You know how sometimes you work on something and work on something and it still doesn’t go right? Yeah, that’s been my challenge this week with the VR project. Needless to say, but I will anyway, I’m frustrated.
The good news on the VR project is that I was able to get the materials all straightened out. I created some nice basic materials with office building type colors and was able to get a nice clean light bake, and they show up nicely on the phone. So here is how the venue for the videos looks now.
I also got the navigation method working, though, I may have to go back and do some tweaking so that you can’t go through things. At the moment, you can walk through the walls if you’re not careful. That could be a problem. I might know how to fix that. But it will be tedious. I’m not sure it really matters if I can’t get the video to work.
Which is where I started taking a beating. I started trying to get video to work in the scene and I’ve followed the steps on the Google developer site for vr and video and it’s just not happening. I tried different version of the Google VR SDK and that didn’t seem to make a difference, other than at one point I completely broke the entire project. Once I fixed it, that’s the point that I decided going to the Holiday Party for the day job was a good idea.
I did get back at things the next day but still made no progress. One of the problems may just be my source video. The app may not like trying to play from YouTube. But if that’s the case, I’m stuck because most of what I’m showcasing hosts their videos on YouTube. Ugh! There are two things I’ll be looking at next when I am ready to try to face it again. One is that there is a setting for internet. It’s a toggle of, I think, auto and required. It’s been set on auto. I might try setting it to required and see if that works. The other thing I saw was someone used a slightly different method to set it all up using a canvas object and a video player object. I may look at that if the other setting doesn’t work.
It wasn’t all just working on the VR project. I had a chance to work on the Ovation painting. It’s coming along. I’m getting closer and closer to filling in the last bit. It’s been a little difficult to maintain some consistency in the size and shapes of the blotches. I’ve noticed I tend to vary between sizes and sameness. I also had to change the nib the other day. That’s always fun. Ok, not. I didn’t have one of the same number that I had been using so I’ve got a different one that is a bit smaller and stiffer. The nice thing about that is that I get good small, tight dots. The bad thing is that it takes more of them and it takes more passes at it.
Something I’ve been noticing on the Ovation painting is the difference in the color of the red (crimson) from when I originally started on it and what I’m working on now. I 
have a feeling it’s ink coloring, not just my imagination. That could mean that I have to go back and give everything another pass of the crimson. I haven’t decided if I’m going to do that before I do the flame red or if I’ll do it after. I should probably do it before so I have some consistency when I put down the flame red. And here’s a current WIP of the Ovation painting.
So what’s next? Well that VR project is due so I’ve got to get that done. That’s the big thing. The sooner I get that done, the sooner I can get in more practice on the guitar so I’m not total deer in the headlights at the Blues Jam this weekend. I’ll be playing again. At least that’s the plan. I’m still working out which instrument I’m going to take. I’d like to take the lightest one but it has an electronics issue and so it’s not working right. So now to choose. I’ve got one I could take that is reasonably light-weight, has a low enough profile for the neck and fairly simple electronics, and it would be an ok choice if it didn’t need new strings. So, we’ll see what happens. Aside from that, there is still the Ovation painting to work on and I’m not sure what else I’ll get started on for the 3D stuff. I’m still working on that. Of course with so much computer time being taken up with the VR class, if I’m not working on that, I’ve been trying to take a break from the computer. So it may be another couple of months before I really get going there. For now, there is still the saga of the video in the VR project, or what to do about the crimson on the painting, or what instrument to jam on. I’ll have an update on at least some of that next week.