Charles Dolloff's Capstone Blog

Holy crap. The last update that I posted on here was in December. Sorry about that.

So anyway, we have a ton of updates and changes to report since then. Let’s jump into them, shall we?

– Our website, www.mine-cave.com, is almost ready for everyone to look at. We are migrating to our domain that we purchased as well as hosting it through DreamHost, so it will still be a few days, but yeah. It’ll be ready soon. We will be using a QR code for easy access.

– We painted the entire outside of the installation. It now looks like a giant MineCraft grass block. Yay. We also have set up the inner screen and tested out projectors inside the space.

– Interactions with our project have changed a lot. We have gotten rid of the iPod Touch and are now going to be using a wireless Wii Nunchuck, controller, with looking around mapped to the analog stick, tool swapping mapped to the C button and jumping to the Z button.

– We’ve improved the gesture to be much smoother and more responsive.

– We’ve been working on our in-game world for the big night.

– We’re trying to get advertisements for our project made using a laser engraver. Cool stuff.

– We’re finalizing a couple of posters. One for a Capstone Night backdrop, and the other to post around campus.

– We are in the process of designing a logo for our project.

– We have been networking and promoting as much as possible.

– We added support PVC beams to the sides of the frame as well as across the top.

– We are trying to make cradles out of wire to support the Projectors.

– For the outside of the installation, we’d like a table set up with another computer to play, a potential mirrored view of what the person inside is seeing, our poster, laser engraved titles and QR codes, plus other relevant content on our laptops.

– We also want to make a revised Demo video of this project actually working before the end.

So yeah, tons of stuff. Tell your friends to show up next Thursday!

• Our goal is to create an interactive exhibit that allows the user to control and view a game while providing him or her with a unique, immersive experience.
• As video games gain popularity, gamers are looking for better ways to play, not only in terms of graphics, but how the game is played. Over the years, companies have been developing means to engage gamers (e.g. the wii with Nintendo’s motion controllers, and the Microsoft’s Kinect by eliminating the need for a controller). More companies are developing newer, better ways to interact with these games. As the interest in new platforms expand, the opportunity to pursue such developing technology is greater.
• We aim to provide a smooth, intuitive way to interact with games in general, with the focus being on Minecraft. Our installation will allow people to have an immersive experience. We are accomplishing this by creating a Virtual Reality cave that will immerse the user in the game, while allowing them to control it by using a gestural interface that we are creating. Our installation combines physical movement with true first-person immersion to create a better gaming experience.

Our latest budget:

Due to file size restrictions, our demo video can be found here:

We have already had our third Milestone Review and next Wednesday we will be having our Midterm Review and fielding any and all questions about our project.

Changes to our project for those that might actually read this:

1. The Oculus Rift release date has been pushed back (big surprise) so we have been forced to seek an alternative solution. We landed on using 3 pico projectors and creating a VR Cave of sorts, where a user will be immersed due to having the game projected onto screens all around them.

2. We will be creating a website for promotional purposes with help from our friend, Tim McCann, so big thanks to him. The URL for said site will be released when it is actually suitable for viewing.

3. We actually have a title for our project/installation, thanks to a friend. We are calling our project The MineCave.

4. New Twitter account to follow! @MineCave. Follow it, share it, etc. This will be the official account for all news about the project and stuff like that. If you or anyone you know like Minecraft or playing games with cool new gestural interfaces, get on it!

That is all.

Tomorrow, Steve and I will be doing our second Milestone Review, so here is a brief overview of what we will cover this time around.

The biggest change to our plans is the removal of the omnidirectional treadmill. After a talk with people at the VEMI Lab, we learned that such a device is not plausible to acquire or make unless we have a lot of time and money. Instead, we are going with a Wii Balance Board and a Microsoft Kinect to simulate the immersion for our installation.

We have updated all of the crowd funding sites as well as the pool to reflect these changes in our project’s plan. We also have updated versions of our Gantt Chart, Budget, Storyboard, and Proposal as a whole.

We also met with John Bell to ask him about programming. We talked to Dustin briefly after our last class meeting, and between the two of them we determined a couple of programs to download that might help us control the Kinect and interface better with Minecraft.

We submitted the latest copy of our proposal to the CUGR Fellowship in hopes of getting some funding. That’s about it for now.

Here is a slightly modified version of our storyboard that goes along with our updated proposal. The proposal will be posted again on here when it is fully revised.