1. Game Setup

Game setup is pretty easy:

• Start the game holding shift while opening the game in steam. This will open the resolution options. Set the game to open full screen at the resolution of your  monitor.
• Open the “Settings” menu (you might have to hit the eye button to open the left-menu if it’s closed
• Turn on “Enable director controlls”
• Pick “Quatered Views” in the Camera dropdown
  
• Close the settings menu

2. OBS setup

OBS (Open Broadcasting Software) is popular streaming software and is pleasently flexible. Weirdly OBS makes it kind of hard to export settings files so I’m going to walk you through setting it up for Fantastic Contraption. It’s good to know how this works anyway so you can make any changes you might decide you want to make. First download OBS if you don’t have it already (download the Studio version). Then open OBS.

Note that since the game is broken into four quadrants your output resolution will be half of whatever your screen resolution is. I’m going to do this totorial with a 4k monitor which will let me stream at 1080 but you don’t need a 4k screen to stream the game. Just adjust the numbers to whatever resolution your monitor runs at.

First let’s add the game background:

• Hit the “+” under “Sources” and select “Window Capture”. Name the layer “Background”
• Select “Fantastic Contraption” in the “Window” dropdown
• Flip off “Capture Cursor”
• Hit “ok”
• Right click on “Background” and select “Filters”
• Hit the “+” on the Filters window and select “Crop”
• Set the “Right” to “1920” (or half of whatever your monitor width is)
• Set the “Bottom” to “1080” (or half of whatever your monitor height is)
• Hit close
• Grab the little red circle at the bottom right and resize the layer to fill the whole canvas area

Now let’s add the webcam

• Hit the little “+” under “Sources” again and select “Video Capture Device”. Name the layer “RL Camera”
• Under “Device” select your camera
• Hit “ok”
• Resize the camera layer to fill the whole canvas area
• Right click on “RL Camera” and select “Filters”
• Hit the “+” under “Effect Filters” and select “Color Key”. Name it “Green Screen”
• Fiddle with “Similarity” and “Smoothness” until you get the desired effect
• Hit close

Lastly, let’s add the game foreground:

• Hit the “+” under “Sources” and select “Game Capture” name the layer “Foreground”
• Unslect “Capture Any Foreground Application”
• Select “Fantastic Contraption” in the “Window” dropdown.
• Check “Allow Transparency”
• Flip off “Capture Cursor”
• Hit “ok”
• Right click on “Foreground” and select “Filters”
• Hit the “+” on the Filters window and select “Crop”
• Set the “Left” to “1920” (or half of whatever your monitor width is)
• Set the “Bottom” to “1080” (or half of whatever your monitor height is)
• Hit close
• Grab the little red circle at the bottom right and resize the layer to fill the whole canvas area

OBS setup Done!

3. Camera Sync

• The last thing you have to do is sync the in-game camera with the real world camera. This means moving the in-game camera to where the real-world camera is and setting the in-game camera Field of View to match the real-world camera. This is all done very manually.
• Make sure the game and OBS are both open and the game has the Depth Cameras turned on
• Now open the OBS file menu and select “Always On Top”
• Give the game focus and use the wasd keys (as well as q & e for up & down) to fly the camera around. Use the arrow keys to change the angle the camera looks.
• This will be much easier with another person to help you. To get a rough idea of where the camera should be have the other person go into VR. They will see an insect with a big eye and wings, that’s your camera. Have them direct you, move the in-game camera to where the real-world camera is.

  

• Then have them pick up the two controllers and walk to the back of the play area. Get them to hold out their arms in a T-pose and then not move. Using the arrow keys change the angle of the camera until the controllers are as close to matching the real-world controllers as possible.  Note that the FOV is still off so you won’t get a good match.
• To match the FOV make the OBS window small enough that you can use the game’s settings menu again. Open the settings menu
• Drag the “3rd person FOV” slider until the in-game controllers are the same distance apart as your friends (very tired) arms.
• After setting the position and FOV set the “Camera Delay” slider. You will notice the camera lags behind the game as the player moves around. This slider will delay the game so it can match the delay of the camera. Drag this slider until the game and the player are in sync.
• You are done setup! Because of lighthouse drift and camera jostling you will probably have to re-tune this every time you stream.

Now go back to the previous instructions to learn the Director Controls.

Welcome! We’ve spent a lot of time on the streaming tools for Fantastic Contraption. We were the first people to use these Mixed Reality techniques to show VR and we’d love for you to come join us in the game.

The instructions are broken up into three sections. Start with our first Mixed Reality Streaming How To. If you’re using a webcam then that’s all you need to know. If you’re using a fancier camera or want to do your compositing in post check out our Mixed Reality with Quartered Screens post and if you want to go full-badass and stream with a handheld camera we have Hand Held Instructions.

Happy streaming!

People are starting to pick that up and it’s very exciting! Fantastic Contraption also works with a hand held camera and in this post I’ll show you how to use it. To record hand-held video you do need a third controller though, which is going to be a big barrier for most people.

If you have a third controller and already have the stationary camera stream set up then hand-held setup is pretty simple:

1. get a third Vive controller (this is the hard part)
2. duck tape that controller to your camera and plug it into the USB on your computer
3. know where to put the camera/controller when you start hand-held mode
4. turn on mixed reality and then hand-held mode in Fantastic Contraption
5. align the cameras

1. Get a Third Controller

OK, yeah, this is pretty hard right now. Valve has said that they’re working on a way to get a third controller and also working on tracking devices that are designed to be added to real-world objects to make them trackable. At the moment the only way I know of to get a third controller is to borrow one from a second Vive. I have no other suggestions, sorry.

2. Duct Tape

The third controller tells the game where your camera is so the first thing you have to do is meld your controller to your camera. Make the coupling super solid so it doesn’t drift over time. Use duck tape, zap straps, putty, glue, whatever makes it nice and solid. Also make sure the sensors on the controller will be visible to the light houses.

Now plug the third controller into the USB of your computer. Third controllers can not be used wirelessly like the controllers that come with the Vive. It will only be recognised if you plug it into a USB port on your computer. You’re probably going to have to buy a USB extension cable.

3. Why is my Hand the Camera?

The game knows you have three controllers but it doesn’t know which one is tied to a camera. To work around this I assume that the camera controller is the one that is most “Vive East” when handheld mode is turned on. Vive East is the direction AWAY from the pink goal in-game. If you did room setup like Valve suggested then it is in the direction to the right of your monitor.

4. Turn on Hand Held

Go to the “Settings” menu and turn on “Handheld mode”. This will take the mixed-reality cameras and move them to where the third controller is.

5. Align the Cameras

You need to align the in-game and real-world cameras like in the previous guide. Use the wasdqe and arrow keys. Note that you can “roll” the camera with shift arrow.

It’s also very important to get the camera delay correct when filming hand-held or the whole world will be swimming around.

How to Stream Fantastic Contraption in Mixed Reality

We stream every Thursday at noon on Twitch and are really enjoying it. This is a great way to show people what it feels like to be in VR and is a unique way to stream games. Our techniques and equipment can definitely be improved on to acheive better quality.

There are a number of ways to stream Fantastic Contraption, initially this guide will only cover full roomscale greenscreen streaming. You can probably devise other clever ways of streaming the game with what is covered in this guide.

I’ve also written a guide on how to record Fantastic Contraption with a hand-held camera.

There are a few broad sections to this guide:

1. Studio setup
2. Game setup
3. Camera Sync
4. The Director Functions

1. Studio Setup

Lets start with the hard part. Our studio has a footprint of 15×12 feet and our greenscreen is 81/2 feet high. This is basically our entire living room. This is a nice big space and gives us room to include a couch in the shot for guests. I think 8×12 feet would probably still be comfortable with a tighter shot and no couch. If you have less space you can always get creative.

The green screen setup isn’t that hard. You just need a bunch of green screen fabric and a couple big racks to hold them. You’ll also need some lights, a camera and a mic. Sarah made up a handy shopping list of all the stuff we bought.

-> Sarah’s Shopping List <-

All told it cost is 1000$-1200$ CAD. It will cost you less in the US.

A quick note on webcams: a webcam that is great at a meter will be terrible at 4 meters. They are designed to take in a person sitting at a desk and are terrible at filming a whole room. We spent 300$CAD and bought the cheapest Sony handycam that does 1080p 60fps HDMI out and a 200$ capture card which much improved the quality. Of course you can always spend more on cameras. (we also tried a dslr but they are extremely finicky to get streaming well). The camera and card are listed in the shopping list.

So hang your green screen, set up your mic, and plug in your camera.

2. Game Setup

Note that there are two ways to do game setup. If you’re using an HDMI Camera or want to do the compositing in post go here. If you’re using a webcam read on.

• Start the game holding shift while opening the game in steam. This will open the resolution options. Set the game to open full screen at the resolution of your  monitor.
• Open the “Settings” menu (you might also have to hit the eye button to open the left-menu if it’s closed)
• Turn on “Enable director controls”
• Under the “Select Webcam” dropdown select the webcam you want to use. If it doesn’t appear or doesn’t work use these instructions
• Fiddle with the “Key Threshold” and “Key Step Range” sliders until your green screen looks good (also set the chroma key colour if your backdrop is a colour other than green)

3. Camera Sync

• The last thing you have to do is sync the in-game camera with the real world camera. This means moving the in-game camera to where the real-world camera is and setting the in-game camera Field of View to match the real-world camera. This is all done very manually.
• Put on the HMD and grab the in-game camerabug – that’s flying eyeball which indicates where the virtual camera is. Peek out from the HMD so you can see the real-life camera at the same time, and drag the camerabug over so that they are in the same place.
• Next use the keyboard wasd keys (as well as q & e for up & down) to fly the camera around and make small adjustments. Use the arrow keys to change the angle the camera looks. Shift arrow will “roll” the camera.
• This is easier with another person to help. Have them pick up the two controllers and walk to the back of the play area. Get them to hold out their arms in a T-pose and then not move. Using the arrow keys change the angle of the camera until the controllers are as close to matching the real-world controllers as possible.  Note that the FOV may still be off so you won’t get a good match.

  

• To match the FOV, open the settings menu and drag the “3rd person FOV” slider until the in-game controllers are the same distance apart as your friends (very tired) arms.
• After setting the position and FOV set the “Camera Delay” slider. You will notice the camera lags behind the game as the player moves around. This slider will delay the game so it can match the delay of the camera. Drag this slider until the game and the player are in sync.
• You are done setup! Because of lighthouse drift and camera jostling you will probably have to re-tune this every time you stream.

4. The Director Functions

There are a number of camera controlls that can be used by the person in-game or by a spectator using a keyboard.

When you turn on Mixed Reality mode you will see these camera buttons somewhere in the game.

You can select between different cameras by pointing at a button and pulling the trigger. A person outside VR with a keyboard can switch between cameras by pressing ~1, ~2… ~6

When you’re in the game each camera is represented by a little flying insect. You can grab the insect to move it around. A person with a keyboard can fly around to get a better view of the levels and the contraptions using wasdqe and arrow keys.

The cameras are each a little different:

• ~1 is the POV of the player
• ~2 is a 3rd person camera
• ~3 is the mixed-reality camera
• ~4 is another 3rd person camera
• ~5 is a camera that always looks at the player
• ~6 is a camera that always looks at the goal ball

We have some keyboard shortcuts that are fun to use while streaming:

~C will hide the hand controllers. If you are affraid you’re going to start flying the mixed reality camera around by accident you can select it and then hit ~L to lock it in place.

You can change the avatar of the player (visible in 3rd person camera) with ~A. It will cycle between all available avatars (my favorite is the pink unicorn!)

You can give the player a hat with ~F!

Happy Streaming!