Creating Office Scene
Published on: 03-19-2023
Author: Eric Philippot
I created this project in the GameDevHQ program. It was suggested to reinforce the learning we did in the previous project, Sci-Fi Room.
We started with a blank scene and given the choices on how we wanted to design the project. The end result had to be an environment that had a den or office setting with assets found on the GameDevHQ Asset Store called Filebase or others. We also had the choice to do HDRP (High Definition Pipeline) or URP (Universal Render Pipeline) and an option to build it in a daytime or night environment. I started out doing this in a daytime environment.
As you can see the lighting was off and it was difficult for me to get the right mood I wanted. So I paused on the lighting and worked on the other details to see if it would come to me later. After playing with global volumes and reflection probes, and fine-tuned it until I was happy with the results. I am practicing an eye for design and the details, so it is a learning curve for me for sure. It isn’t like building a game and creating the logic flow as I did with the Space Shooter demo.
After messing with it for a while, I decided to test it out to see if it was better in a night setting. So I removed and changed light and environment sources, read some articles on how to work with lighting, and fine-tuned it till I got a result I was happy with. The was the end of the project for me. The only thing I added to the scene, as you can see in the first gif, is a learning project to test my research and development skills. They asked me how one can add a video to their scene. I didn’t quite know, but I remembered there was a way to do it in Unity. So I did some research and tested it out.
Created a new object in the scene that I wanted to be on the surface of the tv. Selected a plane and resized it to the correct dimensions. Then I glanced at the documentation for what was required next. I added a video player component to the plane and created a material with a rendering texture. I fed it to the video player component and left it’s color white for the best brightness. With trial and error, trying to get the video to play a YouTube video or any other links, it turns out that this video player has a lot of complaints about this subject. But I did find out that it plays locally. A simple screen record for a small clip as a demo, and voilà, the video played as I hoped. I submitted my findings, and I was proud of my new learning.
Finishing touches included dust particles and creating this site to showcase my work for this and future projects. So now that it is done, at least the game project parts, I look forward to moving on and continuing my education and craft.
