Apples and Anthills - Hospice VR Project

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I collaborated with other students to write the grant proposal for this class. Currently (Feb. 2021), we are re-writing the grant proposal to continue this project. During the project, I successfully facilitated the development of three independent experiences. As the lead programmer for Apples and Anthills, my main focus was to create an interactive experience that could be easily used by hospice patients.

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Wrong

As the sole programmer for Apples and Anthills, I wish we had scoped down the project slightly. While everything is functioning, the 10-week development period did not allow for the level of refinement I would have preferred.

Learned

During this project, I learned a lot about level streaming. I loaded in different baked lightmaps to change the lighting, compared to using a dynamic light. Next quarter (Spring 2021), we will be revisiting creating VR experiences for hospice in Savannah. This time around, we will only be working on one project. This will allow us to refine it even further.

When the player looks at the menu item, it starts a timer that fires a function. This function counts how long the player has looked at the menu and updates the widget component loading symbol.
When the player looks away, the timer is invalidated, and the loading time is reset.
The function fired by the menu increments the time, loading in the apple. Once the player has looked at it for 5 seconds, the menu item moves the player to the selected location.
This function unloads the current lighting and loads in a new one. Changing the time of day to night, for the campfire scene, and back to daytime when the player returns to the menu picnic area.
The camp menu is significantly different. When the player successfully activates it, another function is called.
Menu items that bring the player to an area of the game all call a custom Move event. This event incorporates a lead-in shot to give the player a chance to get their bearings.
The lighting is loaded in using level streaming. Each area of the game is in its own level. Allowing them to also be loaded and unloaded as needed.
One of the requests for this project was to steer clear using the controller grips to pick up objects. So that would not have to be explained to patients. Instead, as the player's hand overlaps the object, it gets picked up.
This function picks up the closest collection item actor and calls a function from that BP. The collection item has a function that places each item differently, so it fits in the hand correctly.
The bucket checks for the apple and detaches it from the player’s hand. It then increments the apple count on the motion controller pawn.
The widget element associated with the item collected is then updated. Informing the patient of their progress.
When the experience starts, the Type event is called. This event populates the object with all the relevant data for its enumerator type.
The collection item BP is a multi-purpose blueprint that acts as the majority of interactive content in the experience. It is the apples, Stanley's treats, the brush, fireflies, and marshmallow stick.
When the brush actor gets brought near Stanley he is set to his brushing animation. When the brush gets taken away he switches back to his idol animation.
As one of the treat collection items nears his mouth, he plays his eating animation. Then the collection item disappears, and Stanley is reset to his idol.
As the player feeds Stanley, their feed count goes up. This triggers the horse trophy to spawn.
When the treat basket gets placed in the level, you can decide what collection item it spawns and the amount.
This allowed me to create a multi-purpose actor that can spawn objects based on conditions. For example, spawning the apples once the patient has collected the correct amount.
The marshmallow actor is looking for the stick actor to near it so it can attach.
As the marshmallow actor gets brought near the fire, the dynamic material changes, so it appears to roast.
Once the apple count has reached 5, the apple trophy gets spawned in the menu area.
Once the player has entered the camp, a boolean is flipped on the player pawn. Allowing the player to interact with the stars. When the player looks at them, it triggers them to increment the player's star count and draw out their connection line.
When the sign gets placed in the level, you can set what video it plays per instance. As the player looks at the sign, it becomes visible and plays the animation. When the player looks away it gets reset.
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