Mind Palace
Introduction
Mind palace is a mixed media VR experience about what it means to forget and explores how spatial memory can shift from the digital to physical.
The game is a contemplative experience and rewards you for throwing away what you find most interesting by giving you a receipt of what you threw.
In-Game Video Playthrough Of Thesis Version
Precedents
I was inspired by long contemplative walks and beach combing around the Scottish coasts, and Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities to create a game that was both contemplative and exploratory in nature. Towards the end of the process I discovered Dear Esther, which has since shaped my design choices in landscapes.
Integrating printing has been something I had always wanted to test out in terms of physical computing. Printers are underexplored in interactive works, usually they only react to the very end of an experience. What if it could be dynamic, only dependent on the things you choose to throw away in the virtual world? This is an ode to all the time I spent printing at Parsons, and particularly risographing my experiences in nature.
Hardware
I used an IDRPT SP460BT thermal printer, which is mainly used for label printing as the primary printer. It is tethered to a wire and connected to my computer. I have developed this experience in the Oculus Quest 2 using Unity Version 2021.3.45f (LS), and XR Interaction Toolkit version 2.6.4.
Printing is sent to the thermal printer using a windows process script.
It is stored locally on my machine, and experienced through a local Quest link rather than the WiFi.
Set-Up
Selected Assets
Selected Prints
Full Program List
Software: Blender, Rhino, Adobe Substance Painter, Unity, Procreate
Hardware: IDRPT SP460BT Thermal Printer, Oculus Quest 2
Paper: Thermal Label Paper, Receipt Paper
Final Exhibition Experiences
Feedback
People had fun! Even though I gave players a 3 minute playtime experience, people wanted to replay the experience to get more prints of rocks once they understood the mechanics. The day cycle mechanic was helpful, though players ended up ignoring it entirely.
People found the initial onboarding to be too fast, and the text displays faded out too fast. The start screen involved a little movement of the joysticks, which needed to be clearer.
About 10 people played through the entire experience over the course of the 3 hours of thesis show, with each person spending an average of 15 minutes.
Future Iterations
Future iterations would have button press reactions to acknowledge the tutorial in addition to text.
Procedural skyboxes and particle interactions with the water and ground would be the next steps aesthetically for the experience.
Closing Remarks
If you have any questions regarding the set up, serial communication with unity, or just want to go for a hike do not hesitate to reach out to me. You can find me on Instagram or email me.