I was thinking of making an enchanted forest virtual reality, but my data got deleted due to an unexpected computer reboot and I saw some of the presentations of projects in class. I was thinking on what virtual reality to create since there already was an enchanted forest, and I have came up with a lovely idea to make a beautiful sunset valley. Inspiration for this was a very well-known game “Legends of Zelda: Breath of the wild”. Here are some screenshots from the game:
So I have used some asset from the asset store to get the terrain modifier tool and used a preset terrain. I’ve added some textures and meshes to make it look like a forest valley in the mountain area, to make it look like in the game.
When I first started brainstorming I had one goal set in mind. Creating a space that is peaceful, and has the ability to make others feel peaceful. There were several elements, but one of the main element was color.
The following colors were the colors I wanted to use in my space:
When I was using glitch before there was a project that I have created and wanted to have a related new project
This is the image of the former project
While the former work consisted of one object, I wanted my first project to consist of different spheres. I wanted each spheres to represent source of life. My first planning of the project was to keep the basic form of the egg with the plant growing from it. However I also wanted to show the never-ending sky. These were some elements that I was planning on adding:
One egg shaped object with a tree growing out of it
To spheres with tree
Human figures floating around the spheres
Cloud
Bubbles
I also wanted the space to almost be dreamy. I didn’t want the space to look too real. I wanted the viewer to be confused and think about what exactly is happening in the scene. To do that I have decided to get rid of gravity. Because we are so used to gravity, I believed, getting rid of it would make the space more dreamy. Also I wanted to implement of idea of being able to exist in different dimension.
This was my initial sketch of the project:
However, as I started building the models there was some modifications made. I wanted to change the spheres to cubes instead. When I used the spheres it almost looked 2-Dimensional. Also I wanted the use to see the 3-dimensional objects. So instead I created a cube with two open sides. The open sides would show what is inside the cube. I wanted those cubes to almost look like small houses, or small show rooms. It was going to be a showroom of life.
I also tried putting human figures into my space, and found it hard to find a human asset that suited with the atmosphere and the color scheme. Instead, I found animal asset and used three different animals. I used three different animal models: Pig, Sheep, Cow. These animals are the most common animals that we can see. They are not exactly pets, but us humankind would not have been able to do a lot of things without them. I have placed these animals in different cubes. But I wanted these animals to not be placed comfortably, so I have chose to have them stuck in between walls.
To make the bubbles, I found a bubble asset that came with animation and the texture. However, I ended up creating the bubbles myself and only using the texture. The biggest reason why I decided not to use the animation in the asset was because the bubbles would pop. In a space without gravity, the bubbles were not supposed to pop.
I also added trees to the cubes. They grow different directions. Which, I believe, emphasizes the disarray of the space. The space looked like world had an explosion and all these elements just started flying around.
I want to make an environment that portrays fear; i feel like in VR environments fear is one of the strongest feelings that it could show since it shows a reality you are not familiar with and thus with the freedom of the digital world, so many things could be expressed.
Fear;
Something chasing you
Slenderman forest
Abandoned shack
Night time
Monsters
Alone
Scary sounds
Zombies
I want to work further on the zombies idea; inspired from the game Call Of Duty Black Ops Zombies.
I found so many helpful packages on the assist store that can complete the environment i have in my mind,
Packages;
Zombies
Shack
Night sky
Zombie sounds
Terrain
Fire
Rain
Fog
Winter terrain?
Rain sounds?
lamp
Its a bit hard finding the perfect lighting, on the zombies and the shack to make it visible and at the same time have it dark enough to add to the scary theme.
The package of zombies has animation embedded in it and i tweaked the animation of the zombie to what i feel to be most effective and suitable. I also included a zombie in the side mirror of the shack and behind the main zombie as well, this adds to the feeling of being surrounded and trapped
I found zombie sounds and i put it on loop as well
Hesitant with where to have the main camera begin facing, the zombie at the door or anywhere else in the shack and have the player discover the zombie at the door?
My project inspiration comes partially from a show called the man in the high castle, and partially from real life. The show is set in a world where the Axis powers won world war 2. There was a scene from the show set in Berlin, where a Nazi commander was addressing people in a massive auditorium building, and that scene really gave me a feeling of grandeur. I looked into that building, and it turns out that it is a building that the Nazis have really planned to build in the centre of Berlin once they won the war. It is called the Volkshalle.
Here are the depictions of the building in the show, and the plans for it from real life:
The structure was supposed to be massive, at around 400m tall and with a diameter of the dome alone at 290m x 290m, intending to seat 150,000 people. I intend to simulate the feeling of standing on the podium.
I started with creating a cube as the building. However I quickly realized that the surfaces on the cube face only outwards, so you cannot display texture on the inside. So I decided to go with 6 planes instead. The dome and the stands, however, proved very difficult to replicate. so instead, I decided to recreate the feeling of the volkshalle rather than a direct re-build. I thought about what made https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2akYIfxYbbE this scene so powerful. I determined that it was the scale of the building, the size of the crowd, the organized chants by the attendees, and the flags hung around.
I first created a simple but very large podium inside a massive hall. Then I added in some people using models from the asset store. However, a massive problem appeared. I needed a massive crowd, and the more people I added in, the more laggy the program got. It reached a point where even the macs in the classroom could not handle it, and would take 10 minutes to do even a simple operation. So I decided to use a rectangular prism instead of a model of a person to reduce the number of polygons Unity needs to render. This still caused some lag, however it was significantly less than with the people models, and I was able to create a larger crowd.
I then added in the flags. They are massive, with a logo on them. I did not want to use Nazi symbols, so I decided to go with the Abstergo logo instead, which is a very cult-like organization form the Assassin’s Creed games. The flags are just an image added onto a material, which is added onto planes.
I then added in audio. I decided to use the same chants used in the man in the high castle. I tried as much as I can to avoid Nazi symbols and phrases, however I could not find freely available audio that replicates the feeling I was going for more than that.
I wasn’t quite satisfied with the results, I needed to enhance the feeling of grandeur, so I added in statues. Next came what turned out to be one of the most unexpectedly time consuming tasks of this project, building the .apk and .app files. They took hours upon hours just to build. Nonetheless, here they are:
I created an upside-down living room, in which the effect of gravity still works and can be seen. The aspect of reality that I would like to address is that the gravity and orderliness in the real world have been taken for granted by us and viewing the exact same thing from two opposite perspectives can give audience a total different experience and knowledge of what’s existing around us. It’s also supposed to emphasis the sense of space and gravity – how does the world looks like with gravity when everything is upside-down?
The identity in the alternate reality: gravity, disorder, upside down, broken
Sketch
Final look
2. Process and Implementation:
During the project developing process I encountered some difficulties in terms of technical issues, how to achieve the gravity effect I want, and how to decide the best place to put the camera so the viewer will get the most out of my project etc. In the following I’ll highlight what made me choose the objects to represent my chosen identity, the reason behind my camera positioning and some processes of how I solved some problems.
The chandelier with chains falling on the ground
In order to embody the effect of gravity in this upside-down world, where the “ceiling” becomes the “floor” in this case, I played around with the chandelier with chains – in the normal discipline when it’s hanging the chain will be straight, but in this case it should be on the ground, which is obvious enough to show the viewer that the gravity does exist in this environment. In order to do that, I downloaded a chandelier prefab and break down the iron hoop on the chain one by one and reorganized them to make it looks like “staying on the ground”, as shown below:
Break down the iron hoop and reorganize it
Final look of chandelier on the ground
Break down the iron hoop and reorganize it
Finished single model
Final look of chandelier on the ground
The water pumping out of pipes – partical effect
The initial idea was to add the upside-down mug and the water drop coming out of the cup, but taking into consideration of the realness and the time for animation partical, it seems not realistic if there is water endlessly keep falling out of a mug, but the water falling is another obvious way to indicate gravity, so I changed it into water pumping out of the old broken pipes, which also cater the “broken” theme.
water pumping out of pipe – view from cameraPartical effect
The telephone with microphone falling on the ground
This came from my initial daft, because the microphone on the ground indicated it fells down from somewhere, and it leaves imagination for viewers to think what happened before in this room.
Messy floor resulted from things falling down: plants, broken wooden boxes, telephone
The design of this scene indicates the things falling down because of the gravity, it caters the broken and messy nature of chaotic upside-down, also leaves space for viewers to image what happened before here.
Camera positioning and the mirror
It took me a lot of time to decide where to put the camera so the viewer will see most of my design of the room while feel comfortable viewing around. I tried to put it in the middle of the room first, but it takes effort to have a clear view of what is right below or above you. Then I figured the best way to have a comprehensive view of a room is to view the room from a side perspective instead of being in the middle of it. So I moved the camera to a corner of the wall. Surprisingly I happen to placed it under the water falling effect, so when I looked up I feel the water is about to falling on my face! That was such a real experience, so I decided to keep the camera that way so when the viewer look up there will be this kind of “immersive” feeling. However, doing this means I give up the sight to the the pipe, because the viewer is right under it. Then I added a mirror which can actually reflect, I put the mirror across to where the camera is, so the viewer can just look ahead into the mirror and she/he will know what’s going on above him/her and why there’s water falling down. The mirror helped me solve the problem of lack of sight so I decide to just keep the camera in the corner.
Mirror reflecting the view above the viewer
Adjust the scale of texture
This is a difficulty I overcame with the help of Sarah. When I was doing the design of the overall layout of the room, I put wall paper and wooden floor to make it look more like a living room, however, when I applied those textures to the materials, it’s been stretched so much that it didn’t look real at all (shown as below). But later I solved it by changing the tiling parameters.
stretched texture
3. Reflection/Evaluation:
This project pretty much satisfied all the expectations I had before I started: in order to show the gravity effect and the sense of being upside-down, I made the partical water falling effect, I designed the chandelier with the chains falling on the ground, the upside-down photos on the wall etc. And during the process I added the mirror with actual reflection to tell the viewer what’s happening above you, since I placed the camera in a lower corner of a wall to make up the lack of light since it’s in a corner and achieve a better effect of immersion (viewer standing under the water fall and can see it falling down on you).
However the things I will consider to improve the project includes adding sounds effect, like the steel lander cover of the chandelier rolling on the ground, the sound of water pumping out of the pipe, and something hanging in the middle of the room and swing around to show the gravity etc. Overall I think I’m satisfied with this project and it achieved what I expected.
I’ve been having issues positioning the camera – no matter how much I change its position, it goes back to default when I press play in Game View.
After much experimentation and going back and forth, I realized there were a few causes for this, including having more than one camera and the fact that the player’s position can be moved around – this is essentially what you see when you hit play, not the position of the camera.
So after setting the position, I’ve been moving things around to make sure everything is visible from this single point.
I’ve added a new texture in the shade of purple, blue and white that runs all over the hilly terrain. It creates a lava-like effect and makes the mountains pop out more, thus adding more to the mystic atmosphere.
I’ve also built in a big tree on the top of the hills, which almost looks like a “mother tree” to this place. The leaves are light-reflective and very different from the other trees in the place.
top viewfront view
Things I need to keep in mind:
decide on the camera position and make sure the environment is fully visible from there (make sure nothing is hidden)
test run to see the VR space is working 360 degrees
For the first project, I bounced around two ideas. The first was a beach environment abstracted such that when you moved around in a circle from your vantage point you would see a change in the beach as a result of human activity, a gradual transformation. The second idea was a mystical forest, inspired by the Forbidden Forest. Perhaps because I watched Harry Potter over the weekend, I leaned towards the latter.
The Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter 2
Though I do have a bit of experience with Unity, I don’t feel very comfortable with lighting, fog, or aerial perspective. Since these are critical to creating mood and a sense of place, I hoped to specifically work on these aspects while making this project.
So far I’ve found some assets I really like from Fantasy Forest and I am experimenting with the color of the fog as I think that could make it more of an alternate reality by giving it a tinge of magic. I struggled a lot with making the trees have the scale that I wanted, but I realized that that had more to do with the perspective of the camera than the size of the trees themselves.
I’ve been messing around with the density of trees I put into the scene and the fog. The difficult thing about the fog is that it requires a precise density…too small and the fog will be barely there but even if you increase it just a bit, your scene will become consumed by fog.
I think the scene could do with a tad more fog, but this is about the tone I hope to convey. The blueish tint of the fog gives off an aura of mystery. I really hate the ground currently. Nothing I do looks natural! I’ve tried adding rocks and different textures to the ground, but it doesn’t help the trees fit into the ambience. I think I shall experiment with terrain to see if adding more levels makes the forest look better.
Actually, adding a different lightbox helped a bit. But definitely gave it a dark forest vibe.
Here I just increased the fog density by .01 and the difference is staggering.
Experimenting with a moonray directional light:
I had envisioned having a pond with mushrooms and magical fauna surrounding it. I wanted the mushrooms to glow, so I tried to add an emission to a new material but these made the mushrooms neon blue and far too bright. Thus, I adjusted the prefab by giving the shader a blueish color to give it a slight glow.
I think I will try to make a meditation forest now. I have a lot of trouble sleeping at night, so usually I end up listening to music to block out all the darting thoughts. But, my imagination usually tends to run wild all the same, so I wonder if having something visual to focus on would help me concentrate or sleep.
I think I shall keep my skybox and fog as is as I hope to still convey a nighttime ambience to remind myself of sleep. But, I now need elements that signal peace and tranquility to balance the darkness and barrenness of the trees. I did try putting leaves on many trees, but it didn’t support the aesthetic I was aiming for.
I experimented with a few things: waves, swaying flowers, mist, flying birds, and flying orbs of light. I wanted to keep my environment as uncluttered as possible, so I only chose my two favorites: the orbs and the waves.
With the orbs, I had to play around with the particle system to get the aesthetic I desired. Specifically, I played around the the color, the spread of the system, the size, speed, and direction of the individual particle, as well as the emission (glow).
For my assignment, I’ve started creating some hills using the terrain function. I’m trying to build mountains that build up towards the center to create a grandiose atmosphere. I added a sky background to make it look almost like this place is floating in mid-air.
view from frontbird’s eye view
It took me some time and test runs to build this base as I was experimenting with different textures and different heights for the mountains.
Moving on, I’ll work on how to emphasize the ‘grandiose’ aspect more. I want to make this environment somewhat mystical and other-worldy, suggestive of some kind of mysterious forces within.
For my 1st attempt at creating an alternative reality experience, I want to create a peaceful environment. Ever since I was a kid, looking at a picture or listening to a song that emanated peace would make my day better and would make me forget of whatever I was stressed or worried about. I believe I can create a similar type of experience in this project, and I want to achieve such through an activity I am personally connected to: camping. I believe that nature has a way of making humans forget about worldly concerns as it provides perspective and makes us look at the bigger picture: why worry about the menial job-related, school-related, or anything-related thing that is worrying us when there is a bigger,captivating landscape we can draw our eyes to. The complexity of nature and how simply it can make me forget about my worries is a juxtaposition I want the users experience.
Sketch of Desired Environment
As seen in the picture, the user would be set in the middle of the tent. The user would be able to look outside and see the night stars and then look at the tent from the inside if they do a 180 degree turn. Inside the tent I would have a sleeping bag and some snacks(as seen in the picture, I am obsessed with doritos, coke and oreos as they are the staple cuisine of my camping trips). I also hope to play music in the background that emulates the sounds of nature (crickets chirping, sound of the wind, and the sound of the leaves being hit by the wind). However, given that I haven’t explored the extent to which I can use Unity in order to create such environment, the three main things I want to portray in my environment are: self-discovery, nature, and isolation. I am open to create an environment that does the aforementioned in a more technically feasible way, but I thought that the tent environment was a good starting point.
Blog Update February 18:
After experimenting in Unity, I was able to learn a little about changing the sky, working with the terrain asset, and importing the tent asset. I imported a sky asset that makes it looks like its night and it has a moon on it, which is something that took me a while to accomplish. I also learned about importing the terrain asset, but I am having problems editing it. I wanted to extrude the terrain so I can create mountains, but for some reason my laptop is unresponsive to this command. I am also having problems synchronising my laptop and the Google VR SDK for IOS, but I am hoping to fix this in the time coming.
Screenshot 1
Blog Update: February 20
As I continued to play around with the terrain, I realized that for my purposes the terrain wasn’t necessary, and I could achieve a similar result using a terrain composed of a cube object. This proved to be extremely fruitful and easier to manipulate and play around with as I added new assets. After creating the terrain and setting the camp site in the middle, I decided to start adding trees around my campsite to create the illusion of nature. As I did this, patterns emerged, and I was able to create clusters of trees and duplicate them to populate the entire terrain faster. I then added extra elements to the campsite to make it more relatable and believable, like tree chunks located in a circular pattern with some axes stuck in them, torches, bushes, and rocks to surround the site.
View of entire environment from aboveBox approach
As a final step, I wanted to fill the viewer’s sight with something as you could steel see the blueprint of the Unity IDE far in the horizon. My original idea was to play with my initial concept a little by creating an enclosing environment surrounding my terrain in order to create a juxtaposition between the openness of the nature that is near you and the enslavement of the box that covers it. However, after realizing that the box surrounding the terrain dims the lighting in a way that prevents the user from seeing the nature and the campsite that surrounds him/her, I decided to populate the horizon with mountains. As a final touch, I added music to the environment to further cement the illusion of nature. The music is composed of a mixture of wind sounds, animal sounds, and dry leaves cracking, which I hope makes a better experience for the user.
User’s view
Another problem I encounter was to build and run the environment on my iPhone. Xcode couldn’t run the code and it was requiring some form of “provisional file” from my iPhone. As a result, I resorted in running the application on Android, and after installing the necessary software, I was able to make an apk file that can run on any android phone.
As a camper with over 10 years of experience, I can attest that this environment really makes me feel like I am back home in one of my usual camping outings, secluding myself from society and just letting the openness of nature enclose me, revitalize me, and inspire me. I am happy that I was able to create a peaceful environment through my campsite environment, and seeing the beauty of the final result definitely obliterated the copious amounts of stress I accumulated as I made this project.
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