02/03/2020
For the second project Ganjina, Ellen, Christopher and myself first brainstormed different ideas for the interactions we would create. We all wanted to create interactions in a more real-life setting to make the experience more intuitive for the user. We shared the interactions that we had come up with for class and found a common thread for most of them – Ellen suggested the interaction of switching a light switch, Christopher – switching off an alarm and I suggested grabbing a coffee cup. These interactions reminded us of waking up in the morning, therefore we decided to explore this theme. At first, we imagined the user waking up in a bed, then reaching for the alarm to turn it off and then getting out of the bed. However, after discussing this initial idea with Sarah, we realized that this experience won’t be easily translated to the VR environment, as the user would also need to feel like they are lying down in real life in order to believe that they are lying down in the VR world. Therefore, we started playing out different scenarios of actions that people do in the morning and prototyping them in real life.
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We liked the idea of being in a room and seeing a door in front. By using visual cues such as a handle on the door we would direct the user to the door, have them open the door and walk inside a dark room. After locating a light switch they could press the switch and thus turn on the light and find themselves in a kitchen in the morning with a coffee machine on the table. The room would have kitchen furniture like a countertop, different appliances, a dining table, pending lamps and lastly the coffee machine. After exploring the kitchen we would use some kind of visual cue to guide the user to the coffee machine and have them make a coffee to complete the morning routine.
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In the upcoming week we will explore how this scenario might be feasible in a VR setting and also combining it with feeling realistic in the actual physical space that the user will be standing in with the VR headset on.
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12/03/2020 UPDATE
Before project alterations: (before March 4)
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To further polish our project idea, Ellen, Chris, Ganjina and myself discussed a more solid storyline that our project would be based on. We liked the idea of illustrating the effect that a morning coffee has on a person’s mind and imagination. We wanted the user to enter a kitchen in the morning by coming through a door, switch on the lights by pressing a light switch and lastly grab a coffee cup. When the coffee cup would be put near the interactor’s mouth, the surroundings of the kitchen would change – the plants around would become green again (they would be dead before) and the lighting would change to bright, happy and enhanced colors, therefore representing that a sip of coffee in the morning makes a person’s inner world happier and brighter.
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After project alterations: (after March 4)
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However, unfortunately due to the new circumstances, we all altered our project ideas. Given the challenges of working remotely and not being able to use the Vive headset, we all reduced the number of interactions to just one main interaction. In our group, we discussed which interaction resonated the most with us and we would like to continue working with. We all agreed that our core interaction would now become the interaction with the light switch. We decided to work on an alternate world which modifies what happens when light switches are turned on/off. Instead of having just one light switch, we will have two or three and the main character (now controlled by the keyboard of a computer instead of with the Vive headset) will be able to walk around the room and turn the light switches. The first switch that is pressed would have a realistic consequence such as simply making the lighting brighter. However, as the user advances to new switches, the actions will become more alternate and unexpected. For example, when the next switch is pressed the plants in the room would go from dead to green. If we have time, we will also add at least one more switch which would change the overall color ambience of the room to something more unusual and alternate than a regular light switch.
We decided to keep the room as a kitchen, as we had already found the necessary assets and had started working on its design. We also liked the available assets for a kitchen and the overall environment that could be created. Therefore, the user will start from already being located inside of the kitchen instead of walking into it through a door, as we had to remove the door interaction. The light switches will be located around the room and not all in the same place, thus the user would have to move around instead of just standing in one place.
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Now the course of action is to finish up the design and layout of the kitchen, to work on the physics of the room and the character, to add the character and polish its interaction with the light switches. We will also finish up the scripts for changing the lighting of the room and reviving the plants and lastly, if we have time, we will also add another light switch and another action which would be changing the color ambience of the kitchen.
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15/03/2020 UPDATE
During the past days, me and my group members had assigned tasks that we each needed to complete, thus we were concentrating on working on our separate tasks. Ganjina had already worked on the initial scene of the kitchen and in the past days Chris was working on the interaction of pressing the light switch and the script for turning on and off the light when the switch is pressed. I was updating the scene, the physics of the furniture and adding the light source and Ellen was working on the script for manipulating the plants when another switch is pressed as well as adding fireworks in the window when pressing the switch responsible for lighting in the room.
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For my part I updated the outside structure of the room, as it turned out to be working better if the walls were cubes instead of planes because there were issues with some of the planes not showing up in the game view. I first tried reversing normals for the planes in order to view them inside out in the game play, however, it did not work properly and adding cubes instead of planes worked as an alternative solution. I replaced some of the furniture, as some of the previous assets were giving errors. I also added a ceiling and lastly, I worked on adding a light source for the room. I wanted to include a lamp, preferably a ceiling lamp, to replicate a more realistic kitchen lighting. I tried looking for lamp assets, however, there were no available free assets for a ceiling lamp. Therefore, I decided to make the lamp myself. I experimented with different shapes and different types of light in Unity and their combinations. After creating several lamps that I did not like and didn’t think looked much like a lamp, I finally found a combination that I was imagining in my head. It was a combination of a sphere and a point light which I attached to the ceiling. I made this light to be the light source in the script that is attached to one of the light switches in order to be able to control the lighting in the room with the switch.
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After my updates, Ellen also finished the script for manipulating the plants. Instead of having dead plants and making them go green again after pressing a switch, we decided to have particles come out of the plants that look like fireflies and fill up the room creating a magical and alternate feeling. There were no proper assets available for different stages of plants, thus we found this solution to be an effective alternative.