Major Projects I have been involved in
Areas of expertise I have gained
What does W Industries do?
| W Industries was a venture capital company supplying Virtual Reality hardware and software for the entertainment industry. They were the world leader in this sector of the entertainment market, supplying sit-down and stand-up machines in which the player would wear a helmet and control either a steering wheel or a joystick to control the game. They supplied many top amusement arcades such as the Trocadero in Picadilly Circus. They also supplied companies who would take the machines on tour around the UK or the USA promoting products by getting people to interact with specially written games or demos. The machines ran on Amiga 3000's and later on PC's. W Industries later became Virtuality, and sadly the company has now gone bankrupt, with only the helmet being left as a desirable asset |
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Straight out of university I worked for the company for a year developing virtual reality experiences for the stand-up versions of the VR games machines. This involved creative design and game planning of how the VR experience would evolve as players went through the game. Care had to be taken with respect to the psychological aspect of VR - players could otherwise easily show symptoms of a kind of sea sickness if images lagged behind actions too much, or if they did not feel in control of what they saw. Continuous testing was an important feature, both by ourselves, other members of staff, and at customer sites where we would gather feedback as members of the public stepped out at the end of the game.
Development took place on Amiga 3000 computers in C and some assembler. My first task at the company was to draw up coding standards for the ten software engineers. Other tasks included customer site installations, testing of new games at various sites in the UK and working in a recording studio to generate all types of sound effects for the games. We worked very closely with the graphic design team who supplied our 3D models and texture maps. Up to four VR machines could be networked together for players to interact with each other as well as computer controlled players. A linked system of earphones and microphones meant that players could hear and talk to each other, their voice being modified to take on the characteristics of their player.
Major projects I have worked on
LegendQuest
The first game I worked on was continuing several levels of an existing game call LegendQuest - a kind of dungeons and dragons style adventure game. An already popular game I had to create the final and hardest two levels. All seven levels of the game could take a player several hours, and many people at special LegendQuest sites around the country were expecting good things at the end of the game having paid out good money to get that far. The work involved animating simple things like flames to very complex lizards and giant sword wielding trolls. I added various lighting and fog effects to add to the realism of the game.
GridBusters
LegendQuest was the top selling VR game before GridBusters knocked it into second place. This was an all action game where players shot at each other as much as possible inside a big stadium arena. Obstacles offered places to hide behind. Almost like LaserQuest, this simple game turned out to be very popular. Head up displays (HUD's) at the edge of the players vision indicated how many times the players had been hit and each players firepower. This game was fast and furious and the graphics had to be up to speed in order to cope with this. Much time was spent optimising the code and applying techniques to draw as little as possible without detracting from the players apparent view. For example drawing less detail depending on the speed of rotation of the players head or on the movement of other players in view relative to that motion. This was the only project at W Industries that I saw from start to finish. From the game design, development, re-design and re-design again, to the recording of special effects, and the on-site testing, it was a truly fun experience. I also demonstrated the game at the ATEI exhibition (the entertainment industries massive annual technology show) in Earl's Court.
MCA diving simulation
The last project I was involved in was a shipwreck diving experience for MGM at Hollywood. The chairman of MCA was opening a specially built entertainment complex in Japan and wanted ten of our VR machines, and a specially written experience. The experience involved the player as a diver swimming amongst schools of fish (who would often split in different directions if the diver got to close) sharks (to which the diver could give an electric shock), and swimming along the sea bed amongst animated seaweeds, corals, crabs and lobsters). The diver had to find the shipwreck, gain entry to the ship, and explore the living quarters looking for treasure before the other players. With sound effects and realistically simulated diving animation sequences, this experience was deeply involving - true immersive VR.
