それじゃなく「日本人だから」が適用されられないことだ。

それだけではない。長年日本に住んでいて働いていたから「日本人より日本人だ！」と毎日言われていたぐらい日本の文化や社会制度を身につけたので、たとえ日本語で話している相手が「私は日本人だからアメリカ人がわかるわけがない日本の文化だ」の言いわけでごまかそうしようでも通用しない。

次回もっと細かい話を書く。ネタバレ注意：偏屈は偏屈だ。文化じゃない。

I was there. The shaking lasted about 5, 6 minutes. Even after getting everyone outside, there were aftershocks 7.5, 7.6, 7.9 afterwards, some feeling stronger than the initial quake because the aftershocks occurred closer to where I was.

Much has been written by people who experienced the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant will be studied for decades to come. What I feel is often left out, though, is what happened after the shaking and tsunami have subsided. People talk about the magnitude of the quake, the size of the tsunamis, and the immediate destruction as a result, but I feel like those are the actors and stage pieces on the story. What's missing is the background, the context, the “scenery” where all those actors and set pieces are set against. An actor standing with a broken door in front of an old abandoned house has a different meaning than if they were standing in front of a junkyard backdrop.

Seeing and hearing the latest earthquake to hit Japan on January 1, 2024, I'm reminded how much this background gets taken for granted or even ignored by those trying to help or understand. I don't want that to happen. To illustrate my point, I will share what I think is important background that is often missing from the disaster I personally experienced on and after March 11, 2011.

Weather

It was cold. Many places had below-freezing temperatures at night. Electricity was out throughout huge regions of the affected area so using built-in heating was impossible for many. Not only was it difficult to move around due to debris and destroyed infrastructure, fighting to stay warm was an additional stress that affected people disproportionately. Huddling in a partially damaged home with no lights or heat and no indication when it would be restored (some homes likely did not get full electricity even after power was restored due to damage to the home's internal structures) made a stressful situation even worse.

Fuel

Gasoline stations require electricity to pump fuel into vehicles. It doesn't matter how much fuel they still have, if there are no means to transfer it to cars trying to move goods and supplies within the affected areas, they might as well not exist. Driving to areas that still had electricity required driving for sometimes 30 minutes one way, assuming those gasoline stations still had fuel to sell.

Water

Treatment plants require electricity as well. Some towns suffered so much damage to key machinery that for many weeks after the initial earthquake, many people still had to rely on water distribution trucks that would use loudspeakers to announce where they were going to be on a given day.

Isolation

Cell phone towers have battery backups, but even those give out after many hours. You can't use the normal technology distractions to try to take your mind off the situation at hand. Think about it now: if you lost ALL access to the internet for 3 weeks and could not easily travel to a place that had internet, all while trying to figure out how best to get electricity, food, water, light, and heat, what distractions do you have to help deal with the stress?

Bringing the full picture into view

Standing in front of a broken sewer line takes on a much different meaning when there is fallen snow around. Seeing a gaping hole in the road means something different when there are gaping holes every hundred meters instead of surrounded by construction zone hazard tape.

The shaking has stopped. The initial destruction is over. Fear, anger, apprehension, confusion now all give way to everything else that was always there, but so often ignored: our lives are not lived in a vacuum. I don't want to forget about the things that weren't destroyed but still dictate how we can rise and overcome the challenges of the disaster. Sometimes, it's important to take our eyes off the actors speaking on the stage to look at the curtains behind them. What we see makes a world of difference.

It hasn’t always been this way. I go through phases and different periods with gaming and this current phase is one where I am not really interesting of a multiplayer partner. I don’t say much if anything and I don’t have those spontaneous bursts of excitement that lighten the mood.

I want to change that. It’s really getting to be a negative experience for the times I do want to play with others. I haven’t had much opportunity to play with others though the ways I’ve tried have probably been too timid. The few times I have been able to recently are really precious and I cling to those moments dearly. Here's to the future.

Nuts and Bolts

I want to live stream my next Adventure so I've been preparing all the technical pieces for having virtual guests participate. Familiarizing myself with the various software packages again, creating ready-to-play characters of many different combinations, and practicing how to paint a picture using words and tools showed me how much of D&D isn't about the tools. Automating mechanics, understanding rules, manipulating virtual objects, setting up technology – all these nuts and bolts are there just to support the true core of what makes D&D what it is. Bringing people together to share and explore pieces of themselves with other doing the same is where the magic truly happens. Magical spells may be cast by imagined characters, but the enduring effects of spending those moments together in a shared space far outweigh any imagined incantations.

Bridging Time and Looking Forward

I believe that all Dungeon Masters give a piece of themselves each time they play. That means that every experience I draw upon from past adventures is me reaching back in time to touch that part of me that I gave in those moments. As I look forward to new adventures again, building a bridge between those past moments and the future makes me feel like an architect whose finished building is something unknowable to even myself.

I am excited to see how it turns out.

The Streamlabs Desktop version used for this tutorial is 1.14.0

Preface: Roadblock for not being able to use Streamlabs on its own

*This is a brief explanation as to why we cannot use Streams alone to use VMC with Dance Dash. Skip to the next step if you want to go straight into the setup process.

As you may know, Streamlabs does have a virtual webcam feature (as an experimental feature). The biggest difference between the two is that, OBS Studio will allow us to make a selection for the “Output Selection”, while Streamlabs does not. So, until we are able to make an output selection for what we want the virtual webcam to be capturing, this is our workaround.

Long story short, if you're using streamlabs to record/stream, you will need both OBS Studio and Streamlabs launched at the same time.

OBS Studio will be used for the virtual webcam feature alone, while Streamlabs will be doing your actual streaming/recording.

Actual Beginning of Tutorial

1. Follow the original blog post (https://write.kilioa.net/setting-up-vmc-with-dance-dash/setting-up-virtual-motion-capture-for-dance-dash-in-obs) up until the end of Step 19.

By getting to the end of Step 19. in the original post, it should get you to the point to where you have been able to get your VMC + DD, composited using LIV. Your LIV output should currently be showing your avatar and Dance Dash game scene.

2. Launch Streamlabs to capture your LIV Output In Streamlabs, go to the scene where you have your overlays and alerts set up for your stream. If you're starting from scratch, create a new scene. Set one of your sources to be a “Game Capture”, and ensure that the window captured is “LIV Output”.

When you're launching your instance to stream/record for your next session: Launching things in the order of “Steam VR → VMC/Calibrate → OBS Studio (Start virtual camera) → LIV/Launching game through LIV” → Streamlabs will most likely provide the most stable results.

Step 3 (?) → For those who want to have both OBS and Streamlabs set up at the same time. (Not necessarily used to stream/record at the same time, but have it both set up)

What you will need to remember is that LIV Output can only be captured by one software at one time. If you went through with the entire setup process from the previous blog, you may have noticed some issues when you try to capture the LIV Output in Streamlabs. This is because OBS Studio had captured the LIV Output first, therefore, Streamlabs couldn't capture it.

Since you would need to launch OBS Studio first to get the virtual webcam working, the chances are that OBS Studio will have priority in capturing the LIV Output.

To change that: Start this part with both OBS Studio and Streamlabs open – On OBS Studio, change your game capture output for the source you're using to stream/record to “Dance Dance.exe” (or pretty much any other thing that's not the LIV Output) – On Streamlabs, doing the above alone will most likely auto-fix itself. If it doesn't, open the settings again and changing the “Mode” to something else, then back again to “Capture specific window” should fix the issue.

This should cover all that is needed for you to share your amazing Dance Dash content using VMC for your Avatar fullbody tracking.

Happy Dancing! (/・ω・)/

Software version & equipment used for testing: – Virtual Motion Capture v0.56f6 (most updated version as of Nov 2023) – LIV v2.12.3 – OBS 29.1.3 – Valve Index – 3x VIVE Tracker 3.0

Setting up Virtual Motion Capture (VMC)

1. Download VMC from: https://booth.pm/en/items/999760 – Go through with the normal installation process and launch the .exe file. → This should pop up two windows: “Control Panel” and “VirtualMotionCapture”.

Installing/Enable VMT 2. From the “Setting” button in the Control Panel, locate the Virtual Motion Tracker (VMT) section and click install. → You will get 2 popups total during this step. First one confirming that you'd like to continue installing VMT (which will restart your Steam VR), and another informing you of your success. Press OK on both. If you happened to have VMT installed already, cancel out and skip this step.

3. Ensure you have VMT enabled by clicking on the box

4. Export external camera configurations to be able to put it together with LIV (later). From “Settings”, click on “>Export externalcamera.cfg for LIV” under the VMT section, and save.

5. Set your VMC resolution. Under “Settings”, find the “Resolution” section and set this to your liking. (For reference, I am using 1920x1080 for my own streams, but use what works for you.) *Once you're done with the VMT section, close out of the settings menu.

Importing Your Avatar 6. From the Control Panel, click the “Open VRM” button and then click “Import VRM” in the upper left corner to select your .vrm file you'd like to use. Click “Agree/Import” in the bottom right. → VMC does a pretty good job auto-detecting trackers and assigning to your respective body part. If auto-detection fails you, select “Open tracker assignment settings” from your Control Panel menu and make sure that the tracker assignment matches that of what is reflected in your Steam VR settings.

Setting Up Your Camera Angle 7. From the “Camera” tab in the Control Panel, select “Free”.

You will need to use your imagination a little to get an idea of what VMC overlayed with your game would look like, but I would personally suggest going for a slight “off-angle” from behind. Though you will be able to make camera angle changes later on, it's best to get it as close as possible at this step as we will be saving these settings which will be what loads every time when you launch VMC with your Dance Dash configurations.

You can adjust your camera angle to your liking from the window displaying your avatar with the controls below: – Scroll to zoom in/out – (Hold) Right click to rotate – (Hold) Click scroll wheel to move

8. Choose your background color. The “Background” tab from your Control Panel will allow you to choose what color you'd like to use to key-out the background when putting it together with the game. Default GB, BB, or Custom should work for most avatars. Choose the one that works best with your avatar. Note: There are many other cool features that VMC will allow you to do (e.g. facial expressions, lip sync... etc.) but I will not be going over this part for the sake of my own sanity and keeping this tutorial focused on setting up VMC + Dance Dash. “Shortcut key” tab is where you will be able to find your expression settings, and the rest should fairly be self explanatory with the tab names.

Saving Your Settings 9. From the “Settings” tab → “Save settings” to save all of your progress from the steps above. If you make multiple configurations, you will be able to select which setting you use from the “Open settings” button. Congratulations. You're done setting up VMC.

OBS Virtual Camera

10. In OBS Studio, create a new scene for the purpose of using OBS's virtual camera feature. In the new scene, create a new “Game Capture” source and capture the VMC window with your avatar displayed. (Adjust the capture to fit the screen if needed).

11. Set up your OBS virtual camera. On the bottom right, click the gear icon next to “Start Virtual Camera”. Select “Scene” for Output Type. Select the scene you created in the previous step for the virtual camera.

LIV Installation/Setup

12. Install and launch LIV through Steam from: https://store.steampowered.com/app/755540/LIV/ If it's not installed already, install the “LIV SteamVR Driver” from the General Settings tab in the main LIV window.

LIV Camera Output Setup 13. From the “Avatars” tab, click on “Launch PCVR Avatars” → This will launch the LIV Output and allow you to go into the settings for the output.

14. Add new camera in LIV From the “Camera” tab, add a camera, and set as: – Type: Video Camera – Device: OBS Virtual Camera – Resolution: What you selected as your resolution for VMC in Step 5 – Profile name: to your liking Don't forget to save.

15. Import your VMC external config into LIV. From the “Calibration” tab, ensure “Details” in the top right has been checked off. Click “Import”, select “From file”, and select the file you exported from VMC in Step 4. → You should get a popup telling you that the .cfg file was successfully imported.

16. Set tracker settings for LIV. From the “Tracker” dropdown, select the option that has “VMT_50”. Click Save.

17. Set up chroma key settings. From the “Keying” tab, ensure the “Chroma Key” setting has been turned on. Click on “Pick Color”, and use the color picker tool (dropper icon) to match the color you picked for your VMC background color. You can also use the “Threshold”, “Smoothness”, and “De-spill Strength” settings to cleanup the keying. Click Save.

If set up correctly, your LIV Output should now be showing your avatar as it shows in VMC but with a black background.

18. Set up LIV final output. From the “Output” tab, select: – Resolution: What you selected as your resolution for VMC in Step 5 – FPS: To your liking, 60 is a good starting point. – Monitor: Select your monitor of choice *“Lock Position” is optional. I like to keep it checked off because I am constantly moving things around on my monitor but you can keep it checked on if you would like to always have your LIV Output in one spot.

Launching the Game and Putting Everything together!

19. Launch Dance Dash through LIV. From the “Capture” tab, select “Dance Dash” from the dropdown and click “Sync & Launch”. This should change the LIV Output to now show your avatar in game!

20. Capture the final output in OBS Studio. Back in OBS Studio, go to the scene where you have your overlays and alerts set up for your stream. If you're starting from scratch, create a new scene. Set one of your sources to be a “Game Capture”, and ensure that the window captured is “LIV Output”.

21. Calibrate yourself with your avatar Back in VMC, click “Calibration” from the Settings tab. Follow the instructions that pop-up on the screen (I personally like the I-pose, but either poses work), and click “Calibration” and stand still until calibration shows “Done!”

This completes the entire setup process for OBS Studio! Thank you for reading, hope it all goes well. Happy Dancing (/・ω・)/

Next time you stream/record your content, launching things in the order of “Steam VR → VMC/Calibrate → OBS Studio (Start virtual camera) → LIV/Launching game through LIV” will most likely provide the most stable results.

Note: Though Streamlabs has the virtual webcam feature, it still doesn't have enough to where we are able to use it on its own. A follow-up tutorial for setting up VMC with Streamlabs will be coming shortly.

Final Thanks:

Everything used for this set up is available to you for free. With that said, a lot of work has gone into developing the software packages, and Akira (the dev for VMC) also has a PIXIV Fanbox account so please consider making a donation to support their work. PixivFanbox: https://akira.fanbox.cc/ VMC Official Site: https://vmc.info/ Akira's Twitter X: https://twitter.com/sh_akira

I also can't thank Shironagaaaasu from our community enough, as I referenced her blog to set up my own. You can find her and her amazing content below: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/shrngaaas Twitter X: https://twitter.com/shironagaaaasu

I like to reflect and process much more these days as I have been working on making important life and behavioral changes. Doing the same for games was natural and a valuable way for me to take time to sit with my thoughts and emotions. Too often the noise of every day has drowned out my taking the time to evaluate and recognize games' importance and place they play for me. Taking that time recently proved very valuable and useful as I navigate each day.

Re-visiting the joy

As part of reflecting, I decided to pull out a board game that I haven't touched in a long while: Terraforming Mars. In the past, I enjoyed playing this single-player and wanted to pull my mind away from the video games that have been my primary gaming outlet as it was reminding me of Starfield more than I wanted.

It was awesome.

I forgot just how long it took to fully set up everything, but after the awkwardness of trying to randomize all the cards as well as remember how everything was supposed to fit back in the box after I had finished, being able to sit down and move pieces around, ponder cards, stand up and think, and ultimately win that first solo game after a long time was amazing. With no expectations of winning, let alone feeling comfortable remembering all the rules again, stepping away from the board after making the final action to win the game was a moment I realized I had missed for a long time.

Setting out to touch the parts of my life that had been pushed aside for so long and being rewarded by a simple, yet sentimental win was weighty in a way that I didn't expect. It was small, yes, but it had a weight to it. Sentimental, yet novel.

Serendipity of Joy

Nothing about playing after such a long time would suggest I would be ready to experience anything other than just moving my hands and arms in an effort to take my mind off the feeling of loss from moving on from Starfield. I typically would not win solo games in the past for Terraforming Mars, and the few times I did, I would usually only win by the slimmest of margins.

Walking away from the table with a comfortable win not only encouraged me, it startled me. Metallic cubes and cute progress markers had gently, yet firmly forced open my eyes to the bittersweet emotions of being immersed, engrossed in a tiny universe spread out on the table – a universe that was built for enjoyment and escape. Had I not won, the serendipity of joy would likely have passed me by on its journey without me seeing much more than a fleeting glimpse. Instead, it decided to knock gently on my melancholy evening to serve up wonderful memories and warm my thoughts.

Rediscovery

I don't know where exactly I will go from here. Being reacquainted with a taste of the joy and pleasure of board games again feels like finding an old scrapbook filled with years of memories only to find out that more blank pages have been prepared by a loving hand. Picking up other games I have not touched in so long also brings about new emotions. When I used to touch boxes holding games I haven't played or enjoyed in a long time, the feelings of guilt and resignation at not knowing when I would ever enjoy them again dominated and generally reinforced the feelings of loss. Now, I look over at the wall of boxes with enticing artwork fit for museums and feel warmth. Being able to create new moments with old friends again with the added benefit of wisdom and age is the best way I can describe it.

What started with hope and then loss over one game, Starfield, has brought me back to something that I could never anticipate. What initially felt like losing another game to the bitter pill of trying to be responsible for the things I have in my life at this stage, has turned into gratitude. At times like these, I can easily focus on what feels like loss. With a little help from an old friend, I ended up finding a little bit of what I had lost before.

Thank you, board games, for waiting patiently for me. Here's to more memories and joy for many more years to come.

Playing online is fun. It's been my refuge for a long time and has been a place for me to escape from the stress of daily life. It also has taken a different tone for me in different stages of life. I feel that I am in the place now where playing online brings enjoyment not from playing the games with others, but because I am spending time with others. It's not the game any more.

As I sit and look at the collection of tabletop games on the shelf, I wonder when I will get to play any of them again. They hold memories, some of them. Others hold dreams of how much fun they might be. Still others sit waiting patiently for their day to be more than collecting dust.

Life is weird.