5/20/2011

Spiral Stairs Maze



Made up entirely of concentric spiral stairways, this is an idea that's been rattling around in my brain for a while. Each staircase is made of 12 steps, and the circles have 2, 3, 4, and 6 staircases going out from the center. Where the tops of each staircase meet and there is a doorway, you can pass between the circles. There is also an option to make the walls invisible so you can see the whole maze from outside.

To solve, download the Sketchup model and click "Walkthrough", which will set the optimal eye height and field of view for walking through the maze. Use the Walk tool and push the arrow keys to walk, and the Look Around tool to see more from one place. Start at one of the doorways at the bottom of the tower, and try to get to the top. If you find that too hard, click "Skeleton view" to make the walls invisible. Some tips for solving: explode all the components and mark your way with paint, or use scenes as you walk through. You will need Google Sketchup.

6 comments:

Kristen Wilde said...

Looks very fancy!

Jana said...

Marie and I did the maze with skeleton view but we couldn't figure out how to walk into the building after selecting the walkthrough view. Marie thinks it would be fun to run around in that tower.

Rebekah Fletcher said...

I'm happy you tried it! To walk in, use the Walk tool in the Camera menu. In the toolbar it looks like little black footprints. Then just use the arrow keys. You can use the Look Around tool to look around when you're inside but be careful to keep your eye height around 4 feet. I'm glad Marie liked it.

Matthew said...

This is very difficult Bekah. They should have chosen you to be the architect girl in Inception.

It would look cool if you made the walls have textures. (photos of bricks, stone, etc.) It would look quite cool. Maybe a lot of work though.

One suggestion that would would probably be a bit easier would be to make each door to the outside marked with a different color. I couldn't tell which doors I'd gone in or not, and felt like I kept coming to the same dead ends. I will solve it though!!

Rebekah Fletcher said...

I thought that too when I saw Inception: "I could do that!"
I do need to work on some cool textures that would look good but not take up too much memory. With a complex model, textures can make it respond very slowly, depending on how fast the user's computer is. I should make a texture version and a non-texture version of each maze.

Janice said...

Hi Rebekah,
I encountered your blog through this cool stairs maze of yours on 3d warehouse. I'm a maze enthusiast myself (although you seem to be more of a master) and am really thrilled to see someone sharing the same interests as me and really accomplished at it too! All your mazes are truly amazing, and I hope more people appreciate your raw talent. -Janice