Hey users! So this new version has some bug fixes and incremental improvements, mostly due to a totally exciting project we're working on with the Innovative Genomics Institute and Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley to bring you a look into potential CRISPR treatments of sickle cell anemia.

My goal with this pilot is to use the 10k VR creation tools as much as possible in the production of new content, to improve the overall UX (or at least, identify where it's completely terrible), as well as polish the things that do work.

Last week I also did some quick work to implement a non-Steam logging-in option in order to submit to Viveport in the hopes that we win $15-30k and free tickets to GDC. No idea how possible that is at this point, especially because 10k is in a weird spot between "education", "science/data visualization", and "productivity app (but probably Microsoft Maquette totally beat us at that?)"

Regardless, now you can log in with an email/password. This will be useful in the future when we're on more platforms.

Oh, and check it out, 10k will soon be able to be shown in planetariums, and the sickle cell experience will premiere at Lawrence Hall of Science:

I started my career making 3D movies for planetariums, so this is personally very exciting to be making real-time content for domes.

Alright, have a great night whoever is reading this!
-LLG

Innovative Genomics Institute[innovativegenomics.org]
Lawrence Hall of Science[www.lawrencehallofscience.org]

PS. Oh, and I guess I should talk about the updates: There are now descriptions of things in View Mode when you are hovered over an object and press the trigger. And the zoom effect is almost back where it was before SteamVR/Unity disabled camera FOV changes. I put a marquee effect to diminish any potential motion sickness, but I have a stomach of steel so let me know if it (actually not hypothetically) makes you feel ill.

A week or so ago, I realized that there were problems importing both Google Poly and neuron data structures from Neuromorpho.org. In Google Poly's case, they had made a slight change to the formatting of their API responses, so 10k would try to import an OBJ instead of an FBX. Fixed! For Neuromorpho, they added a bunch of new neurons that were irregularly-formatted and wouldn't import properly. They also didn't look particularly cool, so I just limited our search functionality to only pull neurons from archives that have beautifully-formatted neurons.

I've also set up a boatload of notifications so in the future hopefully I'll catch this kind of stuff sooner, but always feel free to send me an email at lauralynn at dynamoid.com if you notice something is broken. Because 10k pulls content in live, there will always be these kinds of issues due to the constantly-evolving nature of external APIs.

In other news, we're doing a pilot with UC Berkeley visualizing potential CRISPR treatments for Sickle Cell disease. It's a really cool project and is giving me an excuse to go in and work on better cell visulizations, and also fleshing out the behavior system, which is super exciting. More to come!

I am pleased to announce 10k is now live!

After extensive testing, I don't believe there are any show-stopper bugs, but please let me know if you run into anything and I will try to fix it immediately.

I'll write up a list of where there might still be issues a little later, and make a new walkthrough.

Thank you to everyone who helped beta test, I couldn't have done it without you!

I'm going to go get a cheeseburger and a beer now :)

I'm happy to announce that the final feature for this release is in place - a tutorial! It's pretty straightforward, for now. I designed it with one goal really: Introduce users to the core data importing/editing features without overwhelming them with the full UI.

There are some minor bugs in the "environments" section of the tutorial, but those will be addressed shortly.

All in all, 10k is now fully functional!

Over the next two weeks until release, I'll be focusing on addressing any outstanding bugs in loading/saving as well as any bugs having to do with the laser pointer, grabbing, etc. As of now, sometimes the laser gets "stuck" and won't select anything. Please let me know if you run into this bug, and under what circumstances.

Thank you!!!

I was able to implement some last-minute features that I had been wanting to include in the release:

You can now select from a handful of different static backgrounds - most of these are from the sample experiences. My goal for launch has always been to enable you to create our sample experiences from scratch. Setting the background is a huge part of this, and I'm really happy it came together.

I call these rotatable 3D selection menus 'content collections':
All content collections have a default display size of 50 items. If the collection has more than 50 items, it has multiple "pages"... Previously, I had "back" and "next" buttons which would load additional content, but I thought it was pretty confusing, especially because they floated just above the rotate buttons. Now, content collections autoload the next "page" after you rotate it 360 degrees. I like it, I think! But let me know if it feels weird to you.

I've been wrestling with how to communicate the full potential of 10k. Up until now, we've been showcasing pre-existing content that I've made using the platform. Since my background is in science visualization and education, these experiences have been pretty science-and-education-heavy. The platform definitely leans that direction, but it's capable of a lot more.

I want to see what OTHER people create. The field of visualization is wide open, and I think I've created a very general content creation tool. I'd like people's first introduction to 10k not be colored by my background and predilections, so I've decided to just throw people into the creation experience and see what happens.

I'm working on a tutorial that will ease people into the creation tools, but in this build, you're just thrown into Edit Mode with no context. This (somewhat outdated) walkthrough should help orient you.

As always, please let me know what you think!

Oculus controls for selecting buttons are now smoother and more responsive - overall less buggy.

I also made some changes to the logic for the application button (the little button at the top of a Vive controller or the B button on Oculus) - I think it's now more intuitive when it comes to switching in and out of Edit Mode.

Check it out and let me know!

So I spent some time over the last few days taking a stab at instantly being able to import 3D models, as opposed to the image placeholder while they process on the server, and... it worked! The 3D placeholder might be in a slightly different position than the processed model, and the colors/materials might be a bit off, but I think it's a great improvement.

I also addressed some outstanding bugs having to do with editing environment attributes (background color, name, etc) with the current environment menu (below).

Previously, sometimes the current environment would become unselected by its menu, so when you'd try to change the color or whatever, it would either do nothing or change some other environment's color. Anyway, that should all work now!

Beta Update: I did some work on content caching and baking assets into the build, resulting in faster load times. Also, there were some issues with browsing the Quandl databases/datasets, which are now fixed!

Also, in an update from a couple days ago, I added in some loading indicators, which should help with understanding when things are processing/loading vs. just broken.

Hello everyone. I just want to give you a quick overview of what to expect with the first beta version of 10k.

First, here’s our brand new support website.[10k.systems] There will be a walkthrough up shortly, and links to report bugs, as well as some other info.

• Importing and editing elements. Changing colors, positioning, etc.
  
• Loading sample content.
  
• Viewing content.
  
• Setting target environments.

• Saving/loading created content. This is going to be the main development priority between now and launch. For now, it would be great if you could just test out the importing and editing features, but don’t get too invested in the stuff you’re creating. I hope to have saving/loading pretty much bug free by mid-July.
  
• Behaviors, both adding and auto-playing. The icons on the behavior menu are also missing.
  
• Editing environment attributes. Background color, thumbnail, etc. This should be fixed very soon.

Pro tip: If the loading screen is stuck, try pressing escape.

Report bugs here[docs.google.com]

Good luck, and let me know how it goes!