Project Y
Jens-Stefan Mikson
Description
The goal of this project is to create a space station environment in virtual reality (developed for HTC Vive). The environment has following requirements: interior must look futuristic, main room must have a big window from floor to ceiling, the window must have a view containing of minimum one star, which is close to the player and a high resolution skybox. Add mechanics to make a multiplayer FPS in VR.
Additional art (not planned initially) includes: extra rooms, planets, more stars, moving asteroids or space ship.
The goal is to give the player a feeling of big and empty space with beautiful visuals. Inspiration received from Mass Effect series, the Illusive Man room: image
Plan
- Setup environment layout, add skybox placeholder
- Finalize skybox, complete star shader
- Add Additional effects to the star: particle effects, lighting, rotation/orbit
- Beautify interior
- Add sound effects
Milestone 1 (01.03)
- Primary layout of the scene: the room with a window, star (sphere), placeholder skybox
Result:
Milestone 2 (15.03)
- Star shader: color mix, movement of
- Skybox
Result: I've imported a star from asset store (https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/39688) and tested it. However, problems arise when star is scaled big. The texture stretches out way too much. To counter this, I tried tiling the texture, however the texture does not seem to be tileable.
I will try to find a solution by finding/creating a tileable texture and experiment with large area rendering techniques: http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/1210995/managing-a-large-space-environment-with-planets.html
Also, the HD skybox I used looked good on a PC monitor, however quite blurry on the Vive. Might be because of small FoV. Also, the stars were difficult to see. Might have to use a skybox with bigger stars in the background.
Milestone 3 (29.03)
- Fix the star texture and flare size.
- Add ambient sound
- Experiment with different skyboxes
- Match menu panel, room list, player list. Art + func
- Railgun functionality
- Player death animation
Result: Ambient sound, skybox and star's fx has not been done yet. However the mechanics are implemented. Game was tested twice in the previous 2 weeks. First time, many bugs were found regarding player death and respawn, score and rocket synchronization. These bugs were fixed. Also, a GDD is half complete and might be released at the end of the project.
Milestone 4 (12.04)
High priority tasks. Must be finished.
- Try to add the camera technique to render star bigger than it is. Complications in VR?
- Add chain texture to grappling hook.
- Add voice effect to grappling hook.
- Add notification UI (kill text, death text).
- Add collision effect to rail gun hit effect.
- Implement pistol. Art + func. Must be synced over network.
Medium priority tasks. Must be tested or prototyped.
- Test health UI. Place it on visor (in front of player's eyes) or on hands.
- Implement pick-up system for power-ups, weapon and ammo pick-ups. Placeholder pick-up items.
Low priority tasks. Completion/testing not required.
- Design new level.
- Prototype additional functionality for grappling hook.
- Prototype rail gun secondary fire.
- Test grappling hook as a projectile. Syncing over network not a necessity.
Milestone 5 (26.04)
High priority tasks. Must be finished.
- Implement Plasma gun. Art + func. Must be synced over network.
- Prototype rail gun secondary fire.
- Prototype pick-up system for power-ups, weapon and ammo pick-ups. Placeholder pick-up items.
- Implement match end conditions: time, kill count, flag capture amount.
Medium priority tasks. Must be tested or prototyped
- Implement Capture the flag game mode when pick-up system complete.
- Research map selection implementation techniques.
Low priority tasks. Completion/testing not required.
- Test grappling hook as a projectile. Syncing over network not a necessity.
- Replace all sound effects, which are used from Quake 3.
Milestone 6 (10.05)
High priority tasks.
- Implement pick-up system for powerups (flags, powers).
- Implement capture the flag game mode.
Medium priority tasks. Must be tested or researched.
- Research game mode implementation.
Low priority tasks. Completion/testing not required.
- Implement game mode selection.
- Implement level selection.
- Grappling hook as a projectile.
- Prototype rail gun secondary fire.
- Replace all sound effects, which are used from Quake 3.