Week 14 Summary
We are finalizing our chemistry prototype by reining spawn menu feature and remote collaboration aspect.
We are also using video to demonstrate mixed reality affordances that we wanted to explore.
Remote Collaboration and Physics Networking
While we had implemented networking for a simple cube tossing experience before halves, the networking setup for the chemistry prototype was significantly more complex, due to the bonding interactions. Initially, we tried syncing the position of all the game elements — the atoms and the electrons — but found that the atoms would have jittery movement. The solution was to only sync the position of the atoms themselves — the electrons were then simulated locally, making the physics simulation feel stable even while the atoms were moved around.
Because we had setup our room-tracking to be dependent on ARuCo markers, this meant that we had built-in support for remote collaboration, as long as the remote space was using the same markers as the ones on our table. We considered a few options for the representation of the players’ avatar in the space, and gravitated toward this simple translucent head model and hands that are colored slightly differently for each player.
Spawn Menu
Initially, our chemistry demo had pre-spawned atoms that were grouped together by type, but we quickly found this to be ineffective. With this layout, new guests struggled to identify atoms after a group had already built molecules because the atoms were now disorganized. To combat this, we reused our palm menu mechanic as an atom spawn panel. Guests spawn atoms by pulling them out of the menu, and can despawn atoms by placing them back in to keep the workspace organized. Because these motions are quick, we don’t encounter the previous issue of hand fatigue from the 2D Geometry demo.
Immersive Classroom Concept Video
We came up with a possible concept of using such technology for the teacher to present content by bringing the subject matter to life in classroom without taking people off from reality, with the ability for both the teacher and the students to interact with objects. For example, the students could be immersed in observing this aquatic biome.