Game idea and Mechanics

• First person puzzle game
   

• Inspired by Antichamber 

  • Unrealistic levels

  • Minimal, low poly graphics
     

• Levels designed for HTC Vive
   

• The Tower idea:

  • Levels are connected by an elevator

  • Completing a level will open elevator doors

Game idea and Mechanics

Project Structure

Project Structure

Game Manager

• Level management
  • Initialization
  • Switching
  • Logic Update
  • Rendering
• VR Support
  • Per-eye rendering
  • Teleportation feature

    class GameManager
    {
       var mIsVROn;
       var mGameStatus;
       var mCamera
    
       var mSoundManager;
       var mInputManager;
       var mAnimator;
    
       ...
    
       XVRRendering(eye);
       Render();
       UpdateLogic(dt);
    
    };

Input managers

Input managers

class InputManager
{
    var mIsVRon;		
    var mManager;
    var mCamera;	
    var mPreviousCameraPosition;

    // Public functions
    UpdateCamera();
    UpdateControllers();
    IsPressingPrimaryButton();
    IsPressingSecondaryButton();
    IsGripPressed();
    GetController();
    HasPressedMenuButton();
    VibrateController();
    GetPlayAreaSize();
};

Depending on the input device found the input manager will manage input from:

• Keyboard and Mouse
• Gamepad (Xbox 360 or Xbox One)
• Vive Controllers
  • In this case it will use functions from a DLL to get controllers infos

Animator

• Allows to create different types of animations:
  • Transition animation from point to point(s)
  • Rotation animation from angle to angle(s)
  • Scaling animation from scaling array to scaling array(s)
  • Rotation Around point
  • Mesh "diffuse" parameter animation, from value to value(s)
  • Light color transition from value to value
  • Generic value transition (tracked with an animationId), from value or array to value(s) or array(s)
     
• For each of the above animations it is possible to define:
  • Looping and Execution Time
  • Easing: The kind of easing in or/and out desired:
    • Linear, Cubic, Quadratic.

Levels

Structure and mechanics

Levels

Each level has a predefined structure

     
    class Level {
        /* Variables */
    
        Init();
        Render();
        UpdateLogic();
        IsPointedPositionValid();
        DrawHUD();
        IsLevelCompleted();
        SetupOpenglLights();
    
        /* Level-specific functions */
    };

    function Level::Level{}

Common classes:

• Room.s3d
• Elevator.s3d
• Utils.s3d
• EventTrigger.s3d
• Text.s3d

Level Menu

This level will show a list of all the levels allowing the player to choose one of the levels to play.
 

Classes used:

• LevelMenuSelector.s3d
• PreviewFrame.s3d

Pecularities:

• Low poly "Sea"
• No elevator in the room
• Point and click with vive controllers

Level 0

A room with a 4-way portal cube where each side shows a different view

Pecularities:

• Creates the elevator and initialize variables used by other levels.
• Portals effect with stencil buffer

Level 1

Drawing Level. The player will have to connect the light cones by drawing in the air

Classes and Shaders:

• DrawingConnectors.s3d
• DrawingShader.glsl

Pecularities:

• 3D drawing

Level 2

Drawing Level. The player will have to connect the opposite light cones by drawing in the air

Classes and Shaders:

• DrawingConnectors.s3d
• DrawingShader.glsl

Pecularities:

• 3D drawing
• "Mirror" effect for the controllers

Level 3

The player will have to walk through 5 coloured paths that will move each set of colored flying objects to form a code digit

• Random meshes, each singularly animated
• Fully customizable, interactive 3d keyboard

Classes and Shaders:

• RandomMeshes.s3d
• SpotShader.glsl
• VirtualKeyboard.s3d

Level 4

A room with 4 walls full of blocks. Pressing all of the extruded blocks will open the elevator

Peculiarities:

• Exploits Vive Controllers positions

Classes and Shaders:

• ButtonsWall.s3d

Level 5

FPS Style. Targets will randomly spawn around the room. Shooting them without getting player life to 0 will unlock the elevator

• Guns are moved and rotated with Vive Controllers
• Each gun shoots different bullets

Classes and Shaders:

• SimpleColorShader.glsl
• Gun.s3d
• Bullet.s3d
• Target.s3d

Level 6

Final Level. Flying object and numbers will move according to player movements. Typing the correct code will unlock the ending game animation

Pecularities:

• Time warp in certain parts of the room and with the clock
• Mirror!
• Ending sequence

Classes and Shaders:

• Clock.s3d
• Numpad.s3d

Virtual reality

Implementation, issues and solutions

Virtual Reality
Openvr

FrancoDLL.dll

• Based on an OpenVR sample project, started by Franco Tecchia
• Modified by us, adding getter methods to obtain:
  • Camera matrix
  • Controller matrices
  • Controller buttons states
  • Play area size

Virtual Reality

XVR - OpenVR interaction

• ​The ViveManager class communicates with the DLL library in order to:​
  • Update the camera position
  • Update the controllers position
  • Handle any inputs from the controllers
• The ViveController class handles the appearance of a single controller
  • Draws the controller
  • Update the visual status of its buttons (when pressed)
  • Allows to change the mesh of the controller

Virtual Reality

Issues and Solutions

• Design issue: player movements
  • The real room is quite small
  • Walking through the whole virtual room is impossible
• Solution: Teleportation
  • Player points where he wants to go
  • Animations prevent motion sickness

Virtual Reality

Issues and Solutions

• Problem with this solution:
  • Need to track the offset from the real position in XVR 

• In order to actually move the player glTranslate() is used with this offset

Virtual Reality

Issues and Solutions

• Design issue: player position in real life
   
• When moving the player loses track of where he is inside the real room

• We added the possibility to see the boundaries of the room and the position of the player inside

• Rendering issues: Some XVR classes and functions for rendering don't work as expected 
• XVR functions like SetClearColor() don't have any effects
• The CVmLight class doesn't work
  • Used OpenGL functions to directly modulate lights
• The Stencil Buffer doesn't work as expected
  • Can walk through "portals" even if it's not possible

Virtual Reality

Issues and Solutions

• Some textures aren't rendered
  • Those embedded in a mesh work properly
  • Textures passed to shaders as parameter don't
  • Abandoned the use of post-processing effects

Virtual Reality

Issues and Solutions

Assets

Meshes, Shaders and Sounds

Assets

• The idea of the game was to mostly use primitive shapes
  • Cubes, Spheres, Cylinders, Pyramids...
• Vive 3D models were found in the OpenVR SDK
• Other models were found online
  • Sketchfab, TF3DM
• Modified and exported by using a combination of Blender 2.78 and Blender 2.49b with AAM exporter plugin

Meshes

• ToonShader
  • Creates a cartoonish look
  • Used on most of the objects
  • Based on Phong Light model

Assets

Shaders

• BorderShader: used to create silhouettes in objects using face culling

Assets

Shaders

• DrawingShader: used for color interpolation when drawing in 3D 

• DashedLineShader:  displays the ray when teleporting
• PositionCircleShader: displays the circle when teleporting
• PlayAreaTeleportShader: displays the play area when teleporting
• PlayAreaBoxShader: displays the play area when pressing the grip buttons

Assets

Shaders

• PostProcessingBlurShader: used for post-processing effect to blur the view;
  • Only works without the HTC Vive

• Most of the sounds were found online or created using professional music software
  • Cubase 5.0
  • Converted with AVS Audio Converter

Assets

Sounds

• The tracks used are:
  • Nexus - Tranquility
  • Deadmau5 - Ghost n Stuff
  • Interestellar OST - First Step