Event Horizon

Inspiration

Our vision for Event Horizon began by our love for board games and battle scenes of sci-fi movies. We aimed to revolutionize board gaming by recreating scenes from films like Star Wars, where the commanders could see the whole battlefield on one table and control all the units, while simultaneously let other players use VR to enter combat as single ships.

What it does

Our game is divided into two parts - AR and VR. AR brings to life our idea of 3D board games by letting multiple players join a single server using their phones or computers and playing at the same time as the commanders. These players can control ships by moving them, attacking other ships and defending friendly ships. VR part lets other players not interested in the strategic part of the game, enter it as pilots of the ships.

How I built it

AR-With the power of the new iOS ARkit, we were able to construct a playing field almost anywhere. From there, we built the actual game using Unity - the game engine. VR- With the help of Unity, VRTK, Steam VR, and the Vive's provided by UCSD's VR club, we were able to build a rudimentary movement system for space combat. We also built a Google Cardboard VR component, to show how it interacts with the network.

Challenges I ran into

AR - it was hard to make the AI for the ships and just movement overall. VR - There were many issues with developing a realistic rotation and movement system using AR components only. IE checking changes to 3 dimensional space in order to dictate movement proved much harder than we initially believed. The main challenge was that we did not realize that ARKit would interfere with out ability to build Vive games, something that we realized too late to fix and implement properly. Instead, We have the Vive component to show how the ship would have moved, and then a multiplayer AR component and Google Cardboard systems to show how the game was meant to come together.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

AR - simultaneously letting multiple players join the server and see the same battlefield and control the ships in it. VR - Though there were many pitfalls and trials, learning VRTK for the first time was a fantastic experience and now that we have successfully programmed in it, we look forward to progressing on future projects.

What I learned

AR - how to use ARkit. VR - VRTK and its power as a VR library. Overall - Unity engine and how much it can do.

What's next for Event Horizon

Overall, we hope to continue and improve this project under the VR Club. Our hackathon prototype is far from perfect, and we have plenty of work cut out for us in the future. Hopefully we are able to fully texture and tune models, improve our movement and fighting system, make and implement rules for multiplayer AR mode and add combat mode in VR.

Built With

• ar
• arkit
• c-sharp
• unity
• vr