KIT208 Assignment 2 VR Devlog (Nicolyn Kwok_598061)

Assignment 2 Development of Interface Application: Virtual Reality Stream

Introduction

          The main objective of the simulation is to adapt to a situation where a fire has occurred in an abandoned environment and quickly extinguish the fire before it spreads to its radius. The simulation requires the player to grab the water hose (depicted as a fire extinguisher) as it is more commonly found inside buildings or public vehicles.

Application Description

The chosen scenario for the VR assignment is a simulation of a dangerous occupation, which is firefighting. It is essential to have professionals who work in dangerous environments get used to possible similar scenarios so that they will be more prepared when facing the environment in future events, therefore, they need to safely practice in a safe environment beforehand. As we are aware, firefighters’ job desk included a wide range of activities, ranging from saving lives to safely extinguishing the fire on the spot.

Therefore, in order to best prepare the firefighters, it is crucial to provide daily physical exercises and simulations as it will create a sort of repetition, which eventually leads to the creation of behaviour for the individuals. Since physical exercises are easy to provide, simulation can be challenging as we cannot afford to burn buildings just for simulating the events due to safety and cost matters. Thus, we can substitute it by using VR technology to provide training to firefighters by providing time constraints alongside realistic visual and audio features (such as smoke and fire's rustling sound) to the user. VR technology offers the sense of getting firefighters to be more prepared and ready when danger calls.

Interaction Design   

The VR experience starts as the person will be faced with a certain number of buildings (old, abandoned warehouses) that are accidentally caught on fire. The main task of the experience is to get the user to safely put out the fire within a time frame of 120 seconds (2 minutes) before the fire spreads, ending up burning the whole warehouse.  

The VR experience will replicate the scenario where an old, abandoned warehouse was accidentally caught on fire (a fast-spreading one) that will most likely spread to the smaller warehouses around the main one. As firefighters work in various environments, often being in a civilized environment or bushfires, it does not decrease the chances that abandoned buildings might start a fire due to flammable substances left inside. The material of the building, usually an alloy, will most likely increase the speed of the fire’s spread as they are considered a good thermal conductor. Fortunately, since the building is abandoned, the surrounding materials rust, rusting has bought more time; as rust produces the same heat intensity as the fire, it will spread out over a longer time.

The simulation will require the player to interact with the 3D models included in the experience by grabbing the objects (the fire extinguisher) and controlling them towards the target to put off the fire. Making grabbing objects as the user interaction in the simulation is considered most appropriate as in real life, firefighters are required to master using appropriate firefighting tools and not to waste resources if they missed the target.

Technical Development 

The simulation will run in VR using either Oculus or Oculus 2 for visuals, and to interact, the use of the right hand control is required to grab objects and face them in the right direction to the target. 

3D Models

          The 3D models imported from the Unity Asset Store are mainly for the warehouse model, storage building model, and fire extinguisher model. The warehouse and storage building models are prefabs imported from the unity asset store, created by Kobra Game Studios, which are used to replicate abandoned buildings as they are rusty-looking and unoccupied. As for the fire extinguisher, a 3D model is used to depict a fire hose, as most firefighters use a fire hose attached to the fire truck to put off any fire in most situations. However, due to the difficulty of getting the perfect model to use, the closest object that could resemble an appropriate firefighting tool is the fire extinguisher, developed by KrazyFX, and published in the unity asset store.

References:

Rust: https://quatr.us/history/rust-oxidation-reactions-chemistry.htm

Unity asset for Unity Particle Pack (Unity Technologies): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/tutorial-projects/unity-particle-pack-127325#description

Unity asset for Storage Building (Kobra Game Studios): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/industrial/storage-building-50430

Unity asset for Fire Extinguisher (KrazyFX): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/fire-extinguisher-21147#content 

Scripts for fire and extinguisher prefabs:  https://forum.unity.com/threads/extinguish-fire.469610/

Using fire, water, and smokes prefabs:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDUw0CjMCR8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMQ33C4RuhA

Adding audio to the APK build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OT43pvUyfY

Changing ground color: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhZtjL4Buik

Fire audio source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz9ftphTWTM

Fire extinguisher audio source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHqT8uDHoSI