IDAT 204 - Conclusion

All in all our event turned out well.  We managed to create almost all of the media we used for it by ourselves, without any cost, as we chose to use a Sandbox for our location.  However there a number of problems we did have in setting up the event.  These are as follows:

• We had to set up the objects every time we wanted to use them because of the Sandbox returning them.  Some parts of the Sandbox terrain were also unlevel so the objects had to be modified accordingly
  
• Sharing the Sandbox meant there were sometimes clashes with other people and so we had to try to work around this
• Although we made a list of how to set up the event we still forgot a number of objects when setting up the environment
• When recording the scene we used screen capturing software and a remote camera which meant that the cameraman had to stand by the light sources in order for the lighting to work.  This meant the shots were restricted to a certain point, and the camera man could not move whilst recording.
  
• High latency on the server meant that recording the event and carrying out the event were sometimes disrupted by warping, meaning that it took us longer to complete
• We had to group objects to be able to put the objects easily into the Sandbox and there was a limit so we could not group everything together.  This was also true for lighting.  The objects then had to be ungrouped for the event which resulted in accidental modification of the environment.
• To be able to group all the objects together we had to give the ownership to a single user which meant they alone had to set up the scene. This could have been avoided by creating a group but this would have required a cost and left us in the red.

However there a a whole load of positive points to our event.  These are listed below:

• The editing tool on Second Life is quick to learn and easy to use so we were able to create almost all of the objects for our event.  This made it a very personalised event to us and ensured we achieved everything that we wanted to achieve
• We overcame all of the problems we had with Second Life and still managed to produce a good event.
• We achieved a good level of realism in the event as we designed the environment to be as realistic to the scenario as possible using various objects such as candles to create an aesthetically pleasing scene.  As well as this we had spotaneous conversations alike to those we would have in reality to make it as real as possible.
• The video we created was effective even though we had trouble with the speed of Second Life when we had our Christmas party
• The character animations used added an extra level of realism to our avatars and event.
• The scripting language was easy to obtain and modify to suit our needs for the event.
• All the textures we used were all ready available and easy to implement with our geometry
• By using the Google Wave application it allowed us to plan and collaborate our ideas together easily and quickly and show our development process.

 Overall the project was a great success, we all had a great Christmas party, it was a realistic social experience in a virtual world, and we are all pleased with what we achieved.

Programs used:

• Second Life
• Google Wave
• Camtasia