Virtual Reality: Project 1

Project 1: Your dream house

This project is 20% of your final grade:

10% for design and implementation.

5% for in-class presentation.

5% for project report on Github.

Project screenshot (a 1200 x 600 jpg image of your work which should be named p1.<your_last_name1><your_last_name2>.jpg, demo link, and github link are due at 11am Sunday, Feb 18 to the TA: vinh.nguyen[at]ttu.edu.
The presentation schedule should look like this.

You can update your source code and project report until 11am Tuesday, Feb 20.

Each student needs to send a peer evaluation for other teammates by 11am Thursday, Feb 22 to the tommy.dang[at]ttu.edu. This peer evaluation is significant to your individual project grade. One team member can get A, but another can get D or Fail. The peer evaluation contains:

Group id and teammate name.

Rating from 0 to 10 (10 is best).

One to three sentence review (about how you came up with your teammate rating).

Project Description:

Project 1 is an individual project or a group (of 2 students) project. The requirements below are per person. If you are in a group, you need to double these requirements. Students select their group member. As soon as you have found your group, please send the TA by 11am Tuesday, Jan 30.
Project 1 focuses on creating a human scale scene experienced from the 'inside out'.
Have you ever thought about your own house in the future? This project gives you an opportunity to design it. It may have many creative working spaces for you and your family members (entertainment center, ping pong tables, etc.). This project focuses on shared living spaces, such as living room, dining room, or kitchen. But if you want to design more than one room, that is even better. To help in planning your dream house, you will be given a 3D model of the TTU Computer Science VR showroom and redecorate it to turn it into your ideal home. The sample project to get you started can be found here.
Space must include several chairs/sofas, tables, wall decorations, and be decorated in some kind of a consistent style. You should be able to walk around the house.

For a C, you need to:

Customize the TTU Computer Science VR showroom into your dream house with your own style of floor and ceiling
Have at least unique 10 models at appropriate locations
Have appropriate lighting. Do not give me a dark screen.

For a B, you need to:

Add an additional 5 unique models
Give the user control over the lighting
You should be able to navigate around the space

For a A, you need to:

Interact with certain objects: Click to trigger a sound track or a song, OR
Add one dynamic object (moving model, such as a dog or an avatar)

Testing your VR:

Hardware: Google Cardboard
You can make, buy your own, or use our cardboard by coming to the TA office hours

Advice:

Don't stick with all the bullet points above, but use them as suggestions for your project. Feel free to bring in your own requirements and create your designs/solutions (be creative).
Understand the requirements thoroughly and come up the stategy (design) for the entire project.
Sketching with pen/pencil is a good way to come up with a unified design.
We will conduct weekly updates for this project. Don't wait until the last week to implement your project. Especially, don't update your codes in the last minutes.

Notes:

This project is written in javascript, html, and three.js (you can use other javascript libraries).
Your code should run on all modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Explorer,...) and Google Cardboard. No refreshing when you are presenting: Every refresh costs you 1%.
Make sure your code is well commented (this is a good practice since you will work in a team). The instructor may inspect your source code.
It is easier to get your VR working but harder to get working well. Be sure to think carefully with your design decisions and to test them on the actual hardware regularly.

Project report on Github (readme file):

See example here: https://github.com/manorepo/Text-Visualization
Create a 1-minute video showing the use of your application with your voice over. That video should appear on the top of your github readme file. The video can be used as a backup during your presentation just in case of something go wrong.
Add a link to your web-based application (right after the video). You can host it on your github or your ttu personal page.
Clearly explain the duties of each student in your group (if you work as a group).
Describe your application by screenshots (with meaningful captions) and text. Make sure you have the list and screenshots of models.
Links to all the source code and any assets (models, textures, sounds). Make sure you source code is well-commented.

In-class presentation:

The presentation is 5 minutes per person (everyone needs to present). It is 4-minute talk and 1 minute for questions. You can present directly on your report (slides are not required). Make sure that you are ready to talk right after the person/group in front of you is done.
Show a live demo of your work: Show the basic functionality and emphasize why your VR is different. You should include screenshots in your report/slides as well.
Make sure your demo/app is self-contained: No hidden keyboard/mouse control, no hidden functionality (for example, users might not know that they have to click on the Angry bird to play the sound). In case you have these hidden controls, you need to make them available in the GUI:

Use highlighting principles (such as blinking) in my lecture 4.

A help menu is useful for uses of keyboard/mouse and it can work as a quick manual.

Please practice your talk.