This week, I sketched out what I thought the 3D environment should look like and decided that the objects should not animate (unless they are looked upon). I began to build the basic environment for where the objects will lie and am very inspired by the game, Cosmic Trip, which features lots of desert scenes with beautiful oranges, pink and blues in the sky.
Learnings: 1) Textures are powerful but the amount of polygons and draw calls can really add up quickly a. I learned this when I set out to use a basic sand texture, and while it worked fine while I was on my computer, when I went to view it on the Samsung Gear VR, it became incredibly splotchy b. I spent about 3 hours trying to figure out what could be the cause of the splotchiness, did everything from reducing the total amount of pixels in the scene to decreasing the size of the texture. Finally, was able to figure out that I needed to disable shadow casting. Once turned off, the splotchy-blackness stopped and I was able to refocus on building out the scene. 2) For gear VR, the more the dynamic environment looks (with mountains, hills, outside objects), the more calming the entire scene feels 1. I am still figuring out the aesthetic that I am going for, which makes me wish there was a faster way to build to the samsung gear vr (because you can't fully comprehend what you are building until you put on the headset) and be able to make tiny tweaks in it (i.e. move the river over to the left or make the blue slightly lighter/darker).
I hope to be done with the basic scene by this weekend so I can move onto adding the 3D objects that represent categories into the scene.
Would love anyones feedback about textures and how to limit the amount of polygons/ draw calls in their app. Also, if they have any tricks with making planes appear more like textures. Is it possible to use a plane for most of the layout and then add smaller textures in areas that you want to have texture on and therefore, you are further limiting the amount of polygons/draw calls in the scene?
Needed different variations of a bowl (made one but unsure if the shape is right), a simple 3D arrow, that is simply high quality and looks like this: https://thenounproject.com/term/arrow/16957/ - am going to try making this arrow in sketchup today
What I've been interested in a 3D curved plane (if that makes sense) for UI buttons and text. I've played with Sketchup, but only used block shapes such as buildings. You make me think I need to spend that 4 hours and try it out. Nice job!
