Filters 2D : the rebirth

Filters 2D was a good experiment into shaders land. I joined Da Viking Code in April and one of my main mission was to update this plugin and going deeper in shaders experiments. We’re glad to provide a plugin update with many improvements. Let’s go for some explanations on problems we encounter during the upgrades and fixes. Continue reading Filters 2D : the rebirth

Building a 3D furniture visualiser with Three.js

Blanc Cambouis is a company selling high end furniture to their customer. In order to let the customer visualize the product they are buying we were asked to create a custom real-time 3D object viewer, able to manage different kinds of models and to customize them on the fly.

While Integral Service worked on the web side of the product, us at Da Viking Code worked on the object viewer.

In order to meet their requirement we built a Three.js (WebGL Based) app using the Haxe language and yar3333’s Haxe extern for Three.js, we needed a modular solution to import the furniture into the engine, but also to enable the furniture’s multiple customization option without implementing new logic for each model.
Continue reading Building a 3D furniture visualiser with Three.js

Heineken, The Sub® in WebGL

After our tech presentation app for Heineken’s The Sub® used as part of interactive elements in a popup store in Paris, running on ipad Air 2s, we were asked to build a browser version which would now be accessible to the public, as part of The Sub®’s web site.

The color scheme would change, yet all functionality would be kept.

Now, Unity does export for webgl yet the bulky webgl build and unexpected results we had when first trying the webgl export out, led us to decide on using Three.js and building it back from scratch. It would be lighter and we’d have a bit more finer control over the result.

We would be writing this in Haxe. No specific reason to this, except for a cleaner code… and to code faster… even though we would not be targeting another language.
Continue reading Heineken, The Sub® in WebGL

Introducing Unity 2D Filters

You’re trying to create fancy effects for your Unity Sprite 2D game but don’t know where to start? You heard about shaders but that’s some dark magic to you? Why is it so hard to make a blur effect or have simple color effects at runtime? The Unity 2D Filters package is here to solve these problems for you!

2DFilters-Screenshot1

Today I’m proud to introduce our second commercial product, after the Google+ ANE, a Unity library for applying pre-made 2D Filters to your Sprite Renderer and the new Unity UI!

More than one year ago, I was pretty sad to see that Unity doesn’t offer a simple way to add filters (blur, outline, color matrix…) to a 2D sprite without having strong Shaders knowledge. Unity 5 didn’t change anything about this, so it was time to make our own asset! We learnt so much about shaders during that time, but making a commercial product isn’t only about making magic code working for final users! We worked hard on a nice 2D platformer demo, that I’m confident new programmers or experienced programmers but just moving on Unity will learn from it, and of course a strong documentation.

2DFilters-Screenshot2

All the Da Viking Code’s crew put his hands on this 2D Filters asset, so we really hope you will enjoy using it as much as we worked on it!

Heineken’s popup store “The Sub®Store” app

Update: we made also a WebGL version!

The Sub® is part beer cooler and beer drafter made by Heineken in partnership with Krups. The concept is similar modern coffee machines in that this device will allow for you to insert a “cartridge” of beer , keep it cold and you can poor yourself a glass at home like a pro.
Visit this site for more info.

As I write this, a popup store called The Sub®Store is displaying this device in all manners and colors in Paris and will close the 20th of December.

For this event, we were asked to develop one of several apps that would help showcase the device in the store. Our app would display some of the technical aspects of the device, its inner workings such as how the beer would come out, at what temperature, and how it is kept cold.

We worked for Megalo who designed the app’s UI and UX and all 2D assets. We also worked with GHiOM who created the 3D models used in this app.

The following video shows the app in action.

The Sub by Heineken from Da Viking Code on Vimeo.

This 3D technical drawing that you can manipulate has been amazing to help create.
Inside that 3D model, some “hotspot” points you can click can trigger events where the camera zooms into a specific position to show more details on a given process/detail by showing some descriptive text or animations.

This would run on a single type of device, an ipad air 2, and was created with Unity.
Continue reading Heineken’s popup store “The Sub®Store” app