Digital Design and Visualisation 197.134: Model Version 8: Random Scaling, Adding Entities and Fixing Physics:

Once I had finished my speed-run exercise (previous post), I have continued on with my on-going design.

As stated in the heading of this post, I spent this time experimenting with how my model scales and then contracts. I have spent a lot of time, and a lot of tutor time as well trying to figure out if I can smooth out the transition. Unfortunately I have not been able to get it smooth enough for my liking. No matter what I tried, it still was a bit jerky / sudden.

Therefore to try and take the emphasis off the suddenness of the transition, I have added a Math: Random node in order to generate the time in which each of my 33 components scale at. By doing so, it has taken the emphasis off all of the model transitioning at one time, and it makes my model a lot more smoother and thus it has more aesthetic appeal.

**Note: The blurriness in the print-screens is due to the movement within the model and the computer trying to take a photo of it, it is crystal clear when it is running :)

This is a print-screen showing the new math:random coding I have added to each of my components in order for them to scale to the desired size at different times.

The following are a few print-screens showing different views of my model scaling at different times.

These following print-screens are swimming inside, looking up from underneath my model as each part is moving around the user.

It has taken me a long time but I have finally worked out how to fix my problem with my flying speedboat with help from Ollie. As you would have seen from previous posts, when I have put the AI/Physics on or tried to run the game, the boat bounced up and down without going into the water and sometimes even exploded in mid-air. The problem was that I had scaled the boat up and it was effecting the boats set physics. Once we deleted it and then placed another entity without changing the scale, it worked perfectly.

This has allowed me to stand on the boat whilst the game is running and shoot the gun like the print-screens show.

Since I am now able to get the boat to not fly, and able to stand on it without dying, I can now interact with it by pushing the 'F' button in-game. The user can now drive around whilst my model is moving on around them. Unfortunately the only thing is, is that you cannot (that I am aware) change the camera angle to get a better view..

Click here is a video of exploring my model at this stage on the speedboat:

Because I was able to interact and drive the boat (above) I wondered if I could do the same with a helicopter. Therefore I went back to my Sketch-up model and created a little 'helipad' that the helicopter could sit on in my map. I had to then play around with adding the Rigidbodyex entity so that it had its own physics and allowed a helicopter and user to stand on it. The following are screenshots showing this.

It took a while, a lot of dying and a lot of keyboard mashing but I have finally worked out how to fly the helicopter around my model. W,A,S,D are the directional movement with the mouse still used to look around, however when flying the helicopter, Space bar is used for the upthrust so that one does not plummet into the water. The following are some print-screens of my model whilst flying in the helicopter.