Last Minute Features and a Poster

Our final presentation is next Thursday, so I've been working to get the last few features I want implemented before that. Specifically, I've been working on improving the physics system, and adding a few more user controls like allowing users to rotate objects gesturally.

I'll also be presenting a poster about my project next Monday from 10am-12pm for the CS Day Fair, and again on Thursday for the CG@Penn Poster Day.

My Poster - Just a warning, its a very large image...it has to look good at 40x30 inches after all.
Edit - I noticed that for some reason the background appears black in the thumbnail...it appears the correct color (white) when the full image is viewed (click on it).

Refining the Input

I spent my time this week polishing the way the player interacts with the environment. I spent a lot of time working on mapping the real world into the game work in a way such that the user does not need to swing their arms around in order to reach the outer edges of the game space.

I've also been working on reducing some of the noise in the data which causes the objects to vibrate even when the player is holding their head stationary (this can be seen in last weeks video). So far, I've been able to slightly reduce the noise, but the objects still move a little bit when the player is stationary.

Finally, I added some more simple objects to the game this week. Specifically I added a platform object, which will form the basis for building structures once the simple physics system is implemented.

By next week I'm hoping to have further improved the processing of the data from the Kinect as well as implementing a very simple gravity system, such that objects will fall in the space unless they hit another object. Platforms will be immune to the forces of gravity which will allow the user to establish a ground plane (or planes) as they see fit.

Beta Review

This Tuesday was my Beta Review. I did a lot of work to meet my beta milestone and composed a video of my progress so far:

Since there is no audio I'll give a quick breakdown:

1. The video starts with the calibration phase of the application.
2. Once calibration is complete the application changes to full screen.
3. The green spheres represent where my hands are in the game space.

I fully integrated head and hand tracking into the simulation, and began work on making input work the way that I want it to. As shown in the video, the user can pick-up the cubes, but currently they cannot put them down. I also don't like the mapping of real world space to game space that currently exists as I think the user has to reach to far to grab objects.

Improving user interaction with the objects and game space is my primary goal for next week. After that I'll be working to add more objects into the game and possibly a simple physics system (gravity and stacking) if there is time.