I enjoyed learning Unity and did a lot of experimenting. I also inadvertently downloaded Unity on the wrong computer and later realized I should have used my more powerful computer. When I installed Unity on the second computer, it installed a slightly newer editor. Then when I tried to import my project, it made me download the exact editor version I had originally created the project in. It was a bit of a pain, but I got it working.
At that point my project consisted of a terrain object and a first-person controller from the assets package we installed in class. Next, I installed the "Terrain Tools" package in Unity so I could customize the terrain. I left the terrain width, length, and height at 1000 m x 1000 m x 600 m, which was the default, because I wanted a fairly large terrain to develop.
I used a soft round brush with brush strength of 0.05 and brush size of 30 to build up the terrain with hills and valleys. I built mountains around the perimeter of the terrain. After building the mountain ranges, I used the Smooth Height tool to smooth them out a bit. I covered the terrain with grass and was then ready to visit the asset store to find items to add to the terrain.
I had to import a lot of assets from the asset store to find ones that were compatible with my project because not all of them were compatible with the Universal Render Pipeline (URP). However, I found a really great Terrain Sample Assets package and a Rocks and Vegetation package. I used the Add Trees tool to add Bushes, Ferns, and Heather that I could then brush onto the Terrain. I added rocks individually around the terrain, as well as larger trees. The shrubbery (Bushes, Ferns, and Heather) are animated and appear to sway in the wind.
Best of all I found a dinosaur package that had Apatosaurus, Parasaurus, Stegosaurus, T-Res, Triceratops, and Velociraptor dinosaurs! I wanted to make my world into a dinosaur world all along, so I was very happy to find this package. I put some of the bigger dinosaurs around the perimeter so that you could see them in the distance when you look up at the mountains. And I put many dinosaurs around the center of the terrain where the character would begin play.
Next, I found an audio file of dinosaurs roaring. I imported that into my project and set it to play when the game starts and continue playing on a loop throughout the game.
The game doesn't have a goal or score, but is more of an experiential journey. The character navigates through the terrain as if taking a hike around the countryside and seeing colorful greenery and flowers amid the rocks and mountains, with dinosaurs wandering throughout.
For the "VR Headset," I used a pair of safety goggles combined with my Dreem sleep tracker headgear...
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And here is a video of my Mom navigating her character around the terrain, looking at the dinosaurs and shrubbery and rocks and mountains. I had to keep the video short because Blogger has a 100 MB file size limit, but it captures the sound in the background and the basic game play.
Finally, I think having roaring dinosaurs in my game should be worth some extra credit, don't you?!? 😉 I enjoyed making this Dino World and look forward to continuing to build in Unity.
Asset Store Links:
PBR Animated Dinosaurs: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/animals/pbr-animated-dinosaurs-256019
Terrain Sample Asset Pack: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/landscapes/terrain-sample-asset-pack-145808
Rocks and Vegetation Pack URP: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/rocks-and-vegetation-pack-urp-243519
Audio File of Dinosaur Roaring Sounds:
https://freesound.org/people/jamesrodavidson/sounds/192364/
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