Conflict critical reflection

The first group for the conflict presentations was done by an aerial ropeway group. Overall the presentation was done very well, covering the basic types of conflict, triggers to conflict and the many factors that can be added to conflict, such as gender and race. The video was very unique, displaying passionate acting skills on the topic of conflict which made it easy for me to follow on what they're talking about. The main thing that stood out for me is the idea of the treatment of a person can be based on your background, religion or culture. For example, asking for or giving out help and being refused to due to this. I wasn't aware that this could have a great impact on your work, particularly working on a group project. Thus it would be difficult to collectively work on a project if each member harshly judges first appearances from their backgrounds.

The second presentation was done by a suprematist group (Ben and Daming) and the content was on point and well done but how it was delivered wasn't so great. It mainly consisted of reading from slides which really wasn't as engaging compared to the first group, thus using more images would of helped. The video down however was very dramatic, using acting skills to convey their message which was easy to follow.

Adding points to the map, loadings its church scene

Tutorial looking at the additional way of loading levels (from the grid thumbnails) of different churches through clicking a button from the map

Tutorial of how to add Church levels and respective dates to the grid page

This script allows you to load levels of different scenes of churches by clicking a thumbnail from the grid. The search function helps search for a particular church level you want to load as well by typing its scene name.

Background image transparency and linking of menu buttons

This chronolapse video shows the process of creating an image with a transparent background (in photoshop). It would then be attached to a GameObject created in Unity and setting the material's shader to a transparent diffuse in the inspector.

Changing into Horizontal bar slider and final search bar

With discussing with the client of the current state of our project and what he wants to add to it, a horizontal bar slider was decided to be put in. This slider bar would control what church would be visible on screen according to date. There would be 2 slider bars, one for maximum date and minimum date. By sliding them, the series of thumbnails shown on the page would organise itself visually corresponding to the date of that church. For the script in creating this, with the help of Stephen, he made a functional slider bar by primarily using: a grid, to allow the thumbnails to be shown on a grid; a filter, to update the grid when the slider bars are adjusted; and a series of variables attached to the slider bar to make it functional.

I decided that I didn't want to abandon of having a search bar that I've worked on for awhile. So I decided to create lines of code that would fit into the new script Stephen had made in making a working search bar. This was done by adding a few lines of code inside the OnGUI function, declaring a variable at the top and by updating the filter function to include filtering strings (images shown below).

Code added in void OnGUI

End result of the slider bar + search bar together. Search bar works with how the scenes of the churches are called from the thumbnails. E.g. if a church's thumbnail's scene is called "Church1", then if Church1 was typed into the search bar, it would update the filter to only show that thumbnail from the grid.

Search bar progress

Initially working on the search bar, I've managed to change the text within the results box into a click-able box by turning the results into GUI.Buttons. After that I came across a few more problems with the issue of how to load respective levels of churches based from the the list of results in the search bar and how to transform the results box into a grid system. The search bar wouldn't be part of something now, but rather has its own page where you have a list of options to choose and click from.

This shows an idea and attempt of what I'm trying to do by loading levels from clicking a result from the search bar.

Also this second image shows what I mean by transforming the results into a grid like structure.

Loading Levels

I've created a script where you are able to load different levels of churches. How it works is where a button will be set up in the scene (as a game object) and a script will be attached to it that loads a level in response to clicking it. This Loading levels script is needed to load different churches and the future aspect of adding more churches to the game.

The above script is for the button that will load a specific level when clicked on.

An example set-up of the buttons linked to different church levels

and the result of what happens when you click on the button.

Also this script is used to save a church level that will be used from the script used for the button, so that it'll know which level to load. In addition, by working with multiple levels, the different levels has to be added to the build settings, else Unity wouldn't be find the level as well.

Critical Reflection - Remuneration

The last presentation to be done is about Remuneration which was done by the Suprematist project by Josh and Anders.

Looking at the quality of their presentation overall, it was really engaging, on point and best of all, it related to us designers and gave me a huge insight into working in the industry. Remuneration is basically about the compensation you get from work. They outlined the different amounts of average incomes different types of industries get per year. This includes landscape architects, interior, CAD, and architecture. It was good to see the expected income you would get if you were to decide to follow that line of industry when you finish as a student. The other main thing they touched on was the type of work you want to go on. This includes being a sole trader, a freelancer or working under an organisation. The choice of what type of worker you want to be is dependent on your personality. I couldn't agree more about this because you would either get the feeling of wanting to work alone and not under anyone, having the freedom to make your own choices, or the feeling of working under someone and carrying out orders given by them. To emphasise on these points, they presented graphs and statistics of income and the amount you get paid from.

They also explained how to fill out in invoice to get paid for the design work you carried out. This is another valuable aspect of working that I found extremely useful and interesting to me, outlining the correct procedure to get paid from the work you do. The video that they presented was very engaging and they talked through along the duration of the video to explain what's going on which helped me greatly in understanding more about remuneration.

Linking the database and update to project

After having a very detailed talk with our client last week of clarifying what he wanted, we focused on the areas he wanted us to do. He wanted the game to work in a way that when a course is selected from the church, it would display its relevant information in a pop-up window where a search bar would also be integrated within. With the help of Stephen, he created a server for the church database to based from, and where we would retrieve information to Unity in the game. As of now, we aren't able to link our model components to the database on XAMPP (shown below), but we are looking to get this solved as soon as possible.

In addition, with discussion from the client and tutor, the script I created (the drop down menu), isn't suitable for the project, as it is more suited for a web based application, rather than a game. So in knowing this, I decided to go back and continue on the first script I was working on that actually acted as a searching function, hopefully solving some of its minor issues with some help and develop it further for it to be used in conjunction with the pop-up window Maki has developed.

Assigning components to the list for the script to function as search variables

Roles during the project:

- Sorting out information of the database (exporting it into an excel sheet to be easily read, then passed on the information to group members in charge of the model of the church).

- Working in conjunction with the modelling group to match the naming convention of the sketchup component names to the names of what the database wants.

- Researching and designing a functional search bar to be used in the game.

Critical Reflection - Intellectual property

For my group's presentation on Intellectual Property, we focused on talking about topics of defining intellectual property, its type and how to apply it. For the presentation, I focused on the information about what sort of stuff we can put under intellectual property in relation to the project we are currently doing and how it relates to our project, in terms of youtube tutorial videos, Unity legal use and the use of scripts.

I thought our presentation was right on topic and detailed. We outlined the different aspects of intellectual property and gave examples for a better insight. We related it back to our project, about how it affects us and why should we care about intellectual property, protecting our ideas and designs. The videos we included gives an example of a scenarios of the risk of not putting intellectual property under your stuff and how to apply for one. It's interesting to see how intellectual property can affect our work in many ways, having to consider of any resource you use in your project can determine of your project will be successful or not in the future.

Critical Reflection - Intellectual property presentation - Motorcycle project - Alyssa and Vedran

The content of their presentation on IP was well covered and detailed. They related it back to the project mentioning that it was Russell's project, giving credit where it's due. It was interesting to see information that I've never heard about before, the world intellectual property organisation, WIPO. Although the content was lacking in delivery and engagement since it was primarily delivered in the form of text, the content was still very much appealing. It was also good to know that your work is copyrighted automatically whereas getting a trademark, you have to pay for it.

Search bar scripting

With the allocation of tasks to do set out for the break, I was left to create a search bar within Unity, that is able to search various churches and display its information on the same screen. I've researched many ways of how I would approach this, finding how to do a script I can understand, and the aesthetics of it. At first, I researched a search bar that is able to function as a search bar, which was great. I would input the variables to the search bar, and it would be able to show them up when a corresponding letter or group of letters are typed.

The problem with this script (shown below) was with my limited knowledge of scripting. I wasn't able to create a box of information that would link up to the search bar, the results wasn't clickable and was not able to hide the results from the search bar. This means that as soon as I entered Play Mode in Unity, the results would instantly be right there, with nothing typed into the search bar.

After attempting to solve the problems of the previous search bar, I tried to look for another example of a search bar I could use, that is more friendlier to scripting. I then came across a drop-down sort of search bar. It suited my needs of being able to select results, and doesn't show results when in play mode. Looking at the script, I was able to change a few things around to add an individual box that would contain information and also be linked up to its corresponding search variable.

With a few minor changes around the script, I had to add the variable "ListInfo", to create a box for information to satisfy the needs the group set out.

The end result of an example of what it should look like once in game is shown below. This isn't the final design of the search bar, as minor details will be added in the future, with the option of hiding the search bar, and adding some sort of shadow or background colour to make it more visible ingame.

Communication Critical Reflection

Group 1 - Gothic Architecture Group

The first presentation presented by the other group doing the Gothic architecture project provided clear definitions of communication and the various aspects of it. These aspects include describing the forms of communication, such as synchronous (verbal) and asynchronous (non verbal). They also identified different target groups of communication. The overall presentation of their topic was very on topic, well structured and informative. The primary problem of the presentation is that their slides were too text based, less visuals and mainly reading off the slides. Also there are minor details of it not having references where it should be. They talked about what forms of communication they are and will be using throughout their project. This included communication within programs (e.g. SketchUp, unity), with the client, and through social media such as Facebook. For my group and its project, I noticed that we mainly communicate to each other verbally (synchronous) rather than non verbally (asynchronous). This was because we held many group meetings to do our work and found that face to face interaction is the quickest way in developing our project rather wait replies through emailing or social media networks. We mainly used these social media networks, such as Facebook as a storage location where we constantly update and share our work among our group.

Group 2 - the Last Suprematist

The second presentation of communication who is working on the suprematist project, mainly talked about how they communicated with each other due to the small number of only having 2 people in their group. With this, they discussed how they would coordinate their work accordingly, to avoid confusion in the future and clearly defining their roles and responsibilities. I think how they clearly outline what each of them has to do, helps with a better communication among the two, thus never having one person do most of the work. They also talked about their main line of communication is through the internet and they worked along the idea of a navigator-driver style of working. This style of work, particular aimed up pair group work, allows them to help each other when in need of help and puts one person doing work ahead of time, with the other following up from previous work. This style to me, helps them strengthen their communication with one another and works great with their project. For my group's project though, it wouldn't work that well as it's a team of six and its not easy to help each other as the line of work differs (coding, interface, shaders, etc.).

Group 3 - the Bus Stop of the Future

The last group for communication, doing the bus stop project, presented their information through a work cloud, outlining areas they use to communicate. They talked about in their presentation of what communication areas they used, which included emailing and listening. Listening as in talking with the person in front, and listening back to their response. This communication area may be obvious and simple, but is still one of the biggest factors to communication is what I think. This is because the person you want to talk to, is right there, meaning you can ask any question you have or answer any questions. This would also be done without the hassle of waiting for a response from the person (e.g. emailing, waiting for a response you don't know when you'll receive). They talked about the 10 levels of intimacy of communication, mainly based around emailing and Facebook messaging. Overall, their presentation was very informative towards their topic, and I found the listening tool of communication a great addition to their presentation.

Database files - Naming convention and Planning Critical Reflection

This week looking at the information contained of FileMaker file for the church database in more detail, the information or naming convention doesn't match to the ones shown in the sketchup model. I've exported the information into 2 excel files to be translate its information better and be more accessible to the group. 1 file for the description of components within the church, its date, cost, campaign and location. The other excel file is for the sketchup model file, as it lists every component within the church with its corresponding campaign ID, code, label, level, sequence and label. This file will be a base for renaming the components within the sketchup model to match its naming convention of the database so that it'll link up once we reach that stage of our work.

The naming convention would be the building name, campaign ID then course ID. e.g. CERSE_2a_BAS With the information given from the database, this style of naming the components is more efficient because the components are basically divided into campaigns and courses (2a, 2b, 2c, etc.) Trying to get a good understanding of what certain categories mean in the database, I've taken a look into each and every category, and I've noticed the categories LABEL_ACTION and SEQ will help us greatly in developing our interface, in terms of displaying the information and connecting them. LABEL_ACTION relates to the LABEL category. LABEL is the description of the element while LABEL_ACTION is an action of how to represent that LABEL. E.g. these actions can be graphic or text or others. Knowing this, the interface can be developed in displaying a graphical image of an element or related using the information of LABEL_ACTION and LABEL given. Also, SEQ is the order of information to be displayed in a searching pane, when the user wants to search something specific.

The group presentation done for planning by the Bus stop group looked very detailed and planned out. They included many types of management systems and plans that would relate to their project and plan out each stage of the process of their project. It included a project plan, giving concise and planned out information of the goals set out for the project, a risk management plan, time management plan and cost management plan. For our group (Gothic architecture), we didn't create a cost management plan as it didn't really relate to our work, but creating a time management and project plan (which we did) really does organise the group in its goals and decisions which is important in the long run. The risk management plan is like for backups and plans in case of emergencies, and I find this very useful to have because things don't always go the way you want it to in a project, especially working under a client where things are constantly changing. Since this group is doing the bus stop project, having a cost management plan is very useful for them, as it allows you to have a controlled amount of what areas you are spending on, while also knowing you have the right amount for other expenditures in the future.

As for the presentation done by the Aerial rope way project, they presented a strategic and tactical planning towards their project. They planned out various stages of their project, allocating each of their members specific tasks that needs to be done in a certain time frame. So it's pretty much focused primarily on Gantt charts and project planning. I see this as very advantageous to them in relation to the project they're doing. There are many different tasks involved such as modelling, animation, environment creation, etc., and by creating stages of goals to reach, it motivates the team members to reach them.

Java scripting and Unity

For this week, I've looked into tutorials of java scripting within Unity and tried to grasp my head around it. This would be useful in creating a script where it can connect the database info of the church to the model and the interface. I intend to study more on java scripting in Unity in order to create a way to connect the Filemaker file that contains the database information to Unity.

So far I've looked into the basics of java scripting in Unity. This script involves creating a button that is able to be clicked and respond with a message.

This shows the information contained in the database in FileMaker Pro. Looking at it, the information can be easily categorised into Location and Campaign which we could use as an option in connecting this info to the model itself.

Database

With clearly defined roles within the group divided into groups of 2, I am tasked to handle the database/coding side of the project work. Since there aren't much available info of the actual data, for now I decided to do tutorials on Unity and get familiar with it. I've researched and looked upon tutorials that would benefit the project in the future, such as physics proxy, importing models and have tested them within Unity.

Week 1: Targeted CV

Preview

Link to DOWNLOAD the FULL CV on PDF https://www.dropbox.com/s/x6cr74njewe4g0w/DavidLe_CV_ARCH1392.pdf