Programming for Entertainment Systems (SOFT323)

Coursework 1

For this coursework I created an accurate 3D mesh of one of my real life fish, by photographing it as best I could from three planes before animating and applying physics in DirectX. The program also featured billboard weeds and an ambient background music track.

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Coursework 2

This coursework was a continuation of the previous theme, only this time I built a DirectX application from scratch using my own classes. I also programmed a link between input from an experimental USB interface board and the application, as a precursor to developing the biofeedback input for my Final Year Project. This program still featured my 3D fish model however it included dynamic lighting from mobile sources and a terrain mesh with a heightmap generated from a RAW format bitmap image. The lights and fish responded to inputs from the USB board in a variety of ways:

Two of the three lights respond directly to the information from the two analogue signals through their speed, strength and erratic choice of direction.
The third light is indirectly affected by these signals since its behaviour is to alternate between chasing the other lights, the moment it has caught up with one it chases the other. It isn’t as autonomous as this however, since it still chooses its own directions to travel in.

Similarly and finally, the fish’s motion is affected by the behaviour of all three lights, continually chasing after the centre point of the group.