ROVE 99% COMPLETE

After multiple play tests, lightmap bakes, audio adjustments and collider positioning ROVE is now 99% complete. Just a few more play tests and it will be complete. Now it is time to begin creating my show reel, which I will be animating a camera in Unity to film in-game footage and creating a new website which will comunicate the direction I wish to go in the future in games.

Update - Rove

Now that most of the environments are complete and taking note from the play tests by partipants I have been able to adjust the position of the environment assets in my levels to create a more aesthetically interesting environment. Now I will begin lightmapping each scene.

Bump Map and Lightmapping Problem

I found that when I had finished lightmapping my environments the bump maps applied to my geometry was not showing even though I also had dynamic lights in place. After research and asking a few questions on Unity forums I found out that Unity does not support lightmaps and bump maps on the same UV channel. To overcome this I saved copies of the UVs of each of my models and then loaded them into a second UV channel in 3Ds MAX. Now with two UV channels my models could now have lightmaps and bumpmaps.

Update - ROVE

Now that all the tests are complete my work flow is now very steady. I have relatively little trouble achieving what I want to complete. Now that the main production phase begins all I have to do is make the vast amount of environment geometry and environment assets I have planned followed by play test after play test.

Play Testing

I have play tested ten participants on Rove. Through these play tests I have managed to learn the average route the player will take through my environments. Which areas they find interesting and which they pay little attention too. Badly placed colliders which were missed and hindered progress through the environments. Through this play testing phase I have managed to fix a multitude of bugs which will allow for a smoother play and greater immersion to ROVE.

Collider Placement / Play Testing

This is something that I barely thought about when beginning this project. I thought that it would be a quick and easy process but after extensive play tests I found out I was very wrong. I learnt that colliders have to be placed in strategic areas and that you have to second guess what a player will do when they interact with a 3D environment. Luckily because I had complete some development phases before deadline I believe I will have time to run play tests with people.

Lightmapping

Lightmapping in Unity is a relatively easy process. To light map my scenes I marked all the objects within my scenes that I wanted to lightmap as 'Static', this tells Unity's lightmapping system that these objects do not move within the scenes and can be lightmapped. I then set up my lighting. To make my lighting look realistic I placed lights within areas where light would be seen naturally, for example; inside lampshades, on light bulbs and through windows. I then slightly adjusted the colour of the lights to add ambience, using an orange glow for lamps creating a warm scene and blue for a cold night time atmosphere.