In our final phase of this project, created between December 2019 and January 2020, I implemented what we learned from the last three prototypes into a full production of the project.
I previously was trying to identify a way for users to navigate the scene without distracting from the primary role of observation. After looking at teleportation with controllers, gaze-based mechanics, and simply animating the user along a track, we found a middle ground. Users are still placed on an animated track moving down the sidewalk, however, looking to the sides and around the scene will slow their speed to allow more time for observation. This eliminated the need for controllers, and gaze-based interactions with the mob are still an option to increase tension in the user’s experience. The majority of my time was spent working on this transition from the car to the sidewalk, and how to keep the Federal Marshals, Ruby’s mom, and the user in a cohesive group that can adapt to the user’s speed changes.
The environment itself was another point of focus. In past prototypes, the horizon line was clearly visible throughout the experience, and the experience tended to load slowly between scenes. I optimized the environment assets and significantly reduced the poly count, which decreased loading time and cleaned up the hierarchy of the scene. I also created road segments in a variety of shapes that could be easily reconfigured, allowing me to place houses in new spots, and the addition of stop lights, road signs, and trees created some variety in the horizon for the user.
On January 29-30, 2020, Tori and I attended the Zora Neale Hurston Festival in Orlando, FL to demo this experience and gather feedback for our thesis writing. We were able to collect surveys from each user and have conversations about why this content is especially impactful in educational and social contexts.
This will be the last full prototyped experience created for our thesis project. Moving forward, I will be conducting smaller experiments into areas such as what being surrounded by hostile avatars in VR feels like and small-scale interactions between the user and two NPCs.