Welcome to the Virtual Raceway!

This world was created for the final lab project for Virtual Reality (Spring 2006) at Rutgers University. The purpose of this project was to make a fun to use game, that exhibits many of the functions we learned during the semester. The game utilizes many transforms, including scaling, rotations, and translations. There are 5 viewpoints to choose from, the StartLine being the default. The project also incorporates texturing and primitives to make most of the background objects, as well as InLining to keep everything more organized, as well as to import the car model (from www.sugar3d.com). Movie Texture is used for the video on the billboard in the distance. Billboard nodes are used to create the few trees in the scene. The terrain is made by an ElevationGrid, and the barriers and stands are made with IndexedFaceSet. Two viewpoints are static, while two others (InCar) are children of each respective car. The ChaseCam viewpoint rotates about the Y-axis to follow the car as it moves down the track. Many spotlights were used to illuminate individual lights on the tree, and are controlled by ROUTE statements to switch from red to green. Control is done using the 5DT DataGlove. The motion of the car in the left hand lane is tied to a clock and position interpolater. The motion of the right hand car is tied to the index finger position of the user. The user must keep his finger in the 'sweet spot' to keep the car moving forward. Failure to do this results in the car stopping motion, and too much wasted time will cost you the race! The left lane begins to travel, as well as the lights changing, when the simulation detects initial movement of the user's car. From the StartLine viewpoint, a blue orb is seen above each lane. This orb illuminates to show the winner of each race. Here are some screen shots of the simulation, namely each viewpoint and a good shot of the car model.

To start the simulation, put on the 5DT Glove and load the .wrl file. Begin moving your index finger. The simulation starts when you are in the ‘sweet spot’. Keep your finger position constant to move forward. Leaving the ‘sweet spot’ will cause your car to stop traveling forward. Using the StartLine viewpoint, you can see the winning lane’s blue light illuminate.

The model of the car is very detailed, including an interior. Note that this was the sample model from an online source, noted above. The model also uses transparencies for the windows. This model was imported into 3DS Max, and then exported to VRML after some simplification was made, as the original model was far too detailed for its purpose here.

I had two problems with this simulation. It seems that the clock is sometimes started as the file is loaded. This causes the car in the left lane to start at some position down the track instead of in the beginning with the user. This error is random and is sometimes present, and sometimes not. Finally, I was not able to implement a reset feature, meaning each run of the simulator requires the browser to reload the .wrl file. This also causes the computer controlled car to restart once it reaches the end of the track, due to the timesensor repeating. Switching to “loop FALSE” made the car not move at all.

And finally, the simulation can be viewed here