Control Device

My control input of choice would be a Couger Pro Joystick as it has all the control functions needed to control a helicopter. It has a twist grip which would be assigned to the Yaw of the helicopter, it also has a dedicated throttle lever on the base of the joystick. The rest of the controls such as pitch and roll would be controlled using the movement of the joystick. It also has 12 assignable buttons and a view HAT if needed. This would save me from implementing other joysticks for the throttle and other controls as it conveniently has the appropriate controls in one place.

Final Idea - Helicopter

I have decided to go with my helicopter idea as it will give me a challenge that I haven't come across. I would be integrating hardware with software with a 3D game element. The helicopter will be based on a Sea Rescue helicopter such as a Sea King. The environment I will need to work on and develop, but my initial idea would be to have a small City/Island with surrounding water.

An example of the helicopter:





An example of the City/Island:

Idea 2 of 2 - Helicopter

My second idea is to produce a basic helicopter simulator. The aim would be to have a helicopter flying around a 3D environment using a joystick type device. The things I would like to utilise and incorporate are:

• Collision detection - Not going through obstacles
• Non-steady movement - Helicopters in real life don't hover in the same spot unless you are moving the control input to correct wind conditions and other physics based problems. I would like to make the helicopter move and sway unless the user (pilot) is counteracting those forces.
• Spinning blades - This would just add to the realism
• Close to accurate controls - I would like to have accurate control for pitch and roll control, yaw control, and a collective stick for lift/throttle control.

Although my programming skills are quite lacking, I have proposed the above ideas to push myself to add more complex features.

Idea 1 of 2 - Spider

One of my initial ideas was to make a 3D spider in a suitable environment such as a house; made to scale with the spider. I got inspiration from a flash game entitled "Spider 3D". Here is the link to the game: http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/

There are no aims or objectives, but it's more of a physics based game. You control the spider with the keyboard or mouse. You can also alter the appearance and movement of the spider in such ways as; longer legs, thicker legs, smaller body etc... The spider itself is hardware AND software driven with some sort of basic artificial intelligence utilised.

My multimedia project would be somewhat similar, but with no artificial intelligence, just hardware based using a joypad. The spider would move around the 3D environment possibly eating insects found nearby.

Brainstorm

Brainstorm of Ideas:

• Spider in a 3D world - Spider walking round a small environment eating insects from the floor.
• Car driving around a City - Car driving around a large city.
• Bee Game - Bee flying around landing on flowers collecting pollen.
• Helicopter flying -Helicopter flying around a 3D environment.
• Car parking game - The objective would be to park the car in certain parking spots in an allocated time.

Integrated Media Environments

The purpose of this Media project is to integrate different technologies/mediums using a 3D environment. There are two appraoches which I will research and consider. They are:

• Software Integration
• Software and Hardware Integration

The software integration would entail a 3D environment mixed with a 3D multimedia supporting program such as Adobe Director. This method would use the controls built into the application to control the 3D environment.
The hardware integration would entail a 3D environment mixed with a hardware device such as a modified mouse, microphone, joypad or joystick.