Learning Mode

(Note: this was previously known as presentation mode, but that name suggests this mode isn't also for independently learning students, so a change was needed.)

From the main menu the user can select Learning Mode. This will bring them to a sub-menu with 4 options: Basic Anatomy; Surface Vessels and Coronary Health; Circulatory System; and Nerves and the Heart. Between them these will contain all of the information set out by the Learning Outcomes. The aim of Learning Mode is to create a more engaging experience than a simple virtual encyclopedia by asking the user to select, rotate and manipulate models on screen in order to access information.

(Insert Learning Mode sub-menu design here)

Basic Anatomy
Teaching aims:
 * how the various pieces of the heart connect to each other
 * what they look like standing alone
 * what function each structure of the heart perform

This section will make use of the features developed for the transparent heart prototype.

There should be a button which rotates the heart to its correct forward facing.

The user should be able to rotate the heart to look at it from different angles.

The user should be able to make any given structure (and any number of structures) invisible so they can focus on particular areas. Each mesh will be assigned a slider which the user can use to set its transparency. This will mean 15 sliders in total - need some way to determine which sliders will be available at a given time, as 15 is too many to display on screen simultaneously.

Clicking on a structure will bring up a text box with the name of the part and relevant information. The user should be able to dismiss this text box in order to focus on studying the appearance of the heart model.

=== Asset List ===
 * Multi-piece heart model
 * 15 separate pieces
 * Heart external texture
 * Common UI
 * Dropdown menu
 * Text Box
 * Stand-alone button
 * Custom Slider

Surface Vessels and Coronary Health
Teaching aims:
 * layout of the coronary surface vessels
 * location of the cardiac sulci (two main grooves on the surface of the heart)
 * how coronary occlusion (blockages) occur
 * how blockages cause angina and heart attacks
 * how/why bypasses are placed

This section will use the standard heart model. There will be an additional mesh – a framework of all the major surface vessel of the hearts (example to the right, alternatively Google "coronary vessels 3D").

The user should be able to rotate all of these meshes simultaneously (and not separately).

Clicking an "add/show coronary bypass" button will make a mesh of a bypass visible and appear attached to the existing meshes.

There will be a transparency slider, allowing the user to fade the entire heart out of view so they can look at the surface vessels only.

Clicking on the various sections of the surface vessels will bring up a text box with the name of that part of the vessel along with relevant information about where it leads. The user should be able to dismiss this text box.

Asset list

 * Standard heart model
 * Heart external texture
 * Bypass model
 * Texture
 * Coronary vessels model
 * Texture
 * Common UI
 * Dropdown menu
 * Text Box
 * Stand-alone button
 * Custom Slider

Circulatory System
Teaching aims: This will require an expanded heart model, with slightly longer blood vessels (mainly the aorta and superior vena cava), which will then have to have the front removed so that the interior chambers are visible.
 * the flow of blood through and around the heart
 * demonstrate the appearance/movements of a beating heart, including showing the heartstrings and thick left ventricular wall

This model does NOT need to rotate. The user should be able to press a button to toggle floating arrows on and off. These arrows will point in the direction of blood flow through the heart. These arrows could be a texture for the heart (swap textures when the button is clicked), but it would probably be easier just to make an image with all the arrows and overlay it onto the screen using a widget.

The user should be able to bring up a text box with relevant info by clicking on the structures (probably all just the same info as in the Basic Anatomy section. It might seem a bit redundant, but I think it will seem strange not to be able to click on structures like you can in the other sections).

Challenge: there should be a button which causes the heart to beat once on-click. The heart should animate as fully as possible, including contracting heart strings, valves opening and closing, and the animation should clearly show (or maybe even exaggerate) the more intense squeezing of the left ventricle (this part of the heart is thicker and more muscular as it needs to pump blood round the entire body – the right ventricle only has to send it to the lungs).

Asset list

 * Cut-away heart model
 * Heart external texture
 * Heart internal texture
 * Beat animation
 * Arrow overlay
 * Common UI
 * Dropdown menu
 * Text Box
 * Stand-alone button

Nerves and the Heart
This will teach about the way nerves connect to/run through the heart. Unlike the rest, this knowledge isn’t tested in any minigames, because I barely understand it and am not confident I can gameify it. But knowing the nervous connections of the heart is part of the learning outcomes, so it should be brought up somewhere.

This will use a modified version of the regular heart model, but with some of the vagus nerve (both sides) attached to it as well. Sorry, that’s going to mean more thin winding tubes, unless you can model part of the nerve as a mesh and then do the rest of it (the parts that are connected to/wrapped around the heart) as a convincing texture.

This model will also require a retextured version of the bisected heart model. This will show the nerve bundles and purkinje fibres.

The user should be able to switch between the regular and cut-away heart models with a button, so they can look at the vagus nerve or the interior nerve bundles/purkinje fibres as they choose.

Once again, selecting certain structures and areas will bring up an information box.

This model does NOT need to rotate.

Asset list

 * Heart model with vagus nerve attached
 * Texture
 * Cut-away heart model
 * Heart with nerves internal texture
 * Heart with vagus external texture
 * Common UI
 * Dropdown menu
 * Text Box
 * Stand-alone button