Building Virtual Worlds
Building Virtual Worlds (BVW) is a project course. It's goal is to take students with varying talents, backgrounds, and perspectives and put them together to do what they couldn't do alone. The key thing is that there are no "idea people" in the course; everyone must share in the mechanical creation of the worlds. Students use 3D modeling software (Maya), painting software (Photoshop), sound editing software (Adobe Audition & Pro Tools), and Panda3D, a programming library originally developed by Walt Disney Imagineering's Virtual Reality studio, to display our virtual reality worlds. The course uses unique platforms such as the Head-Mounted Display and Trackers, the Jam-O-Drum, the TrackBox, the Playmotion, camera-based audience interaction techniques, Quasi the robot, and others.
Pixel battalion: A puzzle game using Beyond Question as controller and let 18 players to compete / collaborate with each other. Each player holds a random puzzle piece and he has to figure out the right place to put without blocking his teammates at the same time
Mine Cart Adventure: A story about a miner adventure. Using head mount display (HMD) and motion trackers. It tells the story in an interactive way. A guest is allowed to observe the world by moving or turning his head. Meanwhile, he can decide the way to go by turning the control stick when there is a fork. It is honored to be elected as one of the items in 2008 BVW show. It was also displayed on ICEC (International Conference on Enteertainment Computing) 2008.
The Day The Burgh Stood Still: The final BVW project. It's a long and crazy story about alien invasion. The audiences are able to interact with the world through the Beyond Question remotes. It contains several mini games such as group controlling, hitting buttons fast, press the button in the right timing, quick time event, and so on. The goal of this game is to help the secret robot and fight off the aliens to save Pittsburgh.