Learn about the famous "Midnight Ride" of Paul Revere through virtual reality. Created by Jason Ortiz, Jason Owens, and Marie Urmano.
Our virtual experience outlines the great historic moment of Paul Revere's Midnight ride to alert the Colonial militia to the soon approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord. Popularized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's partly fictional poem, "Paul Revere's Ride", Revere and his ride became an icon that all Americans can identify. However, the specifics of his ride are not known to many people as general knowledge. Where did Revere travel to? What towns did he visit? What is "one if by land, two if by sea"? Our project will explore these ideas and allow the user to view a significant experience in American history.
Learn what towns Paul Revere traveled through during his fabled Midnight Ride, what Revere did along the way, and how it impacted America forever.
List the towns that Revere visited in order, explain what Revere did along his ride, describe why Revere was headed where he was going, and finally explain how Revere's efforts benefited the Americans' efforts for freedom.
Paul Revere's ride through Virtual Reality utilizes multiple techniques in order to draw the player in and aid in presence of the overall historic moment. Sound effects, animations, voice-overs, and interactions between characters will provide the user with a sense of involvement in the scene as well as a form of urgency that Revere must have felt while he was experiencing this event personally. Additionally, the ability of the user to have interactions with their environment while Revere rides through the town by knocking on doors and having lights turn on in response gives another level of presence for the user during game-play. One more aspect of game-play aiding in a sense of presence is the wandering of British patrols while riding through the forest and having to avoid the soldiers.
Fundamental geometry and interactive geometry (from section 21.1) are definitely leveraged in this project in order to provide a sense of interaction for the user when Revere knocks on doors and receives lights flashing on in response. In this respect, the side of the building is a fundamental geometry, while the door itself is an interactive geometry with the character. Also utilized well (from section 21.2) is the use of color, especially in the forest. The color and mood is dark and mysterious, the colors communicating a specific emotional reaction to the viewer. Also heavily used are the lights, interactive and changing the surrounding mood and color of the scene. The sound effects in the background will be heavily depended on by the experience as well to set the tone of the journey for the user acting in Revere's place. From 21.5, landmarks will also be used in order to allow the user to track when they are entering a new location and thus aiding in the goals of our learning objective (to recognize the different towns Revere rode through).
@marieurmano , @jay-swa , and @jasontowens worked on this project in Spring 2016 for the University of Florida's Virtual Reality class taught by Benjamin Lok.
Environment: Forest, City, Cottages, River, Rowboat scene, Lighting, Skybox
Characters: Character models, voices, horse animations, British patrols
Mechanics: Riding through forest, knocking on doors, avoiding patrols (AI)
Jason Owens: Terrain, Environment
Jason Ortiz: AI for patrols, event scripting/triggers (e.g. knocking on doors will turn house lights on), voice-overs
Marie: Gather/Create Models (Paul Revere, his horse, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, patrols), Animations, can assist with lighting scene, mechanics scripting
All: Level Design, assets (finding and importing)
Mixamo was used for animations of characters in our scene.
Autodesk character generator was also used to create these models.
Unity Asset - Town Creator Kit LITE