myplaces-beta2

Here is the latest 'beta' build (as of May, 2023) of my Big VR Project. I've added three more locations to the original four, and I think this will be it for now. So if this all works ok, I'll set it up for people all over Zee Vorld to download it. Hopefully they will! So feedback/comments are very much appreciated.

This is meant to be a music app, and it also serves as a demo-of-sorts of what uRTcmix can do within Unity.

There are now seven locations, two scenes in each. Each one of the scenes is a remembrance from a place that had resonance in my life. To get to the second scene in each location, search for the Mystic Portal (what's a VR app without Mystic Portals?). The portal will transport you to a separate location and/or time . Also: each location features at least one model of one of Jill's pottery pieces.

The places:

Roosevelt -- our backyard in Roosevelt, NJ, where we lived over 30 years. Betcha didn't know we had a secret heavy-metal cave in back!
Whidbey -- the view of Puget Sound from our home on Whidbey Island.
Cahors -- a cathedral in southern France. Young Daniel really enjoyed it. Will you take the 'leap of faith' at the top?
Schweiz -- some family connections there. Of course you have to walk, a lot.
Woodlake -- my childhood home in Indiana. We ice-skated on our lake all winter long.
Canada -- Dad and I went fishing with friends during my high-school and college summers. I saw the aurora!
Nagano -- Akira Takaoka's cabin in the Nagano mountains. And there is a mystic portal to the Mt. Asama volcano park.

Here are the downloads. You will need reasonably fast machines to run this, and a decent graphics/GPU card on Windows machines is almost a requirement. OSX machines don't have graphics cards -- yet -- so generally you will need to select "medium" or lower graphics quality on Apple machines. Sorry!

myplaces-beta2VR-folder.zip -- VR version (Windows 10/11) for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets
double-click on the "myplaces-beta2VR.exe" file inside the folder to run
1.03 Gbytes download/1.78 Gbytes on disk
myplaces-beta2SA-folder.zip -- Standalone Windows version for Windows 10/11 computers
double-click on the "myplaces-beta2SA.exe" file inside the folder to run
1.02 Gbytes download/1.78 Gbytes on disk
myplaces-beta2OSX-folder.zip -- Standalone version for OSX (Macintosh) computers
double-click on the "myplaces-beta2OSX.app" inside the folder to run (note: if you get the annoying "this app is damaged" error nonsense from Apple, it is not true. See below for how to 'fix' the app so it will run. Arg. Apple. I know, I know -- I need to 'sign' this thing. Arg. Apple.

NOTE: Sometimes -- not always -- it takes a very long time to launch the app on OSX the first time, like > 5 minutes. Be patient if this happens to you. Even if the little icon stops bouncing in the Dock, it hasn't crashed (yet). Give it time, and the window selecting the graphics quality will appear. Once this happens it seems to start right up from then on.
1.11 Gbytes download/2.01 Gbytes on disk

navigation

on the keyboard:

You will go forward in the direction you are looking.

If you use an Xbox controller:

The HTC Vive controllers:

notes

For the HTC Vive system, I think I have the height resetting correct for all scenes, but there may still be some minor problems (like you may be viewing things too low or too high). Let me know if you encounter these situations. I won't have a chance to check out the Vive settings until I get back to NY in a few months.

I don't know if this will run on an Oculus Quest or not. I think it should if you use the 'tether'. I'm pretty certain it won't run standalone on the headset by itself.

Other headsets? Dunno...

For Apple users: if OSX does pop up the message saying "this app is damaged" or some nonsense like that, don't believe the stupid things that Apple says! It is not damaged, but they're trying to get everyone to use their STUPID app store.

First try holding the "CONTROL" key and clicking on the app. It should pop up a menu. Choose the "open" selection at the top to see if it will run. If it doesn't:

Go to your main Applications folder.
Down towards the bottom is a sub-folder titled "Utilities"
Click on that, and towards the bottom of that folder is an app called "Terminal".
Open up the Terminal.
In the Terminal window, type this:
and leave a space after the "-cr".
Go back to the "myplaces-beta2OSX.app" in your Finder, and drag that app into the Terminal window. The Terminal window should now read:
Hit RETURN and the app will now run. You can then quit the Terminal app. Once you do these things you won't have to do it again. STUPID, STUPID Apple.

Brad Garton
garton-at-columbia.edu
May, 2023