Meant to be Seen

Thinking about The Gallery and looking at these screens, I think VR will open up a completely new way to design games that hasn't been talked about much: having a compact experience in a considerably small space but in immense detail.

What I mean is that when in VR, you can enjoy a single confined space to completely new levels of detail, something that isn't really that easy to do without intuitive way of looking around just by moving your head. For instance, puzzle/adventure games or something like a crime scene investigation can be completely by revamped having layers upon layers of interesting things going on in a single small space that a player can spend hours invesitagating, instead of the usual case where you have plenty of scenes and the game proceeds at a relatively fast pace through them.

It's going to be such a joy to see what kind of completely new types of gaming experiences the next few years have in store for us. Starting with The Gallery

Hi Bishop51,I just uploaded some Music samples,check it out!

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=16374

OK, I get Oculamp, but what's Vandalt?

neverman wrote:Hi Bishop51,I just uploaded some Music samples,check it out!

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=16374

Hi Neverman I'll send a private message your way so that we can talk more. Nice work btw

2EyeGuy wrote:OK, I get Oculamp, but what's Vandalt?

Vandalt is a pretentious sports bag designer from an unknown country. Vandalt is us skirting IP issues...lol. Vandalt, no one can be told about Vandalt!

Hey gang!

We're getting much closer to revealing to everyone what The Gallery is all about and our plans moving forward. We're so excited and there's so much yet to share! All will become very clear this March Just in time for dev kit madness!

I am even more enticed.

SIX elements? Depending on whose philosophy you study, there are either four elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) or eight elements (Fire, Ice, Wind, Air, Water, Earth, Darkness, Light). Or those pesky scientists who keep adding more elements to their large and growing list...

I assume that SIX elements somehow complete your story. Perhaps learning those elements is the key to the puzzle inside your adventure game. If it would not be a spoiler, can you give us a hint WHY you decided to use "Six Elements" in your adventure game? Or is this detail among some of your cards that you are playing "close to the vest", like some things Oculus is keeping from us until they are ready (for strategic business reasons)?

You will probably know in march : p

virror wrote:You will probably know in march : p

Yeah, there seems to be a need to control the media frenzy created by people who attend such things while wearing a "Press Pass".

A March release may have been foretold by Shakespeare:

Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.

Caesar: What man is that?

Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15-19

This is looking fantastic!

I want

I've been coming here every day waiting for the February update, now there's another month to wait. Cruel world

geekmaster wrote:SIX elements? Depending on whose philosophy you study, there are either four elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) or eight elements (Fire, Ice, Wind, Air, Water, Earth, Darkness, Light). Or those pesky scientists who keep adding more elements to their large and growing list...

Mythology, not philosophy. And you forgot some of the five element versions: (Earth, Water, Metal, Wood, Fire), or (Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Spirit).
Of course scientists look at actual reality and count either subatomic particles or kinds of atoms. But mythology is more fun as long as you know it's not even close to being true.

This screenshot looks like Air. Some of the others look like Water or Earth or Fire.

I like the clouds in that new screenshot ... so we are going high ... looks really cool!

Thanks for the kind words all! Can't wait to share more.

geekmaster wrote:SIX elements? Depending on whose philosophy you study, there are either four elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) or eight elements (Fire, Ice, Wind, Air, Water, Earth, Darkness, Light). Or those pesky scientists who keep adding more elements to their large and growing list...

I assume that SIX elements somehow complete your story. Perhaps learning those elements is the key to the puzzle inside your adventure game. If it would not be a spoiler, can you give us a hint WHY you decided to use "Six Elements" in your adventure game? Or is this detail among some of your cards that you are playing "close to the vest", like some things Oculus is keeping from us until they are ready (for strategic business reasons)?

The six elements in The Gallery are; Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Love and Death. Revealing more that that would be major spoilage!

We'll be releasing a short video either today or next week showing a bit more from inside the game. Time to start pounding the drum a bit harder I think

LNQ wrote:I want

I've been coming here every day waiting for the February update, now there's another month to wait. Cruel world

We'll be sure to give you more soon here. We've been busy preparing for our larger reveal in March but everything is coming together.

Bishop51 wrote: The six elements in The Gallery are; Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Love and Death.

Interesting to have death be an element, but not life.

Puts on favorite pair of yoga pants; life is love brother, life is love...lol

Mystify wrote:

Bishop51 wrote: The six elements in The Gallery are; Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Love and Death.

Interesting to have death be an element, but not life.

I'm pretty sure love is the antipode in that dichotomy.

Someone once said that love and hate are not opposites, but love and apathy (or something) which is kind of like death I guess.

zalo wrote:

Mystify wrote:

Bishop51 wrote: The six elements in The Gallery are; Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Love and Death.

Interesting to have death be an element, but not life.

I'm pretty sure love is the antipode in that dichotomy.

Someone once said that love and hate are not opposites, but love and apathy (or something) which is kind of like death I guess.

That's exactly how I took it. My mind didn't hesitate to associate love as equivalent to life. I like it.

Hey again gang!

In anticipation of our Kickstarter launching this March, we've decided to give you a small video tease of just one of the extraordinary places we'll be taking you in "The Gallery"!

If you enjoy what you see and you're excited about The Gallery please do us a BIG favor and help spread the word. We're doing everything we can to make this a truly magical experience on some truly special hardware! The future looks bright and with your support its only going to get better.

BE SURE TO WATCH IT IN HD

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPtfvqxYhxU[/youtube]

My enticement deepens

I just hope the gameplay will have the same quality as the environment design.

Wow that looks great. The artwork looks real sharp. I definitely have a better feel for where your going with the elements.

Wow, wasn't expecting it to look that good in motion. Great work, can't wait!

Great!
I think i know a bit now what the gallery means : D

Mysterious trailer.

Very cool, man!

This is looking pretty amazing so far. I'm definitely looking forward to more updates on this game.

How do you plan on handling the player's transition onto walls/ceilings of surfaces while maintaining headtracking? Seems like a tricky issue...

TheHolyChicken wrote:How do you plan on handling the player's transition onto walls/ceilings of surfaces while maintaining headtracking? Seems like a tricky issue...

Headtracking isn't the issue so much as being very conscious about what will and will not make players feel discomfort. There are design features in that particular world that mitigate these issues but I can't get into that right now

Looks good!

I do have one question if you don't mind though:
The frame rate seems a bit sluggish in the camera sweep, especially in the observatory. When making video clips like this, is it a rendering time issue or what is that dictates how fluid the motion seems in the video? I don't mean this as a slight to the teaser, I like it a lot! Just curious as what the cause is as I see a similar issue in many CGI clips.

Haha, the trailer was nice, looks like the inside of my head Looking forward to seeing more! I can imagine the sense of vertigo will be crazyshizzlepizzle!

Looks great! Those platforms look pretty crazy.

One thing you haven't seen in videos of the Epic Citadel demo are movement along the high trails and catwalks of the castle. Even though you are prevented from jumping from those heights, it gives you a knot in your stomach and a bit of courage to actually move to the very edge. For me, vertigo is one of the "showcases" of the Rift since the experience clearly demonstrates to anyone the difference between this display technology and anything else (save maybe IMAX). Games like this that play on that emotion are going to be very good at creating immersion and will be good introductions to the effectiveness of VR.

LNQ wrote:Looks good!

I do have one question if you don't mind though:
The frame rate seems a bit sluggish in the camera sweep, especially in the observatory. When making video clips like this, is it a rendering time issue or what is that dictates how fluid the motion seems in the video? I don't mean this as a slight to the teaser, I like it a lot! Just curious as what the cause is as I see a similar issue in many CGI clips.

Honestly it was more of a capture and encoding issue I think. We had the scene running above 60fps and it was captured at 60fps in Fraps. Then there's a million little settings in Premiere when you output that to a Youtube friendly HD format. Couple that with the fact that we haven't touched optimizations yet. I mean that's super early pre-alpha, real-time scene running.

Anyway, it will get better. We just need time and money

brantlew wrote:Looks great! Those platforms look pretty crazy.

One thing you haven't seen in videos of the Epic Citadel demo are movement along the high trails and catwalks of the castle. Even though you are prevented from jumping from those heights, it gives you a knot in your stomach and a bit of courage to actually move to the very edge. For me, vertigo is one of the "showcases" of the Rift since the experience clearly demonstrates to anyone the difference between this display technology and anything else (save maybe IMAX). Games like this that play on that emotion are going to be very good at creating immersion and will be good introductions to the effectiveness of VR.

Droooooool...You shouldn't be allowed to speak so openly about such things Brantlew!

Heights (as I'm sure you're well aware, being where you are) are just one exploitable aspect of a really good VR experience. Can't wait to experience that for ourselves!

Just a general update for anyone following: We are still working away at our Kickstarter launch this March and its coming along great! Lots of game footage and a ton of new details. We are also working on basic infrastructure to take the chatter load off of MTBS after things do launch (though I still plan on contributing in other threads...this is after all ground zero!).

Just putting my two cents in:
I love the game concept and I love that trailer!

Even if it is never going to be ported to work with the rift, I am still excited to buy and play it!

zalo wrote:Even if it is never going to be ported to work with the rift, I am still excited to buy and play it!

Wait, what? The game is being MADE for the rift.

Linkage1992 wrote:

zalo wrote:Even if it is never going to be ported to work with the rift, I am still excited to buy and play it!

Wait, what? The game is being MADE for the rift.

Exactly! Finances allowing, I'll be supporting the kickstarter of every game that's made FOR the Rift (instead of just including the Rift support as a 'feature'). Looking forward to it.

I forget if this was already mentioned, but what is the planned input device for the game?

TheHolyChicken wrote:

Linkage1992 wrote:

zalo wrote:Even if it is never going to be ported to work with the rift, I am still excited to buy and play it!

Wait, what? The game is being MADE for the rift.

Exactly! Finances allowing, I'll be supporting the kickstarter of every game that's made FOR the Rift (instead of just including the Rift support as a 'feature'). Looking forward to it.

Thanks guys! Just to follow that up officially, The Gallery is being designed for the Rift and whatever eventual consumer unit comes after it. There will be a play mode for standard monitor set ups but that's not what is driving key design choices in the game.

Mystify wrote:I forget if this was already mentioned, but what is the planned input device for the game?

We'll be supporting both keyboard & mouse as well as dual-stick analog controllers. We have high hopes for Razer Hydra and potential Leap motion integrations. That comes down to finances ultimately but we're really hoping for at least basic Hydra support as it offers a lot of benefits to basic interactions in The Gallery.

*Edit* One more screen for you

Another painting in the "Gallery" ; )

what a suggestive image. Definitely a clue as to how the game functions - and I like what it implies.

Its March now : D