bloxorz

Group Members

• Mostafa Mohsen - mohsem1
• Purv Patel - patep11
• Hassan Jasim - jasima

Dev Environments

• MacOS - Apple silicon
• Windows 10

Prototype works and features

• Block class
  • position (block position as well as origin from where to draw the block)
  • bounding coordinates (this is basically two position points for now, top left and bottom right of block (base of block))
  • orientation (quaternion to keep track of total rotation)
  • rotation information (quaternion to keep track of rotation of animation)
• Platform class
  • consists of tile map (2D vector)
  • draws the tiles if their values are 1
• Quaternion class (For faster rotations and cleaner animations)
  • We used quaternions instead of euler angles for rotation to keep consistent track of the orientation of the block
  • They also helped us to avoid having to deal with the ambiguity of euler angles.
  • We implemented the SLERP algorithm with quaternions to make a much cleaner and smoother animation.
• Keyboard controls
  • Use W, A, S, D to roll the block on the platform
• Basic camera model
  • We just implemented a basic orthogonal camera in the positive corner for now (we focused more on smooth animations and block logic instead).
  • We also added some simple lighting to the block and tiles.
• Basic local light

Things to Do/ We might add (This is not an extensive list and we might add more things)

• Undo functionality
  • We can add a basic undo functionality by keeping track of rotations and playing reverse rotations in undo (easier to do with quaternions)
• Textures
  • Currently, the block is drawn with glutSolidCube. We are thinking of just taking the source code for this routine and then modifing it to add texture coords
  • Tiles also will be textured
• Game Win/lose functionality
  • Our protoype already has state information (the platform and block coords), we just need to implement a logic system to detect game win/loss
  • Have to implement falling animations and game winning animation
• Main menu and Block selection
  • Implement a main menu for game along with a simple block selection (selecting different textures)
• Level design and additional mechanics
  • Implement logic to play multiple levels (we already have the basic tools in our prototype, just need to design levels)
  • Adding additional features like tiles turning on and off at certain intervals or breaking after one pass through or having switches on tiles to trigger things

Things to Optimize

• Cleaning up code
  • Our current Poc can be modularized and refined further; using Point3D classes for positions, pruning mathLib3D to keep nesecary functions only.
• Optimizing Quaternions
  • Currently, the quaternions use full formulas for calculations (not unit quaternions), even though we only work with unit quaternions.
  • Using too many quaternions in rotations; currently using two (extra) quaterions to rotate, one for origin point rotation and another for full rotation.
  • Refactoring file structure