Luize Rieksta – Alternate Realities

Project 3 Documentation

Project Description

The story of our final project takes place in two different locations which connect to each other by a common thread present in both locations – plastic waste. With our project we aim to represent the theme of apocalypse and how both conscious and unconscious actions and habits of human beings lead to ocean pollution. The player first finds themselves in a living room in a multi-story apartment building, which is our first scene. The living room is small, representing what living in the city often looks like. There are plastic containers such as bottles, food packages, etc. lying around on the surfaces in the room. When looking around the room, the user notices a reticle which changes size when hovering over the plastic packages, thus indicating that it is possible to interact with them. By clicking on the packages, the player is able to pick them up, move them around by changing the position of their mouse and finally drop them by releasing the mouse press. After moving around the room, the user notices a television. When the television is clicked, a short video about plastic pollution in oceans starts playing. Once the video is over, the lights of the room go dark and a coral figure standing next to the television lights up and emits particles, thus indicating that the player should click on the coral next.

Clicking on the coral brings the user to the second scene which is an underwater ocean scene. At first it seems lively, filled with sea creatures swimming around and colorful corals. The user is able to move around by following a looped path guided by a trail of seaweeds. The beginning of the path is marked by a sunken ship on the right from the player to act as a reference point to where the path started. As the player slowly moves around the ocean, the atmosphere changes drastically – the overall lighting becomes darker, fewer sea creatures swim around and plastic packages that were present in the first scene start leaving a trail behind the user and floating around the ocean. At first the plastic waste appears slowly but towards the end of the looped path, increasingly more packages start surrounding the user. By the time that the player finishes walking on the path and gets back to the sunken ship, the ocean has changed dramatically and all of its pristine cleanliness and liveliness has disappeared. There is now a coral in the place where the user started the underwater journey which is the same coral as in the first scene in the living room. By clicking it the user goes back to the first scene and finds themselves in the same room with the same plastic containers to reflect back on the experience and think about different choices that could have been made.

The story is a journey of reflections about the role of human actions and habits in polluting our oceans. The story touches the user no matter what actions are taken in the first scene, because even if the user does not interact with the plastic packages, the deeper meaning of the story is that they can still eventually end up in the ocean because of reasons such as wind blowing the plastics from landfills into the water or industrial leakage. Therefore, the player is encouraged to think that even if they do not directly pollute the oceans themselves, it is possible that their consumption patterns can still affect how the ocean is contaminated with plastic waste. Thus, we wanted to make sure that all the interactions in the scenes are connected to the story, such as picking up and dropping the plastic packages acting as a metaphor for both conscious and unconscious human actions and the logic of the world being a loop where the user eventually finds themselves back in the first scene to reflect about their own experiences and relationship to sustainable living and recycling.

Process and Implementation

When we first met up to brainstorm our idea, we discussed themes such as recreating a city from Invisible Cities or creating a version of Escape Room where the protagonist wakes up from amnesia and finds themselves in a prison cell. However, we all felt that these approaches lacked “storyness” or it was hard to convey the story to the player so that it feels relatable. We then came up with an idea for the apocalypse theme and we instantly felt the most attached to it. We thought that it is a topic that inevitably concerns everyone, no matter whether the player is actively environmentally conscious or not. We actually felt passionate about transmitting the message to people who might not be as environmentally conscious with the hope that we might encourage them to take some tangible actions towards the cause in the future.

initial storyboard 1;9
initial storyboard 2
initial storyboard 3
initial storyboard 4
initial storyboard 5
initial storyboard 6
initial storyboard 7
initial storyboard 8

Thus, when designing and building the space, we always kept in mind the psychological effect of our project on the user and whether it might encourage them to become more environmentally friendly. Thus, for the first scene we wanted to recreate a relatable living space – a small room in a city environment where more and more people end up living as a result of urbanization. We added numerous objects such as furniture and decorations to represent how easy it is to accumulate different objects consisting of different materials in your living space. The plastic containers represent the waste that accumulates from our consumption habits such as buying groceries or other commodities in plastic packaging. We were very cautious about the positioning of the plastic objects in the room. Although they are untidily scattered around the room, seemingly indicating a messy person living there, we wanted the plastic waste to act more as a metaphor which represents the role of plastics in our life in general. In regard to the television, we thought that acts as an inviting cue for the user to want to interact with, however, the coral which needs to be clicked to travel to the next scene acts as a bridge between the two scenes, tying their themes together.

In the underwater scene, we wanted for it to have a realistic and mesmerizing look, in order for the user to fully relate to the actions happening in the ocean. We added several sea creatures, such as fish, sharks, jellyfish, corals, etc. to build up the ocean’s fauna and make it look full of life. There are also many seaweeds and other plants that grow in the ocean to enhance the mesmerizing look of the ocean. At first, the ocean also looks full of life. However, as the user walks around the ocean, over time the living creatures disappear, the overall atmosphere changes to a darker and duller place and slowly plastic waste starts floating around the user. When the user completes the loop when walking on the path, the ocean has completely changed and looks nothing like in the beginning. By this we wanted to emphasize the effect of time and how oceans can change over time because of human actions that lead to pollution. After feedback that we got from playtesting, we were keen on adding the coral figure in the ocean scene as well, which would allow the user to go back to the first scene and reflect on the experience. This connected loop was important for the logic of our world to make sure that the user goes through a full circle and can rethink their decisions regarding environmental issues in the future.

The user’s role in the story is character with impact. The user is able to interact with different objects in the first scene such as plastic packages, television, and coral. Although there are fewer interactions in the second scene, the user still leaves a trail of plastics behind towards the end of the path that the user is walking on. The trail of plastics and plastics floating around the ocean are also directly connected to the plastic amount witnessed in the first scene.

A video of the experience is available here:

Reflection/Evaluation

Our initial expectations were to build a more elaborate project with far more scenes to better convey the passing of time in the ocean. However, the restrictions of creating the project like it is made for the Google Cardboard also limited the possibilities and amount of interactions that we could include. Overall, it was however a good decision to reduce the number of scenes, as it was still possible to convey the same story with fewer scenes from our side and leave more room for interpretation to the user which was ultimately our goal with this project.

If we had more time we would have liked to improve the ocean scene by adding more interactivity to the fish, for example, the fish swimming away once the user approaches them. However, the primary goal was to make the fish more around the ocean and we were still satisfied with the effect that the moving sea creatures had on the initial atmosphere of our ocean. Our favorite part was the change in the ocean over time where it becomes darker, less inhabited and slowly filled up with plastic waste, as we hope it conveyed a strong message to the user.

Project 3 Development Journal

13/04 Update:

When we first met up to brainstorm our idea, we discussed themes such as recreating a city from Invisible Cities or creating a version of an Escape Room. Our first idea was to represent each of the cities that we chose for the Spring Break blog entry into different scenes in our world. The player would then be able to travel through these cities and learn about each of them based on their inhabitants and environment. As much as we liked the visuals of such idea, however, we were worried that this theme would not portray much of a story. Therefore, we moved on to brainstorming new ideas and considered the Escape room theme where the protagonist would wake up from amnesia and finds themselves in a prison cell where a clock would be ticking and they would have to find a way out of the prison. However, we were worried that by choosing this approach it would be difficult to convey the story to the player in a relatable way.

After more brainstorming, we settled on the Apocalypse theme. Our take on Apocalypse in this project is a representation of how both conscious and unconscious actions and habits of human beings lead to ocean pollution. When creating the initial storyboards, we laid out 9 scenes. The first and the last scene is the same – the player finds themselves in a room with a television. After interacting with the television, a video would play and they would become familiar with the theme and learn some information about plastic pollution in the ocean. Then they would enter an underwater world where they would go through different scenes all in different times. The user would follow a path on the ground that guides them through different scenes and to switch to a new scene the user would have to press a button or interact with an object in the ocean. Starting in the year 1920 the ocean would be clean and a lot of sea creatures would be swimming around. Moving on to years 2020 and lastly 2120 the ocean would become more and more polluted with plastic and there would fewer sea creatures around them and they would realize that the underwater world cannot be saved anymore. The user then goes back to scene one where actions can be taken to do something to save the environment. Here are the storyboards of our project.

27/04 Update:

Since the last Development Journal entry, we have modified our project after the update that we wouldn’t be able to use the Google Cardboard, as we do not have Android Phones. However, we will still create the project as if it would be built for Google Cardboard, therefore using a reticle. After the first playtesting session where we shared our storyboards, the feedback we received very helpful and valuable feedback. Here are some of the storyboards we showed to the class.

Based on the feedback we decided to significantly reduce the number of scenes. We also decided that there will be lass interactions, as there was no more need to switch between many scenes. However, the transition between the remaining scenes becomes more integrated into the story and seems a lot more seamless instead of just pressing a button. The remaining scenes will be the room with a television and an underwater ocean world. We decided that after watching a video about pollution and how it has affected our oceans on the television screen in the first scene, a nautilus painting would light up next to the television which would indicate that the user needs to press on it. After pressing on the painting, the player would teleport to the next scene which is the underwater ocean world. In the underwater world, the user will walk alongside a path on the ocean bed and after them there will be a trail of plastic waste left behind. The trail of plastics represents that despite being environmentally conscious and practicing eco-friendly measures, it is almost inevitable to produce no waste and that our actions have an effect on the ocean’s purity over time.

In terms of working on the scenes Nhi and Tiger worked on the room with the television and the initial set up of the game when the user enters the world. We have also decided on adding plastic containers in the first scene that the user would be able to interact with – pick up and drop them. Therefore, when the plastic containers start appearing in the following scene, the user would make the connection that their actions may have impacted the fact that the plastic appeared in the ocean. I worked on designing the underwater ocean scene and editing the video which will be played on the television in the beginning. It gives an overview of general facts about the ocean and then about how oceans have been affected by plastic pollution. For the underwater scene I am using a set of great assets that I managed to find when creating the budget for asset purchase. One of the assets contains an underwater background with bubbles and jellyfish that are animated and give a realistic feel to the environment. Besides that, the rest of the ocean is a combination of different rocks, corals, seaweed and sea creatures.

a still from the video about plastic pollution in oceans

05/05 Update:

After doing the first playtesting session with our classmates, a recurring response that we received was about the interaction with the plastics in the first scene. The user is able to pick them up and “drop” it, however, it goes back to the same location, as it was picked up from. Also, the movement after picking up a plastic container is only possible vertically, thus feeling less natural. We will work on being able to move around the object both horizontally and vertically and drop it properly using physics on the object. Instead of the user teleporting to the next scene through the painting, we also changed it to a coral that is located closer to the television, thus being more obvious that this is the object that needs to be clicked. Also, the light in the room goes dark after the video finishes playing, thus there is more emphasis on the coral that is now lit up. From playtesting we realized that sometimes players were confused, as to where to click after the video stops playing. I will also shorten the video, as it seemed too long. In the underwater world, the scene was also updated and a path using seaweed was added that would guide the user, in order for the user to not wander off too far in the ocean. Now we still need to work on improving the interactions, improving the ocean scene even more, and adding plastic in the ocean over time.

09/05 Update:

The interactions with the objects in the first scene have significantly changed, as it is now possible to pick up objects and drop them around the room. This provides a lot more interactivity and the user is more stimulated to pick the plastic containers up and drop them. I am currently working on making the fish and other sea creatures more in the underwater scene. All though I have managed to make the fish move in a straight line, I am still struggling with adding rotation by 180 degrees over time, in order for the fish movement to seem more natural.

12/05 Update:

I finished the script for moving the fish and rotating them after some elapsed time. Tiger has been working on the transformation of the ocean – after the user walking through it for a while, the ocean becomes darker, sea creatures start to disappear, and instead plastic containers from the first scene start floating around. Lastly, I also finished shortening the video for the first scene.

Invisible Cities Response

A city that especially stood out to me was Esmeralda because of several reasons. Firstly, the name of the city reminds me of a childhood game that I used to play with my family. It was a card game where each player had to make predictions about how many card combinations they will be able to play out based on the available cards in their hand. The combinations were set by the game’s rules and each person’s turn was affected by the decisions and actions of other players, therefore it was not easy to predict the right amount of combinations you would be able to play out. At the end of each round points were calculated based on how many predictions each player got right. In addition to counting points among the players, my godfather had come up with an additional set of rules which included Esmeralda – an invisible player who also scored points after each round based on the performance of others. The ultimate goal of the game was to beat Esmeralda and score more points than her. I remember being very bewildered about who Esmeralda was when I first started to play the game when I was young. I always associated her with a mystical creature and was almost afraid of her “presence” in the game. Only when I grew up I learned that Esmeralda was purely an invention to make the game more dynamic, interesting and challenging, yet my strong perception of her as a mystical creature never went away.

Secondly, out of all cities described in the book Esmeralda spoke to me the most because it immediately reminded me of New York – a city that I lived in for four months during my Junior Year Spring semester. “And so Esmeralda’s inhabitants are spared the boredom of following the same streets every day…each inhabitant can enjoy every day the pleasure of a new itinerary to reach the same places” – this quote resonated a lot with my personal experience in New York which was to always try to take a new route to get to my destination, as there are countless parallel streets in the city. Although they may seem similar from the outside, each street is different from the previous – I always discovered either a new coffee shop, a new park or dog day care on each street that I walked on. I loved exploring New York on foot, as the city seemed so walkable despite the occasional bike rider nearly crashing in me and cars honking everywhere. Whenever I had to go somewhere further, just walking was often not an option, especially if I was in a hurry. Then I had to explore other transportation methods that New York offers. “…the network of routes is not arranged on one level, but follows instead an up-and-down course of steps, landings, cambered bridges, hanging streets” – this quote reminds me of the type of public transport that I used the most in New York – the iconic subway. The subway system in the city seemed so vast and almost always I could count on finding a station nearby and teleporting one level down to continue my journey in the underground. The subway system was also always full of rats which is also mentioned about Esmeralda: “below, the rats run in the darkness of the sewers, one behind the other’s tail, along with conspirators and smugglers”. The second part of the quote also reminds me of New York, as it was a city where I sometimes experienced some dangerous and frightening moments because of people’s weird and unpredictable behavior.

Lastly, another quote about Esmeralda that reminded me strongly of New York was: “a map of Esmeralda should include, marked in different colored inks, all these routes, solid and liquid, evident and hidden”. The part about different colored inks reminded me of the New York subway map which is filled with seemingly tangled colored lines, each color representing a metro line. The map was especially hard to navigate in the beginning when I moved to New York. In addition, New York’s map is filled with tangible and intangible routes. For example, the dotted ferry lines on the Hudson river seemed far less tangible than solid streets represented in the map and took more time to learn to navigate. However, once mastered, they opened up new and unexpected ways to discover the never-ending city of New York.

Documentation Project 2

Project Description

The activity that we chose as a basis for the interaction and the environment in which it is carried out is pressing a light switch. It is an action that most people become familiar with early on in their lives and they naturally develop an assumption that there should be a change in the lighting of a room when a light switch is pressed. We decided to work with this very natural and intuitive interaction that most people have grown up doing and add an element of surprise and unexpectedness. After pressing the switch, we make the surroundings and the environment suddenly alternate. Although the user begins with being located inside a regular kitchen and dining area, after exploring the room and interacting with two switches placed in the room, the user learns that the space becomes irregular after the switches have been pressed. If one of the switches is responsible for turning on or off the lights in a room, therefore indicating a more natural and common interaction, the other causes fireflies coming from plants to gradually fill up the room. This response transforms the room in an alternate world and gives more capability to the simple interaction of pressing a switch, as the user now learns that there are more possibilities than only the commonly assumed one.

Process and Implementation

Our brainstorming sessions started while still preparing the project for a virtual world using a VR headset and controllers. The initial idea was to illustrate a morning routine and what the effect of a morning coffee has on a person’s mind and imagination, as it comes back to life after the night’s sleep. We were first asked to come up with three interactions and all three that we chose were part of a regular morning routine that many people have. At first, the users would find themselves in a dark hallway where the only thing in front of them would be a door. The back of the hallway would be dark and access to the rest of the hallway would be restricted in the VR environment. Using visual cues such as an apparent handle, we would invite the users to interact with the door eventually opening it and finding themselves inside of a kitchen. There would be different appliances and furniture inside of the kitchen, yet some of the objects would have stronger visual cues than others, therefore guiding the users to explore them in more depth. The first object to appear more apparent would be a light switch which would be responsible for turning on the lights in the room, just as a person does when walking inside of a dark kitchen in the early morning. The next and last object that would allow for an interaction would be a coffee machine. The interaction would be to grab a coffee cup and when it happens, the environment around would suddenly change – the color ambience of the room would become more vibrant, plants in the room would go from dead to green, etc. This reaction would represent the effect of the morning coffee on a person’s mind.

Unfortunately, we all had to adapt our initial ideas and narrow it down to just one interaction that would not be carried out using a VR headset anymore. After discussing with my groupmates, we decided to keep the interaction of pressing a light switch as we thought it was a captivating interaction and we could see using it as a means to still carry out some of the ideas that we had previously brainstormed. Therefore, we changed the concept of the project and decided to make an alternate switch world where instead of only a regular action happening from pressing a light switch also more unprecedented and unusual events would take place, such as turning fireworks outside of the window on or off or filling the room with fireflies. We decided to carry on with the idea of the fireflies instead of the initial idea of color change or dead plants, as we liked the visual effect and feel that the fireflies added to the room. We also added fireworks that are happening outside of the window and which can be turned off by pressing the light switch which also controls the lighting, therefore suggesting an alternate action by using an everyday object. The user starts in a room which is lit up and has fireworks but can then turn off the lighting and the fireworks to move on to to the next switch to fill the now dark room with fireflies.

The everyday component in our world is the initial environment and the room itself, as well as the action that is carried out in this setting. The kitchen and dining area was made to look as realistic as possible with normal and everyday appliances and furniture. The light switches look like regular switches, and we also worked hard to make the visual effect of pressing the switch look natural – the switch flips up or down when the interaction happens. Up to the moment when the user realizes that there are unexpected reactions happening in this world, the user would just think that it is a regular everyday setting. However, once noticing the control over the fireflies and the fireworks, the user realizes that the world is more alternate than an everyday world.

It was definitely a challenge to implement our interaction with using a keyboard instead of a Vive system. When we were thinking about how the user could use the Vive controllers to press the light switch it seemed as a more intuitive interaction, as the user could literally use their hand to approach the switch in the world and then physically press a button on the controller. Because of changing the project to a keyboard, we had to come up with a different solution. In order to move around we used WASD keys, as they are very intuitive in the gaming world. In order to give some guidance to the user about how to press the switch we included some visuals and there is a text box that pops up on the screen with instructions to press the key ‘e’ on the keyboard to press the light switch.

initial moodboard before project alterations

initial storyboard before project alterations

initial game scene after project alterations

updated game scene with ceiling lighting on – kitchen area

the fireflies starting to fill in the room

Reflection/Evaluation

I think that we managed to achieve an alternate world version of our chosen activity because the results from the interaction are very different and unusual from what a user would normally expect from pressing a light switch. In order to make the experience more intuitive to the player we included a small, but in my opinion necessary visual cue which was to add small lights on the switches which would draw the player’s attention to the switch area. In that way, we tried to design a more intuitive experience to the player, similarly as with adding some text when the user enters the switch area and is able to press a key to turn the switch on or off. Overall, I think that the end result was in line with how we had envisioned the revised version of the project. We utilized those keys that we thought would be the most intuitive in a keyboard world. However, I think that if we were able to use the Vive headset and controllers, the medium would allow for a more thorough and memorable experience for the user, both in terms of controlling the interactions and also the immersion within the space.

Agency Question

The action that we designed for the user is the interaction with the light switch. We looked thoroughly to find the most appropriate light switch asset for it to look the most intuitive and natural in order for the user to not confuse it with something else. We wanted the user to start off in the kitchen, look around and be sure right away that there are two light switches located on either side of the walls. We then added the small lights that indicate the player that there is something awaiting them in the switch area, as the lights are subtly inviting them to move forward to the switches. Once the user enters the area we incorporated the textbox that appears on the screen with instructions on what to do next. Ideally, we wanted the user to use their hand to approach it in the direction of the switch and then press a button on the controller if we were using the Vive setup. However, as this option was not possible anymore, we took a step back and looked at the simplest versions of game design. In our opinion, an effective and intuitive way to communicate something in games is by using a subtle text box with instructions, therefore we chose that to communicate to the player. Lastly, we made sure that the switch would change position after it is pressed in order for the user to feel like some action actually took place. We anticipated that he user would otherwise feel a sense of disappointment and unfinishedness if the state of the switch did not change. We think that these steps allow for the user to feel like the action was meaningful, as they have been guided towards the switches by using visual cues and they anticipate something to happen because it is their expectation based on real life precedents when seeing a light switch and pressing it.

Development Journal Project 2

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.

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.

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.

moodboard with inspiration for the kitchen layout, coffee machine, door and light switch

storyboard with what the user’s point of view

12/03/2020 UPDATE

Before project alterations: (before March 4)

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.

After project alterations: (after March 4)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

How Does Response Act as a Medium?

The projects that Myron Krueger describes in his article “Responsive Environments” are primarily all based on the phenomenon that a captivating responsive interaction can be enough on its own. The interaction itself does not need to be very sophisticated as long as the user feels that what he or she is doing is generating some form of an output that is responsive to his or her actions. One of the examples the author gives is his project “Metaplay”. In this project users would use their finger to draw lines which were actually generated by a computer. As it was very difficult to trace the shape of a person’s hand and finger, the actual line output was often not as accurate. However, because of this exciting type of interaction, users were so captivated that they wouldn’t notice the inaccuracy: “Happily, neither the artist nor the audience were concerned about the quality of the drawings. What was exciting was interacting in this novel way through a man-computer-video link spanning a mile” (Krueger 425). In my opinion, this example accurately describes how a response can act as a medium. It happens when the response itself is so novel and fascinating that it completely immerses the user into the interaction. The user then experiences something fully through interacting with the response of the system and having a two-way dialogue with it.

Project 1 Documentation

1. Project Description

When I started brainstorming ideas about the environment I would create for Project 1, I realized that I wanted to make something realistic-looking but with a hint of enhancement. I had recently watched the movie “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and was very amazed with its scenography. The scenes were beautifully set and very atmospheric, and I decided that I would like to recreate a scene inspired by the movie. A vision that I had in mind from the very beginning was a late 1960s Hollywood street with palm trees surrounding the street from both sides, retro cars on the road, some diners and motels on the sides and an endless desert in the background during a beautiful pink-toned sunset. The identity that I was striving for is dreamy, tranquil and deserted. In the finished project the camera’s point of view is in the middle of a street that stretches far into the desert. Palm trees densely surround the street from both sides. There are no cars or buildings, thus enhancing the deserted mood of my environment. Emphasis is put on the sunset, its lighting and colors.

2. Process and Implementation

The process of creating this project started with looking for suitable assets for my environment. The road was an integral part of my scene, therefore I spent some time looking for the most realistic-looking road asset. Instead of having a ready-made road I found an asset that allows to draw a road on a terrain, thus being able to change its width and curvature. After struggling for a bit with making this asset work, I eventually tried out many different shapes of the road to see which one encompassed the feel of my identity the most. I placed the camera in the middle of the road to maximize the view on the surroundings. I created a vast desert on the sides of the road by using the terrain tool in Unity and applying a sand texture to it. I then placed palm trees alongside the road, alternating different types of trees to make them look more natural. The trickiest part of the project was creating the lighting and colors of a sunset. This was the part where I wanted to go for a more unrealistic feel and have very bright sunset colors that look more enhanced than during a real-life sunset. I found a skybox which I liked conceptually (the angle of the setting sun and the clouds), however, I wasn’t convinced with the colors and I wanted to change them. After meeting with Sarah, I learned that I could change the coloring of the skybox in Photoshop, thus I experimented quite a lot with the color palette that I wanted the sunset sky to have. I especially emphasized the pink and the purple colors. After changing the colors of the skybox I also experimented with the environmental lighting in the scene and added two directional lights. One of them is placed closer to the end of the road that is nearer to the sun and that directional light is a yellowish white color. I chose that color because during a sunset there is sometimes a ray of the last sunlight peeking through the clouds and illuminating the ground. I wanted to recreate that feeling by placing a directional light and illuminating the road for one last bit, as well as casting a shadow on the road coming from the palm trees. The other directional light acts from the opposite side of the road and is a darker color – a pink. This light emphasizes the pink ambience of the scene and makes the other side of the sunset look a bit darker. The environmental lighting is also pink to emphasize the pink feeling coming from the atmospheric clouds.

I think that playing with the colors and enhancing them made my world into an alternate world, as it was the only more unrealistic aspect. I wanted to create an environment where one could feel like they can escape to a dreamy sunset and experience colors that they haven’t seen in the real world. Also, the road is eerily empty which only happens in very remote areas. I think this also adds a layer to my alternate reality because usually there is more traffic on roads, therefore my world suggests a more deserted feeling.

The composition of the areas in view was carefully chosen to represent a real-life scene of a road that is situated in the middle of a desert with palm trees on the side. I wanted the user to feel like there is really nothing else in the scene except for the road and the desert on the sides. However, the colors of the sunset are captivating enough to make the user not feel scared but rather calm and peaceful.

moodboard that I created for inspiration

the road asset & terrain with applied and texture

the interactor’s point of view towards the setting sun

the opposite side of the road which is in more shadows

left side view – vast palm trees and vast desert

3. Reflection/Evaluation

I think that the implementation reflects my intended identity, and when being in my environment I feel similarly as what I had imagined while brainstorming ideas in the beginning. What helps my environment to achieve the identity goal is that my environment is located in the middle of the desert with no other living beings or objects around, therefore creating a deserted feeling. The colors of the setting sun hopefully cause the user to feel a tranquil and dreamy feeling and I associate these colors and clouds with something peaceful and safe. Compared to the initial storyboards of my environment, the end result is quite similar, however, not completely the same, as I didn’t include some of the envisioned assets like retro cars and buildings. At first, I had imagined the scene to be filled with more objects, but I was also thinking a lot in terms of the mood and feeling that one would feel while being in my environment. I wanted the mood to be mainly created and emphasized by the sunset, the desert, the road and the palm trees, thus I think that I managed to achieve the mood I was aiming for in my end result.

Lastly, the medium that we worked in was advantageous because Unity allowed to easily manipulate objects in the scene – change their position, change their size, change their color, etc. Therefore, many different versions of the same thing could be created to see which one fits and looks the best. However, in my case, the end result was a build for the computer screen, therefore, it didn’t feel quite realistic when looking at it because there was a notable separation between the environment and the person interacting with it. I would like to also build my project for either Google Cardboard or a VR headset to see whether the environment feels more capturing in that medium.

Development Journal Project 1

12/02/2020

For the first project I want to put emphasis on the mood and ambience of my environment. I was inspired by the scenography of the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It is set in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, the so-called final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age. In the movie, the streets are filled with retro cars and palm trees on the side. Buildings such as diners, motels and restaurants are illuminated with colorful neon luminescent signs. I was especially drawn to the scenes that are set in the evening or at night, as they have a very particular feel and atmosphere.

I then started looking for picture references and more inspiration for my own environment. I was looking at references from 1960s/1970s Los Angeles as well as modern day Cuba (as it is very much the same as in the 1960s). The images that spoke to me the most were the ones in sunset and I especially liked the colors of the sky and the clouds. Although in the beginning I was convinced that I would try to recreate a very realistic environment, I then realized that I would rather make something more dreamy and unrealistic. I decided that I would emphasize some aspects of a sunset such as lighting and colors so that it looks more vibrant and mesmerizing than in real life.

Sunset in one of the favorite parts of my day and I enjoy taking some time to appreciate it whenever possible. Although I have seen some very beautiful and colorful sunsets, the overall ambience is almost never as intense and rich as in edited and enhanced pictures. Therefore, in my environment I will really emphasize the pink and purple tones in the sky and the clouds. The surroundings will be in line with the atmosphere of the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The person will be standing in the middle of the road and will be looking at retro cars along the road, ocean in the distance, palm trees on both sides of the road and if possible – some buildings such as a diner or a motel with a neon sign by the road. The clouds will be pink and purple and the light will illuminate the road as well as the vast desert on the sides of the road.

Here is the moodboard for my project with pictures that inspired me:

Here are the sketches of the assets:

Here is the storyboad:

16/02/2020 UPDATE

Since starting to work on my project in Unity, I set myself the main goal of trying to get the overall environment as close as possible to what I had imagined and then concentrate on details. Therefore, I started by creating a desert which would be surrounding the road on both sides and would stretch until the horizon. For the desert, I created a plane and found a suitable texture that looked like sand which I applied to the plane. I then tried to figure out how to make a road in Unity and found a useful asset called “EasyRoads3D”. I watched and read through several tutorials on how to use this asset, however, unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to work, as the roads would not appear in my game scene. I am still unsure about the reason for this issue and will talk to professor Sarah in class on Monday, February 17 about how to solve this.

Besides trying to make a road, I started working on the lighting of my environment. It turned out to be quite challenging to achieve the pinkish dreamy ambience that I had imagined. Instead of being dreamy my attempts looked harshly pink and too unnatural (although I want the colors to be amplified, I also want to keep a sense of reality). I therefore added a sunset sky and pink lighting which reflects well on the sand and makes it look pink. I also added some palm trees in my scene and really liked how the pink light reflected on the palm trees, thus I am curious to see how the scene looks when I manage to add the road. I am hoping that it might look quite subtle as the road will naturally be dark and therefore absorb most of the pink light.

For the upcoming days, I need to first figure out how to properly use the “EasyRoads3D” asset and make a road. Then I need to place palm trees along the road and either find a car asset or try to make one myself, as I still haven’t started doing that. I realized that having cars is not the most integral part of my environment, therefore I will leave that to the end and first concentrate on getting all the other components such as the desert, the road, the lighting and the palm trees right.

18/02/2020 UPDATE

Since the last update I managed to figure out how to use the “EasyRoads3D” asset. The reason why it was previously not working was because I tried to add the road on a plane instead of a terrain which it is meant to be used on. Therefore, I changed the plane to a terrain and created a curvy road. I also managed to add a sand texture to the terrain which I could not figure out at first.

Then I planted palm trees consistently along the road, alternating different styles of trees but mostly sticking to the most classic looking. After all the main assets were present in the scene I returned back to experimenting with lighting and trying to make it look more like I had envisioned and represented in my moodboard. However, it still wasn’t what I had imagined, thus, I scheduled a meeting with Sarah and went over some useful tips that could be done to change the overall lighting and color of the environment. I was very happy to find out that it is possible to change the coloring of a skybox in Photoshop because that helped me to achieve what I wanted. I used the same sunset skybox asset that I had previously found and changed the color balance, exposure, vibrance and brightness settings to match the skybox to the sky I had imagined.

Lastly, I also experimented with the directional lights in the scene. I found that they work the best from the different lighting types available in Unity. I ended up using two directional lights and I placed one of them closer to the edge of the terrain on the lightest side of the sky. Because the sunset skybox that I am using already has a lighter side which looks like the sun is setting there, I decided to maximize that effect and emphasize the illusion of light falling from that direction. Therefore, the shadows from the palm trees fall in the “correct” direction and the scene looks more natural. The other directional light is pink and comes from the opposite side than the first directional light, therefore, creating an illusion of a pink reflection on the opposite side of the trees. Therefore, the other side of the road where the sun is not setting is much darker and more purple. I also tried baking the lighting, however, my computer’s processing power was not enough to be able to do it and after 6 hours of waiting I gave up, as it was still showing an estimated time of 20 hours.

the side where the sun is setting and the light is coming from

the opposite side: darker and more “shadowy”

Hamlet on the Holodeck Chapter 3 Response

I think that from Murray’s four principal properties, the one that VR represents the most is the spatial affordance, however, it is also largely based on the remaining three. To me, spatiality is the definition of VR, as almost any environment can be created in VR. VR is unique because by physically remaining in the same location, the user can “travel” to any space, whether it is a different country or the middle of a patient’s stomach during a surgery. VR is different from other media because it creates the effect of feeling physically present in a certain space, thus being more realistic than imagining a space by reading a book or seeing it on a computer screen.

Compared to Murray’s description of the interactive fiction computer game Zork, VR is a huge breakthrough in terms of visualizing and experiencing a space. Whereas Zork provided the user simply with text for imagining spatial situations and making certain choices in them, VR combines giving the user the option of an action with visual and sensory add-ons. A user can not only see these options in front of their eyes in the headset but also hold certain objects or sometimes even move around to experience the environment as vividly as mimicking a real-life situation.