cheap last December (Acer) and then a Samsung Odyssey HMD off eBay for just as cheap. BTW the Odyssey has fantastic displays! Then my son bugged me until I bought Beat Saber. Honestly, getting to use light sabers in VR is a no brainer. It’s so cool!
Within a week of playing and watching folks on YouTube recording themselves inside the virtual world, I asked myself ‘How hard could it be?’. Turns out, it’s not that hard. Several tutorials and many downloads of free software later, I managed to get a working setup.
It’s not by any means a professional video. My green screen is actually a twin size purple sheet. But it is a proof of concept that I’m fairly proud of.
The hardware is a Logitech C910 Webcam and the before mentioned WMR (Windows Mixed Reality) headset and controllers. For software, the list is long! Microsoft Mixed Reality Portal, SteamVR, OBS Studio, OBS Virtual Camera, LIV Client and of course Beat Saber. There are probably a dozen or so drivers I installed along the way as well. But the final result looks like this!
You feel so much cooler in VR then you look, or at least I do.
So the snow came very late this season, December and January came and went with not even a dusting. Then the snow finally came.
And kept coming! There were runs on provisions at the stores, tire chains and snow melt went first, then the essentials. Never seen the shelves at Walmart so empty before. But that was just the beginning.
Back in 2010, this would have shut us down for the duration. We’re old hands at this now though. Got plenty of fuel for the 9000W generator, got 4-Wheel Drive Low engaged with my brand new all-terrain tires and a nice strong tow rope to haul my stuck neighbors up the hill.
We’ve matured a lot since the early days of home ownership, I’ve got tools for everything, contingency plans for the most unexpected of things and the experience to get through the latest Snowmageddon without a hitch. Guess I’m an adult now, though I still don’t feel like it. Maybe I never will, but I don’t even bother freaking out about anything these days.
So, I ditched GoDaddy and picked up a much more capable hosting package at half the cost. While moving the blog over I realized that I haven’t posted anything personally for many years. I had aggregators that posted stuff to the pages every day, but none of it was mine. There were no posts about the life of my clan or the state of the site, just comics and images of the day.
This departure from the original intent of the site is likely due to the onset of my own clinical depression. I’ve struggled with it for years now, and nothing the experts have prescribed or performed has any real effect on it. So the site has languished in a colorful but alas static state. I will endeavor to correct this. Starting with the removal of all the noise and a saving of only those posts that actually mattered.
So, not much to see here at the moment. Hopefully there will be more to come.
To commemorate the end of the world (12/21/2012) I thought it would be a good time to strip Buddypress from the site. It was a good try but I just don’t think we need the functionality of BP on the site. Definitely not enough users here to warrant the visual limitations imposed by BP.
So, if the site ends up being lobotomized by this, I can always blame it on the Mayans.
Decoration Day
Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry’s shot alarms!
Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon’s sudden roar,
Or the drum’s redoubling beat.
But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.
All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!
Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.
Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1882