Nature Treks VR
Nature Treks: Together is now open for playtesting
I want to express my gratitude to everyone that has supported the PC version of Nature Treks. It is where the journey started and it's given me the opportunity to continue doing what I love, I've spent the last 5 years working on improving the ideas and concepts explored in it. Many ideas have been shelved along the way. However, I sincerely believe that Nature Treks: Together moves the concept in a positive direction and is a solid foundation to build on.
A lot of thought has gone into the multiplayer aspect of 'Together'. However, it still holds up as a single-player experience and improves on nearly every aspect of the current version, excluding the size of environments, the inclusion of larger animals, and environmental variation. All of which we plan on addressing in the future. So please don't let the multiplayer element deter you from trying it, single-player feedback is needed also.
Playtesting is now open for Nature Treks: Together, you just need to head over to the Together store page and 'request access'. We will start accepting the invites from tomorrow (02/07/2021).
Inputs for non Oculus devices need more work, specifically, we need to add in a separate character controller to support those to the extent we would like. However, the experience is still playable using Vive, Index, and WMR.
Please refer to the 'view the manual' link on the store page for a list of inputs and a user guide for the experience.
Any questions please post on the community hub, discord server or contact me via email.
Look forward to seeing you inside Nature Treks: Together
Best
John
Nature Treks: Together steam page is up and 'coming soon'
Took a bit longer than expected but the new project is now up on steam as 'coming soon'
Link to the announcement for anyone interested https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1521040/view/3008947103094483760
The announcement has more details and I will be responsive on the community hub. Sorry for being a bit unresponsive here but I've really just had my head down trying to get the project over the line.
I have also set up a support discord server for all projects. I am logged in whilst working to discord so that will be a good place to reach me if you encounter any issues or have any suggestions.
Discord link: https://discord.gg/YU7JF9dh
I look forward to continuing to evolve the Nature Treks experience.
Best
John
New project announcement. Nature Treks: Together
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Happy new year everyone!
2021 must be a year of hope.
I apologize for the relative silence over the last 18 months, our small team and I have been busy trying to evolve the Nature Treks concept. I am grateful to now make a low key announcement of our new project, Nature Treks: Together.
The project has been created in partnership with the UK governments innovate scheme, specifically as a response to the Covid -19 pandemic. We hope that the experience will bring benefit to people that have been forced into isolation and are experiencing emotional difficulties as a result of the pressures the global pandemic has created. Giving them an environment to relax, escape, express and ultimately heal.
Nature Treks: Together is a multiplayer experience and will be available in Spring 2021, initially for desktop PC Oculus devices. Beyond that we plan on creating versions for other VR devices, mobile VR (Oculus Quest) and console VR (PSVR).
Some of the core features of the new experience are:
- Multiplayer experience for up to 16 users
- Explore a variety of climates in the together islands
- Seamlessly dive into the ocean with the new swimming system
- Use the new emotion halo to express yourself
- Use the creator halo to shape your world
- Activate 'thought' mode and freely paint within the environment
Additional details will follow over the next few months. In the mean time here are some images from the experience.
Thank you for the support, it is always appreciated.
Very best wishes to everyone.
John
P.S If anyone is interested in beta testing we should be ready for that in the next couple of months. Just drop me a message.
Update: Support for scene selection via keyboard inputs and more work on LIV
I have added support for scene selection via keyboard inputs. This is a common request from organisations that use Nature Treks VR in care homes and hospital locations.
The nurse, carer or instructor can switch the scenes using the following keyboard inputs.
NOTE: You may need to mouse click in the game window first.
0. Main Menu
1. Blue Moon
2. Turquoise Oasis
3. white waterfall
4. Gray storm
5. Green meadows
6. Blue ocean
7. Red savanna
8. Black beginning
9. White winter
F1. Green bamboo
F2. Blue deep
F3. Orange sunset
F4. Violet dawn
F5. Red fall
F6. Jade Jurassic
Escape = Quit
I've also fixed LIV mixed reality capture for the main menu. The main menu now uses a single camera.
Thanks
John
Update: Integration work for Liv mixed reality capture
Just adding some work on integrating Liv for mixed reality capture.
Here is a quick test from Player Ready VR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaUV1ki2Xv0
There is some issues with the main menu, I think this is due to the duel camera setup so I need to take a look at this.
If you disable Liv until your in an environment you should be good to go!
Also some work on work on a softer grass shader.
Thanks
John
Minor Patch: Fixed double edges caused by antialiasing filter
Thanks
-John
Animal Guide added
As promised I have just added a guide that hopefully gives players an idea of what animals can be encountered within Nature Treks VR and the environments they can be found in.
In time I will do more work on the guide. There are still several animals that need adding, mainly smaller fish and some more birds.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1317076104
NEW UPDATE RELEASED: The Animal Update!
Hello Everybody,
The new update is finally ready, its taken longer than originally planned but hopefully it is worth it. Its a mixed bag of improvements and additions, most of them based on common requests, I have tried to listen and do what I can to keep improving the experience. I was planning to launch this next week accompanied by some marketing material and a new trailer but I have decided to release early.
A pass on all animal models has been completed, a number of new animals have also been added bringing the total number of animal encounters in excess of 60. I will be making a guide of all animals featured and where to find them in the next couple of weeks.
A completely new animal behaviour system has been implemented that allows the animals to behave in a more natural manner and lets them herd.
The audio has had a complete overhaul with approximately 80% of the audio effects being replaced. A volumetric audio system has also been incorporated.
The music tracks not ending smoothly has been fixed. A new simplified help panel has been added. An option to disable the audio visualisation elements but retain the music has been added. Icons now appear when toggling options to give some feedback to the user. Several trees have been replaced with higher detail versions (Most pine trees). Added some smaller animals such as dragonflies, wasps. bees and lady bugs.
Two new environments have been added. 'Jade Jurassic' features numerous peaceful herding dinosaurs in a prehistoric valley.
'Gray Storm' aims to provide a more localized experience and includes a Komodo dragon, giant tortoise, geko, iguana and a 'feature event' dragon.
Several incidental interactive objects have been added to 'Gray Storm' such as shells and sticks. This alludes to additional features that will be available in the next project.
There are a few things that didn't make it. Namely a full graphical interface (I tried but it broke everything) and some additional locomotion requests/options that really needed a graphical interface to implement/select them.
Nature Treks VR has become what a large project, now with 15 environments (from an original 8), making adjustments very time consuming. Given that, I have decided to focus additional requests and feedback into the new project which hopefully builds and improves upon the essence of the NTVR experience.
Changes in this update include:
- Added new environment 'Jade Jurassic'
- Added new environment 'Gray Storm'
- Added new audio system
- Added 2 new music tracks
- Added 16 new animals
- Added new animal behaviour system
- Added new help panels
- Added toggle icons
- Fixed bug with music not ending smoothly
- Various other tweaks and fixes
If you have an issues just let me know and I will be sure to take a look. On the flip side if you do enjoy NTVR a positive review is always appreciated, I read them all and its always a positive lift to get a nice one.
Thanks for supporting the project.
-John
NEW UPDATE RELEASED: New environment 'Green Bamboo'
Hello Everybody,
After the ocean, space and Halloween themes of the last few updates NTVR goes back to its roots with a new tranquil environment 'Green Bamboo'.
Its quite a diverse landscape so hopefully something for everyone, it also includes a new animal, an Asian Tiger.
Now we have a good number and broad variety of environments development will now shift toward improving and building on the fundamental experience.
Changes in this update include:
Added new environment ' Green Bamboo'
Added new animal audio
Added new audio tracks
Fixed some of the color banding in 'Blue Moon'
Fixed the flicking fire glitch affecting rift users
NOTE: If you experience extreme judder for the first few seconds when entering an environment please exit and re-enter or wait for it to settle down. It seems to happen only on first load - looking into the cause.
As always if you have any issues, comments or suggestions please let me
know and I will be sure to listen and take a look.
Thanks for supporting the project - I really mean it. Its been a great journey so far and given some time I think I can really evolve the essence of the experience.
-John
NEW UPDATE RELEASED: New environment 'Blue Moon'
http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27822959/940b393e3a2b1b2a5f66bb43e8a458555a204150.jpg
http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27822959/a2014530aa41a2ae171aaddd131943ce3ade3d28.jpg
http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27822959/8c25b2682b572f1a96edf8505ed9433e78f9e0ac.jpg
http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/27822959/5795d870a890a166608dffa1d1df2e024b5a31ce.jpg
Hello Everybody,
A new environment has been added. 'Blue Moon' aims to give a haunting
yet beautiful experience, there are no jump scares here, only your
imagination. Hopefully it creates a nice atmosphere in time for
Halloween. This environment is also different from the others in that it
contains some man made structures. There are also some new animals to be
found.
NOTE: I've noticed an issue with the flickering fire on the Rift, will try and fix it in the next update.
Some work on the audio visualization FX has been added. Remember if you
toggle off the music these will also stop appearing.
Aurora Borealis have been added to 'White Winter' if you toggle the time
of day to night.
Changes in this update include:
- Added new environment ' Blue Moon'
- Added new audio visualisation FX
- Added Aurora Borealis effect to 'White Winter'
- Added new audio tracks
- Removed rim shader from animals
- Slowed down some rolling fog effects
- Fixed issue with the player being to high in scene selection
- Various other minor fixes and tweaks
Another update with a new environment will follow in the near future. It
will take the shape of a beautiful Asian landscape complete with tigers.
As always if you have any issues, comments or suggestions please let me
know and I will be sure to listen and take a look.
Thanks for supporting the project.
-John