1 – Researching the required software
At the beginning of the project we researched into flash driven engines. Papervision and Away 3D provide developers with a library of predefined functions to build a 3D environments. Although both of the software libraries provide extensive functions they did not include much helpful recourses and when the graphics were rendered they were not smooth.
It then came to our attention that what we were going to build was more in line with games structure. With this in mind we researched into using a gaming engine. Unity 3D is a tool used to create 3D video games and other interactive content such as a virtual experience. Using Unity 3D meant that we could provide the user with an interactive virtual experience.
2 – Building the room
Unity 3D provides many gaming objects you can add into a specific scene. We added objects such as planes, cubes and spheres to create the mentor mansion structure. To create a realistic environment we also added spot lighting and textures.
3 – Graphic User Interface
Nearly every scene in the project requires the user to click a button. Although users can interactively click within the virtual environment they are also given the options to use a graphic user interface. The global menu consistently sits at the bottom of the screen throughout the user experience. The menu uses associated icons in each scene allowing the user to easily navigate through each room.
4 – Remembering Progress
The system requires the user to move from first to the third room. The user may want to leave mentor mansion after they enter the second room. We needed to create a script that would atomically move the user back to room they left from when they next logged in.
5 – Login/ Password Authentication
Due to the fact that Unity is never executed on the server, always the clients machine. We created a webform that checks the users login and returns the stage of the game they are in. We didn’t connect unity to the database as this would require a wildcard account to the DB, which is a serious security threat. Users are required to enter a users name and password to access the house. Using a database we made a script that stores certain information about the user.
6 – Image of the Mentor Mansion
