The second Week of Work – Feb 13th

This was the time for all of us to really get going. As we were all familiar with our tasks, we have the vision of our project in mind but to be more efficient in what we do, all of us thought it would be impactful if we were learning Unity from various resources on the side, as we were all new to the course. A lot of our time this week was spent by each of us individually polishing ourselves by learning Unity tips and going through tutorials which suited our project goals, so that we could also get a path on how to start implementing our project.

During this time we have come across a Youtube video, which has a complete forest and terrain scene implemented with swamps, trees, bushes, lighting, wind etc. After we finished going through our tutorials for the week, we downloaded this Youtube project and learnt how to use various assets and implement such assets and effects in our own project. Thereafter, this week we spent the rest of our time experimenting around with this project. Learning about the assets and how to use each of them, together with other lighting and post processing effects.

The first week of work – Alpha Team

It has been a while since we cemented our idea and had our first presentation as a group. Things began to become more clear as we entered the first week of work and the responsibilities were distributed. Everyone on the team got to know the roles they had for the first week before we present our work to the professor.

The first week of work is what was the most when we dived deep into problems, trying to figure out how each component of the VR setup works, the software aspect, the hardware aspect, everything one can imagine about setting up the project. It was a crucial step as we had to get the base right.

Thus after a long week of work, we were finally ready with our first checkpoint which was to create a simulation of the forest to get a feel and idea of how would be the experience in VR. We had decided to go with free Unity Assets at this point in time as we wanted a clear vision as to what assets we do need to buy in order to make the experience as real as possible.

13th February 2020:

We had a brief presentation session with the professor. He experienced our environment and gave us some point of directions as to what can be done next and how to progress in the upcoming weeks. Some of the suggestions were to look up in the concepts of adding progressive smoke and progressive fire in our environment in order to achieve the base checkpoint.

This environment of the forest with progressive smoke and fire serves as the major component of our experience we wish to provide. Thus, we were set off to explore more in the plethora of concepts Unity and this field has to offer.

The Pitch

On 6th February, we as a group had our first opportunity to present the game we ideated and cemented our thoughts in our first team meeting on 25th January. Shivani Kapuganti (Project Manager) presented the 2 min pitch of the game to the class. The purpose was to convey the experience one would have in the VR environment of the game and what are our initial thoughts and direction were.

The Game / Experience Dilemma:

After the presentation, we had a chance to meet with our TA – Shwetha Kallurkar. Shwetha pointed out to us the concerns she had regarding the scope of our idea based on the presentation. She had a brief conversation about our pitch with the professor regarding its scope and the experience we wish to provide through the project as a whole.

As correctly steered by Shwetha, we had a good idea as to what the professor might address the team. Professor Vangelis thought the scope of the project was wide and we need to focus on the experience and make it more realistic rather than doing a bunch of different things at once.

Professor Vangelis however, allowed us to make a decision based on the progress we have in one week and decide from that point as to where the project should steer. I believe such constructive criticism is crucial and we as a team always welcomed them as it only pushes us to be more creative, achieve goals and steer the project in the right direction.

Team Formation and the first meet

A few initial weeks of Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality class went by, we were then asked to fill out a survey that majorly focused on the skill sets each individual had and the projects one was interested after going through an initial round of game/ experiences pitched by a few individuals. The purpose was to divide the students into groups that would be working on the projects of their choice based on a survey’s filled.

23rd January dawned with anticipation and excitement as finally groups were announced and our group for the Indomitable project finally became a reality with 6 members having somewhat the same kind of vision for the project. Everyone filled with excitement we created a Whatsapp group with all the group members and scheduled our first meeting on 25th January.

25th January:

Around 6.00 pm, we had our very first official meeting for the project. Initially, Venkatesh Revanur – ideator of the concept explained his vision and motivation for the project so that everyone has an idea of what will be the basis which we will be working on.

As the discussion progressed new ideas flourished to make this experience more realistic and soon enough we as a group were able to agree to a storyline and the purpose this game/ experience would have along with details. In my opinion, this was one of the crucial aspects of working as a team towards a common goal.