Centre For Environment

This project was a part of my summer work in first-year, where I was tasked by the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at Western University to creating a world of scenes that would allow students and researchers alike to study a variety of different marine life sampling practices. This project was done in collaboration with Paul Mensink (Project Lead) and Rajan Barr (3D Models).

Three main scenes were tasked to be created:

Waypoint Survey:

Sampling moving pods of whales and sharks with an intuitive and interactive fly-over experience in a sea plane. This component required a variety of terraining, as well as 3D modelling of NPCs, and a in-house developed waypoint survey system. Simply enough, this scene would allow the user to sample the marine life observed below in real time in a notebook, which would summarize and export at the end of their flight.

Features:

1. Automatic Flying
2. NPC (whales, sharks, boats) AI, involving object avoidance
3. Binoculars and Improved Vision
4. Plane Animations (dependent on flying conditions and plane speed)
5. Research Notebook, with clipboard/export support

Custom Whale Animations

A Variety of Different Screen Grabs from the Environment

Aquaculture:

Sampling fish species and other marine life in controlled scenarios is a key part of the aqua life practices. This scene involved both a fly over feature, with an in-house developed waypoint system, a diving system for the user to samply pH and other crucial data, with additive physics and UI/performance buffs.

Features:

1. Automatic Flying
2. NPC (fish) AI, involving object avoidance
3. Varying Sampling and Concentration Ranges for the Aquaculture Silos
4. Custom Diving with additive Physics
5. Random Environment Spawning
6. User Selected Route

Fish Sampling:

A lab was created to allow the users to easily sample, weigh, and measure fish. Likewise, there was an addition of lice species, which randomly propogated around the fish. A variety of different tasks and features were integerated to provide a more cohesive user experience.

Features:

1. Random Lice Spawning
2. Dynamic Fish Resizing
3. Movement Animations
4. Adaptive Camera Control
5. Research Notebook and post-game exporting (CSV/clipboard)