Wilson Tan

Project "Well City"

2009-06-24T23:30:00.011+10:00

The following images and videos below is the final fabrication of our project "Well City".

Below is a link to download the final version of Well City.

Team E-volve - Well City

Enjoy.

Trailer

Extended Trailer

External view.

Another external view.

Looking down into the pool area.

Pool area.

Kitchen and living room.

Looking down into the well.

Pool area.

Look up into the night.

Main pool area.

Bedroom.

Fixing Well City

2009-06-22T20:30:00.004+10:00

The last couple of days I've been working on fixing up my teams fabrication. During the presentation we had some major problems, first it was the building flashing, second is the map runs very slow. Firstly I fixed up some of the textures, the fish tanks looked see through and not that visible during the night, so I added the wet and frost effect to the tank making it more visible. The swimming pool's texture has also been changed, it now has some ripple effect instead of being a clear flat looking surface.

Since I had to go a couple of steps back this involved redoing some of the things that was previously done. The lighting is now fixed up, extra lighting fixtures also have been added and also light switches. The lighting colour is still a warm yellowish orange colour, but it is not as intense and bright as the previous one. The doors, and their rotations have been fixed up, this part was really annoying, sometimes the doors would disappear once in a while. Some parts of the building was flashy and had to be covered up with a solid then textures, this also was done with gaps within the building.

Placement of the buildings had to be redone, making holes and placing them in, also covering up the bits that are open on the sides. Covering up the bits that were open was done by using solids to fill in the gaps, then the land was modified so it would look natural.

The final result, personally I think it is alot better, this time you can actually walk around the map, but there is still a bit of lag when playing on high specs, either than that everything else is all good.

The images below displays the process of fixing up well city.

The living room's new lighting.

Master bedroom's new lighting.

The light switch.

Fixed up doors that open the right way.

The new water texture, notice the noise ripple effect.

The fish tank is now more visible during the night, thanks to the wet and frost applyed to it.

Extra lighting and fixtures.

View from inside the pool looking up.

The gaps that have been filled with solids.

Placement of the well houses.

Finally finished everything.

Final Post – Contribution & Collaboration

2009-06-18T22:44:00.006+10:00

At the start of the semester I thought having random people in your group would not go so smoothly, as I didn’t really know them well enough and haven’t worked with them before. But as the weeks progressed and collaboration comes into play I got to know my team a little better. I’ve learnt why Jeremy had put us into random groups, like he said “in the real world you cannot choose who you want to work with” this statement made is true. In most cases, working on the same project you usually don’t get a choice who you want to work with, so this became a good learning experience for each of us and will prepare us for the real world.

As time progressed further into due dates you can see which individual of the team really put an effort to what they do and the amount of quality. When we had a group discussion on who was going to do what, I choose to build the entire model with the kitchen which was done in Revit. Working out the room layouts took a while to do, as some spaces of the building were not clearly defined.The ramp area took a while to figure out, but the most important thing to me was to try and get those two conceptual perceptive views provided by the architects. As the end result I think the two views we had looked really similar.

Whilst I was working on the building Jackey was working on the terrain for the placement of the building. The model was then handed to Wirada for placement of furniture and textures of the building. I helped Wirada out on the ideas of textures in building, the final texture of the building was chosen by myself, it was a standard texture in sketch up which I adjusted the colour so it would look similar to the conceptual design, I also suggested using white window frames just to keep similarities. Another one of my tasks was water, I created the pool area using water volumes in Crysis and added a water type texture to it.

I then added windows to the building, when re-building the model, windows were taken into consideration for two reasons, one was lighting issues, and the other was to have a visual relationship between the exterior and interior spaces. Fish tanks was a main feature of our fabrication, this was a must have as the tanks resembles life within the well and gives it a different experience. I also had to redo the entire lighting of the building, as the previous one the colour of the lights were not adjusted, they were just basically default lighting placed onto the map with no further adjustments. I also contributed to the team blog with some of the weekly updates. Throughout the weeks our team was constantly giving each other feedback on individual’s thoughts and inputs into the fabrication, this is important to having a better outcome.

In conclusion this course was a great learning experience, real-time environment is not only fun to do but I think it will one day become the standard of presenting your works to a client. Collaboration was the main key area of focus; all those twelve collaboration topics we talked about were all experienced by each team in some way. Working with my team was cool; (they were all new to me) we had good times working with one another, it’s good to know that you can still have a bit of a laugh now and then, but when it comes down to getting serious work done, we get it done. From this real-time experience, at this moment in time I think I'll be definitely be using Crysis for my graduation project.

I would like to thank my group members for their efforts and contribution, and Jeremy and Graham for their support and guidance.

Cheers
Wilson.

Final Presentation

2009-06-18T20:39:00.004+10:00

During the final presentation today we had some guests in the audience. Due to Jackey's exam we were booked to present last. Every teams presentation went pretty well, they all done alot of polishing since the last presentation. Most teams polished up on textures, and adding in furniture into their fabrication. Its good to know how they all collaborated together to produce something really amazing, but collaboration in some of the groups was a little bumpy.

When our group went up to present, their was a major problem which was the flashy lights. This problem caused everything to lag dramatically, and the viewers were getting quite annoyed. Lucky Jeremy seen the photos we posted up before hand, which proved that we didn't have the problem before and that the lighting went pretty well. Either than that I guess every else went pretty smoothly. If I get time I'll probably go through and try find out what is causing the flashy effects and lag, cause it is really annoying to have, especially when you work on a project so long and hard and the outcome is not what you expected.

More Image Captures

2009-06-17T23:24:00.000+10:00

Below are some more images captures I took after finishing the lighting. Note these shots were captured during the night.

The ramp gallery. Having windows helped provide natural lighting to these spaces that would of been dark in the original design.

Entry, living room and dining room.

View of the well area and the fish tanks that are hung within the walls.

External night view of the exterior.

Another external capture.

Last Group Session

2009-06-17T04:16:00.002+10:00

I got to uni around 6pm today with the work I done, which was completed windows, fish tanks, and the well water. I loaded it up in the labs and noticed that my textures for some of the glass and water did not show. This problem was resolved 30mins later when all you had to do to save the texture was rename it after you inputted the settings. Today I had to take out the lighting that Swati done yesterday night. The lighting was very dull, and the colour of the lights didn't seem to make the place any better, this had to be changed.

After I fixed the texturing problems, Wirada started to work on AI within the environment, the AI used is pretty good, she used some smart objects which made the AI do all sorts of actions such as sitting down. Jackie then finished placing doors within the building. I started to work on re-doing the lighting, at first I set all the objects to cast shadows, I added simple lights and adjusted the colour of the lighting to orange, this made the building feel more warm and welcoming. The light's colour multiplier adjusts the intensity of the lights, this setting had to be carefully adjusted, upping this value too much could over brighten the rooms. My team mates and I were really impressed by the lighting, I never thought I could get the perfect setting on the first few go's of trying.

Then disaster strikes, the screen froze, had the blue screen pop up, then restarted. Our work was all on the primary drives, which we all know cleans out every time you restart, so we are now delayed a few hours back, so tragic. I'm really feeling on the down low right now.

I finally finished re-doing what we lost, which was, placing the fish tanks, and lightnings. Lighting then became a problem, problem was I couldn't get that cool light setting I had before, I got it quite similar but not as wow as before. I think it wasn't as good as before because the first time we saw it was also the first time experiencing lights. Anyhow the end results are shown in the images below. (Please note that the images shown are taking during the night)

Lighting in the top floor bedroom.

On top of the building, looking down into the well.

Master bedroom.

Another bedroom.

Dining and living room.

Pool area.

I quickly checked the placement of the glass to the window frames, all good. I had to leave so I reminded Jackie and Wirada the tasks left which needs to be done, the presentation room, fixing up the flashy elements within the building, adding doors and AI again, put in lighting fixtures so it doesn't look like nothing is lighting up the rooms. Once these tasks are done the building is going to be grouped into one object, holes have to be made on the land for the building to sit in. The placement of the well buildings are up to Jackie and Wirada.

Hopefully all goes to plan.

Fish Tanks

2009-06-16T16:11:00.000+10:00

The fish tanks in well city is one of the most important features that we must have in our fabrication. The fish tanks gives the well a sense of pure escape, a relaxing pool area that when looked up upon the inner walls are decorated with fish tanks. Personally I think if our fabrication did not have these fish tanks it would just look really plain and ordinary, the feeling of the environment will defiantly be alot different. I did get the fish working inside the fish tank, but problems occurred, as my tank was fairly small, the fish would at times swim out of the tank and float around in mid air. This problem did not get resolved, I couldn't risk a finished fabrication and have fish just floating around outside the tanks.

Below are images of my progress to completion.

The shape of the tank.

Testing out the water inside the fish tank.

Another view of the final tank form.

Swimming inside the tank, which has vegetation.

Placement of the fish tanks in the pool area of the building.

Windows Windows Windows

2009-06-16T14:02:00.004+10:00

Creating windows is not as easy as it seems, you have to create a thin solid and re-scale it so it fits into the window frames. At first I just made one large rectangle which spreads across 4 window frames. But I then realised that if you shot the glass, it does not shatter properly, in other words if you shoot the glass it effects the glass next to it, its not restricted by the window frames.

Every window had to be re-scaled and put into place properly so that the glass sits in the middle of the frames. This process may seem simple to do, but its very time consuming. Glass textures were then added to the solids, a problem then came up, some windows did not shatter as they were set to do. To resolve this problem the only thing I could think of was to copy and paste the other windows that did shatter.

The windows were now done, I have two different textures for the windows. The upper glazing is more darker than the one below it. Right now I'm just trying to get everything to look as close as possible to the two perspectives provided from the conceptual drawings.

Below are images showing my progression.

Monday Group Session

2009-06-15T22:19:00.008+10:00

Today we had yet another group meeting to share our problems and progression. Problems were texturing, and flashy textures, which all became resolved after an hour or so. I soon got to work on creating glass and texturing them, a little bit of experimentation is needed with glass to get the right tint, going for a mid blue colour. Whilst Swati is working on updating the team journal and creating lightings, Jackey figuring out how doors work and operate within Crysis, Wirada is finding textures for fittings such as doors.

Glass is not as simple as it seems, it takes a while getting a perfect fit into the window frames, I think our overall building texture looks really nice, very similar to the conceptual renders that were provided. We managed to get the two views (requested by Jeremy) of the conceptual renders. Swati is now working on lighting, I'm just hoping that the lighting doesn't slow down our map as it did before in the week 8 fabrication, this caused a major problem as it made the map very laggy and you could not navigate your way through the map properly. After shes done ill put in the water for the well and private swimming pool, and create the fish tanks that will be hung off the inner walls of the well, hopefully if all goes well the only thing we have to do tomorrow is A.I, the presentation room, reference materials, objects, and the video scenes.

Advanced Level Specialisation

2009-06-14T23:28:00.008+10:00

I found this video clip, which I think is at an advanced skill level to do. I personally do not know how to create this, which is a rocket launcher with its own HUD and even a missile tracking system. Seems like you may have to alter the game more, and most likely edit some C++, create your own images and text, and most definately scripting for the auto tracking of the missle. This link may if updated show a tutorial on how they did this, it is obviously achievable.

Reference:

Source: Hud View, Crymod, http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=42512&threadview=0&hilight=hud&hilightuser=0&page=1, (Date Accessed 14th June 2009)

Source: Hud View2, Crymod, http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=42512&threadview=0&hilight=hud&hilightuser=0&page=1, (Date Accessed 14th June 2009)

Source: Javelin Hud Test, Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Rli5cgMEY, (Date Accessed 14th June 2009)

Modding a HUD - Another Attempt

2009-06-13T18:10:00.006+10:00

I decided to switch to Flash CS3 to make things easier as the tutorial also uses Flash CS3. The tutorial which I used started out pretty easy, I was actually flying threw it pretty quickly. This by the way is a pre-made layout for the HUD, which then in Flash you have to edit the text fields into dynamic text, the difference between this tutorial and the others is that this one uses text to change the amount of health, ammo, and energy, whilst the others uses flash animations e.g. creating a health bar, green to red to display health.

The images below shows my progression.

During the tutorial it states that doing the C++ is not necessary and the HUD "should" still work, unfortunately for me it doesn't. So after editing all the text to dynamic, you save then export the file, then create the Mods folder within the Crysis directory, rename the file to .gfx. You then now have to find the sdk file, in which after doing some research I found out that you need to download a program called Mod SDK, installing this program failed on me.

Above: The error when trying to install MOD SDK

But if you do happen to get it working and open up the SDK file, you then can go through find and edit the C++ as shown in the pictures in the tutorial. I'm still not quite sure on how to launch the MOD, the picture belows shows an external program used to quickly launch the mod, it could be MOD SDK. Anyhow the flash file should be saved into the directory Crysis/Mods/MyMod/Game/Libs/UI

Group Session

2009-06-12T23:35:00.007+10:00

Today we had a group meeting, this meeting gave Jackey, Wirada and myself a chance to see how everything is coming together, I finished my model in Revit a couple of days ago, Wirada is working on texturing and importing the building and other objects into Crysis, while Jackie finishes modifying the terrain which looks really well. The textures chosen for this the building had to be changed, I noticed that the wall textures looked stretched thus making it blurry. I went to search for textures, the end result was using a standard texture on sketch up, which I adjusted the colour so it would look similar to the conceptual perspective provided.

I also learned something useful today, I went through the tutorial on how to import textured models into Crysis, seems really easy to do with sketch up, all thanks to Wirada's blog. I did this to experiment how different types of themes would suit the interior.

Above: The texture I have chosen for the walls throughout the building, the above walls (purple, orange) was the textures before, which will be changed.

Above: I'm hoping if we get enough time that this is what the theme of our kitchen will look like, personally I think it will match up, as our building has light coloured walls, and white window frames.

I'm choosing themes for rooms because on the old fabrication colours did not match up really well, having a set theme or style throughout the building will create consistency for the eye, also rooms would not have a dramatic change when entered.

I started looking at the "how to create a fish tank" tutorial by Allan. The tutorial is useful but I'm having a bit of trouble on the fish appearing. All our team is waiting on now is the building and furniture to be textured and imported into Crysis so we can place it on our modified terrain.

Reference:

Source: Kitchen View, Momoy, http://www.momoy.com/2008/06/10/inspirational-kitchen-design-from-ewe/, (Date Accessed 12th June 2009)

Final Building Form (Process & Development)

2009-06-09T01:33:00.011+10:00

The past few days I have been working on re-modelling the whole building. This process was harder than it seemed, alot of planning went into the placement and function of the rooms, the ramps that circulates around the building starting from the ground level down into the pool level took a while to figure out. As stated before, the model is now resized there was remarks previously on how big the building was before.

The tutors suggested having windows around the exterior of the building, as it will give a visual relationship between the two spaces, and since there will be some sort of scenery I think its more of a reason to do so. As the building is resized smaller, natural lighting then will become an issue, but having windows around the exterior of the building hopefully will light up the ramp corridors and some of the living spaces.

The left building was the old fabrication, the right is the new re-built building, as you can see there is a major size difference.

The wells windows now look similar to the ones shown on the conceptual design pictures, I've also noticed that their drawings don't match up, the location of windows don't match from the different views of each picture. The process of creating a custom window took me a long time to do, I had so many problems the sill and head height which did not work with the numbers I inputted, and also the fact that I have never created families within Revit before.

View of the front of the building, these windows will provide more natural sunlight to the building and also for some rooms will provide a view to the outside environment. Hopefully the ramp corridors gets lit up well during the night.

Back and side view of the building, take note that under the last window, that's where the ground will be, so everything under that point will be underground much like a well.

The model completed with the roof, doors and glass have to be removed from the model, as they are to be added when imported into Sandbox 2.

Ground floor level, you can see around the building it has an offset of walls which are the ramp corridors, main stair way is located on the right, living room and dining area are up top, down below the two rooms are night zones, and kitchen and bathroom to the left.

Top right study room, top and bottom left are night zones (bedrooms) with bathrooms, bottom right is another living area.

This is the pool level, main swimming pool is located in the centre, whilst there a more private swimming pool is located to the top, the left side is a living space, and bottom is a shallow swimming area. Ramp access is located to the left where the double door swings are seen.

3D view of the ramp corridors (wall has been hidden), you can see the windows that hopefully will provide natural sunlight into the interior, and ramp corridor.

The two circles show similarities, the left image is a bit off angle. But whilst in the Crysis game it would look very similar indeed.

Pointing out the ramp corridor spaces and how the windows were used to provide lighting into these dark spaces.

This is a snap I took when I imported the model into sketch up, you could see it looks similar to the conceptual perspective, just that the glass isn't see through, and my model doesn't show the fish tanks,textures and water.

Sunday Meeting

2009-06-07T01:15:00.004+10:00

Its very important to have group meetings now since its getting close to the submisison date. Today our group divided up all the work, so in a few days time we can collects each individuals work and combine it into one. Jackey is working on the land form, we need to make a few adjustments to the land, making it look and feel more like an desert oasis. Wirada and Swati looked into themes and furniture designs we could have for our rooms inside the building, one major problem I thought we had was that the furniture's textures didn't quite match up with the room, a suitable theme would definitely be recommended. Myself, after having feedback from the tutors I now made some major adjustments, first of all the overall building was too large, so the building is now scaled down into a more workable realistic size.

In the previous fabrication our building didn't have the ramp section which runs along the walls of the building, windows were suggested to be put in to create a better sense of a relaxing peaceful place and also have a visual connection to the external environment, before it just looked like a box with double doors. Windows are now vital to the building, as the well hole is now smaller it will probably not provide much natural sunlight for the interior spaces, therefore windows are now placed around the building, this also helps to light up the ramp spaces and some of the interior rooms. Basically we are re-creating the whole fabrication again from scratch, at least now we know the process of importing it into Crysis as it was done before.

Week 12

2009-06-05T17:22:00.004+10:00

Russell Lowe was speaking to us during the lecture today. He showed us some of his projects in which he used Crysis, he describes the Crysis engine to be amazing, as in previous years he has been working mostly with the unreal engines, which he still thinks is great, but not as great and powerful as Crysis.

Real-time visualisation gives clients a better feel of their environment, having this you can find errors which you might not see on the plans, e.g. the elevator type lift that lifts heavy patients collided with the door opening. These errors probably will not be noticed if it wasn't for the real time environment, and may have caused major problems when the building is completed.

Stephen Peter then gave us a brief introduction on next semesters graduation project, he gave out a couple of examples to give us ideas on the decisions we can make, at this point of time I think ill be going with either time-based visualisation or just visualisation.

During the tutorial our team received feedback from Jeremy and Graham. Personally I think we need to change alot of things, building scale, materials, textures, lightings, landscape, and some other minor problems such as the doors not appearing when you first enter the game. The feedback was very helpful as advice is given to us, but weather we take it in is entirely up to us. Whilst I was modelling the building I noticed that the exterior of the building had no windows, it just looked like a block with doors, Jeremy advised us to maybe put windows in there to make the building more appealling to the eye and actually give it a feel of wanting to go inside. I totally agree with that suggestion, the outside landscape has some greenery which residents can enjoy the view, so why not have windows to have a visual relationship to the external environment. This week is really going to be full on.

Mid‐Level Specialisation - Creating a Custom HUD

2009-05-30T09:40:00.005+10:00

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

2009-05-29T18:23:00.002+10:00

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

2009-05-26T18:05:00.005+10:00

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)

2009-05-26T17:13:00.002+10:00

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

2009-05-25T16:26:00.016+10:00

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

2009-05-23T09:52:00.002+10:00

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

2009-05-22T15:33:00.003+10:00

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

2009-05-20T12:12:00.007+10:00

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

2009-05-11T23:15:00.013+10:00

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

2009-05-08T11:20:00.005+10:00

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

2009-05-07T05:12:00.012+10:00

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

2009-05-05T15:46:00.002+10:00

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

2009-05-04T15:13:00.008+10:00

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

2009-05-01T16:21:00.004+10:00

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.

Research and Tests on Interactivity

2009-04-29T22:34:00.006+10:00

These past few days consisted of me researching about interactivity within our built environment, I found that the crymod website is really usefull and has provided me without an immense amount of information required to complete the fabrication. I did some tests on opening doors, which was successful, and also making glass shatter.

This is what I created for my test, just a simple wall with a door, and a window to the left.

My attempt to smash the glass.

Attempt successful.

Spraying the window with lead.

Attempt at opening the door.

Successful.

I think I may have to do a few adjustments to the model and maybe create an open space where the location of the door is; then add doors in sandbox 2 to make them openable.

The Final Form

2009-04-27T13:07:00.002+10:00

Throughout the last few days I have been adding extra elements to the building, e.g. stairs, placing doors, fixtures, fittings, and furniture. Arranging the furniture is not as easy as it seems, you really have to take into consideration the spacing between them, and also the layout. I'm glad I've finally got this done and now to move on to my next part. AI and interactivity within the built environment is basically adding people into the building (making them do things e.g. walking, swimming), interactivity, making objects move, doors openable, and glass breaking. This week is really going to be tough but hopefully all goes well.

An overall view of the final model with furnishings, some of the walls and ceilings had to be hidden in order to observe the interior spaces.

The other side of the model, showing living spaces, kitchen and bathroom areas.

Week Sick (6)

2009-04-25T15:21:00.001+10:00

This week I have been sick, so not much work has been done, and I did not attend class this week due to an eye infection. My team mates noted to me that the new schedule has been created working on the remainding days we have left. So far by looking through the new schedule, it looks pretty tight, it has its good, and bad. Good thing is we know what everyone is doing and when they should be completed by, nicely layout out. The bad is time, we dunno if we can complete it in the time frame given, and problems may occur as they always do. So far it looks realistic to do, we have alot of work to do on the coming days ahead.

Collaboration Topic 2

2009-04-20T20:03:00.013+10:00

Hierarchy
Generally when you think of hierarchy you would imagine a pyramid table, with CEO's at the top and works down to freshers down below. In a typical office environment you would have freshers which are important to the organization as they have fresh minds, adds more energy to the work environment and have the latest knowledge in the field of work. Next up are executives (generally assigning work to the freshers) then managers (efficiency, decision making, resource allocation etc.). Finally at the top, is the CEO which is an executive position in charge of scientific and technical issues of the company.
You could now see how collaboration relates alot to hierarchy, example, the freshers working must collaborate with the managers to make sure everything is correct, then the managers to executives to CEO's. Right now in our situation our hierarchy would probably be split into just three sections, at the bottom is the people who will generate and work on the fabrication, then the team leader (assigning tasks and deadlines) whom may discuss issues with the tutors (makes the final decisions and opinions).

Referece:
S.C. Mishra. "Understanding organization hierarchy", Articlesbase (2008) accessed on 11 April 2009, http://www.articlesbase.com/career-management-articles/understanding-organization-hierarchy-822075.html

Knowledge
Everyone has some sort of knowledge which they gathered through personal experience, trial and error or through education. Now days having great knowledge in the field of work you do can easily bring you to your goals, therefore making it easier for you to understand and work becomes more efficient and flows much more smoother.
Knowledge in a collaborative environment could be an advantage, as everyone shares their knowledge on that particular subject generates more ideas which could lead to solutions and greater achievements. But having advantages also has disadvantages, for example two different minds think their knowledge of that particular subject is great, but one may disagree to that persons knowledge which then causes conflict within the team environment.

Break Report

2009-04-19T20:40:00.005+10:00

The break provided a good time for our group to get back on track and on top of things, we all were working on our part during the Easter break. My task involved everything to do with modelling, so i started to finalize the model, thinking about realistic sizes and dimensions of rooms etc.

This is the basement level; this level will act as a recreation area, swimming pool, the columns hold up the bridge that runs across opposite sides of the room.

This is a level above, swimming pool, the area to the right is the restroom and spa area. To the right is the stairs which leads up to the living spaces.

Top left and bottom left will be bedrooms, between them are restrooms and a small book area. Top right is a conference room/ study area, and bottom right is the second living room. Notice the middle, you can see down into the pool area, this area will provide lighting to the interior spaces.

The ground level has access to the outside world, the spaces consist of, two bedrooms (bottom) large living room/games room (top), and to the left we have the kitchen, dining area, and the bathroom.

Next part of my task is to add furniture, and think about fixtures such as door knobs, lighting fixtures, and how to fill up the empty spaces.

Week 5

2009-04-14T22:18:00.004+10:00

Well first thing first, our group finished off posting on the class wiki so other groups can expand on our synopsis. During the lecture this week we had guest Neil Brown from the Linux development talk to us surprisingly about all the topics of collaboration we mentioned for our class wiki. Neil started off by introducing us to the 3 main topics he is going to discuss, philosophy, tools, and people. he discussed that when working with codes within Linux you have to be able to make the code clean neat and easy to understand, therefore it gives the next person more of an opportunity to come alone and enhance it, but making it work is not enough it must also be maintainable. having the right set of tools will make it more easier to collaborate with one another and make things so much easier. When Neil was discussing people i noticed he mentioned the method of hierarchy quite a few times.

After the lecture our group discussed how we were going to make up our schedule for the final fabrication project. We thought about milestones and so it makes up work up to something and achieve it, we came up with the following:

correct scale of the building
finishing the exterior and interior of the building
modelling furnishings
textures, scaling textures, bump maps
terrain, layout, orientation, making the site more noticeable, defining the building site and context of the place
environment, time of day, type of vegetation used, lighting, atmosphere, objects, sounds
interactivity, having vehicles to get around, AI's and what will they be doing
preparation for the presentation, power point, video walkthrough

After discussing these problems we assigned the tasks to each individual and the date it should be done by. I created the table below which show our schedule.

Wikipedia Page Analysis - Technology

2009-04-10T17:24:00.003+10:00

The overall layout of this website is simple, clean, and easy to navigate through. Its quick and easy to access all the different options as they are located on the side bar on the left hand side, wikipedia keeps consistency throughout the website. Normally when searching a topic e.g. technology the first few paragraphs gives you a description and definition of technology. Below this is a table of contents which are also quick links that takes you straight to the heading, having this helps the navigator quickly search for their topic of interest.

Some important or key words (coloured blue) are linked to different pages, by clicking on this it will give take you to another page which provides you with more information. Pictures captioned with descriptive text below it, clicking on the picture will take you to another page which you can download the full size of the image, also this page will provide reference and information about the picture, e.g. date, picture taken by whom.
There are more functions to wikipedia, e.g. the search bar on located on the left hand side is really handy and it at a position that is easy to locate. At the end of the page they provide you with related information on the topic and also references of their sources.

Wikipedia provides you with the power to be able to edit and page. Edit as in edit everything, spelling, gramma, and even removing. If one wishes to add more information they must properly reference their source accordingly. Wikipedia provides other functions such as a discussion page, history, source viewing.

Reference

Source: Technology Page, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology, (Date Accessed on 10th April 2009)

Week 4

2009-04-06T12:15:00.005+10:00

During this week every group had to present their draft fabrication, we had a guest lecturer that talked to us about conflict in the work force. Quite an interesting talk as we have a glimpse of what really happens out there under a building project; where there is so much more conflict than you think.

Presentations went pretty well for everyone, interesting and thoughtful designs from each group and some with alot of progress done. Our group is still working out how to correctly import textures into the Crysis engine, I think it is really important for us to get it out of the way this week, so we can focus on furnishing the internals and think about the layout of everything. It would be great if we got this finished off quick smart, as we have to think about other things such as, sound, making objects movable, making doors interactive, and maybe making glass breakable.

During this week I will focus on completing the weekly task, which is posting my collaboration topic onto the class wiki, and reference them correctly. I should start looking for articles and sources in libraries, instead of the good old Internet.

Progress Update

2009-03-31T12:17:00.013+11:00

So far everything is running smoothly. I have completed modelling the building in Revit, the only problems we have left now is texturing and importing the model into the Crysis engine. We are having trouble showing our building textures in Crysis, as it appears only once, and disappears next time. Wirada also tried using 3ds max 2009, but then we discovered that you can only use 3ds max 9 to import textures into the Crysis engine. I'm going to have a go at it myself, by firstly learning how to use sketch up, i noticed Jeremy got the textures working by using sketch up, hopefully all goes well for myself.

The link Jeremy left on the class wiki will be useful to me, its a tutorial from the crymod website:
http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=19058&hilight=XSI+EXPORT

http://arch1392-collaboration-2009.wetpaint.com/photo/4685496/I+Rock!

Our group is going to meet up tomorrow and finish everything off for the presentation

A brief description of what our project is:
Well City is a series of underground buildings located throughout dry land, containing living areas which include recreational spaces such as swimming pools. Above the pool area is what you would call the well, this is because if you are looking down into the centre of the building it is similar to looking into a well, but on a larger scale.

Group Meeting/Work

2009-03-28T18:40:00.008+11:00

Our group met up to do some work today, Swati was in charge of lighting, Wirada is focusing on textures and importing, Jack is generating land forms. I started modelling the building in Revit, which was completed a few long hours later. I didn't model it to great detail, but windows were placed in as it will be important for lighting for the well.

The building is almost complete, only missing missing internal fixtures, furniture and most importantly, lighting. Modelling the well city gave me a better understanding of the building and how it works, i had to read sections and plans that were available and try to make out what happens and how they connect.

I managed to import the model into 3ds max, all to do now is watch the 20min tutorial on how to import the model from 3ds max to sandbox 2. Alot of work was done today, hopefully everyone manages to get time for another meet up session.

Week 3 - Getting Close

2009-03-26T21:29:00.006+11:00

During the lecture we discussed what will be happening in the following week, the submission of assignment 1 is due "draft map fabrication" Jeremy talked us through the brief and told us what is required by next week. Each group then had to present their progress on the problems that they were having and the solution they had to resolve it.

During the tutorial each member of the team had to complete the task given to them which i posted earlier in the blog. Today we were mostly organising what we have to do by next week. Wirada helped us out by creating a timetable which shows the tasks given to each individual and the date that it should be completed by. If the task assigned to the individual does not get completed in time, things may get out of hand as everything links together; i.e. a collabrative work. The task i was given is to model up the building, which I shall create using Revit which then will be imported into 3DS max for textures. I think time is getting real tight here and we must push through to achieve our goal, hopefully all goes well.

Week 3 - Synchronous Messaging

2009-03-26T15:40:00.008+11:00

Synchronous messaging comes to advantage when collaborating within a team environment, applications such as msn messenger and skype speeds up the process of our communication, and hence desired goal. These programs make communication easier and completing tasks more efficiently. I think now days everyone uses some sort of synchronous messaging as it is very easy and convenient to use where ever you are. It is also free!

Examples:

Windows Live Messenger
Probably the most popular instant messenger around these days. This program provides users with functions such as voice chat, online games, video chat, and file sharing. Adding contacts are made easy by using their e-mail addresses. MSN messenger is a simple clean user friendly program to use.Reference: Picture, Wilson Tan, March. 2009.

Skype
Skype similar to MSN messenger but this package focuses more on voice chat and conference calls, you add contact using their desired user name, layout and usability of this package is simple and straight forward to use. Skype is expanding, making many mobile devices include this program to use, as it gives cheaper and sometimes free calls to anywhere in the world.
Reference: Picture, Wilson Tan, March. 2009.

Testing Water

2009-03-26T08:51:00.008+11:00

Throughout this week i have been searching ways to achieve my assigned goals, which is learn how to import water into a building and correction of flow of water which I'm guessing involves some sort of physics.

I have found a youtube tutorial which shows you how to create a waterfall, i found that this tutorial really didn't show me what i needed, but at least it gives me an insight on water in the crysis engine. The link below is a more detailed tutorial also on how to create a waterfall. This tutorial was found on the crymod website.

http://crymod.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4781

From looking at this tutorial i think there might be a way to achieve my goals. The picture below shows the flow of water down a creek, which in my situation i need it to flow down a cave-like tunnel. Only problem now is creating water within a building.

Conflict and Technology

2009-03-25T19:07:00.009+11:00

Conflict
The word "conflict" generally means "to come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition; clash" also "an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals)". There are many more other reasons why conflict comes into play during collaboration, such as differences in attitudes, beliefs, values or needs. I think conflict in relation to collaboration refers more to the second meaning, which is an open clash between individuals since we are working in a small team. Every team may come across conflict during collaboration as every individual has different thoughts and ways they approach things. The list below are some reasons why conflict may come into play during collaboration.
- Needs
- Perceptions
- Power
- Values
- Feelings and emotions

The links below gives us an insight on conflict and how to overcome and avoid it, manage conflict and turning it into collaboration.

Technology
The word "technology" - a technological process, invention, method, or the like.
- the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization. Technology is always advancing, coming up with great ideas which makes life more easier. Personally i think technology in terms of collaboration means using technology such as Internet, mobile phones and computers etc, to its full potential and to our advantage in collaboration. Examples include the Internet, with instant messaging helping us collaborate much easier and faster, making it more efficient to achieve our desired goals. Without technology things would be a whole lot different. Technology in relation to our group means using computers, software, communication devices to help create our chosen building.

Reference:

Dr.Hoban.T, Managing conflict, Know your watershed, Date Accessed 25th March 2009, http://www2.ctic.purdue.edu/KYW/Brochures/ManageConflict.html

Gravett.L, Turning conflict into collaboration, E-hresurces, Date Accessed 25th March 2009, http://www.e-hresources.com/Articles/Oct2001.htm

Source: Conflict Picture, New Resolution, http://www.newresolution.org/wires/wirescrossed_Feb08.html, (Date Accessed 25th March 2009)

Week 2

2009-03-24T20:43:00.018+11:00

During the lecture we discussed the topics, culture, management, hierarchy, planning, records, context, technology, conflict, intent, communication, remuneration, knowledge and how these all relate to collaboration. We were supposed to vote for a class wiki but that didn't end up too well. The final decision came down to using wetpaint.

In the tutorial, our team all agreed to use "Well City" to be our chosen model. Reasons behind our decision was because the building is simple and it has lots of potential to merge in with the surroundings available in the Crysis engine. The model Well City is very interesting and will be very challenging for us to do, as the whole complex is underground, with potential difficulties with lighting, and also another major issue is water and the physics of the flow of water. I think what we really need now is larger pictures of the details such as sections and the floor plans, as the current ones we have are too small to work from.

The unchosen building was a skyscraper from the evolo's site. The building doesn't really look difficult to model, but there maybe a problem with the cords, columns on the outside as they look very complex. Not only that, there is not enough plans we can work from.

Later our group discussed the 8 potential problems we may encounter within the oncoming weeks, the conclusion was:
1. Creating water within the buildings
2. Drilling a perfect rectangular hole
3. Lighting of the rooms
4. Importing materials to Crysis
5. Importing miscellaneous objects to Crysis
6. Creating the cave for the well
7. Recreating the space (scale) with the information available
8. Correct flow of water (well to pool)

We divided up the 8 points, i will be doing points 1 and 8. Point 8 correct flow of water could be tricky as you may have to play around with the physics of water in the Crysis engine. We were also issued with the topics technology and conflict to research for next week as they will be put into the class wiki.

Progress and Development of the Crysis tutorial

2009-03-19T00:22:00.008+11:00

Flow graphs, placing the tag point and area trigger was easy at first but when i came upon the flow chart section it started to become more difficult. Everything just got confusing and hard to find.

Adding AI was just like placing trees on the map. There were all sorts of AI's to add.

When i was creating roads at first, the roads were going all over the place and not like how the tutorial showed. I realised that i forgot to turn on "snap", an integral part which made the roads smooth.

Solids - had problems here with selecting the edges which also got pretty confusing. But in the end, I managed to make a ramp by adjusting the surfaces of the solid.

Here's another shot of adjusting the time of day.

Adjusting the time of day, I'm beginning to like this map editor.

Voxels - had a little problem with these. Couldn't seem to move the box creating cliffs were fine, but i had trouble creating a cave. Below you can see there is still a hole there.

Playing around with prefabs was pretty fun, its just a folder that has building models which you can blow apart.

Adding objects onto the map was just like opening a file and placing it on, but i had to make sure that snap was on, or else objects maybe floating.

Modifying the terrain - i noticed this program is quite similar to programs such as 3ds max and maya, which was pretty good as i have used these programs before. Modifying the terrain was a quick process as you can adjust the radius where you would like to flatten or modify.

Placing trees and vegetation on the map, this can really be detailed according to your settings used.

Creating the land for the new map was a fairly easy process, as you can see i tried to create some contrast with grass and sand.

My Two Unbuilt Architectures (part 2)

2009-03-18T20:45:00.010+11:00

The second building I have chosen is similar to the first one; designed by the same architect, located in Kornet Chehouane, Lebanon. The building is also surprisingly a villa (called M-Project) which will start to be built in July 2009. What is amazing about this villa is free-standing as a rock that survived natural erosion, and the steepness of the site its built upon. The major influence which shaped this villa is from the nature of the environment and the personality of the client, the villa is visually a major contrast to the site it’s situated within.

What I like about this building is the way the structure integrates onto the site, still preserving its surroundings. The buildings simplicity makes it a team liking, doesn’t have anything over the top, location of interior spaces is like a maze which has a series of staircases connecting all levels, using this villa will be very challenging to the team as we have to work with steep land forms, working out the location of the rooms on different levels could come as a problems, as not all of the floor plans are provided at this time. But on the other hand I did manage to find plans of sections and a interior perspective, which will come in handy.
Personally out of the two, I wouldn’t mind doing either, they are both challenging to create in the CryEngine, they also both adapt well to their surrounding environment having very little impact.

Reference:

Source: All Images, Y.Tohme/Architects, http://www.yousseftohme.com/, (Date Accessed 18th March 2009)

My Two Unbuilt Architectures

2009-03-18T20:37:00.011+11:00

One of the unbuilt Architecture I have chosen is a villa situated within Beirut. This villa called "T-Project" is designed by architect Youssef Tohme. The villa is located within a forest environment and will be built on the natural slopes of the rocky terrain, this project will start in May 2009 (so it’s still unbuilt even by the time this subject finishes).

The design and form of the building is simple and monumental externally, whilst in the interior spaces takes on complex and organic geometries which creates duality and contrast between the two. During the tutorial our group discussed which types of forms and designs we liked, which we mostly agreed on simple and organic forms, so T-Project might hopefully be the dwelling we are looking for. Personally I think T-Project is a significant piece of unbuilt Architecture, because of the simple complex forms it takes on and horizontal planes, which works really well with the environment it is situated in keeping the natural form of the site intact. This design should be interesting to my team based on the discussion we had during the first tutorial, the long horizontal planes and simple building shape should not be too difficult to create in the CryEngine. The dwelling shown in the pictures looks quite similar to the environment in the Crysis game; a dwelling not disturbing the natural form of the surroundings. Fabricating T-Project may be difficult, floor plans I have found are quite small, but other useful details are provided such as a perspective, sections, some of the interior spaces and views of different parts of the villa externally.

Source: All Images, Y.Tohme/Architects, http://www.yousseftohme.com/, (Date Accessed 18th March 2009)

The Crytek Experience

2009-03-15T18:16:00.003+11:00

Got my hands on a copy of Crysis and the first impression of the game was that the engine that creates the environment was pretty awesome, whereas the difficulty of the game was fairly hard though. I played around with the map editor which came with the game, called Sandbox 2, and noticed that I’m actually playing the game more than learning how to use the editor. The InCrysis and CryMod forums should come in handy when im having problems with the game, hopefully all goes well.

Unfortunately today when I wanted to start on the In Depth Basic Tutorial - From InCrysis, the link somehow didn't work and was working a few days ago - strange! Something may be wrong with my ISP TPG.

http://incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=11847&p=1

The Start - Week 1

2009-03-13T18:38:00.009+11:00

Week one, the studio class went by pretty well. We got into teams of four and completed some of the tasks that were given to us. We chose E-volve as our group name; the reason for this decision is because during this semester we will be working together and will develop gradually with one another and produce something remarkable. My team members are Swati, Jackey, and Wirada. I feel we will bond together nicely.