RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT: The Tutorial

Intermediate users of the sandbox 2 editor will make great sense of my tutorial. Beginners may encounter some problems such as how to import a sketch up model or how to create their own custom environments. This is why links have been left in the description encase a level of knowledge above that of a typical user is needed. 

  

Velocity & Movement

By analysing the velocity of a vehicle (data collection) it can also have an impact on a moving entity. My tutorial subject establishes a simple yet effective way of measuring velocity of a vehicle and displaying this information on screen. Once this information is understood, you can then use this data to affect entities in the same environment.   

In the tutorial my custom Flowgraph analyses a moving vehicle. This is done by recording the velocity of the vehicle in m/sec through a flowgraph. This information is then displayed as a HUD message on screen and can be used to determine various other aspects of the moving vehicle such as average top speed over a specific distance. The information is then passed on to make an entity move. The ramp entity in this case rises to a specific height when the vehicle reaches a speed over 10 m/sec and descends once the vehicle is below this velocity as it is only safe to hit the ramp at this speed in order to clear the concrete barrier behind it. Therefore if the vehicle does not reach a minimum speed of 10m/sec it will crash into the concrete barrier behind.

Before this tutorial, I had very little knowledge on how the flowgraph plugin system worked. I always knew how to do simple graphs like making entities move at the press of a key, or switching lights on and off with proximity triggers . I knew there was a gap of knowledge missing until I started to watch and try other tutorials such as Vinh Nguyen’s average velocity of the local player tutorial. I then began to experiment more with flow graph nodes establishing a strong basis on what each does. The math less node was one that I was particularly interested in as I could say if data was above the threshold, move to this position, however if it’s below do not. Also vec3 nodes as they concerted data into a length vector. They simplify data in order for other nodes to read.  Many things can relate to this concept of velocity and movement, in particular I was thinking of way architectural thinking could apply to this concept. For instance solar panels that follow the intensity of the sun or once a vehicle reaches sufficient speed building appear would never be seen when the vehicle was stopped. Perhaps a growing city even, that’s dependent data being constantly updated to see if its area and density increases.