Exercise Project
Simulation Simulator is the name we gave to a project meant to demo out some CG concepts as well as Panda3D as an engine itself. It consists of a 2D section and a 3D section, both tackling features appropriate to each situation. The 2D section showcases ambient light vs complex light, as well as orthographic cameras vs perspective cameras, for example, while the 3D scene includes complex PBR materials. Needless to say, 3D and audio asset creation were not the focus here.
Made under the suggestion of a CG's teacher to use Panda3D to demo out some concepts that were introduced in class, we came up with the concept of making a small interactive experience that would start out rendered as wireframe through an orthographic camera, and that would then progressively build up to be more complex, revealing that the initial scene was just a 2D game in a screen. While the initial idea remained until the end, the smooth transition between scenes ended up being a hard one between literal scene objects in Panda3D.
Some constraints and difficulties were mainly due to the somewhat inaccessibility of Panda3D, having resources that most often than not come from the 2000's, but also the inexperience of some members with a 3D asset pipeline, resulting in overblown meshes with disproportionate polycounts, that would end up affecting the game's performance. Then again, maybe the issue was on us misusing Panda3D, and not the inability of the engine itself to keep up. I guess we'll never know...