Image gallery, upload to server

I made my first attempt at uploading to the MM server yesterday, and it worked perfectly. I had a few more bits and pieces to correct in the meantime, and now I have all that done and the project is uploaded. Mission: complete!

I created an image gallery for the about page because I thought the text needed to be broken up a bit. I used a simple solution using the CSS box model rather than using any jQuery. Again, I just wanted it to be nice and simple, as the Unity application is the main focus of the website and, if scaling this out, it would be affiliated with an official site and would not need this page, other than to explain the concept of the museum.

I am very happy to be finished, now I just need to put the finishing touches on the report. It's been a long process, often interesting and sometimes very frustrating, but I now know how to create a web application in Unity and this could be very useful in the future.

Rectifying issues in testing

Based on the feedback I received from testers, I had to make some changes to the lake scene. I created cube barriers around all the walls of the terrain so the user can no longer fall (or jump) over the edge. I initially tried to use planes, but there are some fall-through issues with these, so cubes were a better option.

I took on board the feedback about the sparsity of the scene, and did some experiments with the default tree in Unity. However, because the scene was not done to scale, it was difficult to get the tree looking realistic next to the hills and objects, so I decided to leave it out.

An average-sized tree, dwarfing everything in sight.

I also changed the music to something more appropriate; I am using Christy Moore's Ride On, which is Irish-sounding without being too cheesey. I may have to change this based on copyright issues. I then included player instructions on the splash screen.

I think I now have the Unity part of things totally completed. Yay! It's just a case of fixing up the website.

Testing

I have tested the nearly-finished project on two groups, one in the 20-40 age bracket and one in the 60-70 age bracket. 

A female tester aged over 60 really liked the project; she thought the landscape and models were impressive. She also found the controls very simple to use, an issue I had been worried about. She suggested that there were not enough objects to click on and look at; this is a valid criticism, but for purposes of this project it was necessary only to have one working object as making more would be repeating work already done. I would definitely expand the amount of objects if continuing work with the project, however. She also suggested the landscape was too sparse and that I should add trees and vegetation, a suggestion borne out by members of the 20-40 group.

A male tester aged over 60 thought the project was useful from a historical point of view. However, he had no interest in learning to use the controls and asked that I navigate around it for him. This could be a problem, as many people of this age group will not have  used similar applications such as video games and may not be interested in trying. It may be necessary to make more intuitive controls of a click-and-drag nature. This was my original plan but time constraints did not allow for it. He also wanted to get inside the crannog, which was part of my original plan but I did not follow through on it due to my decision to make the museum open air. In later incarnations I would be willing to make explorable architecture, which will involve significant work with lighting and baking textures. Again, time constraints do not allow me to do this at the moment, but it is something to think about. Both members of this group wanted the Unity player to be smaller, so that the whole player is viewable as you click into the homepage, so I will attempt to do this.

There were four testers in the 20-40 group, 3 male and 1 female. All enjoyed the project, but many were curious about what would happen if they went off the edge of the terrain, so it will be necessary to add more barriers to prevent this. One expressed a desire to explore the lake, but this goes beyond the scope of the project, as there is no facility at Lough Gur to explore beneath water level. One male, aged between 25 and 30, thought the texture on the crannog needed work. I agree, but this is again something I would do in conjunction with making it explorable.

During the testing process, some of the browsers were more suitable than others. Safari is currently my preferred browser for this project. It works well on Firefox as well, but many people use very restrictive pop-up blockers when using this browser, making it impractical. I will advise my users on the best choice of browser on the homepage, perhaps in the splash screen on the web application.

GUI - Sound toggle and exit button

I have added sound to the project, and I have created button functionality whereby the user can toggle sound on and off, and also exit the Unity application to go back to the home screen. I think sound makes the project more interactive and immersive. The button functionality involved more JavaScript code, which the Unity Community is very useful for. With a lot of this kind of functionality, it's considered quite basic so a lot of people have already done it, and it's not too hard to find examples online.

This one was useful for the on/off button:

http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/303807/music-onoff-switch.html

The exit button really only required the use of the Application.LoadLevel command.

Unity embedded!

I finally succeeded in embedding the web player with suitable dimensions. I decided to use the web page generated by Unity in the build stage and adding my home page elements, rather than attempting to get the player into my already-created homepage, and it works much better. Now all I really need to do is get the cursor constrained to the centre of the application and it has all the functionality I need it to have. Exciting times!

 

Terrain barriers

I have just solved the problem of the player falling into the lake and/or off the terrain by placing cubes at the sides of the terrain and turning off the mesh renderer. I placed a plane on top of the water of the lake and again turned off the mesh renderer, and the controller can now happily traverse the lake should he/she so wish. I feel like I've solved a lot of issues today. My website and Unity application are now more or less complete, I just have to iron out a few more issues. Nearly there! (I hope.)

Application.OpenURL vs Application.ExternalEval

To address one of the problems mentioned in the previous post, the fact that Application.OpenURL only opens the website in the current browser window rather than in a new tab, I did some research on the Unity Community forums and found the using Application.ExternalEval will actually open the page in a new tab, so it is less disruptive to the enjoyment of the viewer. Here is the code I used:

 function OnMouseUp()
    {
    Application.ExternalEval("window.open('http://www.youtube.com','YouTube')");
    }

And the code I replaced:

 function OnMouseUp()
{
    Application.OpenURL('http://www.youtube.com');
}

I still haven't attached it to my own website though. That will be next.

Note: Since originally creating this post, I have added functionality allowing for a page of the project to be opened rather than YouTube, calling the file from my folder structure like so:

 Application.ExternalEval("window.open('../../K00123456_Project_2013/macehead.html','Macehead')");

Splash Screen and web embedding

I created a basic splash screen and loaded the game to playing on clicking the button. It looks dreadful but at least I have the functionality there; I will edit it later.

The problem with the stretched application continues; I have uploaded to the web page but it stretches across the entire browser and does not look good. The code I used is available here:

http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/WorkingwithUnityObject.html#initPlugin 

I have posted on the Unity forums to find out if anyone can help, as I can't figure it out. Hopefully that will show something up. 

Another issue is that, in the finished application, when you click on an object to open a web page, it doesn't open in a new tab, rather it opens in the tab you have open so you have to browse back to the application and restart it. This is a pretty big problem so I am looking into ways to fix this now.

This is how much the application stretches :(

 

Level complete!

I've just finished the level - you can navigate round the environment, and click on objects to retrieve information on them. You can also rotate the macehead to get different angles on it. Now all I have left to do in Unity is create a start screen and possibly add some audio, anything else I need to do within Unity is optional. I also still need to work on the website and the embedding process but the main task is done. I'm going to go and reward myself with some GUI tutorials. Hooray!

First Person Controller and terrain constraints

My terrain is essentially finished, I might add some trees and grass later on but at the moment it is the shape I want it to be, apart from one small problem: I can't currently prevent my first person controller from going into the lake and not being able to get out. I have used step offset and slope limit to prevent him from going up the hills, but unfortunately I'm not sure how this works in the opposite direction. I've tried smoothing out the terrain by raising the parts of the lake that I've lowered, and it may just end up being a tedious process of doing that, but I'm sure there is also a scripting method I can use so I have to find that out.

This is what you can see from the lake. But you can't really do anything!

Outdoor museum?

I rebuilt the terrain to look more like the natural landscape of Lough Gur. I roughly copied the shape of the lake. I placed mountains around it. These do not follow the topography of the real Lough Gur, as I would need access to digital maps to be able to do a really accurate depiction, so I decided it was best to approximate it and take artistic license with it. I imported my assets with textures, and the size of the assets compared to the terrain was not what I expected it to be. I tweaked things a little bit, and then placed the plinth and macehead next to the lake. I really like the way this looks, and I would actually really like to leave it like this and do away with the architecture. The idea here would be to dot several plinths around the landscape and have the user navigate to them, clicking on each item for information. It allows for an outdoor museum where you can look at the objects in the context of the environment rather than inside a building. I may still place the crannog somewhere as a museum object, but I think the idea of the openair museum is much more engaging, and I prefer the aesthetic sense of it.

Unity file embedded to web

I've had a certain amount of success in that I have managed to create the basics of my Unity application and embedded it to the homepage of my online museum. It has not been seamless; the textures still aren't there, and I have a basic rotation on the macehead but it is not working the way I want it to. This I will sort out soon. At the moment the main problem is the way the web player appears in the page; I was hoping for a small window like in the actual Unity file in game mode, but the window is elongated. I also haven't compiled it at my desired start point and will have to look at creating a GUI as well. That said, I'm very happy with the way things are going so far. This is still my trial file so hopefully I will have these problems ironed out before I get the real thing sorted out.

As you can see, this screen shot shows just how problematic the game window is, but I should be able to sort this out.

Inside the museum

I may not have the textures sorted out yet, but I have a macehead on a plinth inside the crannog-museum, which is progress. I'm not made about the scaling here - I modelled all the game assets to scale in 3ds max and it looks like I have a lot of extra space in the museum that I don't need. I think the scaling is actually correct though, I think it's just that I expected it to look a little bit different. I thought I might have time to model some extra objects, but because the macehead took so long, coupled with the fact that many other Lough Gur objects are of much more unusual shape, made me stick to just one. In a larger scale production I would definitely model more - I would have liked to have the shield done. I tried to get the texturing sorted as well, but to no avail as yet. I think the key is to obtain full functionality at the moment, and to worry about the rest later.

I do also have a first person controller in this scene, but I need to add colliders to the objects to prevent the FPC walking where it shouldn't be walking, and I also need to animate the macehead and add the webpage with all its information.

Progress with Unity and 3ds max

I have created most of my sample scene using Unity. If I have time I will go back and create one that matches more correctly the shape and topography of the Lough Gur area, but at the moment I just want to make sure everything works. I have imported the crannog, and the plinth is in there somewhere as well. The textures have not transferred. They transferred easily the last time I tried this so I will have to go troubleshooting. I might also make the terrain smaller as there is only a small playable part of the scene and it is a little swamped by all the scenery. I used an overcast skybox, because it's probably more realistic for the Limerick area.

Note: I think the issue with the textures is just a settings problem ie. I didn't check a box that I should have checked. Will sort this out later on, going to continue with the functionality of the scene for now.

 

 

 

 

 

PHP assignment - useful for the project

Yesterday I handed up  30% assignment for the Advanced Web Programming class that I think will be very beneficial to the project. The task was to create a database with full CRUD functionality in order to make a static website dynamic. Below is an example of the 'read' code and the resulting web page. 

It was quite a difficult project and not all of it works, but hopefully I will be able to iron out the problems to achieve full functionality within the project itself.

3ds Max Macehead

It took a very long time but I finally got my macehead to look like I want it to. It was a long process of using the boolean feature to make it look the correct shape. I tried to sculpt it from a cylinder or lathe the correct shape but neither of these approaches worked. I also tried to join the vertices of the individual shapes together for a more seamless surface by selecting individual vertices but this approach was not satisfactory either. Texturing is still needed but I am happy with the progress on this at the moment.

 

More 3Ds max assets

Unity 4.1 has been installed to my machine in college but at the moment my files will not open in it. This is very frustrating as I had planned to do a lot of work in Unity today. I did manage to import my crannog to a new project in Unity by converting the max file to .fbx and bringing the textures in separately, but none of my older projects will work at the moment. Instead I decided to make some more assets for inside my museum, including a plinth with a cushion on top. This isn't done with the correct textures, but I did learn some interesting things about texturing for the purposes of the project. I think for my crannog I need to up the values in real-world map size to make the mud texture look more realistic. I might also attach a separate bump map instead of relying on attaching the mud texture to both bump and diffuse. Here is an image of my cushion file:

The swirl pattern you can see on the cushion is actually added to the bump setting so it looks like the swirl pattern is indented into the pillow. I will do some more work on this over the weekend.

The tutorial I followed is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhnrkYDWJys 

More Unity issues

Unfortunately Unity is not in any way backwards compatible. Older versions don't read files made on new versions, and new versions don't read files made on old versions. This is extremely frustrating. The version number of Unity does not appear in the program's properties, so the only way to check is by opening Unity. However, the last time I opened it in college was to view project files I created using files I created at home, with the result that it won't open now because it can't open without a compatible file. So now I have to do some detective work!

Objects in 3Ds Max

I have made a crannog that will provide the setting for the museum in 3Ds max, and I'm in the process of making a macehead, one of the items in the museum. At the moment I have no plans to put more objects into the museum as the project is just a prototype. The object creation for the crannog was very simple; I made a circle spline and extruded it, then applied a shell modifier to create thickness. I converted it to an editable poly, and cut the door out of it using the Boolean compound object. The roof is a sphere cut in half and then reshaped using soft selection and scale. The textures are problematic; I have a straw texture on the roof which looks okay but not perfect, and any mud texture that I have tried to make does not render properly, so I will have to find a solution to that. The macehead is proving more problematic still; I've been working on it for a while and I've been using the Boolean compound object to create the shape I need, but this causes problems with the topology and the textures. The different smoothing modifiers aren't of much use in this regard. I have also tried to create a line and then add a lathe modifier to achieve the shape I'm looking for, but that hasn't been successful. Back to the drawing board for the moment...

Embedding Unity to a web page

I tried to embed Unity into a web page in order to know how to do it when I have the actual Unity project finished. It wasn't seamless; the Unity file itself needs to be a .unity3d file rather than a .unity file. Any files I've created in Unity so far have been .unity files so I need to figure out how to save my file with that extension. It may be a simple problem but I haven't done enough research yet on it to know. Here is the screenshot:

I got the code from the Unity community and added it to my own. Here is a screen shot of the code:

 

More Unity

I'm exploring the use of scripting in Unity which has proved really helpful. What I'm doing is JavaScript based, which is great because we did it last semester so I've a head start on the understanding of it. It has been quite straightforward so far. As well as that, I've been able to create scenes with controllers that I can navigate with. Unity has a lot of templates for outdoor terrains, but unfortunately none for indoor terrains so I will have to model those in 3ds Max. I've really been enjoying working with Unity so far. Simple commands can have really cool effects.

 

Unity experiments

I'm currently trying to open a webpage from a Unity game with a click of the mouse using the Application.OpenURL function, but it's not working just yet. I've been playing around with Unity a bit more and it's very interesting to see the possibilities of the software. Here is a scene of a terrain I created and textured. The inbuilt presets in Unity are very handy and there are also options to import others.

 

Modelling the objects

Each of the objects in the museum must be modelled as accurately as possible. This involves measuring the objects based on the measurements given by the documentation. For example, this macehead from Lough Gur is on display in the British Museum, and the museum's website provides measurements for length and diameter. However, as the object is not a uniform shape, I have to calculate the measurements for the varying parts of the object. I am using an image in Photoshop, scaled in proportion, and I am using the rulers in Photoshop to calculate the various measurements.

The lines of measurement can be seen here. I am hoping that this level of precision will lead to an accurately modelled object.

I began modelling the object in 3ds max. My initial idea was to model it using Boolean operations to create a compound object made from cones and spheres. I did this on Friday but it didn't provide the desired effect. My current theory is to using the loft function in compound objects, as this allows me to more precisely model an object with non-uniform properties.

Website prototype

The prototype for the site in which the 3D museum is to be embedded. The emphasis is on simplicity and ease of use to make the experience as stress-free for the user as possible.

 

Site design and museum navigation

Here are the initial sketches for the site design as I envision it.

And here is the navigation design for the online museum.

Unfortunately the scans aren't perfect. However this is my initial idea of how the user navigates through the online museum, clicking and dragging to view the objects and areas. This may be subject to change as I am no longer certain that this type of navigation will be practical, but I am waiting to hear more advice from the project supervisors.

PHP

Unfortunately the project has hit an obstacle; my PHP knowledge combined with Unity is insufficient to get the museum working the way I had envisaged. I'm looking at other options at the moment but wary of going down blind alleys with so little time left. It may be a case of using the database to call to small sections of navigable museum space, but I'm not quite sure how that's going to work yet. It's frustrating but there will be a way around it!

Unity

Getting to know Unity at the moment, and working my way through the Lynda.com tutorials. The interface is much different to 3DS Max and Maya, but a lot of the controls are the same, which is useful. Really looking forward to exploring the possibilities here :)

I have some sketches made for the design of my museum itself, I will scan them in soon. It's been tough to figure out the architecture, but interesting nonetheless.

Meeting with Lough Gur and research

I went to Lough Gur today to speak to Kate Harrold, the manager of Lough Gur Development. She is really enthusiastic about my project, as they are at the moment refurbishing the heritage centre and making a new website, and she feels that my work ties in well with that. It should be of great benefit to me to be working on this at this particular point in time, as I will be able to see the work Tandem Design are doing on creating an interpretive centre using the latest interactive media.

I have created a very basic mockup of what I expect the 3D museum to look like. The colour scheme will change, as will the design, but it's useful to get some of the ideas onto paper right now.

 

Unfortunately, the objects to be displayed in the new Lough Gur heritage centre are in storage at the moment and must be taken out to be photographed. I will have to wait until they are doing this for their own new website, which could take up to a month. This is a long time for me to wait. However, I can start modelling the museum itself, as well as the surrounding area which I have already photographed, and Kate let me borrow a book about Lough Gur so there may be some useful images and information there that I can work with.

Inka 3D

I spent most of this weekend attempting to get the Inka 3D plugin working on my computer and loaded into Maya, in order to start exporting in WebGL. It did not work. I followed all the instructions, I then made substitutions where the instructions seemed unclear, I posted on online forums for answers, all to no avail. I checked with a classmate who went through the same process; it initially didn't work for him, and then it seemed to arbitrarily appear in his plugin menu in Maya. This did not happen for me, despite following all the same steps and examining the minute details of what I have done. Unfortunately it just won't work for me. As we don't have Maya on the college computers, I don't think using this technique is going to be an option, and I might have to use Unity.

I'm actually very disappointed by the whole process. I really would have liked to try out using WebGL as it seems like an amazing use of technology. All the projects that I have seen online that use it made me want to learn more, and it's very frustrating that my computer (or the software, who knows) will not co-operate.

That said, Unity seems like a really good alternative. The videos I have seen documenting its functionality make it seem very well suited to my project, so hopefully the failure of this stage in the research will open a new and interesting chapter :)

Valentino Garavani 3D Museum

I've just been looking at this fantastic example of 3D used within a website. This is Valentino Garavani's virtual fashion museum ( http://www.valentinogaravanimuseum.com/enter-the-museum ) which provides an overview of the designer's career. (In my initial research I thought that this was just a downloadable application but it can in fact be viewed from the browser.)



While it uses Unity and I plan to use WebGL, its overall feel is similar to what I would like to achieve. Obviously it is on a much larger scale than mine will be, but in terms of navigation it is quite similar to what I had envisaged - the user clicks on an object to retrieve information about it (see the second image above) and can click in the direction they wish to travel as a means of navigating through the different rooms. Sometimes the navigation can be glitchy; there were a few times when I tried to navigate in a particular direction but the trajectory was too far so I ended up getting stuck behind a staircase or in a corner, but I imagine there are always going to be issues like this in any similar application. I hope to avoid them but time will tell how the finished project will work.

I love the overall aesthetic of this application, and it is definitely the best example of an online museum that I have found so far.

Project Progress

I spent most of last weekend trying to download Maya and install it to my computer, which took a lot longer than expected, as there was a corrupted Autodesk download assistant on my hard drive that was there since I downloaded 3DS Max in September. After eventually sorting out this problem, I attempted to transfer a simple box animation from 3DS Max to Maya to see how long it would take me and what it required. I followed an online tutorial but I couldn't get it to work just yet. I'll try again tomorrow; it looks like it's going to be a process of trial and error.

Research

Virtual art galleries and museums are not a new thing; they've been around for quite some time in the form of a website where someone can browse images of the objects within a museum. Many of the existing ones are very basic; this one, for example, is simply a barely-designed website where you can click on images of the artworks and see a larger version.

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/

There are more sophisticated applications available; a good example would be the Smithsonian Museum virtual tour:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas/

In this, the user can navigate through high quality photographs of the rooms within the museum and see the way the museum is laid out and what is contained in each room. The user clicks on the blue arrows on the floor of the museum to move from room to room, and then there are controls to view all angles of the room in a panoramic style. The National Museum of Ireland also has something similar, on a much smaller scale, available here:

http://www.museum.ie/en/list/360tours.aspx 

I like the Smithsonian's website, but I want my user to have more control - the user should be able to choose their own path rather than walk on a path set by the application, and the user should be able to interact with the objects, for example picking them up and turning them around. I also plan to have a feature whereby the user clicks on the object and an information window opens where they can learn more about the object.

My plan is to create a 3D experience where the user can browse the objects of a museum, pick them up and examine them in detail without having to visit the actual site of the object. I plan to use 3D Studio Max to create the environment and embed it within a website.

One good example of what I would like to achieve is this interactive film, which uses 3D graphics with Web GL to create an interactive experience for the user.

http://thecarpandtheseagull.thecreatorsproject.com/

I hope to be able to use this kind of technology and apply it to the field of digital access to cultural heritage.

http://www.ro.me/tech/

This is a great example of innovative use of WebGL. The creators also provide lots of useful information about the technologies used. They have added interactivity when the user clicks the mouse, which is very much what I'm aiming for. The user can also add to this themselves - there is a section on the site called 'Add to the dream' which allows you to create block creations (similar to Minecraft).

My project

My project will be to create a 3D interactive virtual museum. You can follow my progress here :)