Adding the Models and Socket.io

This week involved touching on a few different systems to fine tune existing modules as well as create new modules.  Two components that had the most focus were replacing the primitive models with the GLTF models Max created (~8-10 hours), and separating the living-room and warehouse into two separate HTML files as well implementing Socket.io to allow player game-mode selection (~4-5 hours). The rest of my time was spent on smaller functionality like player speed tweaks and consolidating a-mixins for the for their data to be move to the object JSON file (~2 hours)

Alpha Table

Beta Table

Replacing the primitive chair pieces with their models proved to be far more difficult than anticipated, as usual.  The process should have just involved replacing the 'geometry' with the 'gltf-model' component and then adjusting the aframe-physics 'shape' components to create bounding boxes that fit the models, but there were some unexpected side effects.  First, since the shape component relies on 'half-extents' to create the bounding box, we needed to find the dimensions of each model in Maya and them to dimensions in Aframe.  The second issue I faced involved strange behaviours that the models exhibited when interacting with the physics system.  All the table legs behaved like they had very low centres of gravity and they could not be knocked over, but the table top was totally fine.  I eventually narrowed the issue down to the fact that the table leg model was not properly zeroed, so Max exported a new version for me.  Another issue with the models was that they were much more difficult to pick up and they oscillated when picked up and moved quickly.  This seems to have been mostly fixed by increasing the scale of the models, though it still occurs if the user quickly rotates the view while holding an object, so is something I am still working on.

Since we have two different environments that offer different gameplay I needed to separate the warehouse and living-room into two HTML files and then create a nexus room that allows players to select and navigate to either room. This meant I also had to recreate an normal HTML navigation link as an Aframe component.  As it turned out, this was quite simple:

AFRAME.registerComponent('navigate',
{
    schema: {
        url: { default: '' }
    },

    init: function ()
    {
        var data = this.data;
        var el = this.el;

        el.addEventListener('click', function ()
        {
            window.location.href = data.url;
        });
    }
});        

The next few days will be spent implementing the game system that will co-ordinate the two players as they construct the furniture.