Project 3 - Perspective
Introduction
Project 3 is a modification of Project 2, so it can be viewed from different perspectives. It showcases how a single environment can be changed and modified to give the user different VR experiences. 4 new scenes were added in Project 3, Land of the Giants, Mego Playset, Dancing on the Cieling and Zero Gravity. In Land of the Giants the player experiences the environment from the perspective as if they are just 1 foot tall. It gives the player the feeling of being the main character from "Honey I shrunk the kids". For the Mego Playset, the room created for Project 2 is transformed into a playhouse that the user can interact and play with, by taking out models from the room or changing their positions. There are also two extra animated interactable objects placed outside the house along with a torch. For Dancing on the Ceiling, the player is inside the room and can rotate the room around them and see the objects fall around and move through them. The player can rotate the room in increments of 90 degrees on a particular axis. In Zero Gravity, the player is in the room and all the objects/models have zero gravity, thus they are floating around. The player can interact with them and move them around. To navigate through all these scenes a spatial menu is created that the player can access in all the scenes by the press of a button on the controller. You can use the controllers to access different menus and functionalities which will be stated below and you can also walk around in the environment.
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Downloading the Code and Further Instructions
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To run this application you must have enough space, approximately 8-10 GB. Once you have enough space you can start by downloading the code from here.
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To open this application you will have to download Unity. You can do so from here. You will need the version 2019.4.28f1, to make sure the application runs properly. You can find this version in the Unity download archive here.
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Download Unity Hub as it will help you download any extra packages and help you in adding projects to Unity, you can also add modules and different versions. You can download it here
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Once you have downloaded the above, open Unity Hub and click on "Add" and choose the project code that you downloaded in the first step.
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This project uses a Virtual Reality Toolkit known as VRTK v4 (latest version).
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Now that you have opened the project in Unity, if you're connected to the Internet all the packages should be installed on its own. To check go to Windows > Package Manager and look for tillia packages. Tillia packages are important for system functionality.
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You can skim through all the scenes from the Scenes folder in Assets. To build it, go to Build Settings and start with the ScareCo offices scene which is Project 2. Then you can go to another scene and click on add open scenes. This way ScareCo offices is the first scene you land in. You can change it as well.
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After adding all scenes, if you have a Oculus Quest headset, connect it to your laptop/PC with a suitable chord. Check that in all the scenes "CameraRigs.Spatial Simulator" is turned off. Then click on Android, click on Switch Platform. This might take some time. Then choose your device and click on Build and Run.
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In case you don't have a headset you can turn off "CameraRigs.UnityXR" and switch to "CameraRigs.Spatial Simulator". This will let you enjoy the application on your laptop/PC.
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For headset users, once it's done building you can disconnect the chord, go to Apps > Unknown Sources > SamhainophobiaVersions, and you can start your experience.
Hope you enjoy it!
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Project 3
The entire Project 3 consists of the following scenes/assets along with the requirements:​
Menu
Menu consisting of spatial buttons
The player can access this menu in all of the scenes by pressing the fourth button on their Left Controller. (The 'Y' button)
To interact with the menu the player needs to use the joystick on the Right Controller and click using that.
This menu helps the user switch between the scenes.
The spatial menu is connected to the head of the player, so it'll move with the player.
To close the menu, the player can simply press on the fourth button ('Y') on the Left Controller again.
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ScareCo Office (Project 2)
Project 2 Scene​
Project 2 was based on creating a virtual space catering to a phobia to help people overcome their phobia by easing up in the space. I had chosen Samhainophobia as my main topic. Samhainophobia is the morbid fear of Halloween.Halloween has many scary things associated with it, including ghosts, witches, skeletons, spiders, cats, bats, and vampires and plenty of many other scary spooky things which can all be aided to the development of the phobia. The phobia is also caused by religious beliefs surrounding Halloween. Another cause of Samhainophobia is watching horror films associated with Halloween.
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You can find all the details of this project on the page dedicated to Project 2.
Land of the Giants
Land of the Giants Player Perspective​
In this scene, the player experiences the ScareCo Office from the perspective of being 1foot tall. The player starts out on one of the tables in the scene. Here the menu is scaled according to Player's height. The player can walk around as well as teleport in this space.
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Requirements:
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The player size should be 1 foot tall.
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The player has access to ladders that they can use to climb up and down the tables.
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10 new objects are added to the tables according to their normal scale, out of these 5 are interactable objects.
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Assets Used:
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For the 5 interactable objects, I have placed them on the first table the player lands on. All these models were created by me using Blender.
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Pencil
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Pen Holder
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Paint Tube
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Stress Ball
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Energy Drink
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Interactable Objects in Scene​
Interactable Objects in Blender
The other 5 objects that I used are from the Internet:
Extra Objects in Scene
Mego Playset
Mego Playset Player Perspective
In this scene, the player experiences the ScareCo Office as a playhouse placed on the floor. The player will have to bend/sit down to interact with it. They can play with the objects and move them around. Initially the player is supposed to take the roof off. All of the objects are interactable except for the walls and floor. The player can walk around as well as teleport in this space.
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Requirements:
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It should have two new animated dolls that are interactable
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It should have a virtual lamp that you can turn on and off.
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Assets Used:
I used two animated models from Adobe Mixamos:
Both of these characters have some animation to them, you can check it out in the video.
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The knife and pickaxe emitters which are there in Project 2 have been disabled for this scene.
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Arissa
Douglas​
Animated Dolls
For the Virtual Lamp I created a torch that the player can pick and use to see the objects more clearly. You can turn the Torch ON/OFF using the first button on the Right Controller ('A' button)
Torch when OFF
Torch when ON
Zero Gravity
Zero Gravity Player Perspective
In this scene, the player experiences the ScareCo Office where the objects have zero gravity. The player can pick any objects and flunk them in the space. They can play with the objects and move them around. All of the objects are interactable except for the walls and floor. The player can walk around as well as teleport in this space.
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Requirements:
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All objects must be interactable and have zero gravity.
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The player Should also have zero gravity (Isn't possible in my application)
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The knife and pickaxe emitters which are there in Project 2 have been disabled for this scene.
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Video for Demonstration
Essay
Project 3 has given us more depth and quality in its approach, making people wonder how VR can be used to create genuinely complex environments. It helps us put together different perspectives of the same scene while providing us with completely different experiences.
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The Mego Playset version shows how components of a complex environment can be updated and improved by simply scaling them to a miniature one. It is very similar to how architects show their final project as a miniature to potential investors and customers, so they can see the whole picture from afar. Anything with great detail can be scaled to any size, making it more useful. It can be used by climbers to understand the terrain of a mountain much better if they had the exact replica but in a reasonable size so they can navigate their route accordingly. It has many applications in various fields, and it can always be used as a mode of entertainment like we did in this project.
The Land of the Giants perspective can be used in various scenarios where the user is exploring a virtual world from the perspective of being 1 foot tall . For instance, it could be utilized to study objects and surfaces from the perspective of a small animal/robot. It can be used to identify and study objects that would require a microscopic perspective which would not normally be possible with our naked eye. It can be used to explore complex chemical structures and their patterns, as it would be easier to explore it if the person was smaller than a single electron. That would change our perspective completely and help us come up with better solutions to problems.
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Zero gravity perspective makes it really fun and actually simulate a close to zero gravity experience, as you can see how the objects would interact and how the collisions would differ. This feature can not only be used to experiment with Zero gravity only, we can play around with the gravity and increase it or decrease it to see how the objects will react with different forces of Gravity. This is helpful for simulation of different planets with varying gravities and how an environment will be affected on those planets.
A menu-driven experience is an integral part of any VR environment. It can help the user navigate the whole experience and control various aspects of it. A menu is the basic necessity to navigate in a VR environment and provides critical information to the user.