Homework3W13

Homework Assignment 3: Building Blocks

For this assignment you can obtain 100 points, plus up to 10 points for optional work.

The goal of this project is to create an application which uses the Razer Hydra to allow the user to build the computer science building out of building blocks.

Razer Hydra

This homework assignment requires the use of a Razer Hydra input device. Every team/individual is going to get to borrow one from the instructor for the remaining weeks of the quarter. If you work as a team, please take only one.

The Hydras can be picked up from the instructor's office, Atkinson Hall room 2125. The office door should be open all day. If the instructor is not in the office, please sign one of the borrow agreements and leave it on my desk, then take a Hydra from one of the boxes on the floor.

To use the Hydra, you will need to first download the driver. If you use the lab computers the driver is already installed.

Application

Your application needs to have the following features:

• There needs to be a ground plane (for instance, created with osg::InfinitePlane), or some other surface which doesn't have to be flat, to build on.
• The mouse should rotate the world with the ground plane and the bricks on it, but not any of your menu items.
• Allow the user to create at least 5 different shapes of blocks, for instance with the osg::Shape Class, which supports Cone, Box, Cylinder, Sphere.
• Allow at least five different colors to be used for the blocks, all of which should be clearly distinguishable from one another, the background and the ground plane.
• The application should support both Hydra input devices, equally privileged. You will need to ascertain that the user can create blocks with both hands at the same time. The newly created but not yet placed blocks should not intersect with each other until they are placed.
• There should be an area on the screen with icons for shapes, and another one for color. The user should click a button on the Hydra's wand to select a shape, hold the button to move the shape into a color which paints it in that color, and then place the block on or above the ground plane by releasing the button.
• Only one button on each Hydra wand should be used for this application.

Grading

On the due date, you will need to demonstrate your application with a Razer Hydra in the lab on a lab computer or your own laptop.

Extra Credit (10 Points)

You can achieve 10 points of extra credit in one of two ways:

• Add physics simulation to the behavior of the building blocks: when you drop one, it should not just fall until it hits another block or the ground plane, but it should bounce off other blocks and the ground plane until it comes to a stop, like a real building block would.

• Turn the blocks into Lego bricks. Render little cylinders on their top surfaces in regular grids like real Lego bricks, and make pieces snap to one another when they get close enough to fit together like real Legos.