Here you will find all the info about updates and features that we finished and the ones we will implement in the near future. I will try to keep this thread in order, and make as much sense as possible. It is hard to read if you can’t try it, I know, but soon it will be available so check it out.
It is quite a long list and I will break it in two parts, one that shows current and ongoing progress and one that will list future features and what awaits you when finish with the v1.0
(finished)
We made three worlds for now, Paradise Island, one a Star Trek themed and one clean world with a replaceable object. We added F1 but you will be able to change it to whatever you want. Also change the environments colors, lighting and almost everything else there but that will be available in about few months.
(finished)
Enables you to create spaces (folders) in the world, we finished with the basic implementation, you can create a set of folders most people usually use, (computer, documents, downloads, etc..)
We still need to finish with a function that allows you to create new spaces out of any folder in the world. It will be finished in the next release.
(finished)
Enables you to create icons in the world, to pull them out of the space to the world and place them where you want, organize your desktop as you would in windows. We still need to improve on it, and there is one big feature missing, adding a 3D mesh to the generic SpaceSys icon (we made more than 1000 3D icons of programs and known file types) that feature will be in the next release.
(finished)
Enables you to create interest points that you can fly to. We will change the way they behave in the future but for now is just there to help you navigate faster, later on we will replace this functionality with making every icon a point of interest and you will be able to choose them by middle mouse button or call them by shortcut that you bind. Later on with Kinect voice support call them by name.
(finished)
Enabling Physx for each icon and object in the game, to react on collision with other objects and the world. It basically enables moving stuff around, so you can place things exactly as you want. This is a part of a feature that will enable lots of other things later on. For one, applying force on the icons like weather conditions, sudden nuclear explosions, tsunamis etc.. :)
(implemented in full)
SpaceSys just became a fist VROSE in the world
I case you wonder what that means, it means "virtual reality operating system environment". So when you decide to buy Oculus rift, you will be able to boot to SpaceSys without need of another monitor to work with your pc, just the rift. There is and will be more info on the Oculus rift discussion page so check it out there.
These are the things that we finished with of course, other basic functionality that you already saw or tried out. Now for the stuff that is currently in development.
(working on it now)
So far what we are using to browse the system is keyboard and mouse (like all respectful games out there) and Kinect 1.0. Despite our best efforts Kinect 1.0 was not precise enough and we stopped further development, but you can control SpaceSys with it. We hope that when the 2.0 kicks in, it will be a much better experience. We are also counting on the voice recognition that they promised to be 1000 times better than the existing one, if that is true, you will finally be able to be completely lazy :)
What we use most to navigate is WASD keys, and it will be a first choice for most of you, if you want to just fool around, what we are making now is full mouse control, where you have interest points to lock on and circle around them focused to that point, meaning you will be able to control SpaceSys without using keyboard, just mouse.
According to your location, if the scene supports it you will have the right time of day as at your home. We will add the first soon, the weather conditions, we will implement this at the end and for one world only, Island. In case you wonder what we are going to do with snowy days, well on the island will be sunny :)
One of the most important things to work on is Icon sorting and views inside spaces.
Currently they are shown in alphabetic order, what we will implement in the future is them sorting out in expected ways users are used to. Like list view, details view, thumbnails and so on. Also with that comes the saving of chosen types of icons sorting in each space as you set it.
Together with that we will work on icons sorting in the world, when you pull out 100 or 1000 icons you will be asked to decide in what form they will sort out. We will offer generic ones, like cube, circle or a line, but with an addition, to sort them by file type, file size, date, or alphabetical..
More on that when the time comes.
Enabling user to scale the icons and spaces. That will come in handy if you want to hide everything under a bush, or a leaf. Everything now is huge, what seems to you like 1 meter, it is actually 5 meters, with that scale we can hide the cool stuff :)
Scaling will come in the beta release.
Later on we will add some effects to the 3D icons, which will make their use easier, let’s say spin if mouse over, or pop out, or scale. Change state depending on selection and so on. Ai in terms of arranging to better suite your view, if you are close in to show detailed view, or if you are far out to show thumbnails, if you break them out of the folder to rearrange them back to a shape they came out of or a shape you determine. Flight paths also when you tell them to go to some place, they navigate themselves there without hitting anything, arranging on the spot as you tell them to in a shape you want.
The fonts that we use now are generic, we will enable you to change their size, color & type, to customize when they pop up in view, (distance to player)
We still need to think on how to best use it or what controls are needed to better show text for the icons in the world. Currently on oculus because of the resolution, text is readable but not the best.
Also localisations need to be made. There will be an XML file that the community will be able to translate and spread around.
We will create lots of new mechanics to make navigation and use easier, one of those will be selections export where you can group icons and files and create a one click selection of those items. You will be able to send that selection to another world, or to another user. Even to a MMO cloud later on.
Currently we are calling Windows context menu as our own, we collect info on the selected objects and call the Windows context menu in 2D as overlay on our engine, that was a complicated way to use it, and it created additional problems especially now with Oculus Rift. What we need to do is to create a 3D object populated with Windows context menus inside the engine, you will be able to leave it hanging in the world, and come back to it when you want to pick your command. We are still working on the mechanics, it won’t differ much.
We want to bring the taskbar to SpaceSys, currently we use Windows taskbar and call upon the background apps there, or ALT-TAB as you are used to but we will translate this as same as 3D menu, creating a 3D object which will follow you around and populate it with items from Windows taskbar along with the preview of the app in there.
Our configuration panel is an app for itself right now, we made it that way because in the future you will be able to log in trough it to web shop, you will receive updates through it, also have support trough it.
But once you are on Oculus rift, there is no way you can use it in the current state, so we decided to port it to the engine, and make it completely in 3D. We hope to do it in the same time as context menu. We will also leave both versions, for troubleshooting if there is an issue with starting SpaceSys because of some setting.
We still miss some of the functions from context menu; rename item, send to & create new (folder, shortcut, etc...)
We have it on shortcuts like double click for rename but miss it on the context menu. We decided not to lose time on it as we will implement 3D context menu soon and we will have to change that anyway.
That was for the core functionality (we skipped the obvious stuff.)
Now for the future development, this is just a glimpse on our ideas. There is much more to come in the future, but only with your help.
(inside SpaceSys)
When you mouse over the pictures placed in the global space you will have an option to generate previews of the picture inside 3D. That goes for the files with usual file extensions, bmp, jpg, png, etc… That will be an option which you can turn on or off in our Configuration panel.
We will make 3D digital canvas objects that you will be able to place inside the world to enable watching your pictures on them. You will be able to go through your albums with your friends in the same place and share those files in real-time.
Same as the picture viewer, we will make a digital canvas on which you will be able to stream movies or videos. Later on (v2.0) we will implement video streaming to your friends that enter your world so you will be able to watch movies together as you would if in a cinema. We will also make a theater world, where, besides movies, plays can happen, completely made in 3D and bring a theater into virtual world.
You will be able to create notes inside the world; I think that is clear what it does :)
SpaceSys will be an open platform, as much as possible and we are working towards implementing full support for user created content. You can create anything and share with others through SpaceSys, use it as a platform for your creativity. We will provide you the tools, together with Esenthel Engine and help you taking first steps.
It is currently on hold until we are done with the core functionalities.
- only after we finish with the core system.
As we finish with all of the above, you will have an option, boot to SpaceSys, where you will be able to boot inside SpaceSys and never see Windows UI again. That is a final goal, and will be there once our software comes into beta phase.
And for the last:
- Multiplayer - file sharing - chat and gaming
- Google Chrome inside SpaceSys
- Leap motion controller
- Hydra controller
- Kinect voice controls
We will talk about these ones when the time comes. Especially multiplayer / multiuser and Google Chrome implementation. That opens up fields that would be hard to explain now.
With all the above features we become a completely usable platform for ourselves.
And all of this is only your voice away.
Thank you for reading.
3DEA Team.
