Andrew Buccellato's Journal

Activity Log

Week One

• 1/28 (1hr) Read up on course objectives, Wiki usage/status, Slack, and Journaling

• 1/28 (1hr) Paraview Installation and Tutorial

• 1/29 (1hr) Wiki Edits. Moved Unity 'Viewing in VR' tutorial over to tutorials page and added a link from Unity page

• 1/29 (1hr) Read through all Unity tutorials and made notes on how to make them flow better.

• 1/30 (3hrs) Combed through relevant s/w, reviewed project ideas and practicalities

Week Two

• 2/3 (2hrs) Reinstalled and caught up on Maya. Found some tutorial sources to link, and am investigating the ease/possibility for auto imports into Unity for VR projects. Maya section in the Wiki could use more work, but the tutorials should definitely largely be outsourced for everything but the direct VR imports I think.

• 2/4 (1hrs) Outfitted UnityCAVE Editor with some rough edits to help it transition to more traditional data inputs for potential project use

• 2/5(2hrs) Revisited Project Ideas and added necessary actions for each.

• 2/6 (1hr) Drafted Pre-Project plan for an interactive CAVE/YURT editor

• 2/6 (1hr) Started making new UI assets for the editor to allow it to swap between W3D and DataVis more easily

Week Three

• 2/8 (2hrs) Went to the YURT to investigate CAVE -> YURT conversion needs for XML based projects

• 2/11 (2hrs) Implemented a bounding UI and a reference zone to the editor. Experimenting with data input as particle systems. Developing resources from the project for a Unity tutorial on UI's and Camera interfaces.

• 2/13(4hrs) Designed and implemented Icons, PNGs, and Images for entire Editor. "Future" dataVis features have been designed but not implemented. Editor is fully visually set though!

Week Four

• 2/17 (2hrs) Tries (and kind of failed) implementing new XML sheets into the cave. Need to talk to John about how to get files that are in the kiosk folder onto the actual webpage. Should be easy, but I need someone to teach me.

• 2/18 (3hrs) Implemented TreeView hierchies into the editor. This allows for parent/child relations of any objects, group editing, and a comprehensive list of all objects in the scene. 

• 2/20 (3hrs) Implemented socket for Node.JS streaming input. For now its reading a text file, but I think this can be improved in the future. Allows web API data streams to be used while developing a visualization, but the limits of the YURT means it can't be live. It can however be live on Headset versions. I need to separate these two.

• 2/22 (4hrs) Built shaders for future transparency masking and tested some Node data socketing via google translate

Week Five

• 2/24 (8hrs) Compiled a master data structure that can handle ALL legacy XML projects, this allows for a perfectly smooth Save/Load function

• 2/26 (4hrs) Finished up first Beta Version that completes all functionality up until Timelines!

• 3/1 (1hrs) Implemented JSON file reader for some easier data read-ins.

Week Six

• 3/4 Started work on Timeline automation and implemented transparency masking (4hrs)

• 3/6 Text elements are now duplicated in .png sheets for morphing (2hrs) 

• 3/7 Implemented a base XML/Story import to fix the CAVE loading bugs (neeed to find YURT template) (2hrs)

• 3/9 Added support for mixed Z-sorting on render layers (3hrs)

Week Seven

• 3/13 Massive round of bug fixing [See Changelog file](8hrs)

• 3/14 Added temp objects for storage in the Schema (allows for faster editing, without rewriting the file) (4.5hrs)

• 3/16 Final feature push before UI changes, Snap-To, Lighting Objects, and (Simplified) particles (4hrs)

Week Eight

• 3/17 UI Overhaul: Icons, Graphics, Colors, Fonts (5hrs)

• 3/19 UI Overhaul: Menus, Dropdowns, Windows (6hrs)

• 3/21 UI Overhaul: Accordion Panels, Transform Bug Fixes, Uniform Positioning (4.5hrs)

Week Nine

• Technical Difficulties (0 hrs)

Week Ten

• 4/3: Finalized Midway Report (3hr)

Week Eleven

• 4/7-4/11: Debugging (UI/UX) (9hr)

• 4/ 13: Implementing multiselect features (4hr)

Week Twelve

• 4/14-4/17: Debugging (Gizmo Control and Loading) (7hr)

• 4/18-4/20: Fixing XML save files for YURT loading + particle cleanup (5hr)

Week Thirteen 

• 4/21: UX improvements and button fixing (3hr)

• 4/23: Working on Glyph Github repo and code organization (2hrs)

• 4/24: Fixing model uploads and RAW images (4hrs)

Week Fourteen 

• 4/28

Week Fifteen

• 5/

Journal-Self Evaluation:

• Journal activities are explicitly and clearly related to course deliverables: 3

• Deliverables are described and attributed in wiki: 3

• Report states total amount of time: 4

• Total time is appropriate: 4

Wiki Contributions:

• XML Software Comparison

• XML Interpreter Comparison

• Glyph Tutorials

• Glyph, CaveWriting, & Schema Downloads 

• Reviewed Loudon's Wiki Contributions

Final Project Poster:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aZATrpbMIwOLS_4ocR7oFTLdDmic82xW/view?usp=sharing

The Project

Proposal

Title:   W3D+ : A Intuitive Editor for Cross-Platform VR Visualizations

Objective: Finish and polish my CAVEWriting replacement editor while adding: data stream inputs,  custom visualization tools, YURT compatibility, and headset exportability.

Equipment: HTC Vive, CAVE/YURT

Deliverables:

• • The builds of the W3D+ software itself, open for use and testing.

  • Wiki documentation and tutorials on how to use the software

  • Example projects showcased in the CAVE/YURT

Milestones:

• • • 2/12: I/O. Look into the practicalities of the YURT conversation process, and potential data input types.

    • 2/14:  Look into uploading custom XML. Set usability and functionality goals for a comprehensive UI outline. 

    • 2/21: Identify specific final, and midpoint, goal states for the software to function as project completion states. Ensure the goals are progressive and reasonable. Put together final proposal and slides.

    • 2/26: Node socketing. Implement basic data stream inputs.

    • 2/28: Timelines and Actions : Have keyframed translations in place (Link Activated)

    • 3/5: Timelines and Actions: Implement more advanced keyframe commands [MOVED TO STAGE TWO]

    • 3/7: Hierarchies and Groups: Have Groups addressable in TreeView, and indexible in links.

    • 3/12: Catch up on any issues 'Tabled for later'

    • 3/14: Particles and Lights: Have Lighting settings complete.

    • 3/19: Particles and Lights: Have particle emission (non visible).

    • 3/21: Particles and Lights: Have visible estimation for particles. [MOVED TO STAGE TWO]

    • 4/2: Polish Edges into a Midterm Demo (Node Data -> Group+Timelines -> Particle Actions)

    • Stage Two: Models, Implicit Animations, Wider Data inputs, Headset exporting

Activities

• • Group beta test the software! (Have everyone give a go at using the editor and give  some UX feedback)

Project Evaluation

• The proposed project clearly identifies deliverable additions to our VR Software Wiki (4)

• The proposed project will inform future research, ie, advancing human knowledge (4)

• The proposed project involves large data visualization along the lines of the "Data Types" wiki page and identifies the specific data and software that it will use (3) -- specific data is tbd, the editor is more general

• The proposed project has a realistic schedule with explicit and measurable milestones at least each week and mostly every class (4)

• The proposed project includes an in-class activity (5) -- I think the activity will great for me and the class both

• The proposed project has resources available with sufficient documentation (2) -- No demo up yet, but soon