At the start of the first milestone, our team discussed several ideas for the project. We came up with a few potential concepts: the first was an educational VR program simulating learning environments such as physics or chemistry labs, allowing students to conduct experiments and quickly acquire knowledge in a specific subject without needing access to a physical lab. The second idea was a VR program focused on mental health and relaxation, designed to offer a calming nature experience to help users alleviate stress. A few other ideas were brainstormed but are omitted here.
After discussion, the second prototype was chosen. The primary objective of this application is to provide a peaceful, natural environment for users dealing with stress and anxiety, combined with a series of interactive features for stress relief. The application is tentatively envisioned to include the following structure:
Main menu:
Once the application starts, the user is placed in a beautiful forest scene. Users can navigate to different locations to access various features.
Three major features:
Virtual gardening
Walking through the woods with light and sound therapy
Meditation and yoga coaching
Details regarding the implementation of these features will be determined in the next milestone.
To begin development, we experimented with creating realistic environments in Unreal Engine. The environment is a critical component of the application, with a focus on supporting mental health and therapy. We explored methods to quickly construct and modify scene landscapes and discovered a useful website, STF3D (https://stf3d.de). With its extensive library of landscape presets, we successfully created scenes featuring mountains, vegetation, and footpaths. This provided a solid foundation for subsequent development.
We also spent time exploring methods for generating water bodies in Unreal Engine.
Next week, we plan to start implementing the interactive features and further develop the environment.
Progress demonstration:
Comments