Research 2 of 3

10/20/18

Today I researched Voice user interface (VUI) and read up on the Alexa Voice Design Guide to get a better idea of how skills work. I think I jumped right into learning how to build a skill through YouTube videos without much of a research foundation. Now I am focused on some self-teaching to learn how to make this skill as efficient as possible.

I looked into the cultural aspects of my project by learning about the most popular spice blends per geographical region. This led to my first prototype idea: an Alexa skill that will give you spice recommendations based on the regional food the cook decides to make. For example, if you wanted to make a Mexican flavor inspired meal, you’d ask Alexa for her Latin American spice suggestions and she will give the top five most common spices from the area, optimally common enough that most people would already have at home.

My next step will be looking into spice blending and consulting experts.

10/23/18

I did more research on VUI frontend work and took a glimpse into backend work. This might prove to be more coding-intensive than I originally thought.

After some correspondence with Dr. Nakra and her husband, it turns out I’ll need to do much more research on how the spice rack will be executed. RFID has been ruled out at this point, and now I am looking into a possible Bluetooth-like solution.

10/25/18

In my Dynamic Web Apps course, we are learning to use databases. I decided to make my final project a virtual spice rack that keeps track of all the spices the user has in their possession. As I continue to learn more about databases, this could potentially help me with my thesis project in the future.

Research Update #2

So, what to talk about this week? There’s a whole bunch I could cover in this second part, so let’s just talk about modding as a whole, from the activity’s past to its present community. I’ve already covered one of the first popular mods to be passed around the community titled, “Castle Smurfenstien”. Image result for castle smurfenstein This mod took the original Castle Wolfenstein and replaced the Nazi sprites with that of Smurfs.

This comedic and lighthearted tone will carry on in modding throughout the ages. The process of swapping sprites and models will live on as well. For example, in Skyrim, there is a mod that swaps the Dragon models with Thomas the Tank Engine. Yes, you heard me. Watch at your own risk. Once the immensely popular Doom came out, modding soon followed, replacing sprites with anything the user could dream up. The developers of Doom even gave a package of easily accessed game files to the community in order for them to be able to make their own levels. Mod-friendly developers have been a godsend to the community because you’ll never really stop the modders, so might as well help them. You may ask why a developer would go out of their way to allow their fans to easily replace their dragons with trains. Well, having a healthy modding community extends the lifetime of your game by spades. Heck, Fallout: New Vegas has been out for eight whole years and still has a large player base thanks to its constant release of awesome mods. Actually, a team just released a huge mod for New Vegas called Fallout: New California.

In 2007, a website called Nexusmods went live right before the release of Fallout 3. This site has since become the place that most modders go to upload and share their mods for a variety of games. This site hosts 263,928 files for 619 games from 85,195 authors and it’s open for anyone to join and download from. This place has gathered mods together for easiest access and reaches the largest player base as it can. The site has also released its own tool to make the downloading of mods much easier for the casual fans who may not know too much about files and folders. The Nexus Mod Manager allows for you to connect to your game and the site. A simple button press on the site will send the mod’s files right to your NMM and apply the files to your game. Some mod installations are as simple as two clicks. I anticipate that the mod I will be working on will be just as simple as that. I honestly can’t wait until I can share my finished mod to the world on this site and finally enter the modding community as an author.

Research Update #1

While I wasn’t able to set aside time to find/use a VR headset to test some games, I did learn a lot about how to make a VR game in Unity. Like most things in Unity it’s easy to start, but difficult to polish. Unity has a helpful tutorial that walks you though the basics of VR development with helpful videos, explanations, code, and tips. Unity has many more VR tutorials of increasing difficulty and scope that I’ll need to review/practice on my own to get a feel for how the engine handles things.

I also realized I’ll need to take an in-depth look on how to make effects (smoke, fire, lighting, etc.) in my project and how I’d import them into Unity. I’ll also need to look up a lot of reference on how to use Unity’s physics engine as I have little to no experience with it.

I’ve started compiling a list of the various potions the player can make in the game and thinking about how they can make them. I’ve been researching various mythos on potions, spells, and magic for inspiration. These have lead to me including ingredients I never would of thought of on my own and fun nods I can make to their origin.

Research Plan

Since I’m very familiar with 3D modeling and the software involved, the main focus of my research is going to be on game design and coding. I’m currently in Game Design 1 class and learning the basics of coding in Unity. While I do have a basic knowledge of how to code simple games, this project is more elaborate and requires me to do a lot of research to see how much the Unity engine is capable of. I know it has been used to make several VR games, but I don’t know how different coding for VR is vs. coding for a computer game.

I’ll also have to go through other VR games that have been made, and possibly play them if I can use a headset, to get a feel for how those games feel to play. The controls will be a very important part of my project because I don’t want the player to feel that they aren’t responsive enough or too responsive. It needs to find a nice balance that will most likely result from a lot of trial and error.

Finalized Concept

The Project

My project idea is to create an interactive virtual reality tech demo where the player character can interact with various physics objects in their environment. The setting is in a wizard’s hut filled with strange plants, viles, books, and a cauldron. The focus of this experience is to mix potions in the cauldron in the middle of the room. They would do this by selecting object and pouring/placing them in the cauldron to make various potions with increasing difficulty and powerful effects. There will be a large potion book the player can flip through to see the various potions they’ve made and how they made them.

Last semester in my animation class my final project was a wizard’s room stylized to look like a low poly game similar to late 90s and early 2000s 3D games. While the model in the final project were serviceable, over the course of the past couple of months my skills in 3D modeling and texture work have advanced. Because of this I wanted to revisit that old project in a new light. I really love 3D environmental design and focusing my thesis around it seemed like the obvious choice. This project will also give me a great portfolio piece once it’s complete because I hope to pursue 3D environmental design and texturing as a career.

Why My Project?

There are a lot of VR games and experiences already out there, but I feel very few take advantage of their medium. The goal of my project is to create an immersive environment the player and walk through and interact with in an engaging way. I’ll be focusing on VR headsets that include handheld controllers to help with this immersion. The player will need to physically reach out and grab the objects they want to interact with and maneuver. The experience will be a calming one the players can easily jump in and out of, it’s not meant to have a lot of mechanics. It’s something they’d play to unwind.

I’ve seen a lot of different VR games, from ports of popular console titles to game specifically made for the console. What I feel will separate mine is its overall tone. It’s meant to relieve stress and help the player relax similar to something like Abzu (a game where you gently move through a colorful and scenic ocean) but with the interactivity and VR capabilities of a game like I Expect You To Die (a spy games that has you go through various missions but has time limits and different elements to increase the difficulty of each stage and induce stress).

Style

My project takes a lot of aesthetic influence from 3D games that came out in the late 90s and early 00s. These games had a more cartoonish styles (whether intentional or not) due to the limitations of the hardware at the time. This resulted in characters and environment with sharper edges and clear geometric shapes in their designs. My project won’t actually be low poly like their inspiration, but rather a more modern version of that style. My models will be more details and have cleaner models, but retain that geometric focus and cartoon aesthetic.

From Concept to Prototype

Taking this project from concept to prototype will be a bit of a challenge, but one I’m confident I can complete. My first step would be modeling the different environmental set pieces that will be in the scene using various programs (Maya, Zbrush, Substance Designer) then arranging them into a game engine. I’ll be using Unity for this project because of it’s VR capabilities. Once in Unity I can begin to assemble the scene and fiddle with the physics of the engine. From there I will write and edit code to make it into a proper interactive experience.

Research Update 1

For the first research update I learned about video production and editing. The resourse that I used to find this information is from Lynda.com. While putting together my research plan one of the main skills that I knew I needed to learn or grow more in was in film production. Throughout the video playlist the viewers were taught of the different aspects of production and editing. I have always believed that editing was simple and the least important. These videos have changed my perception and have caused me to changed the way I approach editing videos and I have gained a new respect for this part of the creative class. The expect giving these lesson is Rob Garrott, the content manager for video production and editing at at lynda.com.

One of the first points that Rob brought the attention of the viewers is the importance of having a clear creative goal before shooting even begins. In my past experiences I would go into the field and begin filming based off all the ideas and concepts that are scattered throughout my mind. I often found myself very frustrated while filming and now I understand why. Rob often argued that pre-production is the most important part of the entire process. The example he would give is that you would never see a musician going on stage without practicing his instrument and receive a standing ovation, and the same goes for filmmakers and producers. It would be ignorant for a producers or filmmaker to go onto the field without practicing or having a plan of action. It’s important to be able to describe your vision with clearly with words. If you are having a hard time accomplishing this then it’s imperative to go back to the drawing board and work out more of the kinks that still linger.

Another interesting part of the video series was how Rob broke down the three stories that every film has. The first story that every film has is the story that you wrote and conceive; the second story is the one you shoot in your camera; the third story is the one that you edit. All three of these stories should be able to work harmoniously and create a fluid storyline that supports the vision and creative goal that was created in the very beginning of the creative process. Something else that stood out to me was when Rob was speaking on the control and power that the editor has. Editors have the power to manipulate the viewer’s perceptions by how the various elements are pieced together. While the director camera crew and providing the shots and scenes of the film it’s actually the editor who has the most control. The way a video is editing is the reason for audience reactions and emotions throughout the film. For example when watching a horror movie or thriller the way a scene is edited brings out the emotions of the viewers. While the actors and directors play a pivotal role as well it the way the shadows are presented in the room and how the music is lingering in the background and then fades out to really put the view on the edge of his or her seat.

It’s very interesting how these videos have broken down the importance of production and editing. One of the most important concepts from the videos was how editing is a creative process and like any creative process it takes trial and error and forces one to really be creative and dig down deep inside one’s self to find solutions and beauty to the film. The skills and knowledge that I have acquired from this will be very instrumental in the production of my project and will prove to play a pivotal role in how I attack this film and guide my throughout the creative process.

Research Plan

I have been thinking about my plan is to do research and understand how games that have a changing overworld can do it easily. I can look up and research games that have a world changing mechanic based on the choices that the player makes. I also need to find the right questions and writing for the questions and dialogue that should be used to change the world. And lastly, I need to figure a simple yet good design for the looks of the game, as well as the changes I need in the game.

Final Concept

My final idea for the game is the concept of making a personality quiz, but as a game. The player will have a small area to look around in and talk to people, and the people will ask you simple but very deep questions. Your responses will change how the world appears and changes. The options you perceive as true will be reflected in the world. There are five simple questions that have huge philosophical impacts. There is no right or wrong answers, but things can change for better or worse.

The world will only have two city blocks and a small park. They change as you answer the five or more questions. They world At the end, your results will be tallied, and you get a special message depending on the results, and which questions you chose which answers for. More positive choices will receive more realistic responses, showing some things in the world are not so perfect. Not to downplay or harm a person’s positivity, but maybe they do not see problems that the world faces from their thinking. If the results are more negative, they will receive positive messages about the world, showing their negativity may be misplaced.

Research Update 1/3

Building the holograms

To start building a base of resources I can reference when building the actual project, I started out researching a couple tutorials on how to make holograms.

There were a couple different methods to create the actual videos to be projected, but they all seem to have the basic idea.

How to Make a Hologram Video in PowerPoint (Yes, Way!)

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-hologram-video-for-DIY-3D-Hologram-P/

Sustainability/data research

Again, I put the UN sustainable development goals site into my bank of resources (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300). Since I wanted to focus on environmental sustainability, I decided to look into statistics and facts within this area. Here are a couple sites I found:

https://ourworldindata.org/forests
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/envstats/qindicators.cshtml

Professor Ault lent me a couple of books about designing for social impact that I’ve been reading for inspiration, and there are some parts in it related to sustainability. I also found this article on how data visualization can help the environment: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/dust-in-the-wind-how-data-visualization-can-help-the-environment/

Whiiiiich brings me to my next point:

Narrative

My main objective, and perhaps most challenging, is developing a narrative that will be provocative, as well as take advantage of the holographic technology I plan to utilize. It can be argued that the keystone of storytelling is emotional evocation. But with the rise of social media, the internet, and readily available multimedia, creating narratives (whether it be data vis or an actual storyline) with significant emotional impact that doesn’t wear off after the story is over becomes harder. There was one study done where virtual reality was used to demonstrate the impact of pollution on coral reefs, amongst other environmental issues (https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/how-virtual-reality-tech-will-help-the-environment_uk_59a7f038e4b010ca289a8578?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=SBZq0XkjgZ3oS5dW39gLVQ). These experiences were shown to induce a more empathetic mindset in subjects, and I hope to employ a similar concept with my project.

There is also a kind of disassociation that happens when we’re bombarded with data and statistics and “end of the world!!” messages all the time. This is why I’d like to use real time data, if possible. I was having a bit of a difficult time finding useable data on global deforestation data that I can attain in real time, but after some brainstorming I realized it would perhaps be more significant if I used data a little closer to home–perhaps TCNJ. If I can get data from TCNJ, whether it be electricity use or something else, I might be able to use something like WebGL to generate graphics for data vis on the fly. Definitely something I’d like to look more into!

Research Update #1

Research Update

Informative Insight

–Lingo & Terminology is a hallmark aspect of most competitive gaming culture. They are used to call to attention or highlight important facets of gameplay sometimes unknown to the average player.

Ex. “You can shoot Ryu’s Hadouken using down right fierce WS.”

Translation: In sequence use the down & right button on the directional pad with heavy punch while simply standing.

–Frame Data allows the most technical of players to take advantage of a games fundamental design structure to secure a methodical advantage. Such information can educate the average player on things such as active, startup, and recovery timing on a characters strongest moves. With such knowledge the best competitors can develop an answer to the most devastating attacks in a game.

–Tier Lists are demographics designed to show which characters in a game are considered more viable than others in the most arduous of circumstances. Often times tier lists are highly debated topics as statistical averages are not -and should not, be considered absolutes.