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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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.