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Interior Designer: Raviteja Gollamudi
Landscape Designer: Shaun Manaois

Overview:
The goal of this project was to create a virtual model of a home. The model embodies our vision of what an ideal home is, including all the luxuries, comforts, and surroundings that make up that vision. The virtual home is composed to two key components, the inside of the house and its surrounding environment. The house is a comfortable living space, consisting of a large comfortable bedroom, a bathroom, a kichen, and a spacious living room with a view back lawn. The exterior design is a detailed terrain with a yard, driveway, street, and a stream. Ultimately, we wanted to create the most realistic and interactive setting possible.

3-D Models:
Several complex and detailed models were used in our virtual world. These free models were obtained by using 3D Studio Max or CosmoPlayer VRML1ToVRML2 converter to convert to VRML 2.0 format. Predefined vrml2 models were also used.

Navigation:
The Virtual Environment was programmed to use the 5DT Date Glove and mouse to provide input. Viewers can perform a "fly-by" by using the mouse to move forward or backward while using the roll sensed by the glove in order to turn. However, viewers can use only the mouse for more simplified navigation.

Interior Design:
Many aspects of intelligent behavior were programmed in our world. In the inside, a clock that displays the current time in our virtual world. Five minutes in the real world represents one entire day in our virtual world. This was implemented by using a clock model with hour and minute hands, a time sensor with a cycle interval of 300s, and the another time sensor with an interval 0.00001s. The second time sensor acts as a start time measurement of the first time sensor, which then loops every 300 seconds. A script node was also written to rotate the clock hands displaying the time of day. All of the cabinets in the kitchen are programmed to open and close. This was done by building the cabinets from primitive shapes, and then attaching the cabinets to plane and cylinder sensors to open and close them. In the living room, a remote control is programmed to operate the TV so that it can display 9 TV channels. Touch sensors were attached to each button on the remote and were routed to a selector script to determine the channel while the TV screen was implemented using a switch node to display the correct channel. There are also transparent doors and windows that provide a view of the outside world. Proximity and cylinder sensors enable doors to open automatically or manually with the mouse. Also, a fan hangs from the ceiling that uses a time sensor and orientation interpolator to rotate infinitely. The last interactive part of the house is the jigsaw puzzle on the wall opposite of the TV. The puzzle consists of 16 tiles that were made using IndexedFaceSet geometries that were texture mapped. The puzzle pieces are placed next to a textured box showing solution of the jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle pieces are piled near the center, increasing the randomness and difficulty of the puzzle.

Screenshots:











Landscape Design:
In order to portray an accurate and genuine virtual environment, the scene was constructed while keeping in mind all of the the typical elements of the outdoors. The terrain includes a rugged lawn, a street, and a stream. The street was constructed by using a textured box and the stream is an indexed face set textured with an animated gif of moving water. There is also a bridge across the stream made with a textured box. The yard was made using an elevation grid with a grass texture to implement an uneven ground. Trees and shrubs are also placed in the front lawn. They are also textured boxes that utilize the billboard node so that they always face the viewer. These aforementioned geometries are important because they create a vast environment of high detail but low complexity. The transition of day and night was also simulated by varying the color of the background according to the time of the world. This was done by using two time sensors and a color interpolator which controls the RGB values of the sky. A script node then routes these values of back to the background node. On the driveway, there is a car that alarms if you approach it by using a sound node. On the left side of the house, there is another sound node placed with a dog enclosed in a fence. The barking of the dog barking amplifies as the viewer comes closer to it. A cylinder sensor is used so that the fence gate can be opened. Behind the house, there is a well that uses another moving water texture and sound node. We also provide a playground in the backyard so that viewers can relive their childhood. A proximity sensor was used near the ladder of the slide and a position interpolator was used to manipulate the viewpoint/camera. When a viewer approaches the ladder, he/she is taken up the ladder and down the slide into the sandbox. If the viewer takes another look at the sandbox, their footprints will be imprinted in the sand. A similar programming technique was used allowing the user to climb across the monkey bars from the left side. Also, a skateboard can be found on the driveway. If the viewer "accidentally" walks over it, he/she will fall and the skateboard will roll down the driveway. The skateboard is animated by routing the interpolated positions to its transform node instead of the viewpoint node. This method was also used to make footprints in the sand and again so that the birds on the bridge fly away into the background if the viewer decides to approach them. The user can hear the birds chirping before they fly away. The chirping cannot be heard after they fly away because the sound node is programmed to travel with them. Finally, an airplane flies overhead periodically, also with its own sound node that travels with it. This is done by using a time sensor with an orientation interpolator. At times, the airplane can be spotted flying far in the background.

Screenshots:




General Recommendations:

It is suggested to use a reasonably fast computer and a good graphics card for decent rendering speed and refresh rates. Also note that the user must close and reopen the simulation after any interaction that modifies the viewpoint node before engaging in another interaction that is routed to the viewpoint node. (slide, monkey bars, and skateboard interaction)




Virtual HOME
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