Mid‐Level Specialisation - Creating a Custom HUD

Personally I think this tutorial is useful, its the only video tutorial I found on how to create a custom HUD for Crysis. My personal experience of trying to complete this tutorial failed, at first everything was going well it was easy to follow his guide, but when it hit 1min 20secs into the video, he just flys through all these things, and doesn't talk about he done it, (think that part was fast forwarded). Only had 4 minutes left untill the tutorial could of been done. I skimmed towards the end of the video and noticed I was going to have another problem at 4min 58sec, he had like a quick launch MOD in game shortcut happening, in which I had no glue how to get to.




Above: Where I was left behind.

Reference:

Source: Tutorial Video, youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol6iOrMCvgU, (Date Accessed 30th May 2009)

Week 11

Today we visited iCinema, which is located towards the upper campus of UNSW. Matthew McGinity guided us through into the cinema where we were guided into a room surrounded by projected screens 360 degrees around. The place is made up multiple cameras each projecting on the the screen. 3D glasses were provided to us to have the full experience of iCinema, firstly we were showed ancient sites, such as Angkor Wat, and other temples and sites, this experience was amazing especially the part when they had the Indian god Shiva dancing, you could tell its computer animated but it really feels as if you are standing a meter away from it. Next we were in a mine, this mine was to provide training for new miners about the hazards in the mine, and what precautions should be taken in a state of an emergency, I really think this is a great way to teach lessons to miners, as it is probably as real as it can get visually.


The tutorial this week was short, just had a discussion on what was going to be happening in the following weeks, and what should be done, and what we should be prepared for. During this week we should be creating our second tutorial which is the "medium difficulty", also apply it to our fabrication and add two others from people of other groups.

Reference:

Source: iCenema, Sydney Festival, http://2008.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/icinema_centre_unsw/icinema_centre_unsw.htm, (Date Accessed 29th May 2009)

Creating a HUD

I was further researching into how to create a HUD, I came across this great, but difficult (for me) tutorial. Previously I stressed the point that I'm no good when it comes to Flash and C++. I attempted this second tutorial really thinking that I was going to nail it this time, but somewhere along the tutorial their instructions became misleading to me, and things just didn't happen to work, also I still dont have the Mods folder within th Crysis Folder.

Above: A rough idea of what the HUD could look like

This tutorial Creating a HUD is really useful and I'm pretty sure it will work, apparently its rated easy, but once again unfortunately for me it wasn't so easy as they say, more time is needed for me to finish this tutorial, time which I don't have due to the load of work to be done to my teams final fabrication. I thought about writting up a tutorial, but there isn't really much point, as it will just be re-worded by myself. This tutorial has enough information to get you through, and I believe that its possible to complete with more time given.

Beginner Level Specialisation (is a no go for me)

This is a tutorial I found which the outcome of it is having a display of your liking on the Crysis HUD. Before attempting this tutorial I think it is highly recommended that you have some knowledge on how to use Adobe Flash, the tutorial uses Flash CS3, I used CS4 and another thing to point out is that I have never used Flash before. Whilst "trying" my best to complete this tutorial it was minor things that let me down, also you will need to know a bit of C++.





Everything went smoothly until here, I couldn't find the Hud.h which was supposedly located in the GameDll project, under the HUD folder, which did not appear in my folder Crysis.

For those who are willing to try it the link below will lead you to the pdf of the tutorial.
http://crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=21294&hilight=hud+tutorial
Good luck, I 100% sure that this can be done, but unfortunately for me it cannot be.

Week 10

Today's guest speaker was Andrew Wallace who was a recent FBE graduate now working for Lara Caldea Architects. Andrew specialises in creating architectural models in real-time engines, he has worked with the unreal engine and also the crysis engine. Using real-time environments is very time consuming but can show the clients great detail on their project's development and also rack in alot of cash. LCA entered a few competitions which they submitted real-time environments, I'm really impressed with the one they submitted on Sydney harbour, the detail of the environment was just amazing, real-time is truly another experience especially for clients to see, just mind blowing.

Below: LCA's design for the children, made with the Crysis engine

Below: LCA's Eco house design in the Crysis Engine

During the tutorial our group (which only was Jackey and I) wanted to test if our fabrication worked inside the game mode of Crysis, but unfortunately this test couldn't be completed as all the XPS laptops were taken. I discussed with Graham my field of specialisation which is the heads up display for Crysis, I realised that its not about getting the HUD to show what you want, its all about the method of doing it, cause if you know the method then endless possibilities are open to you.

Reference:

Source: Design for children video, LCA Architecture Design, http://www.laracalderarchitect.com.au/index.html, (Date Accessed 25th May 2009)

Source: Eco Design House, ARCH1392 Blog, http://arch1392-2009.blogspot.com/, (Date Accessed 25th May 2009)

Specialisation Reseach HUD

These past couple of days I have been searching for sources on how to modify the HUD in Crysis, most of my research is from the crymod website which had lots of information, and some tutorials that I will attempt to do. The forums were useful as they provided feedback on troubles individuals had when attempting to modify the HUD.

The sandbox 2 manual, useful for having a better understanding of the overall editor
http://doc.crymod.com/SandboxManual/frames.html?frmname=topic&frmfile=index.html

A tutorial on creating custom text using Adobe Flash.
http://crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=21294&hilight=hud+tutorial
http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=45607&hilight=hud+tutorial

Problems with modding the HUD
http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=11891&hilight=hud+tutorial

Video on creating custom health and energy bars on the HUD.
http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=48278

Specualisation HUD Outcomes

Easy Outcomes
- Easy outcomes of modding the HUD can be changing the HUD that is already there, removing it, changing the look e.g. colour, shape etc.
- Adding custom art, pictures, logos.

Medium Outcomes
- Creating a totally different HUD display, which basically everything is custom made, high chance that you may have to create your own images which will be used in the HUD.

Advanced Outcomes
- A section of the HUD displaying something totally different such as weather, time of day, temperature, and health of enemies etc.
- Different HUD display for certain types of weapons that's used, e.g. rocket launcher may have a tracking system.

These outcomes are challenging to do, but I think the most important thing now is the "method" on how to alter the HUD and add different displays to the HUD, if you can get the method right, everything else is basically customising to your liking.

Week 9

During the lecture today guest speaker Shilo McClean talked to us about the computer graphics world and the filming industry. Alot of movies now days use computer graphics to the max extend in order to create a sense of reality during the movie, a good example of computer graphics in play is the movie "Transformers" by director Micheal Bay. Transformers computer graphics is by far the best I have ever seen. Shilo talked about techniques film makers use in order to keep the audience entertained and attracted to the movie, for example you do not want to over exaggerate a movie or scene.

During the tutorial every had an opportunity to choose a field in which they will specialise in, e.g. creating better bump maps, lightings, making teleporting spots, advanced doors and windows. I chose to specialise in HUD (heads up display). What I have to do is research everything possible about HUD and how you can change it, edit it, add more gadgets, and maybe change the interface.

We then had group discussions with Jeremy and Graham, although only Jackey, Wirada, and myself were present during this discussion we received feedback on what needs to be changed, or improved on. We agreed that we will detail our building more, having a theme for furniture instead of having all sorts of different furniture is not appealing to the eye. Wall textures will be changed to a darker stony wall, the building will be altered and a set of ramps will be put in, which runs through the whole building. Window textures will be more detailed, since we have a series of buildings which spreads across the land, we decided to make each and everyone different. Working on the final "Polished Fabrication" will indeed be another challenge and hopefully the final product will be awesome.

Reference:

Source: Transformers, Tripsc, http://www.tnpsc.com/downloads/Transformers.jpg, (Date Accessed 20th May 2009)

Week 8 - Fabrication Presentations

During the lecture today we had Dr Deo Prasad talking about global collaborations for sustainable future. I'm quite interested in the field of ESD, building green is the way to go in order to having a better environment, constructing buildings that become one with the environment and not causing any future effects, e.g. noted China's river which became ruined due to dumping rubbish and waste in the past, now they are trying to revive the river, which costs a lot of money and time.


My Impression

Digital
Team Digital had a very detailed environment of the surrounding buildings, which included AI. Weaknesses they might of had is that the interior spaces were not clearly defined, also not much textures where used, which appeared in our team. Overall an interesting building I guess in a way they had a reason not to define the interior spaces, as not much information was provided.

Orange
The model looks identical to the concept drawings, the surrounding environment is very detailed, had bridges, alot of AI, and cars which gave off the feel to the place. Weaknesses display in my opinion would be the texture of the building, which is really bright, the uses of white could of been maybe replaced by a less intense colour. Textures wasn't present throughout most of the building and internal spaces were not properly defined. Overall the building and the surrounding environment was really detailed.

Urbans
The Urbans put alot of time and research into the building, on how it was built, the function, and the construction of form. Final model looks really good. AI would of gave the environment a sense of being there.

Omega
Presentation was really well detailed, outlined all aspects and steps of their fabrication. The overall fabrication is really detailed in all aspects, the only weakness is probably not texturing solids. But overall a great fabrication, great work.

Atlar
Very interesting fabrication, an underwater building. Good concept which the final outcome was great, environment was very detail (train station). Had a reasonable amount of interactivity, very realistic lighting underwater. Weaknesses would be that the building was not textured.

Every groups presentations was great, each different team had different strengths and weaknesses, It was great to see their final fabrication after seeing a draft preview of it during week 4. I've noticed alot of the groups did not texture their buildings which appeared extensivley in our own fabrication. Our surrounding environment lacked AI as the theme of the location was desert, therefore having AI wondering outside would define the meaning.

Team E-vole's Final Fabrication

Walkthrough Video



Video of "the experience"



Below is the link to download our teams final fabrication, well city.

http://files.filefront.com/13719955

The Day

Had a final group meeting today, which was pretty late, got to uni around 10:30pm, with my completed file which contained all the interior furniture and AI. We thought everything would go smoothly when combining Jackey's and Wirada's files together, then that's when the big problem started. First of all we had to place well city all over the desert site, which went fine but some textures were missing, the water went all black, and the windows had no textures, also AI were mixed up.

Wirada ended up working on my file (as it still had the textures of water and windows working) she added all the extra furniture. I had to go through again and fix up the window textures and AI movement. I captured the 10 images required and posted it on the team journal, while Jackey and Wirada worked on the two videos for submission. Wirada, Jackey, and myself worked on the powerpoint presentation which we need to revise, we are just about to finish.

I've noticed that I have been contacting my team members mostly by e-mail, msn messenger, and sms. It is great how technology can still help us keep all up to date on each others progress, since we live a fair distance apart from one another the technology's applications just made work more efficient for us. Also file sharing sites such as filefont, mediafire has become very handy for sharing large amounts of data, this eliminates the need to meet up and transfer from one another. Technology has greatly improved our teams management and communication and creating a strong sense of collaboration within the team environment.

Progress Week 8

This week has been really busy, I managed to finished interactivity on time, which included opening doors, breakable windows, but I came across a problem with the pool, I cannot swim in it. The textures are right you can shoot it and water will spray up but you cant swim in it, I've researched long and hard and finally found a forum which explains it easily.

http://incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=23812

Problem is now solved, the swimming pool is now swimable. Yet again as I was working with AI, they didn't seem to move even though they are suppose to. Another forum explains it easily.

http://au.gamespot.com/pc/action/crysis/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-43200694&pid=931665

A Problem we experiencing at the moment is lighting, when Swati placed lighting within the building it starts to make surfaces flashy. I really think the lighting needs to be worked on properly. So far I managed to get all my tasks done in time, also the class wiki.

Above is an example of the lighting problems we had.

Today we also met up for a group talk, hopefully if all goes well all we will be doing tomorrow is working on the presentation and videos.

Collaboration Topics Round 3

Planning

Planning is a process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired goal on some scale. Planning involves thinking for the future, therefore managing and preparing for the outcomes.

Why is Planning Important
One of the best ways to developing strong ways of winning is from planning.

• Planning is leveraged time. For example, planning 30 minutes per day can greatly improve your productivity. Having time to plan will pay off in the future, it will help you make sure that you are keeping in track with your goals and you can ensure that you become more task oriented. In an collaborative environment by simply taking 10-20 minutes to run through your objectives and outcomes, you are more likely to achieve them and not get side tracked.


• Planning provides the framework for informed decision making. By planning what you are going to do you will be establishing a framework and will be able to tick off items from your "to do" list as you go along. This is an extremely effective way to manage any tasks that you have.


• Planning reduces crisis management. If you plan accordingly there is a lower chance of any issues to occur. But it is also important to be prepared for unforeseen situations which may occur, so it is vital to be prepared to plan again when a situation happens.


• Planning helps to eliminate bad habits, and fear of failure.Planning allows you to set priorities and focus on what is important.
  

Effective planning everyday in any sort of situation will have a major impact on breaking bad habits individuals may have, and it shall lead to successful task management.

Reference : Willis. J, Why is planning important, Article Ally, accessed 4 May 2009, http://www.articlealley.com/article_32151_36.html

Source: People planning, Team Works, http://teamworksweb.com/strategicplanning.htm, (Date Accessed 4th April 2009)

Source: Planning Pencil, Despair, http://despair.com/planning.html, (Date Accessed 4th April 2009)

Remuneration
This is the payment or compensation that is received from services or employment. This is the base salary, but may also include any received bonuses or other payments received.
Remuneration in an collaborative environment, gives each individual a goal to work to as they know the outcome of pay, therefore it motivates the group to complete their set tasks to the best of their ability. The remuneration reward attracts the individuals, that is why it is important in an collaborative environment as it tends to motivate them to work towards the set goals which they know that they will get paid off well doing so.

Reference: Wikipedia, Remuneration, accessed on 4th May 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remuneration

Source: Money, BullDog Blog, http://www.bulldogblog.net/2009/02/, (Date Accessed on 4th May 2009)

Week 7

During the lecture today we had guest lecturer Jack Barton speaking to us. Jack works for a company called city futures, and uses digital media to present urban planning in for the future development. Interesting talk about how they are trying to collaborate CAD and GIS together therefore it will make it easier for urban planners to lay out their ideas.

Today only a total of 2 group members were present, we discussed our progress and ideas and problems. The texturing of the building was completed, so now its my turn to create interactivity within the building. Also, I found a major problem and I had to remove the glass from the windows, and doors from the framing in order to make them interactive. Later that day when I came to login in the class wiki, I noticed I'm logged in Jack's account, even when I log out of his and log into mine.I guess I have to work on it at home. I'm pretty behind for the class wiki so it will be a good idea to get a move on.