Homework 5: Game Engine

The purpose of this homework was to learn how to move objects around in the game engine and to add objects dynamically. I first updated my merry-go-round to make it more uniform. Instead of making the bars one at a time I duplicated them, rotated the scene 120 degrees and moved them there. That way they would have perfect symmetry.

I then added the merry-go-round into a scene and had it rotate when you press W. For now I kept the merry-go-round as a static object that has collision because the cylinder in the center caused problems if I made it a rigid body. You can also move the whole scene up and down with X and Z.

I wasn't happy stopping there so I added an invisible empty cube that rotates and moves along an animation path. As it moves it randomly drops leaves that are stored on a second layer. The leaves were made using a subdivided plane and can distort when physics is applied. They have an alpha mapped texture of a leaf which allows the non-textured parts of the object to be transparent. I then added random forces and velocities to these leaves so that when you press Q the "wind blows" and the leaves fly across the plane. Also if you spin the merry-go-round with W the leaves on it will scatter around.



Initially I created the leaves(cloth), wind, and particle system in the Blender Render engine only to find out none of that is supported in the Game Engine. So I had to try to fake it with soft bodies and random forces. Overall I was pretty happy with the version I have. I think if I modify the leaves a bit I can create a modular set of objects that can be used anywhere in the gameworld. The merry-go-round itself is a key feature of the playground, one of the main areas the player is taking photographs in.