Slime Freighter

What is this?

This project is basically a showcase of things I've made while playing with A-Frame. It's a work in progress.

Questions? Comments? Bugs? Job Offers? Cool Links? Angry Rants?

• Email: algoraphics@gmail.com
• Twitter: @algoraphics

How to use (Sorry for non-trivial instructions, it's a new platform)

VR:

1. Have Firefox 10, or another browser which supports A-Frame VR.
2. Make sure your VR supported browser is closed. Not always necessary, but helps to prevent issues.
3. Start your VR headset (Boot up SteamVR, open Oculus Home, etc)
4. Open WebVR supported browser and load up Slime-Freighter.
5. Hit the button in the bottom-right corner to enter VR. Put on your headset.
6. Hold the center cursor over a menu item to select it.

2D:

1. Open a browser which supports A-Frame.
2. Load up Slime-Freighter.
3. Follow on-screen instructions. If you have a mouse, click the screen to lock your mouse to the "VR cursor"(gray circle). This is the same cursor VR users will control.
4. Hold the cursor over a menu item or click/touch to select.

Troubleshooting/FAQ:

• Refreshing the page will fix many problems:
  • Buttons out of place/missing, not responding to click/touch/hover, etc.
  • Seems like not everything has loaded (sky is white, main menu is missing, etc.)
• I'm in a colorful bubble and I don't see any buttons! What do?
  • Look down. The info menu might be minimized, and the toggle button is below you.
• The screen is just...white.
  • If you're on a tablet/mobile phone, this is probably a good thing. This takes a bit longer to load on mobile devices, so give it a minute.
  • If it still hasn't loaded, make sure your browser supports A-Frame.
• Are those cones on the side of the road supposed to be streetlights?
  • If the streetlights aren't loading, clearing your browser cache might help.
• Vive issues:
  • Cannot start SteamVR (app running):
    • Find your browser and call end process on it. Restart SteamVR.
    • If unsuccessful, close browsers and restart Steam.
    • Open browsers only after SteamVR has started up again.
  • Loading forever (from within VR, even if display shows up on desktop):
    • Refresh page and try again.
    • If this does not work, close browser window, reboot SteamVR, and re-open window.
• Performance:
  • Displaying the webpage on both your VR headset and desktop will hurt performance. Minimize the window on desktop or open another random tab instead.

List of devices on which this is confirmed to work:

• Vive running with Firefox 10 on Windows 10
• Google Chrome on Windows 10
• Google Chrome on Ubuntu
• Google Chrome on iOS
• Safari on iOS
• Firefox 10 on Windows 10

Mobile Devices on which it has run (no audio):

• Android Devices (Moto Z, Samsung Galaxy)
• iPad

Theoretically, it should work on Rift, Gear VR, etc as long as you follow A-Frame conventions for getting WebVR to run.

Project Completion:

• Road (80%): 1 final "world" to add before the experience is complete.
• About (80%): The link goes somewhere kinda useful and opens a new tab!
• Menu (100%): It does menu things.
• Fractal (100%): Colors are pretty.
• Ganzfeld (100%) It's a colorful bubble.
• Testing (70%): Need VR and 2D testing on other devices, more user testing

Future Work:

• Would like to add controller support, keyboard only controls are less fun
  • Movement-based interaction with fractals?
  • Allow users to affect color or motion of worlds using controller/cursor?
• Add "Infinite" mode to worlds