Hot Cocoa in VR

Make sure you are using Windows. Sadly Apple/Valve parted ways on SteamVR compatibility and have not had a chance to try out Linux box with enough horsepower to run it with an OpenXR compatible HMD.

How to Install "Hot Cocoa in VR"

1. Unzip the file where you have at least 3.5 Gigabytes of harddrive space.

2. Open up the folder 'HotCocoainVR' and double click on the file "HotCocoainVR.exe" or on a command line, type in the same name and hit return.

NOTE:  You may get an error to load certain support files from Microsoft, mainly .NET support if you never run an Unreal Engine game.

This version will only run on Oculus and SteamVR, but a version for OpenXR will be out next week so you can run it on Window Mixed Reality in native mode, in particular the HP Reverb G2 with the new controller support.

Controls:

The VR experience is meant to help relax and meditate, while listening to Pamela the psychotherapist guide you into peacefulness.  She will ask you to press the 'B' button on your controller which only corresponds to the Valve Index controllers, but is mapped to the left 'Y' button for the Oculus Rift/Quest and HP Reverb G2 controllers. On the older HTC Vive & WMR controllers you must press the the top of the left touch pad.  To roam around, you can either walk if you have a large enough space, or teleport using the standard Unreal Engine method using the left or right joysticks and trigger.  You can also press either the left or right 'X' button ('A' on the left Index controllers) to teleport in a straight line.  Boundaries confine you within the cabin so if you do escape, you won't go far and you might not get back in.  Currently there is no way to exit within the experience. In the next release there will be a splash screen and  an option to exit buy opening the door.

Some items are interactive and can be picked up, mainly those on the table.  But you can also press the buttons on the vintage radio to change the music file. Currently there only three selections, but I am planning to license a few more from Kim Aspen, and other holiday instrumentals, as well as a way to support your own selection of OGG or WAV files if you copy them to the Music folder before launching.

This is meant to run on a mid to high end VR system, and runs okay on a three year old i7/GTX1070 ASUS laptop (OpenXR) & Reverb G2. Most of the testing was done with the Oculus Quest 2 in LINK mode on a i9/RTX2060 and HTC Vive Pro on a i7/RTX2070.  I am hoping to have a RTX30xx by the end of the year, but if you try this and have a 30xx and an Index Reverb or the PiMAX HMDs, let me know how it looks & sounds.  I spent a few hour shaping the audio channel for the vintage radio.

I also plan to convert the three scenes into a stereo 360 at 8K for Facebook and YouTube, as well as a Google 180 for YouTube.

Finally, I will create more things to interact with including a way to bring in your OGG or WAV files to play on the "radio."

Credit goes to Kim Aspen (Music), Jim Meskimen (Narration), Iron Belly Studios, NatureManufacturers, Dokyo, Gabro Media, Protofactor, Inc. (3D Content), Unreal Engine and my wife Pamela S Scott, LMFT  for lending her voice and guided imagery techniques.