It's raining Iron Men... (Unity Practice) [Week 2]

have previous novice experience in Unity - following tutorials 3 years ago. This class was a new experience for me. Lecturer Prasanth Sasikumar wanted us to learn the basics before jumping into more complex parts of Unity like VR and AR experiences.

With my creation of this simple environment, I learned multiple Unity skills. Movement around my scene using the 'WASD' keys was easy once known. I installed the Iron Man model for free from Free3D.com (https://free3d.com/3d-model/ironman-rigged-original-model--98611.html), which taught me how to download and import models from online. I added a base to my environment by altering the length and height of a cube. I added colour to my objects by not only changing the object material, but I also learned how to change the light source colour. The Iron Men are yellow, but the light is red. The red light is evident on the scene's floor. The Iron Men ended up being an orange colour.

The interaction in Unity between objects is highly attractive to me. I added the components 'Meshcollider' to all the items present in the environment. The component 'Rigidbody' was given to the men. This is to provide the objects with gravity (Rigidbody) and the ability to knock into each other (Meshcollider). For future projects, I'm enthused about the idea of finding some kind of 'soft body' component - I'd love to watch objects get squashed on contact. With the brief research I did during the lecture, it seems like this effect requires coding and possibly breaking an object into multiple smaller objects.

I'd love to become proficient in Unity and build a high presence and immersion VR experience in the future. I was particularly inspired by the 'Walk the Plank' experience demoed and described in our class by lecturer Mark Billingham.

Participants feel immersed by walking on a real plank and putting their toes over the edge. The visual is that they are high above the ground on a skyscraper. VR experiences are more familiar to me than AR experiences as I own a VR headset at home. One problem that I find with some games is that my environment does not fit the digital environment - ruining my sense of presence. A VR experience that works with the participant's natural environment appeals to me. Adding in elements from the digital environments into our space is already great. However, what seems even better is using the spatial recognition used in AR but for VR to model our digital environment.

For some VR experiences, it can be crucial that the user feel immersed. This can be done by engaging, realistic graphics. There are also elements such as environment presence through physical objects, as depicted above. Engaging the other five senses is not a mainstream VR tactic but can be found in more experimental game-play. This all contributes to a degree of engagement and presence. Users have a more rich VR experience, and it can elicit more prominent emotional responses. It all depends on the intent of the program. Richie's 'Walk the Plank' game is intended to spark fear in the player. High immersion is essential. This is why the program has realistic graphics and is recommended with the use of a plank. It also features the intro sequence of being in an elevator - an experience familiar to the user and associated with going up to something.

#MixedRealities

References

ActionEventsNL. (2018, February 5). virtual reality :walk the plank [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z42_5OOaBs0

Deadcode3. (2013, August 1). IRON MAN 3d model. Free3D. https://free3d.com/3d-model/ironman-rigged-original-model--98611.html

How to make soft objects in unity C#. (2016). Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/4pf6qj/how_to_make_soft_objects_in_unity_c/