My name is Trevor Thacker. I create games, tools, and simulations in order to learn progressively more advanced topics in mathematics, computer science, and physics. You can find most of my projects here, where I explain the creation behind them. My specific skills, work history, etc. can be found on my Linkedin.
Simulation Modeling
UTD ATEC Capstone Project, Fall 2020
A simulated volume using Position-Based Dynamics that can be interacted with in real time. It has a dynamically generated and updated mesh that can be exported to a .obj file. This was my senior capstone project at UTD. See the project page for in depth on my development process.
My implementation of Position-Based Dynamics (PBD) consists of 3 internal constraints, which each node in the simulation must attempt adhere to. They are compressive, stretch, and rotational constraints. Additionally there is an external static constraint that uses information from colliders to prevent the simulation from passing through them. The mesh is dynamically generated initially, then the vertices are updated in real-time as the nodes move around.
Reality Studio
Client Project at The Devhouse Agency, 2021
Reality Studio is a set of two applications and a Unity Editor tool developed solely by me. Its goal is to create an environment where interior design layouts can be quickly and easily created, changed, and viewed in a high fidelity AR experience by someone who is inexperienced with traditional 3d software.
The first application is called Content Creator, it is the 3d editor that allows the user to edit and manipulate an interior space. From there, a saved project can be uploaded to the second part of the pipeline. This is the Unity tool that uses AWS, Unity’s Lightbaking, and Unity Addressables to bundle the scene for mobile use. Once the project has been processed, it can be viewed within an AR environment on a phone or tablet.
Some of the more impressive systems I made found within the Content Creator app are:
- Object and Surface Selection and Multi-Selection
- Change History (Undo/Redo)
- Mesh and Submesh Manipulation
- Custom Project File Saving/Loading
- Material and Preset Management
Additional information can be found on the project page. The linked Git repo will only contain individual systems out of context rather than the complete project. I would really recommend checking out the project page, there is too much to this project to put on this summary!
3D Game Framework
Created while at The Devhouse Agency, 2021-2022
While at The Devhouse Agency, I helped create many small 3d (and 2d) games, and for quite a few of them I was the primary systems developer. After a few projects of remaking the same basic systems again and again, I began creating all systems to be reusable, and over time it became a conglomeration of systems that I could import into projects to save days, sometimes weeks, of development time.
The systems I created as part of this framework include:
- UI/Application States
- Gameplay Objects
- Player and AI Controllers
- Character State Machine and States
- Character Loadouts
- Designer-Friendly Projectiles
- Progress Saving
- Audio Systems
- Level Loading
- Object Pooling
