Category: Unreal Engine 4

Articles involving development on the Unreal Engine 4 Platform

The Caretaker Version 1.2 Released

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I’ve just released version 1.2 of my Virtual Reality experience, The Caretaker; which sees you taking on the role of the new caretaker at an isolated hotel in the depths of winter. Inspired by The Shining, this experience was featured in The Independent and has racked up over 2000 downloads on Oculus share. I hope to expand the experience significantly in future!

This release builds on version 1.1 which added many audio and control improvements. 1.2 focuses on improved performance on lower end systems, some tweaks to presentation and bug fixes.

If you’ve not had a go yet – or you’d like to experience this more polished version, head over here and download directly from this website.

 

The Caretaker featured by The Independent

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My VR Horror Experience – The Caretaker was featured by The Independent, a national newspaper in the UK! It’s wonderful to have got some recognition from such a respected publication – and it’s equally great news that VR is featuring more heavily in the mainstream media.

The Caretaker is an unofficial homage to one of the greatest horror films created, The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick. I hope that in some small way it captures some of the atmosphere of the film and source material. Here’s the intoduction from the article:

Have you ever watched The Shining and thought Jack Nicholson’s character was overreacting a bit?

Well, should you want to put that to the test, you can now tour the very hotel from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film in virtual reality.

Developed by Franbo, this VR experience uses Oculus technology that’ll permit you to run loose around the Overlook Hotel also featured in Stephen King’s source novel.

If you’d like to download the experience itself, click here and follow the instructions. While the experience is developed specifically for VR, one can still play-through on a conventional screen.

If you’d like to take a look at others reactions to the experience, check out my list of play-throughs here!

Franbo VR Christmas Card

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Happy Holidays! Hope you’re all having a spectacular holiday season – to get in the mood just before the big day, here’s a tiny VR Christmas card for you to have a wander around in. Take in the sights of the Aurora Borealis, Mrs Miggins’ infamous Pie Shoppe (the Victorian version of Greggs), listen in on the musings of Mr Carmack, the rosy cheeked village pub raconteur, and peek under the Christmas tree to see if there’s something waiting there for you.

christmas-card-vr

Continue reading “Franbo VR Christmas Card” →

Tutorial: Adding Player Footstep Audio in UE4 with Blueprints

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In this tutorial I’ll talk through the process I used to introduce footstep noises to the player character, using Blueprints – as part of my first VR release “The Caretaker” (free to download on Oculus Share). Audio is a fantastic tool in a developer’s tool-kit that can really contribute to a convincing experience in VR – giving the player grounding in the world you’ve created, and greatly enhancing their immersion.

It turns out that this is straightforward using UE4 blueprints. Here’s a look at the approach I used for the First Person Character Blueprint – I expect there are better ways out there to achieve this, but this was quick to add, and pretty convincing. Continue reading “Tutorial: Adding Player Footstep Audio in UE4 with Blueprints” →