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Fuoco
Sept 21, 2020 0:33:15 GMT -5
Post by Sophie Daniels on Sept 21, 2020 0:33:15 GMT -5
Sophie stayed calm, albeit smiling out the outside, but she was rather giddy on the inside. She'd never gotten the chance to use VR stuff before, so this was a treat. Of course, she was genuinely interested in Kekepania's virtual world as well, but both were pretty exciting.
She kept her eyes glued to Keke as she fumbed around with the wires. She was worried for a moment that something was wrong, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn't really a big deal.
She listened to her explanation intently, nodding in understanding. She smiled, "Alright, I think I've got it." she mentioned. She was confident that she'd end up fumbling around with the controls after she started, but that was it. If offered, she'd take them.
"I'm pretty excited, actually." she told her, with a smile.
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Fuoco
Sept 22, 2020 22:24:07 GMT -5
Post by kekepania on Sept 22, 2020 22:24:07 GMT -5
Kekepania handed over the bits and bobs of the great kit and turned back to her computer. She began tapping away at the keys and windows popped up and disappeared without her touching of the mouse. As she started setting up the computer to run the program on two separate windows, she stopped and turned to Sofie. Raising her voice so the girl could hear her through the helmet and in the other room, she said “So I might move you a lot myself, but I’ll warn you.”
She wished that she had one of those fancy set ups from the movies where the person going into the virtual world had a little headset or something in their ear. That would be convenient, but it would have been a pain to install and she’d had no reason to even think about it before. “If you get dizzy or anything, let me know. Just close your eyes and sit down. It would be bad if you got really motion sick.” It happened to a lot of people, especially if they didn’t have any experience with VR.
Maybe she could throw together a black void thing to just move over the camera when she moved the model, Kekepania thought. Teleporting to a point was just so finicky. “Alright, it should be coming on now.” She called back and transferred the main camera to the helmet’s screen. Sofia would find herself where Kekepania had last left off her work. It was at the base of a large mountain at the edge of a forest of trees. The tree line ended abruptly where Sofia stood. The world was almost completely silent. A few birds flew through the sky down the mountain. And when the ground flattened out, they just kept going and disappeared into the earth. When Sofia would take a step, the silence was broken with slightly over loud footsteps on gravel.
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Fuoco
Oct 3, 2020 17:57:04 GMT -5
Post by Sophie Daniels on Oct 3, 2020 17:57:04 GMT -5
Sophie nodded as she listened, feeling pretty stoked. The time spent preparing to head over into the virtual world had left her more excited, to be honest. She grinned as the virtual world came on. She'd admittedly prepared by tempering her expectations, and she nodded, "So far, so good." she mentioned, as she looked at it. She saw the birds disappear into the ground, so that would need some help.
She jumped a little when the sound played, mostly since the rest of the world was silent. She smiled, deciding to get a better view of the land, and started to try to make her way up the mountain.
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Fuoco
Oct 6, 2020 23:58:48 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by kekepania on Oct 6, 2020 23:58:48 GMT -5
Kekepania kept an eye on her screen, trying to monitor what Sophia was doing while also making sure the game was running properly. It all seemed to be fine. Except Sophie was starting to go up the mountain instead of into the trees. “Uh, um,” she was panicking a little, “there’s not much up there.” She called out. “You spawned in where I last left off, and I was putting trees down.” She hadn’t figured out a way to program the game to procedurally generate anything in any kind of sensible way so she’d resigned herself to manually designing this island entirely.
“Oh, just a second.” She typed and tapped away at the screen and spawned a spherical orb of just solid grey and then locked it on the avatar’s head. In the helmet, the screen would show only grey no matter where Sophia looked or moved. “I’m gonna teleport you.” Kekepania called out. And with a few more clicks, she moved the player avatar to the very top of the mountain and removed the sphere. In the center of the sunken pit that would have been the point, there was a deep hole filled with dark stone and glowing red cracks in it.
But from here, Sophia could see out across the entire island. The trees spread out and curved down the body of the island before splitting off around large green pastures. Way off in the distance were fields of green that turned to the light yellow color of sandy beaches and then an ocean that seemed to go on forever. Though to the left side of the mountain, there was a dark streak and, rather than a yellow beach, the shore was a shiny black. “If you get closer, there will be more detail, it’ll look less like blurred splotches of color.” Kekepania said. View limitations were a problem and her computer couldn’t exactly handle things as well as she would have liked. So she made do with setting the draw distance rather low. “When I’m done, I want you to be able to see animals and stuff down there, or the people and their villages growing.”
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Fuoco
Oct 16, 2020 0:38:55 GMT -5
Post by Sophie Daniels on Oct 16, 2020 0:38:55 GMT -5
Sophie's immersion was momentarily set back by the grey blob that had just engulfed her head, which admittedly had felt pretty surreal for the half-second it took her to mentally detach. She gazed out over her friend's work. She could already see that quite a lot of work had been put into it. But it wasn't just the trees or the pastures that made an impression on her. It was the glossy black beach. As she looked at it, she was momentarily perplexed by the odd color, until she realized that it was almost certainly some kind of volcanic glass, maybe obsidian, "An obsidian beach." she mentioned, looking down from the high position.
"It's little touches like that that really shows you when somethings a labor of love." she told her, with a warm smile, "Honestly, I know you've been a little nervous about be seeing it." She wasn't dumb, after all, she had seemed a bit pensive this whole time.
"And honestly? I just think it's cool you can make stuff like this in the first place." And that was what she'd seen from here. It hadn't been procedurally generated. But looking more in detail, it didn't seem like at any point she'd just decided to 'phone it in'. There was a certain attention to detail you just didn't see in AAA games you could see here.
"And... with what you're talking about, I'm looking forward to seeing it get even better!"
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Fuoco
Oct 22, 2020 16:16:54 GMT -5
Post by kekepania on Oct 22, 2020 16:16:54 GMT -5
"Yeah, that's right." Kekepania responded. It was a good sign that Sophie recognized that, though perhaps not for the reason that Kekepania thought. She assumed that, like so many other things, everyone had the same bits of knowledge she did and everyone knew about the volcanic beaches. "I based a lot of the environments on places back home that I visited. Growing up, my mom and I would travel around the islands and go see nature, all the different parks and stuff. There's really nowhere like Hawaii anywhere else." She said with complete confidence.
Sophie's compliments left her sitting just a little bit straighter in her seat. She had been nervous, but being praised Ike this was like taking off a massive burden. She hadn't shown her work to anyone else. It was hers, Sophie was the first person allowed to actually see the world Kekepania had created in full movement rather than the still screenshots she had developed for her art portfolio. What she had here was good, if Sophie liked it. It wasn't ready for any kind of release but her world was solid to somebody without Kekepania's inherent bias.
Her face split into a large grin that simply wouldn't go away. "Thank you for saying so, Sophie. I'm kind of relieved." She admitted. "There's not much game yet, I'm still working on that. But I do have something. Just a second." She began clicking around in the program files and adjusting sliders. "So you're a minor God and all that, but I thought a lot about what civilizations did when they first developed. So part of guiding them would be constellations." The world went dark, not instantly, it was more like a curtain as the world seemed to load in a filter from the top down over the whole island. The moon shown half full off in the horizon, the mountain peak glowed red, but straight up was a tapestry of stars. "So if you point towards a star and press the trigger, you can sort of, you know, collect the dots and give the constellations names."
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Fuoco
Oct 30, 2020 0:52:03 GMT -5
Post by Sophie Daniels on Oct 30, 2020 0:52:03 GMT -5
Sophie looked straight up as the sky darkened around her, a bit surprised at what she saw. It was clear that this had been something important to her friend, as a lot of work had gone into the sky. Most developers would have simply made that part of the background, something to be developed later.
She tilted her head up, and started mentally tracing lines. Having analyzed the sky, she pressed the trigger, carefully lining up the path between the stars, until her constellation was made.
Of course, it was the Big Dipper, "Well, I'm no budding astronomer though. But I can find the Big Dipper just about anywhere!" She giggled a bit, before saying, "But I wouldn't have expected you to put so much effort into it so early? It sounds like the stars might be a bit special to you." Maybe Kekepania and her family had a spent a fond night looking up and tracing the stars. Maybe she had an interest in astronomy that Sophie hadn't heard of before.
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Fuoco
Nov 6, 2020 18:53:46 GMT -5
Post by kekepania on Nov 6, 2020 18:53:46 GMT -5
"It was kind of the result of a special assignment I had to do." Kekepania said. "Have you ever seen those videos or time lapse photos of the night sky when the stars are like streaks in the sky? I wanted to do something like that but it just didn''t really work out. "I almost failed the assignment. So I wanted to make it in my game. I never got that to work either. But, you know, when it's dark out, there's not much to see, at least, once you get out of the city. But then, when it is dark like that, you can look up into space and basically see forever."
It could make you feel small, but like, in a good way. And she was seeing the same stars and worlds that her ancestors had seen basically forever. "The sky didn't take that long, though. A few notable stars and stuff, and then procedurally generate a whole mess of lights with various luminosity levels and then the whole thing brightens or fades depending on the phase of the moon. It's not much difference than any other skybox, just a flat image made to look like everything. And since I based it on photos from back home, it's a bit like being back in Hawaii a little."
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Fuoco
Nov 14, 2020 3:02:13 GMT -5
Post by Sophie Daniels on Nov 14, 2020 3:02:13 GMT -5
She had the slight feeling Kekepania might have been underselling herself a bit. Then again, procedural generation sounded tricky, though what did she know about programming? "Sounds complicated to me." she mentioned, "Maybe you're not giving yourself enough credit."
To be able to base it on pictures from back home probably took an eye too. She smiled, "So, is there anything else you want to show me. Maybe some signature animal or something?" She knew this was a definite Alpha, but she was curious about her friend's creation.
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Fuoco
Nov 14, 2020 13:55:21 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by kekepania on Nov 14, 2020 13:55:21 GMT -5
Kekepania tapped away at her keyboard. It probably would sound complicated to somebody else, as sparse as the world was, she had put it together all by herself. It had been a lot of work over a very long time. She knew she shouldn’t compare her work to an actual studio with loads of employees, but she couldn’t help doing it. And then there were smaller projects done by a single person, but those tended to be a much smaller scale.
“Nothing like that. I have a few animal models but they’re all just, you know, cows or pigs and whatever. And I can’t use those to start with.” She spoke like the reason why she couldn’t was obvious. “All I’ve got are birds.and they’re just...” she waved her hand towards the sky, forgetting that Sophia couldn’t see that. “And then they still fly through the ground and trees like they aren’t there. Pathing for AI is hard.”
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Fuoco
Nov 23, 2020 1:44:23 GMT -5
Post by Sophie Daniels on Nov 23, 2020 1:44:23 GMT -5
Sophie was a bit confused why Kekepania couldn't use those animals, but she had the feeling that she wouldn't be able to understand the explanation. She nodded, as she looked around. Her friend hadn't mentioned any other place, so she was starting to think she was done. It was still impressive that she'd put all this together herself. Granted, many of the people here were talented, but nothing quite as immersive as what Kekepania was playing around with.
"Well, I'm impressed. I can see all the work you've put into this. Thanks for sharing it with me." she told her, a smile still visible on her face. If she was paying attention, it had never faded once for all this time.
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Fuoco
Nov 24, 2020 3:01:03 GMT -5
Post by kekepania on Nov 24, 2020 3:01:03 GMT -5
Kekepania stared at her computer screen. When she was in the world, it felt so big. She would be working out where to put trees down or where the plants ought to be. Occasionally there would be notes for future things, like animal herds or villages or, well, anything. But Sophia had gone in and basically seen everything in hardly any time at all. Kekepania had been working on this for years, was this all she had to show for it? Not even an hour's worth of stuff to see?
It kind of hurt. She started shutting everything down, the helmet screen went dark. Kekepania forced a smile on and turned to face Sophie. "So that's the world. I have a lot more I want to do with it. It's not done yet. I have to make it into, you know, a game. But the world looks ok?" She was fishing for some positive feedback, more than just that she had worked hard. She wanted to be told that it was good, or something now that she had finally shared her creation with another person.
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Fuoco
Dec 14, 2020 0:51:29 GMT -5
Post by Sophie Daniels on Dec 14, 2020 0:51:29 GMT -5
Sophie removed the helmet, and gingerly placed it on her friend's bed. She smiled, as she was asked for feedback.
"Oh, it's definitely cool. Especially knowing you made all that yourself." It hadn't been much, but she wasn't expecting it to be some AAA environment with emergent game play and a bunch of other things she didn't really understand. All Sophie knew was that her friend had put together some VR world. It could have been anything more advanced than a blank white room, and she'd have been at least a little impressed.
"But yeah, so far so good." she looked at Kekepania, and could tell she was tense. Honestly, it was hard seeing her feel so self-concious. She smiled a bit, and tried to ease the mood a bit.
"Hey, so I've seen your deal. You know, the rehersals are usually during class time, but do you want to come see our program once we make it available for the school to see?" she asked. She felt pretty confident, to be honest.
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Fuoco
Dec 20, 2020 14:02:43 GMT -5
Post by kekepania on Dec 20, 2020 14:02:43 GMT -5
Kekepania felt just a little bit more at ease at Sophie's praise. It didn't all go away, after all, all her work and time and effort had been experienced in hardly any time at all. But Sophie had smiled, she had been impressed. That was worth a lot and Kekepania could cling to that like a drowning woman on a life raft.
"Thank you for giving it a try, Sophie. I really do appreciate it, I haven't really, umm, you know, nobody else has seen it really. You're the first to go in." She glanced at the floor. It was really weird for her, showing gratitude like this. But she also wanted to give Sophe everything for actually trying out the game and for being so supportive. So when Sophie suggested a bit of tit for tat, Kekepania was immediately on board.
Kekepania sat up straighter, "Oh, yes of course." She answered. "I think I'd enjoy seeing a play. Back home, my school didn't really do anything major but I bet this school can put on some very fancy shows. It would be fun to see something and have a friend in the cast. Like being friends with a movie star." She said with a smile. "I'll be there, you can count on it. Obviously I'd recognize you on stage but what role did you get?"
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Fuoco
Jan 1, 2021 20:19:48 GMT -5
Post by Sophie Daniels on Jan 1, 2021 20:19:48 GMT -5
Sophie blushed just slightly when she was told that Keke was glad that she'd tried her VR simulation. She reflexively looked right, just slightly, and held her own arms close to herself. "Oh, well. Thank you your highness." she told her.
She continued to listen, and as Keke asked her what role she'd gotten, she smiled again, puffed out her chest, and in a surprisingly convincing faux-French accent, she beat her chest once, and answered, "Jeanne d' Arc, God's chosen leader of the free French army."
She promptly returned to a more normal stance, and explained in her normal voice, "They're doing a production for each class, so everyone has a shot at one of the larger roles. And well, when you want a role badly enough, that's when you can really put your heart and soul into the audition." She'd been overjoyed to get it, and she'd put on one of, if not the best audition she'd ever done for the role.
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Fuoco
Jan 14, 2021 17:20:53 GMT -5
Post by kekepania on Jan 14, 2021 17:20:53 GMT -5
Kekepania smiled even broader when Sophie called her highness. Obviously that was just right, proper even, but it was never said so genuinely. Sophie was just so amazing, and apparently had even more amazing stuff to her if she had scored a role like that. Kekepania may not have been the best student of history that wasn't Hawaiian, but even she knew about Joan of Arc. Well, knew some basic stuff, but the key details were in her brain, the girl who dressed as a boy and led the army to victory before being burned at the stake for being too good at that.
"That's awesome. You're like, the main character for sure." Kekepania was feeling really happy for her friend which wasn't really a feeling she was all that used to. It was a good feeling though, she wanted it to last. "It'd be sad if you have to die at the end but I guess that's history. But we should celebrate that. Well, you should celebrate and I want to celebrate that too. Scoring a role like that, we should go get ice cream." That was pretty cheap and would be easy to do on some weekend when they had more opportunities to leave campus.
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Fuoco
Jan 26, 2021 9:04:25 GMT -5
Post by Valerie Belrose on Jan 26, 2021 9:04:25 GMT -5
Sophie was in a very good mood at this point. Talking about theater, her role as Joan, and more. "Well, yeah. Not as much a fan of the ending for her, but thems the breaks." she explained, Honestly, it had just been a great day, and when Kekepania mentioned ice cream, it sounded like it was about to get even better.
"Why your highness." Sophie resisted the urge to giggle, "How gracious of you!" She'd love to go get ice cream some time. The sooner the better.
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Fuoco
Feb 9, 2021 17:14:14 GMT -5
Post by kekepania on Feb 9, 2021 17:14:14 GMT -5
"Anything to reward a well performing subject." Kekepania said, putting on what she thought was a gracious and noble sounding voice. "And obviously I have to thank you for trying out my game too. So let's go out this weekend, just text me when you have free time without rehearsal or anything and I'll make time for you." Which was going to be pretty easy, not that she'd admit it but Kekepania didn't really do things except on her own and that wasn't particularly scheduled.
She smiled, this was going to be a lot of fun. It'd be the first time since coming to the school that she'd really be going out with a friend. Plus they could talk more about the game and so many things in English. That would be a big step toward things feeling a bit more comfortable. "I can't wait."
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