Brief Dreams: an interactive procedural virtual world builder for imaginary landscapes
Yiming Zheng, MSc. Project (2024)
Abstract
Brief Dreams is an interactive art project that allows users to design, build and explore virtual environments using the procedural content generation (PCG) framework in Unreal Engine 5.3. In this project, users will first build 3D environments on the empty terrain with provided procedural contents to generate 3D models in predefined cluster patterns, including natural biomes, canyons, trails and rivers. As users build their virtual environments, they can explore their creations in a first-person walkthrough and modify the appearance of the world by changing the time of the day and weather. This project aims to provide an accessible way for general users, with or without a professional design background, to take advantage of the PCG framework to build virtual worlds in a short period of time.
Keywords: Digital heritage, activity theory, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Narrative, Narrativization of Interface, Interaction Design