[Interaction 2] Technical Development- LIDAR detection

Initial Prototype [LIDAR]

For the initial prototype, I try with cube following the tutorial. It works fine as it is spawning new cubes following the user's detection.

For the following stage, I replace the cube with flowers and add force to the flowers so that it will move randomly after spawning.

Technical Challenges

I encountered some technical challenges in the following stage. For example, the flowers will overlap with each other when spawning. Thus, I have to add collider on the flowers so that it does not overlap with each other. However, the motion of the flowers seems robotic when colliding with each other. I tried to solve it by animating the collider but the result seems not so relevant yet. Thus, I have to continue to explore further to solve the problem. However, the prototype for lidar detection seems fine as random flowers gather around the user when the user is moving around. Below are some of the videos demonstrating some failures & experimentations that I've encountered:-

Flowers collide with each other and fly away due to the setting of the rigid body.

Weird results due to the force & drag applied on the flowers.

Flowers overlapping with each other without collider

Flowers not moving due to the value of drag & angular drag

Collider of the flowers hitting each other causing it too look robotic

Flowers overlapping without collider

Conclusion

As I have defined what is working and what is not working during the technical experimentations, I have the idea of how to debug for further enhancement for the next phase. The visuals of flowers should be explored further as it looks too plain at this current stage. Moreover, animations during idle state and closing motion could be added to make the flowers look more alive. Next, collider of the flowers and the calculations of the rigid body should have experimented further in order for the flowers to bloom naturally and aesthetically. Different sizes of flowers and small elements should be considered. For the technical part, as the flowers have some delay when blooming, I should set an offset/ force the flowers to bloom in front of the users rather than behind the users. However, I am quite satisfied with the current stage of prototype as I managed to make it work within three weeks. 

Bibliography

Brackeys (2018) OBJECT POOLING in Unity. Youtube. Feb 12. Available at: LINK

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