{"id":124,"date":"2025-09-19T21:12:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T21:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/?p=124"},"modified":"2025-09-22T22:17:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T22:17:38","slug":"week4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/week4\/","title":{"rendered":"Week4: Building the First Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reflection from Feedback<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After receiving feedback from our Quarters presentation, we regrouped as a team and made some key decisions about the direction of our project. The main takeaway was to prioritize the hiking experience itself, with technology serving as support rather than the central focus. Our goal moving forward is to create a VR hiking experience that relies on body movement as the primary method of navigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this decision-making process, we also finalized our engine choice. After weighing the pros and cons from earlier tests, the team agreed to move forward with Unreal Engine as our development platform. With that decided, we immediately began building a test scene. This early prototype helps us better visualize the player\u2019s perspective and interactions, while also allowing us to refine our map in terms of scale, hierarchy, and overall flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week marked an important shift from exploration to commitment. By narrowing our scope and confirming our tools, we\u2019ve set a stronger foundation for the rest of the semester. Our next steps will focus on polishing the map, testing movement mechanics, and continuing to align the art and design with our core experience goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art Test Build<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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With our art style finalized as a mid-poly approach, striking a balance between low-poly and realistic, we needed to make sure all models across the team felt cohesive. Our first method was to have each artist create the same object, in this case a tree, and then review the results together to align the style. However, even with the style guide in mind, the outputs still looked quite different from one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address this, we decided to try a new approach. Instead of everyone modeling the same assets, each artist would take ownership of a specific category of objects. For example, one artist would focus on all the rocks, while another would handle all the foliage. This way, consistency is maintained within each category, and together they will blend into a unified mid-poly style for the final environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logo Review and Feedback<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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This week we also received feedback on our logo and poster designs. The team is leaning toward the second poster option, as it best reflects the mood we want to capture. For the logos, the first and last row were generally preferred, but we realized they don\u2019t fully align with the visual language of the poster. The logos feel too \u201chard,\u201d while the poster relies more on soft, flowing lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were also encouraged to consider fonts and branding colors more carefully. Establishing a consistent typeface and color palette will not only help us finalize the logo and poster but also strengthen our overall branding and visual identity for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tech Update<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The tech team continued research on the new technologies recommended by faculty and also received the new Vive trackers. We quickly put them to the test to evaluate how well they might support our project needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The modules contain Arduino chips housed in a compact case and are powered by a USB-C rechargeable battery. They are based on technology from Zack Qattan’s startup: Ukaton<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pairing the modules with a computer is straightforward, and they provide sensitive rotation and acceleration tracking. However, they must remain very close to the computer (around 3\u20134 feet) or they risk disconnecting. We are still exploring the best way to attach them to the user\u2019s shoes\u2014ankles might be a viable option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, our main challenge was connecting the modules to Unreal Engine. Brilliant Sole offers a custom SDK and sample project (GitHub link<\/a>), but it requires a paid plugin. We expect many of these setup questions to be resolved in our meeting this week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Reflection from Feedback After receiving feedback from our Quarters presentation, we regrouped as a team and made some key decisions about the direction of our project. The main takeaway was to prioritize the hiking experience itself, with technology serving as support rather than the central focus. Our goal moving forward is to create a VR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/ascent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}