hypnoticSwitch

End of 2023... yes already, so let's have an unstructured post

Winter Solstice is already behind us, in the next weeks most of the world will celebrate the start of a new year. I'll hang up my kurzgesagt calendar of the year 12024.

So many things happened over the last 12 months. 

Realizing I was not only ADHD but also autistic. Going into a rabbit hole for that thing. Finally got th ADHD diagnosis and the meds why I did seek out that one.

This is the year I found my real first name and also managed to get it changed in a matter of months.

I went deeper into my autistic burnout, forced to leave a well-paying freelancing project. Living off of savings since then.

Kept learning about myself, started therapy. Also got the diagnosis for being autistic, no surprise there.

This year was a year of struggles, revelations, milestones, speed-running things that others have to spend years for.It was incredibly taxing but I also could not slow down. I feel like I'm constantly fightning with the burnout I'm in, spending energy in order to recharge energy, driven by the fear that it could be too late, the doors closing forever if I don't run, if I slow down.

Anyway, to top the year off, my last two weeks were wasted by covid.

In 2023 I also resumed working on MMM. Didn't get much done though. The "small" stability update is still not done, I planned to roll it out over a few weeks, so far only the mobile version, now stripped of Cardboard support, no more VR support on our phones. The desktop version is nearly done, and the Quest version should also be only need one more round of testing. Basically, I only need to build all the binaries for desktops, including SessionMaker, and upload that everywhere. 

Will I make it before end of December? Unknown.

I guess I'll change the version name once more. Sure, I planned to do call it "2023.1", but now I think I'll change it. I'll make it "1.2024.1". I mean, that year versioning trend is already phasing out again anyways, why hop onto it now. 

So yeah, update is still coming, even though it's a stability thing and won't really look differently.  But the changes under the hood were critical.

Apart from that, well, I do have plans and ideas. But I think I should tell you about those in the next post. Which will be here before the new year. Or on the first few days of January. I'll try to not stress myself to much about it this time. Had enough stress this year.

Thank you everyone! Remember to take a break once in a while.

Status Update 2023-08-29 (Yes really!)

First things first:

Patreon Payments are still paused. And I'll do that as long as I don't have a clear plan on how to turn this into something better for my patreons.

I'm also working again on updating the app. This is mostly an stability update, making sure things are still working fine, especially on mobile platforms. I plan to roll this out in short phases. First is Android and iOS, this week. Afterwards I'll update the Quest version, then the PC version. I plan to also get that itch.io "release" done while on it.

"Bad" update news:

I've stripped Android and iOS of CardboardVR capabilities. Those SDKs just no longer properly work. Getting the versions that I have working again flawlessly with everything else in the app would eat a few weeks of full-time development that I don't have. Also, CardboardVR is officially discontinued since March of 2021 and while there are still people updating the source, I don't think it's a vialbe solution for VR anymore. So, to anyone still using that: I'm sorry!

"Good" news:

Some time last year I had the original hypnosis files re-recorded by someone who is experienced in hypnosis and not just some voice actor. So the update will have those two sessions updated, together with the third one that I never released. Mind you that the scripts weren't really updated, meaning these sessions aren't perfect by far. But, between us, I don't think anyone *here* is interested in those files anyway. You are here for more spicy stuff, so while it's probably beneficial for MMM as a "product", you couldn't probably care less about the updated included sessions.

Personal update:

I'm still deep in autistic burnout. But I learned a lot in recent months, made lots of smaller and (very few big) changes in my personal and professional life, and keep figuring out better strategies and mindsets to live my life in a more healthy way for my neurodivergent brain. And if I remember that I'm still in burnout and that my energy is very limited then I think I accomplish some things again when I keep applying those tactics and strategies. And since VR, programming and hypnosis are still passions ("special interests") of mine, working on MMM is actually a good thing for me to do.

Future Plans for MMM:

I've collected many feature requests over the years and I'll have to look into those again. But I already know what I see as highest priority for me: Improving on the whole session import (and distribution) process. I know how I want to do this and if things go as I want them to then we'll have a much more intuitive process of imnporting that will also benefit those who'd like to create and distribute files. But more on that ehen we get to that.

(Wow, I did not think that I had a such a long post in me today, but there it is!)

FYI: I'm still pausing billing

Just a quick update to let you know that you're not getting billed for this page. I'll keep pausing till I had time to actually overhaul things. (You might be billed if you do join as a patron though to to how that works. Therefore consider "following" instead of becoming a patron for now.)

Current thoughts on this patreon page

There I was, trying to change the patreon to "per creation" billing, with the plan to change it into a session creation patreon (instead of software development, which will continue independent of patreon support)... but patreon won't have it. I'll pause billing again and think about what to do now. 

I mean, I appreciate every bit of monetary support, but I won't be any faster in developing. I'll just feel guilty and bad and that will even slow me down. So I made the plan to make sure I have (a) some soft pressure to create sessions and (b) not have you billed every month whether or not I got around doing something.

I'm open for ideas on how to make this patreon fair again for *you*.

2023, January - Back, again. Yes, really.

Hey everyone. I’m alive and well. Well, not really "well". I’m in a burnout since 2021 and no matter how much I tried to relax, it didn’t get any better. But I believe I found out why I couldn’t get back on my feet. I wasn’t simply overworked, I went into an autistic burnout. And since I didn’t know I was autistic, I didn’t understand the symptoms and had no idea how to fix it. Thinking I was simply overworked I reduced so many things that needed time and energy. MMM was one of the things I really enjoyed working on but I put less and less time into, hoping and waiting for my batteries to finally recharge. Spoiler: It did not work. I felt even more spent instead. Only thing I did was paid work. Which was unfulfilling and exhausting.

Change of plans!

Now that I figured some things out and continue to discover myself, I made plans for 2023. Apart from paid work (after all, I need to eat and pay the bills), I will focus my energy back on projects I love. That means MMM front and center. I will also work on Recreation Room and a personal financing software (an iteration of something that made my finances a lot easier to manage for years), but MMM has the highest priority.

So where does MMM stand right now?

I did manage to get things running in 2022 and I’m picking up from there. First platform I wanted to get running in public again was the iOS version, but of course that keeps crashing instantly. But nothing I can’t fix, I’m sure. I’m also overdue for an update on the other platforms and while it’s not a “big update” yet, it’s going to be one that will make things run again for a while. I will then do more and smaller updates. One of the first fundamental things will be an updated import process. It will make the clunky wireless import process obsolete, at least if things work out as I hope. But enough of my plans for the future. Time to focus on the things in front of me.

But when will there be updates?

I won’t make promises on how fast the update(s) will come That rarely works out as planned anyways. BUT: I’ll be at an hypno con in Germany in March and I’ll be damned if I have nothing to show there.

As always, get in touch with any questions.

Status Update - 2022-06-05

Still here, actually. Look, I won't make any promises about more regular posts. I tried that before and look where we are now. So yeah, I'm still trying to get my shit together, I'm struggling a lot with my ADHD lately and the world keeps getting worse, and let's just not talk about money.

Status: I'm working on getting things to run, again, on all platforms. Turns out that things went downhill last time because VR controls and most systems for unified input don't play so well together. But while working on another little project I found out which way I had to go to get things working. Great! Not so great though is that I had to fix a lot of things to make them work with the new solution again. Basically I had to modify a lot of UI code and then manually edit every single interactable UI element in all the menus in MMM. There are nearly 300 of those. To add to that, my adhd brain just hates boring repetetive tasks. Buuut I'm done with the menus.

What's left for finally getting a update (that will mostly just fix the problems on iOS): Wireless transfer. It's still broken. I'll rip the networking code out and will put in a vastly updated version of a  plugin I used before, File Transfer Server. I will do that this months. Yes, really. I hope...

What's that other project I mentioned: It's "Recreation Room", born from the desire to take a walk in nature when that isn't possible. You can check it out over at https://heptamind.itch.io/recreation-room and a Steam release is coming soon.
If you'd like to get it for free, get in touch.

Thank you so much for still supporting me! I am planning to put in a credits screen in MMM and will contact you to see if and under which nome you'd like to be there. You all deserve at least some form of credit for all the support!

Status 2022-03-18 - No test version for anyone for now

I spent the better part of the last two weeks to get a version running on all platforms. I have the binaries built and ready. But they are full of bugs. I could spend my weekend to get everything ready, but what would that give you except a version of MMM that is 99% what you already got. Sure, I got the new hypnosis files in there and a few improvements here and there. But honestly, so much is still missing. Some new things and some things that are still broken, like wireless transfer. I wish I wouldn't have had to port everything on the new XR plugin system. Maintaining multiple builds for multiple VR and non-VR platforms is so much more work and prone to errors. But the old system is deprecated and I have dozens over dozens of things not working for iOS alone. 

So, what now?

Now I'll take what I learned in the last two weeks about building all the different binaries (a lot), re-test the versions and note down all the bugs. I'll make a temporary trello board of it (expect a post with the link on monday), take a deep breath and get back to work. With that board you'll be able to check on my progress a bit better.

Well, not much else to say for today. I feel spent. I'll try to re-charge now.

2022-03-04 - Status...

Hey, just a quick one today.

I spent a good week on trying (and finally succeeding) to get MMM working again on Cardboard. Things that happened in the world on a global as well as personal level didn’t really help me focus on the frustrating world of Cardboard, that is riddled with crashes and errors if you don’t do things perfectly and exactly as the Cardboard Api expects it. It also won’t tell you what you did wrong, it will just not work or crash. So yeah, I was having lots of fun.

Anyway, Cardboard works now and I think I have every platform running again now, in theory. I will start building and testing the version for you now, cross your fingers I don’t stumble upon more problems... One problem I know of and won’t work on before you have that version is the wireless transfer. The underlying API was updated and deprecated most of my communication code, so it’s deactivated for now.

Okay, that’s all for now. I’m sorry it takes so long...

Status Update 2022-02-16

Hey everyone! Things are going, uhm, good. Not really smooth sailing and I had a few problems that gave me headaches and there's still a bunch of things to do, but I can show you a short video of MMM running with the new VR management system. Yeah, I know it looks 99% like it always has and I haven't even updated the version number, but it's so much different under the hood.

Anyways, VR loads and initializes fine and UI interaction is working again. It's not perfect yet, but most things work, including starting a session (not shown in video).

Next up is getting MMM to run on Cardboard again and fixing wireless transfer (that also broke during updating things).

Being able to invest the time and energy needed for MMM is slowly beginning to show some fruits.

Status Update 2022-02-09

Not much new things to report. Here's what's going on:

The next version of MMM will not be a big bang type of update, with all the new features I (and you) want, new looks and all. I tried that in 2021 and I got nothing to show. Instead it will look pretty much the same. Just a lot of code has to be redone, working with the new VR system under the hood. I tried this approach before, but back then the new system was missing a few things which made the transition a lot harder. So, right now I'm in the middle of that, I ripped out old stuff and this time around I have already prototyped the things that were the hardest to implement in the new system.

So, I plan to have a alpha version ready in a week or two that I'll give you all and hopefully you'll be able to tell me if there are problems I missed. And if you are an iOS user, you'll be happy to hear: Yes, this will finally fix the "spinning screen" problem with Cardboard VR on newer iOS versions.

Apart from that I plan to bring back the Beta-Tester Tier (at $5) next month and I'll move my versioning to a Year.Release scheme, as in "2022.1", beause I think it's much easier and transparent for everyone.

That's all for today. As always, please get in touch with any questions or problems or comments/thoughts!

Status Update 2022-01-31

Now that MMM is no longer a "hobby project" for me, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about what its status is and not only where to go from here but also what's the best path. And yes, this is more than a matter of what is best for *me* from a programmer's point-of-view, after all the last version update happened quite some time ago and it was mostly bugfixes.

January was a bit of a hell for me. I might be free from client work, but a lot of things and tasks I haven't taken care of for months or years suddenly sit in my todo list and beg for attention. And I even stressed out so much that at one point I was overworked and burnt out.

But things are slowly progressing behind the curtains and one of the things I feel safe to mention is, re-doing the bundled sessions is finally happening. I got in touch with eSuccubus to recreate the sessions and I'm really looking forward to get rid of the old versions of the bundled recorded sessions.

This week I'll do more "stuff", I'm not 100% sure what I'll be able to work on, so I'll leave you with that for now and I'll tell you next Monday what I did do. :)

And that's the status for today. As always, please get in touch with any questions or problems or comments/thoughts!

A new year and a change of management (not really, but still kind of)

Hello my dear patrons & followers!

First things first: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Now, to the topic at hand, the old and the new year. 2021 was a big disappointment, in many way. But, to stay positive, it somehow managed to provide me with a client project that was so incredible boring but also paid well enough, that I can start 2022 in a much better way. And at least for the first quarter of the year, I will put 100% of my time in my own projects.

That comes with a big change:

Heptamind (my own company) will no longer only just act as publisher of MMM but also as the acting developer. What might look like a cosmetic change at first actually means a few things:

• The money from this patreon page will go to Heptamind (starting with the end of January).
• I will no longer work on this project in my free time after work.
• I will now work on MMM as part of my work, investing "company time". That should result in a more steady development.

Apart from these harder facts, it's a change of how I see this project. I hated how I didn't put as much time into MMM as it deserved, and while I am fully aware that the combination of free time and mental energy was a rare thing for me during the last 1.5 years, I still felt like neglecting MMM and all of its users and in a way the whole community.

But, as project management changes from me (as in person who spends free time on MMM) to me (as in a one-man company seeing MMM as a commercial project), you might want to re-evaluate your patronage. Though please don't panic over the implications of the last sentence, I don't plan to raise prices on MMM or anything, I'm quite happy how it does financially given the fact that it is quite a niche product. I just hope that MMM finally gets all those updates and features I kinda promised you all way too long ago.

During January I will update this project page and post status updates again. Other things I have planned is the first of a couple of tutorial videos and the return of early beta versions for patrons.

So, I wrote this directly from my brain and it might be confusing or badly phrased here and there. So, do you have any qustions? What are your thoughts?
Comments are very welcome!

Status Update 2021-11-30 - is it an update if there's not much new?

Remember how I thought and said I was slowly coming back out of my pandemic-cave-mode? I went back in. I'm pausing the patreon billing again. I haven't done much in November, so it's only fair.

Little update on my life though: Since August I'm in a client project and while money is good, I had an extremely bad time with it. My ADHD turns this boring project into a nightmare where I everything get's delayed because I got to work on that boring project while also not getting much done on that project because it's too boring and forcing myself into doing it is painful and exhausting. Sounds like fun, eh?

In a few weeks I'll be out of said project, I will have a week or two to regenerate, then I'll start doing things *I* want to do. The money is there to sustain me for at least three months and I will spend most of my time doing game development. I have a project set out, and my plan does include investing time again into MMM...

Wish me luck, maybe?

Slow progress - removing all tiers above $1 for now

Hey all! 

So, just a short post. I'm still really busy and I struggle to find the free time to develop MMM. I'm still deep in the rewrite/overhaul.

I removed the $5 and $10 support tiers for now, as I don't see preview releases too soon, meaning I you won't get the benefits of those tiers! So, please consider editing your pledge to the $1 tier for now. You can always decide to go back to the higher tiers when I took up some pace again and re-enable those. But for now it feels unfair to me to receive all your money while not giving you anything in return really.

Anyway, I wish you a great and hopefully kinky October!

Paused for now

Hey all!

I just want to let you know that you I paused July 1 billing cycle since I wasn't able to do anything in June.

But don't fret, my main client that sapped way more energy than it should have for the boring stuff I made for them. But although I'm still busy with them until Wednesday, I already feel some of the creative juices flowing back and I'm excited to dive back into MMM real soon!

Status Update 2021-06-04

Yes I'm alive and kicking. I'm slowly reducing stress and coping with things. While productivity is good, social interaction is still something I shun away from. I'm not a very socially active person anyway, but I'm working to get back to a level where people don't start wondering if I still exist. 😬

What I'm working on:

Rebuild core mechanics

So far things are going good. I updated the project to Unity 2020.3 and removed all code and plugins I don't want. Okay, I removed nearly everthing to make things more clean. I am setting up the basic scenes again, that means the logo screen (which offers the choice of 2D/VR on Android/iOS), the hub, the session player. Recreating things lets me builöd things with all the features in mind I wanted to implement for years now and in a way this whole rewrite will result in a v2.0 of sorts.

I will post screenshots as soon as there's something to be seen. :)

What I am working on next:

Sessions on Discord

I'm planning to start live streaming on Discord on a regular basis. I am still working out the details, but I guess there will be AMA sessions, MMM streams of sessions, maybe live creation on new sessions. I'll probably do a poll for possible dates and which timezones you're all to find best times for this

I kept these next two because I can't yet give a more granular update of what's next

Rebuild core mechanics

Updating also means getting rid of really old code that keeps getting in the way when fixing bugs or adding features. There's a lot of things in there that isn't needed anymore or breaks with newer Unity functionalities. I hope to make things better, keeping new features in mind while also having more streamlined code.

SessionMaker Update

I need an editor that is able to edit sessions with multiple sessions. But also I want to make it usable directly from MMM, and that also means in VR. It will still be a 2D editor, also usable as standalone and free app. But I want users to be able to quickly jump into session making right there without leaving MMM or changing computers.

That's the status for today. As always, please get in touch with any questions or problems or comments/thoughts!

Status Update - 2021-04-23

So, I managed to not post for way too long. Things got too much and when stress reaching a certain level I tend to remove all kinds of social contact and human interaction and writing these status posts weirdly cost me sppons as well, writing / communicating to you. I'm really sorry. :(

What I recently (or not so recently) did:

Released v1.3.4

After two versions for Alpha and/or Beta supporters, a lot of bugfixing and smaller improvements went into the latest version. I hope no critical problems are in there, so I can focus on new stuff now.

What's new?

• new, improved water
• new transition into hub scene for increased visual comfort
• new visual "red space", which is inspired by "Ganzfeld" experiments.
• Visual quality of hub scene slightly improved and optimized for the different platforms

Noteworthy fixes

• Session info showed wrong, often shorter, session length for imported sessions
• Library stopped working if a corrupted session file was encountered
• in-session-menu positioning was not nicely vertical
• pointer was often behind GUI

Store codes to $20+ lifetime supporters

I was a bit late this month, but a few more patreons now have their store codes so that they can activate/get the full version without havingto invest another $20 on the store.

What I hope to accomplish next:

Update the project to Unity 2020

Unity released their LTS (long time support) version of 2020, meaning it will now only receive bugfixes and no changes in features. I can safely update *everything* to newer versions, which means quite some work in update code and scenes. This *will* break stuff, though. But sometimes you need to destroy something to make it better afterwards.

Rebuild core mechanics

Updating also means getting rid of really old code that keeps getting in the way when fixing bugs or adding features. There's a lot of things in there that isn't needed anymore or breaks with newer Unity functionalities. I hope to make things better, keeping new features in mind while also having more streamlined code.

SessionMaker Update

I need an editor that is able to edit sessions with multiple sessions. But also I want to make it usable directly from MMM, and that also means in VR. It will still be a 2D editor, also usable as standalone and free app. But I want users to be able to quickly jump into session making right there without leaving MMM or changing computers.

That's the status for today. As always, please get in touch with any questions or problems or comments/thoughts!

v1.3.4 for Patrons (Alpha & Beta)

Well, Unity's Buildserver sabotaged me yesterday and my ADHD does it today. Anyway, here's a new version for you to test. Pleast report any problems and send my your feedback.

What's new?

• new water, should work fine in VR and in 2D (though it really doesn't as it seems.)
• transition into hub scene (seems to not work fine on Quest), do you like it, do you hate it?
• new visual "red space", which goes into a  "Ganzfeld" direction. (You can find that in imported sessions or the later mind massages.) Do you like it, do you hate it?

Downloads

Android 4.4+ (supports 2D / Cardboard) 

Android 7.0+ (supports 2D / Cardboard / Daydream) 

OculusMobile (supports GearVR / Go / Quest / Quest 2) 

Windows (supports Oculus / SteamVR / 2D)

macOS (supports 2D)

linux (supports 2D)

iOS (supports 2D / Cardboard)

Status Update - 2021-02-17

What I recently did:

VR problems on Android and iOS (update)

I keep pondering about this and decided (for now) to wait a few weeks before tackling the problem again. This means that 1. Yes, I want to keep supporting VR on Android and iOS. But also 2. That problems on iOS and VR won't be fixed as soon as we all want it to. 😟

New Water

I hated the water shader for a while now, especially in VR. So when I found a new one that is supposed to work in VR and be performant I didn't wait long to put it in the hub scene.

New transition in hub scene

I put in a new additional transition to make the change to the bright hub scene more comfortable. Right now it is everytime when the hub scene is entered and also both in VR and 2D. I will probably tweak it in the future. For now this is a quickfix for a request to allow for darker hub scenes as the brightness can be rough right after an hypnosis session.

New visual

I only implemented one, "red space", which hopefully is nice for people. I'm not unhappy with it, but it also feels a bit "simple"? I don't know, I hope I get feedback from those who test out the next version.

What I hope to accomplish next (this week):

Bugfixes for SessionMaker

There are a few bugs I still haven't gotten around to fix. Also I need to add the new red space to the SessionMaker.

Working on multi-phase-sessions in SessionMaker

This work won't see the light of day anytime soon, but I gotta start if I want to have that kind of session before the end of the year.

Test version for Patrons (Alphas & Betas)

Nothing to say here, it happens today. :)

That's the status for today. Please get in touch with any questions or problems!

Status update - 2021-02-09

What I recently did:

Released 1.3.2.1 on Android

A critical bug was discovered, I managed to put in a last minute problem in 1.3.2, that caused the app to crash if you haven't already given the file access permission and also started the app in VR mode.

Releasing 1.3.3 (today)

Another critical bug was found that caused the inbuilt sessions to end prematurely. Imported sessions and mind massages are not affected by the bug. I am in the process of uploading the new version to all the stores / platforms.

(Trying to) overhaul VR code to no longer use deprecated stuff and fix VR problems on Android and iOS

I will have to be brief and be careful not to turn this into a rant. Long story short, updating the VR system in Unity worked like a breeze until it came to Cardboard. I spend day after day trying to make it run on Android. Doesn't work. I'm seriously thinking about finally phasing out VR support for iOS and Android (except GearVR). Does anyone use VR on these platforms? Will they be crushed if I go down that road?

What I hope to accomplish next (this week):

New Spirals (actually not spirals)

I want to create a few more visuals that aren't spirals. Not everyone loves spirals and there are other things one can look at. Also, I want to do a Ganzfeld visual, maybe to be used with closed eyes.

Bugfixes

There are a few bugs I still haven't gotten around to fix. I want to fix that. :)

Test version for Patrons (Alphas & Betas)

I didn't make it last month, due to those VR overhaul problems mentioned above. But when I got those bugfixes and at least one new visual effect in, you'll get a version to test!

That's the status for today. Please get in touch with any questions or problems!

Oh, and thoughts on the possible phaseout of VR on phones are welcome!

Status Update 2021-01-11

What I recently did:

Planning next release

So, first (real) release for 2021 will mainly contain bugfixes. Also an overhaul of VR input, see below.

What I hope to accomplish next (this week):

VR input overhaul

For years I used the Unity inbuilt VR support together with lots of custom code to setup headset, one or two controllers, gaze input, etc, but over time Oculus updated their code, Google started to ignore and stop maintaining their Daydream/Cardboard code, and Unity made their inbuilt support deprecated, replacing it with an XR plugin. And I reached the point where things start to breakdown. For example, on some iOS devices just wildly spin in VR mode due to outdated Cardboard-code. So, long story short, I'll rip my old code out of MMM and will update and reimplement everything with the new XR plugin. Unfortunately, in everything works out fine, you'll probably won't notice much difference.

Bugfixes

There are some bugfixes and minor UX improvements I want to work on. Not sure which I'll be able to put in this week, it depends on how many problems I run into with the VR input overhaul. Wish me luck!

That's the status for today. Please get in touch with any questions or problems!

Status Update 2021-01-07

What I recently did:

Released 1.3.2

Holiday stress delayed the release of this. But now it's out there and I can conentrate on the next release.

Last Minute fix for SessionMaker

I updated the SessionMaker with a preview for BinauralBeats / IsochronicTones since this is a constant source of confusion. It's not yet perfect and it needs to reflect Oscillation settings in the future as well, but it's a start.

What I hope to accomplish next (this week):

Planning next release

I'm a bit exhausted from the holidays and the release. I will now plan the next release, prioritize bugs to be fixed and see what feature I will implement next. I'll post a new status early next week, so you won't be in the dark for too long.

That's the status for today. Please get in touch with any questions or problems!

It's 2021 now!

Hello my dear patrons & followers!

So, it's January and a brand new year. So, of course, I made a few resolutions for 2021. Sure, I could look back at 2020, but let's not. I'm really not to happy about it.

What I have in mind for 2021 is:

Shorter release cycles

I'd love to do more focused work, although it might be in smaller bursts. Then have patrons a go at it and then release to stores. If things work out as planned there will be one release per month.

Playlist(s)

It has been requested so very very often, it is high time I do this.

Multi-phase sessions

Both the support for such sessions and also the SessionMaker side of this will take a long while. So, there will be some behind-the-scenes work on this for most of 2021. With a bit of luck it will be ready before the year is over. No promises on this though.

Other stuff

Apart from the usual bugfixes and maintenance to keep up with OS versions and new hardware and whatnot I have also some other stuff on mind, like the remote-control-app and support for EEG devices and more. Depending on how things go and which mood I'm in I will probably do other stuff as well. Or shift focus. Who really knows. My crystal ball is a bit blurry and we'll see what has happened when 2021 is over. :)

To everyone, have a great 2021, may it bring joy and fun and wonderful experiences to you all!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

v1.3.2 for Patrons (Alpha & Beta tiers)

Here's the promised release candidate of v1.3.2!

v1.3.2 Patreon Test

Important Features

• Remember preferred spirals for each session
• new Spatializer (can be tested in bundled hypnosis sessions)

Important Fixes

• Fixed: Session audiofiles not having 44.1KHz samplerate can cause playback problems
• Fixed: Import shows no files
• Fixed: Pointer not on GUI but behind UI-Elements
• Fixed: Sessionmaker often not deletes previous audio track(s) if you import a new one - it just sets the new audio track to be used.
• Fixed: SessionMaker: faulty decimal parsing in for frequencies

Please test! Have fun with it. Report any problems.

MMM

Windows

Linux

Mac

iOS

Android 7.0+ (supports 2D / Cardboard / Daydream)

Android 4.4+ (supports 2D / Cardboard)

Oculus Mobile (GearVR / Go / Quest) (use a sideloading tool like SideQuest)

SessionMaker

Windows

Linux

Mac

Please report issues via discord or through the bug reporting tool. Make sure to add as much information as possible.

Status Update 2020-12-22

Recent two weeks were very busy with all the hotfix versions and more. And also the world approaches the holiday season, which also takes a little toll on all of us.

What I recently did:

New Audio Library - Finalizing

New library is used everywhere and testing went great.

New Audio Spatializer

I'm now using a new spatializer that actually works on all platforms and sound much better than anything I used before. Right now I'm using it in the two bundled hypnosis sessions, in the future I want to add a "spatialize" option for all sessions with an audio file. This will also allow me to create audio "subliminals", by which I mean short audio clips that can be played during a session, semi-randomly placed around your head. Imagine a soft "Obey!" whispering in your ear, or giggles in a bimbofication session, or your favorite mind melting trigger, or... well, the options are vast I think. 

New version this year

I'm right now preparing the a release candidate for patreons to have a week or so to test things and have fun. I did my best to fix any bugs I could find and to test as best as a single person can while being busy during this time of the year!

What I hope to accomplish next (this week):

New version this year

Later today I'll post the release candidate for 1.3.2, then patreons can report any bugs they find and I'll release by the end of the year. Some shops, like the iOS app store will probably come later, as they often are on holiday in that period of time. But the demos will be on time and most shops will have the update ready in time as well.

That's the status for today. Please get in touch with any questions or problems!

Should I live-stream development?

Hey! I'm wondering, should I stream when I work on MMM? Would you be interested in watching?

Status Update 2020-12-09

Recent two weeks were very busy with all the hotfix versions and more. And also the world approaches the holiday season, which also takes a little toll on all of us. 

What I recently did:

created and uploaded final update for Oculus Go / GearVR store

The final update for that store was done, containing an additional info screen about the situation and how to go from there.

Fixed Android versions 

I updated the Android version (both the demo and the play store) because with newer devices the local import stopped working. 

Local import able to use the Downloads folder on Android-powered devices

I added a experimental feature included to import through the Downloads folder of your device. This is included in both latest versions mentioned above. 

What I hope to accomplish next (this week):

These two haven't been touched due to stuff I did instead. See above. 🙂

New Audio Library - Finalizing

I will remove all occurences of my old audio file playback and replace it with the new one.

New Audio Spatializer

I got myself a new spatializer and I wand to add it to MMM. One of the future features I'd like to add is to allow for audio "subliminals" and I think it would be nice if whispers could be placed randomly around your head, whispers could be clse to your ears, like whispers in ASMR videos.

New version this year

When I finished the work on the above two topics I'd like to release a final version before the end of the year. Cross your fingers that things go smoothly, please!

That's the status for today. Please get in touch with any questions or problems!

Status Update - 2020-11-23

What I recently did:

New audio library - testing

Testing was successful, I used files and very unusual sampling rate that the previous versions of MMM couldn't play. Worked smoothly without problems.

New trello board

I made a new trello board to give a better insight about planned work, known issues, and progress. Feel free to vote on cards or tell me about feature requests you don't see on the board yet. https://trello.com/b/QXcTC0TW/mindmassagingmachine

Fixed GearVR / Oculus Go store version (on official store, keys bought through WearVR)

Aas I mentioned last week, the version on that store crashed right at the start. It was quite tricky to fix as it was not an actual bug in my code but a problem with my development setup, a conflict between libraries, SDK versions and tools. My setup still has problems, but at least the version on the store works now as it should.

What I hope to accomplish next (this week):

New Audio Library - Finalizing

I will remove all occurences of my old audio file playback and replace it with the new one.

New Audio Spatializer

I got myself a new spatializer and I wand to add it to MMM. One of the future features I'd like to add is to allow for audio "subliminals" and I think it would be nice if whispers could be placed randomly around your head, whispers could be clse to your ears, like whispers in ASMR videos.

create final update for Oculus Go / GearVR store

I will have to make a special update for this store as that store will no longer accept submissions (which includes app updates) after December 5. See this tweet: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1325848243369074696

Bugfixes

Just a bug or two I want to fix.

better Oculus Quest 2 Support (unchanged)

I'm still on this, not much to say though as of yet.

Slightly improve local session import (unchanged)

I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do here, but I'd like to add the "Downloads" folder on all Android-based devices as an import folder. I'm also wondering if I can make the system open MMM for .mmm session files.

That's the status for today. Please get in touch with any questions or problems!

Status Update 2020-11-16

What I recently did:

New audio library

As you know, MM can handle *most* file formats on *most* platforms. I fixed and re-fixed problems, but there's always some problem on one of the platforms. So I got a different asset from a small but well-established developer of Unity plugins and so far things look good. I have yet to test a few file formats on every platform, but I'm hopeful

Concept for interactive help / welcome tour / user onboarding

I sat down to figure out a useful way for interactive help and sometghing that will make it easier for new users to figure things out. There will be a "assistant" type of character, that you can ask on each screen, with dialogue trees concerning the current screen and options. Like when you transformed a user's manual into a character form a point&click adventure.

What I hope to accomplish next (this/next week):

Fix and update GearVR / Oculus Go store version (on official store, keys bought through WearVR)

This is a two-fold topic. First, the latest version crashes on start and I don't know why. It was also only reported recently. But there's also the thing that Oculus will drop new uploads on the old mobile store in early December, so I have to work on a smooth transition to itch.io keys.

better Oculus Quest 2 Support

I'm still on this, not much to say though as of yet.

Slightly improve local session import

I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do here, but I'd like to add the "Downloads" folder on all Android-based devices as an import folder. I'm also wondering if I can make the system open MMM for .mmm session files.

That's the status for today. Please get in touch with any questions or problems!

Status Update 2020-10-26

Oh well, right now I'm thinking about what I should do to better give you patrons what you deserve. I am angry at myself for not putting more work into development, for being so silent on this site, giving so few updates. I want to give alphas and betas more versions to test, but I'm a bit swamped with projects and right now patrons mostly get store keys reaching that $20 lifetime patronage and not much else. And I'm not happy about that. So, if you have suggestions or specific wishes on how to give you better bang for your buck, please get in touch!

Anyway, here's the update:

What I recently did:

MMM remembers your preferred spiral

One of the smaller features I wanted to do forever, MMM will now memorize the last spiral you set for each session. So if you have a preferred spiral for that one session you use often, you no longer have to use the first few moments to bring up the menu and cycle through spirals.

Concept for next iteration of SessionMaker

I now know how I want to extend SesionMaker to allow for more dynamic and versatile sessions. It's complicated to explain, but you will be able to add and queue "blocks" for each feature, with possible transitions between them. It will take some time before it will be all implemented, but honestly coming up with aa concept was a big block for most of the year, holding me back from starting work on those more dynamic sessions.

What I hope to accomplish next (this week):

better Oculus Quest 2 Support

I finally bit the bullet and got a Quest 2. I had to import it as Germany has a legal dispute with facebook (over the forced facebook account on oculus devices) and facebook stopped selling VR headsets here for the time being. But as I got reports of broken local session import on the Quest2 I knew I had to get one. So I'll work on that bug and improving support overall. I will have to get in touch with Unity since I'm currentlxy not sure how to switch Oculus SDK versions, older ones don't support new devices and newer versions dropped support for GearVR (and maybe already the Go).

Slightly improve local session import

I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do here, but I'd like to add the "Downloads" folder on all Android-based devices as an import folder. I'm also wondering if I can make the system open MMM for .mmm session files.

Concept for "Report a problem" feature

I want to give the user an easy way to report a problem and/or give feedback from both  MMM and SessionMaker. I have ideas, but I should just take the time to make a clear and concise concept.

That's the status for today. Please get in touch with any questions or problems!