Project Description
Design Goal and Description
The title of our final project for Graphics and Virtual Environments is: MoleSim. The goal of the MoleSim is to expose people to molecules and allow them to see molecular structures in great detail. To make the application as realistic as possible, we implemented a lab setting with a hallway, lab tables, and other correlating lab furniture. The user first sees a start screen, where they can start the program or quit; there is also credits and a short greeting message. Once the user presses start, the user is in the hallway and sees a “Click me now for information” to hear an audio how-to regarding how to use the program. The user then freely moves around the lab to begin identifying molecules; there are hitboxes implemented near the walls so that they cannot walk into them. They can press a button on a lab table to see a molecule appear, along with an audio description of the molecular structure and the uses. We wanted the user experience in the application to mimic a lab-classroom setting with an instructor describing the different molecules, which is why we chose the set-up that we did. We chose to have the users freely move around the lab via the vive trackpad (where they point at the ground and press on the track pad) because it mocks real-life—people can move around freely the way they want to, when they want to. The lab décor was specifically chosen to create an environment that felt like a real-life lab, with posters of the periodic table of elements and more. The user can quit the program at anytime by going out of the lab into the hallway and pressing the quit button. Although the main goal is to gain exposure to different molecules and learn their molecular structure/real life application, the MoleSim also allows the user to gain lab-exposure and see a sneak peak of a biochemistry class.
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Interaction
The interaction in the MolSim is done through the Vive controllers and the Oculus Rift headset. The user moves around via the trackpad; they point the vive controllers and move the pointer to the place they want to be, aiming at the floor. They then click the trackpad and they are teleported to that location. To make a molecule appear, the user points the laser at a button and hits the trigger on the vive controller. Users do not have to wait for the entire molecule audio to finish before moving to another table and molecule; they can simply move around and click on a new button, which will stop the previous molecule’s audio and play the new one.