Today, we implemented two new features: Block creation and a dynamically-resizing bounding sphere.
Block Creation
This feature is pretty much self-explanatory. You can now click a HUD button to enter Block Creation mode, in which a dialog pops up that asks you to enter information concerning a WonderBlock (such as its size, color, etc.) Upon confirmation, the Block is then created in-world. Right now, Block coordinates are specified manually by entering separate values for X, Y, and Z coordinates, but we may explore 3D dragging abilities tomorrow.
Dynamic Bounding Sphere
This is a simple but useful feature. The bounding sphere is an invisible sphere surrounding each instance of the WonderBlocks application. When an avatar walks inside this sphere, the WonderBlocks HUD displays, while an avatar leaving the sphere makes the HUD vanish. The size of the bounding sphere now changes dynamically with the amount of space the group of WonderBlocks take up. The position of the WonderBlock that is farthest away from the WonderBlocks cell origin at 3D coordinate (0, 0, 0) is used to calculate the radius of the bounding sphere. Thus, an avatar walking near the ‘edge’ of the WonderBlocks application will always trigger the HUD, no matter how much space the WonderBlocks visually occupy.
On tap for tomorrow: Exploring 3D dragging and minor bugfixing/code cleanup.
The end of our time at Sun is near! We’re presenting our work on the HTML Viewer and WonderBlocks to Sun Labs on October 15th. More details will follow in a future blog post.