UKDT at Showbus (1 Viewer)

iomex

UKDT
Dec 10, 2015
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I'm not getting on well with Trello, so I'm going to post things in this thread, instead. I feel that we ought to stay on top of the ball, the Showbus date really will be upon us incredibly quickly. 


BotW 2


I've said before that the map needs to be in a 'demonstrable' state for the event. For the sake of clarity, this means:

 

  • The map ought to be at least 95% visually perfect.

    One or two flickering textures is fine, but no show stoppers or eye catchers.

     


  • The map ought to have a functioning route.

    We need to discuss an optimal length for the purposes of queue management. PR1 runs at 17 minutes with token 10 second stops at bus stops, this can easily be reduced further as I timed it with all stops included. Clever management of AI traffic, traffic lights and route tweaks can bring the route to 15 minutes easily.

     


  • We need to make a final choice on vehicle and livery choice.

    The Gemini 2 in NBC promo P&R livery seems an obvious selection.

     


  • The map is a freeware demo, so therefore streetview textures are fine.

    We don't need to worry about BTV's objects containing streetview imagery, but it will still be prudent to replace Freeman's objects. In order to replace Freemans, we need these replacement assets sooner rather than later (and in any case before Showbus):

     



    McDonald's, KFC or similar drive-through restaurant to similar dimensions of Freeman's McDonalds asset


  • Street furniture - phone boxes, litter bins, grit boxes, etc


  • Supermarkets - large box units with a few different retailers to accompany smaller in-town stores (Tesco Metro, etc)


  • Box retail units - Next, Home Bargains, Halfords, PC World, etc


  • High street retail units - all of them. BTV's buildings are great but there's no town centre stuff yet

    It is important to note that although I've mentioned RL companies, we should fictionalize the name to prevent copyright infringement. There is a chance, however, that this may not be necessary. My legal friend says that there's precedence for ignoring trademarked images in video games.


    The quality of the assets is not necessarily too important, so long as a lack of quality is not immediately noticeable. Model and texture changes can easily be made before final release.


     




[*]The map ought to be at least moderately optimized.

Constant framerates of 25 or more are essential. 30 or more is desirable.

 



[*]We need to consider if we need permission to include DLC AI cars in the demo route









This 'demonstrable' state does not mean 'final' state. We will make it clear to those playing that it is not a final product. This will benefit us in two ways: Firstly, the user will feel some privilege that he has early access to this much-anticipated map. Secondly, it will be in his mind that it's not finished so therefore the quality may be higher than what he is seeing. 


Cotterell


Firstly, I want to ask if we will be including this in the Virtual UK Driving Experience in the first instance - only those at the event who have not previously played OMSI would be unaware of it. We won't be showcasing anything new or special. If we decide that there will be enough people who are new to the UK OMSI scene at the event to make it worthwhile to have a Cotterell workstation, we need to consider the following points:

  • Optimization - all our computers run it smoothly, but it would be wise to quickly go through it and replace a lot of spline pieces with RoadHog's prefabs. Cutting down on the amount of curved splines (especially at the weir) will benefit, too.

     


  • Touch ups - we can use the opportunity to polish off a few bits the community has flagged up








Site Visit Considerations


With both maps satisfying the points made above, I'm quite confident that 95% of the work would have been done. However, there are ancillary things to consider - we should bear these in mind when we perform a site visit.

  • Working on the assumption that UKDT and Rhys both have allocated spaces - how much space do we have available, and how do we manage it?



    Clearly, if there's a fair bit of space, I propose that we bring each of our systems (if we're happy to do this, of course). If there's less space available for this - we need to decide on a tradeoff between the amount of stations and available queue space. 


  • Will there be room to park our support van there?




[*]Power - With the above point in mind, how many power sockets do we have available? We'll need a minimum of three sockets per system - monitor, tower and wheel. This will also come into play with the 'PR media' point below. If we have inadequate power supply we will have to get a generator. It would be wise in this case to get a UPS to run the towers off - if the generator dies we don't want our systems to go with it.



[*]Audio - will we use external audio for each station or use headsets? External audio can get distracting and messy, but would the sound of several running buses be an attraction? Don't forget that external audio requires one more power socket per station



[*]The workstation areas - Are the event organizers sorting this, or do we need to build or provide our own furniture? What would be the best solution? Should we build our own or make a trip to Ikea? I prefer the idea of building it ourselves as we can theme it - put grey hard-wearing carpet on it like you get on the back of coach seats, add a 'bus stopping' light, etc. Maybe we can find some bus seats at a scrapyard we can use rather than swivel chairs?



[*]PR Media - Rhys has already said that the site will already have TV's to use - we'll need one at the site to promote the feature. Where will it go, how will it be powered? Will it cover both UKDT and Rhys's stall? How much room do we have for promotional media or merch (if we decide to do that).



[*]Equipment - Chris mentioned we should have matching monitors. I'd suggest that's probably a bit too far and depends on the arrangement of the furniture - if the monitors are in a hutch then they're less noticeable. USB num pads would be a sensible alternative to keyboards. You only need view controls on the keyboard so I imagine you can do everything in OMSI off a num pad. This way less space is used. We can always leave the normal keyboards plugged in but hidden away if needed.



[*]Catering - obviously there will be catering at the event, but how far away is it and what sort of price is it? We'll be there all day long so will be worth working out if we need to bring our own catering supplies. I'm sure between us we can rustle up camping equipment. We have power on-site anyway so we can use a proper kettle and possibly a mini fridge. 



[*]Toilet facilities. Again, we're there all day - where are the nearest ones? Could we get one of the events portaloos moved closer if there are none in the building? Worst case we'll have to go through the event organizer to get another one added to their rental and pay them the incurred cost.



[*]Internet connectivity - I'm going to just assume we all have phones which we can tether to the systems



[*]Heath & Safety - talk to their on-site officer about what we need to do. Do our systems have to be PAT tested, do we need powder fire extinguishers, do we need a first aid kit? What equipment do we need (floor cable tidies, etc). Are we allowed to run a generator, and where can we run it?



[*]Resource sharing - Rhys' team will also be making these decisions, could we pool resources? Liase with them to make sure neither team have missed anything









With these points, it is worth bearing in mind that I'll be bringing a sprinter van up so we'll have the ability to store/carry as much stuff as we want (the van will be coming up from Torquay so can divert to anywhere in the midlands en-route).


Streaming


Something I'd love to do would be to do a livestream from the event, and do it as a fully-produced affair, like a location feature on a TV show. Content-wise, I'm not sure exactly what you'd include, so that's something for discussion. One thing to do would be to create short edited videos and upload them on-site. An alternative would be to do it as a radio production broadcast on our Teamspeak, which involves less effort and less bandwidth (important if the 4G signal there isn't very good).


PR Media


We need to design and create a brand as well as the media itself for the event. We need to find out if the site organizers are already mounting signage advertising the 'Virtual UK Driving Experience'. If not, then what is the exact name of the feature? 


We will need the following media:

  • A looping video to be run on a display screen somewhere at the feature. With or without audio - if we decide audio is inappropriate we can always just mute it


  • Signage for the feature itself - dimensions and content of which are dependent on site visit. Will include the roll-out signs Chris mentioned.


  • Leaflets, flyers or similar. The content of these should be decided - do we advertise our maps, OMSI in general, or what? Should we include some kind of each access code or code for a special repaint or extra route perhaps?


  • Merchandise - what can we do for as cheaply as possible? I'm personally not against investing in merch to sell, as long as whoever does it understands they do so at their own risk. Obviously whoever pays for it gets the profit.








I propose we all go away and make our own PR Media, and reconvene at a later date to present each other with our ideas to see what works.


Checklist

  • Prep BotW 2 and Cotterell ready for demo


  • Prep systems ready for demo. I propose:



    Clean OMSI installations with Cotterell, BotW 2 and London on each


  • Clean systems of any personal stuff that can interfere - popups, social media, etc


  • Possibly create a guest account on the system to protect personal data. Obviously the Steam account will be exposed, although the stations will be supervised it'd still be sensible to de-authorize debit cards.




[*]Acquire equipment as described above pending site visit



[*]Acquire power generator if the power supply at the site is inadequate. Acquire UPS capable of running each system if this is the case.



[*]Talk to event organizer about subbing a portaloo if this is needed (described above)



[*]Gather food heating/refrigeration appliances if on-site catering isn't a viable option



[*]Acquire PC equipment as described above



[*]Create PR Media as described above



[*]Create signage, acquire queue ropes if none available on-site



[*]Build or buy furniture as decided from the site visit



[*]Acquire Health & Safety signage and equipment as advised in the site visit









If there's anything I've forgotten, edit this post with your additions. Make your additions in a different colour and make a note of it like so[1].


ALTERATIONS


[1] Glory to BotW. -iomex
 

Florence3099

Prepare for trouble! Make it double!
Dec 10, 2015
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It may be prudent to acquire some small 120GB SSDs and use these in the computers if anyone is bringing their own equipment, putting a fresh install with only Steam and OMSI 2 on. Then no personal data is at risk at all.


Assets wise, over the next week I'm going to attempt to learn blender in an attempt to try and create some assets but I don't guarantee this.
 

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whistlehead

Alias Mr Hackenbacker
UKDT
Add-on London Team
Dec 10, 2015
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It may be prudent to acquire some small 120GB SSDs and use these in the computers if anyone is bringing their own equipment, putting a fresh install with only Steam and OMSI 2 on. Then no personal data is at risk at all.


Assets wise, over the next week I'm going to attempt to learn blender in an attempt to try and create some assets but I don't guarantee this.










That leads to a requirement for copies of Windows, though In understand where you're coming from. The PCs will presumably be supervised at all times though.
 

iomex

UKDT
Dec 10, 2015
1,548
39
2,528
It may be prudent to acquire some small 120GB SSDs and use these in the computers if anyone is bringing their own equipment, putting a fresh install with only Steam and OMSI 2 on. Then no personal data is at risk at all.


Assets wise, over the next week I'm going to attempt to learn blender in an attempt to try and create some assets but I don't guarantee this.










If you're doing this - then I'd suggest starting with the box retail and supermarkets, as these are essentially massive cuboid shapes. It'll allow you to get to grips with texturing and managing conversion of models. They don't even have to be of a great quality as they will not be seen up close. Would recommend upright signs that you get at the nearest junction or the edge of the car park, as well.


And yes, @whistlehead - the computers will be supervised but it'd be prudent to use a guest account. In my opinion that is plenty enough to keep personal info safe.
 

iomex

UKDT
Dec 10, 2015
1,548
39
2,528
Just had an idea - I think it would be quite interesting if one of us (I'd quite like to do this), is in a corner map editing. We can use one of the display screens as a duplicate monitor - so we can show people the inner workings of the map and how it is constructed. 
 
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Florence3099

Prepare for trouble! Make it double!
Dec 10, 2015
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@iomex if you were to be map editing it might be a good idea not to shout bloody bastard and bollocks at it every 5 minutes mind you. And what if it keeps fehler bei beriechsprufunging? It's something we are all used to, but it might be slightly embarrassing for Aerosoft the game keep glitching out.
 

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