Picking up the pace

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Continuing the momentum we had from milestone 1, we chose to focus on several features for our second checkpoint. Our team split off, with each member working on a different part of the application.

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TLDR

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* Recorded Runs and Playback Changes

* Integration of uploading, publishing and playing back recorded runs into API

* AR Runner position fixes, placed in front of player.

* Bug fixes in relation to player veering off track, allows for more flexibility

* Animated Runners and Customization

* Players able to record and upload their runs

* Selection of which run to choose to race against

* Points system for incentive

* Toggleable minimap between AR view and Map view

* API Endpoints and User Management

* Endpoints created for user account management

* Endpoints created for friend management

* APIs utilized for uploading, publishing and playing back recorded runs

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Recorded Runs and Playback Changes

I spent most of the this week reworking our recording and playback features. A bug we noticed during playtesting was that players would get stuck if there were overlapping paths in the recording, or if the player veered too far off of the track. To fix this, I rewrote the path tracking algorithm with Yi Dah to allow for greater flexibility. The new version allows player to veer off of the recorded path and rejoin it later.

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Another troublesome feature was implementing the AR camera view. I originally planned to position the opponent runner in respect to the camera by transforming the position offset between the player and opponent's game objects in the map view. While this worked in simulation, the uncertainty of the compass and GPS made the result look jittery and unnatural. I chose to revert the model to place the opponent directly in front of the AR camera based on the difference in distance covered in the race between the player and opponent.

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The other big feature I completed was integrating the backend API of our server with Unity, allowing players to record and save their runs to share with their friends or to play back later.

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API Endpoints and User Management

I started off the week working with Justin to integrate the run management API endpoints and corresponding C# interfaces with the rest of the app. We also brainstormed how to modify the algorithm to allow for more flexible tracking of the runner (e.g. if the runner veers off the intended path).

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Thereafter, I focused my time on writing the API endpoints and corresponding C# interfaces for user account management and friends management. Similar to the previous week, the backend is written in SQL and Flask and the frontend API endpoints were exposed to the rest of the application via simple C# member functions on a storage class. For user account management, I wrote the interfaces for logging in, logging out, creating an account and deleting an account. For friends management, I wrote the interfaces for adding friends, removing friends and fetching all of a users friends. In addition, I also added a delete run endpoint to facilitate testing of the application.

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Animated Runners and Customization

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This week we had also decided to create a player avatar and animate it, akin to the A2Go project worked on earlier in the class. We had also decided to animate the Virtual Runner in in both the exploration scene and the interaction scene for more consistency. This runner has an all purple scheme, to avoid confusion. In order to compliment the avatar, and potentially add logos for our sponsors, we also added a customization menu for players to customize the textures of their avatar’s outfit. Players are able to choose certain colors for the outfit on their avatar within the menu, and a preview of what their avatar would look like is available for viewing. Upon leaving the menu, these changes will be automatically applied to the player’s avatar. Currently, a player can only choose from 4 textures for each article of clothing, but upon further iterations, we could add more, maybe featuring patters and logos of potential sponsors. (Video Here)

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Financial sustainability

Above what is listed on our about page, we intend to kickstart software and business development through raising a $200K pre-seed round at a $1M post-money valuation. We will be targeting VCs such as Softbank as lead investor due to their other investments in atheletic wear startups such as Vuori. We believe such strategic partnerships will give us access to atheletic wear companies who are willing to advertise their clothes on the avatars and other more regular in-app advertisement formats that we will be providing.

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