Basic Workflow
Currently I was trying to create a real, functioning alexa duplicate for my virtual office. Sadly, all speech recognition plugins like Sphinx
had last been updated 3 years ago :/ First I was thinking about creating an actual app for Alexa using the provided SDK. But as a first test I came up with a different approach.
What you will need:
- Free Account on IFTTT
- Amazon Alexa (Google Home would also work)
- UE4 Web Plugin. I used this one here.
I used the free IFTTT service. (If this then that). The service connects 2 different apps. If one trigger is called in one app, another thing happens in the connected app. Like sending an sms to your loved one each time you are at the local store aksing here if she needs something. 😀
I used the websocket > Alexa service. This way I was able to toggle a variable on my webserver from 0 to 1.
After getting the webserver to toggle the variable, the unreal part was fairly easy. I used a web plugin from the marketplace in unreal to get the variable from the webserver. If it is 0, the lights and the variable of the emmissive color set to 0 accordingly. And if it is 1 everything is turned on.
With this approach you can basically trigger everything in Unreal as long as you have definded a voice pattern for it. In my examdple it was “Alexa, trigger playstation light”.
Challenges with this approach
Because I´m only using a get function from the webserver, I´m not able to know when Alexa was triggered. This way, I need to check the value of the variable every x seconds. If it is too high, the server shuts down. If it is too low, the delay is really bad. But it is possible, with some tweaking, to get a fairly good result this way.
Lee has a great example uploaded on YouTube here.
Also there are only predefined actions. (If this then that). So normal questions like “Alexa, tell me a programming joke” won´t work.
In Order for the real lamp to work you will need to modify its button a little bit. If you want the actual 3D model of it just let me know. I will sent it to you.
VR World Record Interview
An interview about my Guiness World Record Attempt for the longest time in VR. I managed to beat the old record and achieved 42 hours and 42 seconds.
VR Guiness World Record Ran eSports
A short clip about my Guiness World Record Attempt for the longest time in VR. I managed to beat the old record and achieved 42 hours and 42 seconds.
Guiness World Record
I completed the Guiness World Record in 2018 for the longest playtime on a Virtual Reality Headset. I was playing Skyrim VR for 42 hours and 42 seconds at the Meltdown in Cologne. It was a really great experience and I am so thankfull for everyone involved. There were so many perople helping me out there. A lot of video game experts from the german game industry came to Cologne in order to take part in this challenge. They had to keep an eye on me for 4 hours without a break, note down every move I made. The whole event has been live streamed to Twitch and YouTube.
VR World Record Interview
An interview about my Guiness World Record Attempt for the longest time in VR. I managed to beat the old record and achieved 42 hours and 42 seconds.
VR Guiness World Record Ran eSports
A short clip about my Guiness World Record Attempt for the longest time in VR. I managed to beat the old record and achieved 42 hours and 42 seconds.
Youtube and Television
Showreel 2014
Here you can check out my old portfolio reel. I laugh everytime I watch it because there are so many mistakes in there. In my portfolio lesson I always talk about everything I did wrong there.
Batmobile
This awesome model was created by Patrick Jankowitsch. I did the shading/lighting and rendering in Redshift.
Steampunk Box
This was a little project I did with 2 friends in 5 days back in 2014.
360 VR Futuristic Train
A project I created with a friend of mine in 2015. It´s a 360° animation made in Maya and rendered in Redshift.
Mixed Reality Capturing
Watch me play my favourite VR game of all time: Beat Saber! I created a mixed reality greenscreen Setup for this one.
Deutscher Entwicklerpreis 2017
This was a fun little video we created to participate for the newcomer award in 2017. I needed to go to the hospital that night, but we won the price 😉
Cologne Game House
Office
The WDR visited us in our office at the Cologne Gamehaus in 2018.
Radio Interviews/Podcasts
A radio interview I did in 2017 about VR
I was a guest at the Alexander Wahler Podcast
