Quarter 2 - Timeline, Tasks & Milestones

The schedule timeline below is still being discussed and refined. Basically, for quarter 2 (July - September), we need to produce:

1. Detail Business Plan
2. Saei Prototype 50% and Complete Tawaf Prototype
3. Complete our Research on Haj & apply for MSC status

Tasks are listed per individual work, timeline and deadline. ** is Leader of task, * is Assistant Leader of task. Leaders should prepare and present reports as per deadline / milestone. Assistants should backup leaders and must hold all the responsibility of the leader when necessary.

Virtual Haj Alpha Demo 2: Tawaf

The new Alpha Demo 2 is downloadable on the following servers:

Main server:
http://hotfile.com/dl/7482315/90239b5/Virtual_Haj2.exe.html
Mirror 1: >>> DEAD <<<
http://www.4shared.com/file/113760456/3f8492e4/Virtual_Haj2.html
Mirror 2: >>> DEAD <<<
http://www.easy-share.com/1906099072/Virtual Haj2.exe
Mirror 3:
http://rapidshare.com/files/247953880/Virtual_Haj2.exe.html

Notes:
1. The filename is Virtual Haj2.exe. It is about 19Mb. It is a Windows installer with uninstall feature. The file has been scanned for virus and is clean. There is no malware or wierdware in it.
2. You may uninstall the older version (Alpha Demo 1) or install this together with the older version (it will be installed under new folder /Program Files/Virtual Haj/vHaj Tawaf2).
3. If you are unable to run it, or its flashing, or it is too slow, go to Start menu -> Virtual Haj -> Config vHaj2 and downgrade any or all settings. Should help run on slower or nVidia equipped Windows.
4. If running on Vista, please download the necessary programs (see Alpha Demo 1).
5. The crowd in Alpha Demo 2 has no volume (no collision) and currently not attached to any sound.
6. Check also the FAQ1 on Alpha Demo on how to install and run the demo. FAQ2 on Alpha Demo will be posted shortly.

Verification for Quarter 2

We presented our latest work in MDeC on 16th June 2009 for quarter 2 verification. It went well and we believe they are agreeable to continue the project for the 2nd quarter (July - September). The exact same work is now compiled for Virtual Haj Tawaf Alpha Demo 2 and is being uploaded to several file sharing servers. Images of the work are below:

The crowd numbering around 720 people for now and has walking animation while rotating the Kaaba. Everything else is virtually the same as Alpha Demo 1. Network is still not incorporated yet because we need to prepare several avatars (playable characters) for the networking. The compiled application feature transparent crowd so that the main characters (avatars) will be more visible and crowd can become something like a backdrop of the application. This crowd constitutes 30% of total crowd in low density application.

A Block of Crowd

Testing a block of crowd (200 people strong) to be used for crowd D segment (see Crowd Design 1 for Tawaf post). May need to trim the initial crowd because at this density, the total Tawaf crowd would exceed 5000. Currently we are only designing crowd of 2000 max (low density). Need to also ensure that the animation is not too jerky even with this number of polygons used.

New block of crowd after trimming. Now a D segment crowd is only 90 people . The hi and med density crowd will be for more advance version. Right now, the most important thing is to design all the functionalities of Tawaf without the burden of heavy polygon count. Besides, the main character (the player) will need polygons and animation too.

Crowd Animated

This simple crowd animation will be in sync with many others, circulating the Kaaba. Almost similar crowd will be used in Saei as well.

Late restart: Vista problems

The late restart of the project is due to many problems running old softwares on Vista. New softwares and new techniques needed to be relearned when running on the new notebooks. The old notebook is just too slow and temperamental. Hopefully these problems can be resolved soon and full speed of the project can be attained. Sorry for the inconvenience.

We were actually informed by several others about Vista issues but we need to persist using Vista because chances are most of our future customers are going to be running it. We are just unprepared on how bad the incompatibility issues are. Some problems are well documented on the net and some have solutions to the problems. Maybe we'll just bite the bullet and start using only newer software and techniques.

Crowd Development

The key for efficient crowd is to make it very low polygon model (this bunch of pilgrims are going to be copied many times) and use of very small textures. The targeted average poly count per crowd person is 10 but the male currently using 32 and female 21. So the 10 characters above is about 250 polygons. If we multiply that later to achieve 2000 people crowd (low density), means we are going to have around 50,000 polys. The textures are several versions of 128x128 resolutions of face and skin. The crowd will be animated (walk cycle) and circulating around Kaaba (separate animation).