Build-a-Furniture

This week I updated the image for the catalogue and added it to the Living Room environment as an image plane (~2hrs). I am currently adding smaller clickable planes on top of it to represent the different furniture options to choose to build. A screenshot of this can be seen below. I also looked for some sound effects to use for user feedback (~2hrs) when pieces are combined together correctly, incorrectly, pieces are dropped, etc. These sound files have been added to the shared drive and will be implemented in the code in the next few days. Some example sounds can be listened to at the following links: https://freesound.org/people/NenadSimic/sounds/150879/ https://freesound.org/people/grunz/sounds/109662/ https://freesound.org/people/GabrielAraujo/sounds/242501/ https://freesound.org/people/kirbydx/sounds/175409/  I also worked on adding JSON for the builder.js and finder.js files to store the required information for the instructions (~1hr). An example o...

This week, I completed stripping the shelf apart to create separate components, as I did with the other two furniture pieces. I also rendered each component from each piece of furniture so that they can be used in the instruction manual. Finally, I added onto the blueprint of shape match from last week to incorporate the shelf, as well as the repetition of each step. This can be seen in the image below. Finally, each component has the coloured symbols placed in the right places and have been exported as GLTF to import into AFrame (~7hrs) This week, I also went to procure a VR headset. With the state of things in the world, I had to be quick to contact Carleton's BIT department but was able to successfully obtain an Oculus Rift to do testing within VR. It took time to set everything up but I got it running in the end, however, I had many difficulties operating the WebVR space. Using the rift is extremely draining and I had several headaches afterwards. As of now, I'm una...

This week, I worked on creating all the instructions images for both the Warehouse and the Living Room. Although this was not a very difficult task, it was tedious to work on and took around 3hrs to complete. It was a challenge to adjust to our new schedules given the current circumstances and allot appropriate time to spend on each of our classes. The instructions in the Living Room show the current required furniture pieces and their quantities, which the Builder will need to communicate to the Finder in the Warehouse. See below for an example of pieces required for a table. On the other hand, the instructions in the Warehouse would show the symbols on the different furniture pieces that should touch in order to be combined, which the Finder will need to communicate to the Builder in the Living Room. See below for an example where the green heart marking should be made to touch the green circle marking. I will be putting the source link for these instructions into arr...

With the situation with COVID-19, scheduling of various projects has been interrupted greatly, including the progress on this project. Originally, it was planned that we would present the Beta build of our game, however that changed in the wake of the epidemic. Instead, I put together a video highlighting the key features, changes since Alpha, and what's to come before the final submission (~4hrs). Besides the Beta, I had intended to work on VR functionality and getting VR controls working whilst doing testing with an actual VR headset. Unfortunately, this was interrupted by the outbreak so I shifted my focus on the other furniture. I returned to the Table model and stripped it further by removing the skirt from the tabletop. I've also adjusted the symbols on the component to make them smaller and more distinct. The smaller size allows the symbols to get hidden after combining (~2hrs). Previously, the components had greenStar --> greenStar everywhere. Although the ma...

A major task I worked on this week for the Beta presentation was a function to convert the JSON I created with all the furniture parts information into HTML entities that could be added to the scene when "spawned". This took around 6hrs and I learned that JavaScript does not take well to retrieving property names containing dashes in in JSON. This led to issues with trying to directly convert from using the property names stored in JSON with the associated values, since the properties needed dashes to work as an A-Frame entity in HTML. I also initially had some challenges with querying the JSON objects since the data for each furniture piece is contained in the furniture object, therefore the query must account for multiple layers of arrays. However, the object spawning now works as tested in the Warehouse environment by clicking on specific boxes (which have yet to be labeled). I will be adding the other box spawners once the furniture parts 3D models are ready to be impor...

I spent the earlier parts of this week to fix up some problems with the furniture (~4hrs). This included going back into Maya and Substance Painter to readjust the geometry so it's scaled correctly and adjusting the colours a little to match the lighting more. I also returned to the Warehouse for a bit to readjust the colour, specularity, and design on the scaffold boards. Previously, I was using template flowers at the beginning of each scaffold to describe what kinds of furniture components are found in each row. I've since created silhouettes of each piece of furniture and replace the flower templates with them (~2hrs). Finally, the bulk of this week was working on the Living Room. The last time I touched it was for the design comp and alpha prototype, which revealed many design flaws that need adjustments. I redesigned the entire environment to provide more room to work with in VR. This was challenging because I needed to provide a lot more space, but also did not want ...

This week involved a lot of switching out primitive geometries for GLTF models, which led to their own set of issues such as larger file sizes, new snapping points and repositioning/resizing everything within the scenes. I started this process with the Warehouse scene, screenshots of which can be seen below. In addition to bringing the GLTF model into a newly created warehouse.html file, I also added lights in the scene, a bright green "shipping platform", an image plane to display instructions in front of the platform, and some boxes on the shelves that will serve as spawn points for furniture pieces when the Finder clicks on them. This took ~4hrs, and I had to relay information about how the scene looked in A-Frame to Maxime since it was quite different from its appearance in Substance. On average, it currently takes about 3-5 seconds to load the Warehouse scene with all of its 3D assets and sound files. How the Warehouse looked when I initially imported it: How the ...

Based on feedback from the alpha build and some considerations from the rest of the team, I spent the week redesigning (~9hrs) the design of the warehouse and retexturing (~5hrs) it to fit the aesthetic of the furniture more. Some of the changes made to the warehouse include the following. First off, the game will only support three pieces of furniture to build, therefore it was unnecessary to have five rows of scaffolding. This is also supported by our attempts to reduce the poly count as well as create more space between shelves. From the way players moved into the environment, it was clear that there was too little space between shelves to removes boxes, so this was reduced. There was also too much unnecessary space in the front of the warehouse, so everything was pushed forward more while cropping the back end a little to reduce the poly count further. The doors of the warehouse were also redesigned to add more interest in that section of the environment. (~4hrs) Next, I UV map...

This week I worked on creating moodboards (~5hrs) for the Living Room environment because the current look left a lot to be desired. I find it helpful to follow a colour scheme when decorating a room in real life, so that is what I basically made before also showing how the colours could look like over top a render of the Living Room model. For our game, we would like to have a bright living room that has some pops of colour for interest. A similar style will also be used for the furniture. Below are some of the resulting ideas I had: Out of the new coloured room options, the group preferred the 1st one and the 4th one the best. In the near future, after Maxime finalizes the Living Room environment model, I will be updating the materials. I also created a moodboard for the Warehouse environment as well (~1hr, see image below). This required a bit of research on warehouses, which I did in a previous sprint. I noticed that common colours in warehouses were grey, ...

This week, I completed modelling (4hrs) and texturing (7hrs) the furniture that will be used in the scene. It took longer than I expected because I had difficulty nailing down an art style while also working with new techniques in Substance Painter that I wasn't familiar with. A big challenge was finding a style that I really liked and understanding how to achieve that. My experience is more in realistic modelling and texturing where it's easy to see where things don't look right. However, with stylized pieces, it's up to my own interpretation. I'm also working with a very base, low-resolution mesh because I want to avoid creating too much detail through normal or height maps. The simpler, the better, but, the simpler, the less there is to work with. The grand solution in nailing down a flexible art style was through the use of ambient occlusion. By baking the same model over itself, I get an AO map, which already improves the look dramatically as it removes ...

This week, the team presented our proposal for our project as well as demonstrated the alpha build. In its current state, the living room and warehouse environments are at their most primitive states and will be developed further over time. In future plans, I will have to redesign the living room to allocate more space to the user. It's currently too small and claustrophobic, which makes it difficult for a VR user to have enough building space. I spent the days prior to the presentation polishing the design comps then producing OBJ files of the environments to insert into A-Frame. I did this by going back and forth between a-frame and Maya and resizing the scene until it was the ideal size. This way, Mitchell is able to simply drag and drop the obj into the project without having to tweak the transformations (~5hrs). Table Model with UVs Chair Model with UVs Shelf Model with UVs After the presentations, I began working on modelling the 3 pieces of furniture that pl...

This week, a large majority of both environments have been modelled (~2hrs)  to their fundamentals. The main focus for me was producing the design comps, which I did by setting up a camera in one angle of the environment that captures a scene from the wireframe. All objects in that shot are UV mapped (~4hrs) then brought to Substance Painter for texturing and rendering (~7hrs). The final results are seen below. The warehouse will contain a wide space for the user to work with. The green platform as seen on the right-hand side of the design comp is a dropbox for them to deliver the correct components, which are found in the scaffolded aisles. These aisles are labelled by the icon by its front, which determines what parts for which piece of furniture is found. The living room has a more simple design that will probably be tweaked and improved over time. Boxes containing the building components sent from the warehouse and are delivered through the chimney. Both of these desi...

I finished up on some graphical elements for the user interaction specification component of the proposal due this coming Friday. This includes the storyboard panels and the physical layout diagram. As I was researching Oculus Rift physical setups, I had to determine how many sensors we would need for our game. I believe that 2 sensors will be sufficient, since we do not need a true 360 degrees experience as the Builder player will primarily be focused on the 180 degree space in front of them (i.e. the fireplace, the TV, and building the furniture). Our game is not an action packed game with any running or shooting. Of course, the player will still be able to fully look around but they shouldn't have a great need to move in the other 180 degrees of space. This would also take into consideration accessibility to our game, because it costs extra to buy a third sensor (the Rift only comes with 2) as well as requiring adapters and wire extensions. I spent about 4 hours researching ...

This week's focus has mainly been on writing the design document and preparing for the alpha prototype (~2hrs). A great majority of the written sections in our proposal is complete while a large chunk of graphics remains to be developed in the coming week. The sooner the design document is complete, the better of an idea we have in how the project will turn out in the end.  On my end, I am responsible for 3D modelling the environments that will be used in the alpha demo. These are also necessary for producing design comps. The environments will be very low poly environments using primitive shapes and basic forms to form the rooms, nothing too extravagant. Below are a few screenshots of the environments in their current state: Living Room (~3hrs) that will be played in VR and the Warehouse (~4hrs) on desktop; all modelled in Maya. Warehouse Back Side Warehouse Front Gate Warehouse Top-Down View Living Room Back View Living Room Front View Living Roo...