Week 1

• This unit is not just for 3D modelling and is not for making a game. It is for asset creation such as UI, audio, some 3D modelling, UV unwrapping and texturing and characters and animation.

• Marking weight is 25% UI, 25% reflections, 25% audio and 25% 3D modelling.

  •  Each section must meet minimum requirements.

• If you are unable to keep on track with documenting your work, record your screen and edit it to only include important parts or speed up footage in between important parts (or both), and upload to Google Drive or YouTube.

• Brief 1 is between weeks 1–3, brief 2 is between weeks 4–7 and brief 3 is between weeks 8–12.

• Project reflections only, no more weekly reflections, but must have a mid and final project reflection and must contain at least one APA7 reference. 

  • Tip on reflections shown on slide 7

• Important LOs for this class are:

  • CLO1—regular and consistent project reflections;

  • LO1—using audio systems in projects

  • LO2—keep track of work for research, design and development stages;

  • LO3—do research to/and implement a good enough UI; and

  • LO4—do proper researching for developing assets

• See slides 9–11 for recording workflow for projects 1–3

Importing the book model and texture

Using the links I saved on my learning journal (above this section), I downloaded an open book model and texture to use in this mini project. I was able to get the model in .blend format, which Unity supports, and the texture as a JPG. To use the book model, all I needed to do was drag it into my scene. With the book texture however, I needed to first set the image type as "Sprite (2D and UI)" before I could use it with the UI canvas.

Setting up the book interface

To let the player read its contents, I created an overlay for the book. This utilizes the open book image that I saved on this learning journal (above this section), plus four different sections of dialogue from The Stanley Parable (which I thought would be a better choice over just Lorem Ipsum text).

I also made the screen behind the book overlay darken using a translucent black panel, plus blur using Unity's Post Processing stack. I did this to add a bit of extra polish to the project and make it not only more visually appealing, but also easier on the eyes when reading the contents of the book.

Setting up the buttons

To allow the player to flip through the book and read the different sections of dialogue from the Stanley Parable, I implemented three buttons at the bottom of the overlay: a back, close and next button. There's also an open button for when the book is closed.

To make the buttons do stuff, I used the Unity Event System that is attached to the buttons by default. To get an idea of what each button does, the next button for page 1 does the following:

• Change the header text to "Coward Ending"

• Disable the text for page 1

• Disable the text for page 2

• Enable the text for page 3

• Enable the text for page 4

• Enable the next button for page 3–4

• Enable the back button for page 3–4

• Disable the next button for page 1–2

• Use PlayOneShot function to play page turn audio clip

Different text and buttons for each page

There is different text on each page, granted, but because it's not possible to have the Event System use line breaks (as far as I know) when getting it to change what text says, I had to create multiple text objects for each set of pages (for example, pages 3–4 have "Page 3 Text" and "Page 4 Text" objects).

I also had to create multiple buttons for each page set as there's no possible way as far as I know for me to be able to change the list of functions in an Event System during runtime without the use of scripting (which I tried not to do as much as possible for this project), so for example, pages 1–2 have a button named "Page 1 Next Button", while pages 3–4 have a button named "Page 2 Next Button".

Implementing audio into the project

Implementing audio into this project was pretty simple. The project only really needed two different audio clips: one for closing the book and another for turning the books (and also opening the book). I was able to get the page turn sound effect from a website online, which I've linked in my learning journal above, but for the book close sound effect, I had to record that myself using a fairly thick physical book I have (thank you, Tom Clancy).

For the ability to play these clips in the project, I had to create a new audio source, which is very simple as all you need to do is go into GameObject > Audio > Audio Source to create one. From here, I can use the audio source's PlayOneShot function in the Event System to play these sound effects without the issue of the audio clips cutting to play a new sound effect.