Electric Box Demo

Heres an electrical Box that we had ran through a demo with, the general idea was to create an electric box and animate its doors. We had started out with a basic box and had insetting and extracted each side, creating the general shape for it. on top we had extracted and stretched out the top, then used the move Line tool and created an angle to the top. other parts of creating a reasonable shape was just touching up each of the corners and the general shape of the box. from here we continued on to animate it using the animation line at the bottom of the program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39QDqqwP8a4&feature=youtu.be

Car Demo

During our demo stages we also had been shown how to create a car using only blocks, by reshaping it and extending it and using extrusions we were capable of making a general shape of a car.

one of the main tools for doing this demo is the line tool, which from this you are able to draw whatever shape you wish and extend it. by using this method we were able to place door shapes on the car and push into the car, cutting out the insides.  from here I was able to cut down the shape I used for the car insides and replicate a door. from this point I was able to place 2 doors on each side of the car.

After doing the insides of the car and the doors, I decided to design seats for the car, I downloaded a image of a car seat off the internet and drew round it as a template, this extruded gave me the general shape of a seat. from here I attempted to twist and reshape the seat so it would have a better outward appearance.

After everything had been completed that I had set out to do and as I was going for an apocalyptic theme in my street I was designing at the time so I attempted to colour the car in dark and grey colours to give it a burnt and destroyed appearance. 

Comparing Game Engines

Game Engines Report

Our task for today is to take several game engines and compare their abilities and their limitations, to use examples to define why companies will be particular in picking their while developing their game, or even creating their own game engine.

CryEngine

Cryengine was originally built as a tech demo for Nvidia, using the demo Farcry, to demonstrate the engine’s ability to create graphics which would include different bits of lighting and effects, so Nvidia could market their graphics cards on them and show the potential of their work. It was shortly after this that Crytek the german developer of the cryengine, realized that farcry had a great potential to be a game using the cryengine. So they decided to develop Farcry.

Farcry became a commercial success with both its beautiful looking game engine, and well worked story and warranted a sequel eventually, which Crytek went on to develop.

With this knowledge they also felt they needed to upgrade their engine, and eventually they had engineered Cryengine 2.

Cryengine 2 enabled developers to have the game render buildings and interiors before they came into visual range, and enabled them to create much bigger landscapes and areas within the game environment.

This created a great success for crisis as it was capable of having large scale vehicular warfare in its multiplayer component, which resonated amazing amounts of success and modifications through its fan base.

Sadly Crytek wanted to again, advance its graphical capabilities on their engine, so they had upgraded their engine to Cryengine version 3, which had sharpened up every aspect of their engine, including adding support for Direct X 9, 10 and 11, which focussed the power of the engine on its graphical capabilities rather than its open world free roaming abilities, this was demonstrated in crisis 2 and 3. During the launch of cryengine 3, crisis 2 came along, which was a significant change compared to its predecessor.

As you can see from the above image, the graphics have been significantly improved compared to crisis 1, but this was at a cost and sacrifice to what you can do, which included vehicle combat in multiplayer, and sacrificed the free roaming element in both single player and multiplayer.

Crisis 2 was still a fair success, but due to its massive change in design it wasn’t as successful as crisis 1.

Crisis 3 was a little more successful than the second, as I think Crytek understood taking away elements of the first game was a bad idea, they reintroduced some of the elements including abilities, larger areas and vehicles, which showed that cryengine 3 was capable of providing incredible graphics, while retaining elements of gameplay.

Unreal Engine

Making its debut in 1998 with Unreal developed by Epic games creators of the gears of war series, the first generation of the Unreal Engine with its intergrated rendering, collision detection, AI, visibility, networking, scripting, and file system management into one complete engine.

Unreal engine 1 provided an advanced software rasterizer and a hardware-accelerated rendering path using the glide API, specifically developed for 3DFX GPU’s and eventually was updated for openGL and direct3D. Large parts of the game were implemented in a custom scripting language called unrealscript. The initial network performance was also very poor when compared to its biggest competitor, Quake 2, which at the time had incredible graphics on the engine ID Tech 2 engine, developed by ID Software. Epic used this engine for both unreal and unreal tournament. The release of unreal tournament marked great strides in both network performance and drect3D and OpenGL support.

Unreal engine 2 saw significant upgrades compared to its predecessor, including incredible graphical advancements, and the ability to create ragdoll effects with extra support for many different consoles and design elements. It created a bigger depth in its graphical quality, it also had much better vehicle physics which enhanced the gameplay of unreal tournament, resulting in a much better critical success for the game.

The Third and current generation of the unreal engine is version 3, it was designed for directX versions 9-11 for windows, Windows RT and the xbox 360, as well as systems using OpenGL, including the playstation 3, playstation Vita, Wii U, and several handheld operating systems and other scripting programs. It’s renderer supports many advanced techniques including HDRR, per-pixel lighting, and dynamic shadows. It also builds on the tools available in previous versions. In October 2011, the engine was ported to support Adobe flash player 11 through the stage 3D hardware-accelerated API’s. Epic has used this version of the engine for their in house games. Aggressive licensing of this iteration has garnered a great deal of support from many prominent licensees. Epic has announced that unreal engine 3 runs on both windows 8 and windows RT, making it a valuable asset to companies and designers everywhere.

In addition to the game industry, UE3 has also seen adoption by many non gaming projects, for instance – Lazy town, which is an animated childrens program, animation software, and the FBI, where they use UE3 for simulation training.

Heres a quick demonstration of the advancement level of the Unreal Engine and the differences in display.

Frostbite Engine

Frostbite is a game engine developed by EA digital Illusions CE, otherwise known as “ DICE “ which is a games development company responsible for the development of the battlefield series. The engine is currently designed for use on Microsoft windows, playstation 3, playstation 4, xbox 360, and the xbox one platforms and is adapted for a range of video game genres. The engine was first used by DICE to create first-person shooters, but it has been expanded to include various other genres such as racing and real-time strategy and is employed by a number of EA studios. Thus far, the engine is exclusive to electronic arts with all titles being published by EA.

The first version of frostbite was used in Battlefield Bad company, and that enabled the designers to use the engine to develop a game environment which would enable players to hear bullet shots from over a distance, and to make the environment more audible, it also allowed developers to create destructible walls in battlefield.

The first major update to frostbite engine debuted in 2011 with battlefield 3, it took full advantage of its ability to utilize direct X 11 API and 64 but processors, with no support for directX 9 nor therefore windows XP.

It also featured enhanced in-game destruction with destruction 3.0 creating more refined physics than its predecessor which enabled players to bring entire buildings down, adding a huge improvement to the gameplay.

The first major upgrade to frostbite debuted in 2011 with battlefield 3. It takes full advantage of the drect X 11 API and 64-bit processors; with no support for direct x 9 nor therefore windows XP. it also features enhanced in-game destruction with Destruction 3.0, creating more refined physics than its predecessor and quasi-realtime radiosity using geomerics enlighten technology. Additionally an important distiction on its naming is that fristbite 2 is not called frostbite 2.0. 

Then came the introduction of frostbite 3, which significantly improved the physics and overall look of the engine, as you can see there is a significant difference in the engine development of each one used, each engine offers different perspectives as its upgrades are applied.

Some engines offer more physics, some offer more graphical capability, and some offer different effects, which makes the decision of choosing an engine extremely important when developing a game and project within the industry. 

UDK

So today we did some more work in the unreal development kit and we started to do a few of the tools and mechanics and learnt that the frame wire on the screen is actually how you add and remove shapes.

The invisible square on the image is what you can use to create shapes, and you can change the diameter, the width and the height of the length of the square by right clicking on CSG add and CSG minus, doing this adds and removes blocks using this method you are capable of creating buildings. The same thing applies to different objects you can also change the shapes and sizes of them to fit your map creation.

Once you've created your building, you can then continue to texture it using various textures and settings. you can also filter the types of textures to help narrow down the selection of texture. once found you then can apply it by grabbing it and dropping it on the desired object.

Games Design Document

 

PREPRODUCTION BLUEPRINT

 

  Title: Into Dark

Note - due to images being in word, the images cannot be displayed.

Version: 1.0

Date:17/1/2014

Engine/Software: Photoshop/Flash

 

STEP 1: IDEA

Idea: I will be creating an animated scene, of a game, where the idea is to survive from invading aliens, who have ravaged earth, and pushed humanity to the brink of extinction.

Stand Alone Game Environment / Level Design

Level Design project.

Software:

UDK

Photoshop

3DS max

Description:

A rough terrain city, based in a time where humanity has been practically dominated by an alien species, and driven to the brink of extinction, its your job to survive, and if possible, find a way to bring humanity back to its feet.

STEP 2: SETTINGS, THEME AND LOCATION

Environment Setting:

Rural/Broken/Desolate

Key Location/s:

City Block.

 

Theme:

Calm

Mixed

Themed

Abandoned

Dangerous

STEP 3: PROJECT PURPOSE

I Want to Create:

A game environment where players must survive, against another race hell bent on taking humanity to extinction.

I Want to Learn or Improve:

My 3DS Max Skills, maybe even my ability to mix photoshop and other programs together, and 3DS Max.

I Want the Player to Experience the Following:

The difficulty in survival against others or with others and how bleak life can be pushed.

 

STEP 4: FEATURES

Features List:

 

1. Custom game environment (textures, models)

2. Trophy Unlocks

Destructive and dynamic environments.

 

 

STEP 5: PHOTO/VIDEO REFERENCE AND RESEARCH

Photo Reference:

§  Architecture reference

§  Environment reference

§  Light reference

§  Prop reference

§  Inspiration reference

Images of worn and torn buildings and cities. 

Research:

What are the buildings made out of?

Worn Metal, Worn materials that have been damaged by heat and wear.

STEP 6: STORY

Story:

Aliens have invaded earth, and decimated its population, leaving nothing but death and destruction in its path, you’re a lone survivor, trying to survive against them, and the other survivors who will quite happily take you out, to further their own gain.

How?
knowledge of a catastrophe came to you, and you hid in your bunker, upon return from your bunker, humanity is burning, and you need more supplies.

Why?

In need of more supplies it is your job to go out and look for them, that stomach isn’t gunna feed itself.

What?

It was a world filled with peace, until horror from the skies came.

Show, Don't Tell

The player will step out into a world surrounded by darkness and fire, every living thing dead, and all technology is burning in front of the player.

 

 STEP 7: SET PIECES

 

(Objectives à Obstacles à Set Pieces/Scripted Events)

 

Level Design / Stand Alone Game Environment:

A dark and grim environment surrounded by suffering, and the strength of survival or even just a well built atmosphere.

Set Pieces:

Burning buildings, people dieing, death and decay, empty buildings, derelicts, crashed ships.

STEP 8: FOCAL POINT

Focal Point/s:

A point of view seeing the world dieing before the player.

Watching craft’s destroy the world, and watching other beings attempt to survive the chaos.

Uniqueness and Originality:

§  Its dark and atmospheric appearance would make its environment stand out.

§  The player would remember the environment through its depth and originality.

§  The interest would be generated from its perspectives, you’d be able to go to the top of buildings, in houses, looking for supplies, or watching the streets below being ravaged.

STEP 9: VISUAL DEVELOPMENT

Style Reference: Dark and atmospheric.

Color Palette:

Environment Colors:

Red, Black, grey, Dark orange.

Lighting:

Dark sunsets with light fading.

The lighting I would want it to be dark and atmospheric with minimal light, which is fading out, to give the impression that the hope for survival is also fading.

STEP 10: TOP DOWN LAYOUT

Level Design / Stand Alone Game Environment:

An example of something I created myself which could be a level for the game.

 

STEP 11: LISTS

Everything List:

Wooden Fence

ƒ   Cottage (which is composed of)

o Fence

o Square small wood window

o Wooden front door

o Wooden planks

ƒ   Primary house planks used for door

ƒ   Variety of wooden planks used for fence below the slanted roof

ƒ   Support for slanted roof, wooden cylinder

Variants of potential metals for buildings and props.

o main roof

skyscraper roof

varients of roofs for apartments and buildings

ƒ   simple building models in the distance burning.

ƒ   broken cars

ƒ   Custom Sky

ƒ   Dirt Terrain Texture

ƒ   burnt grass terrain texture

ƒ   Foliage Models:

o Sycamore Tree (larger tree)

o Ash Tree (smaller tree)

o Daisy Flowers

o Shrub

o Grass

all items for foliage models can be burning or destroyed.

Production List:

Block In

ƒ   Playtesting proportions and scale

ƒ   Lighting pass

ƒ   Texturing

ƒ   Materials

ƒ   Modeling

ƒ   Lighting pass

ƒ   Atmosphere and Post Processing

ƒ   Creating a fly-through the environment

Final Test and          Tweaking

ƒ   Release

Props/Assets List:

                   Variants of skyscraper

o metal doors

o Windows/broken windows

o Walls

o Roof: cracked/burning/destroyed.

ƒ   Skybox

ƒ   Sycamore Tree

ƒ   Ash Tree

ƒ   Daisy Flower

ƒ   Shrub

ƒ   Grass

ƒ   Fence

ƒ   all items that can have variants of destruction.

Texture List:

Consists of previous variants previously mentioned.

Texture/Material Quality List:

 

All items in the world to be damaged, worn or cracked.

All items in the world to be also destroyed, burning, smouldering, or collapsing.

Audio List:

 

Flames, screaming, machinery for the alien technology, breaking, explosions, general destruction and demolition in a city sounds.

 

The sounds of suffering, and chaos, general sounds for travel and survival.

Construct 2

We started our first lesson in construct 2 today, which is an animation and design program, that has very similar traits to flash, your capable of creating animations using commands, rather than code. which effectively makes the program much easier to use. 

We had created a symbol and used it as a platform using the command maker which enabled us to have solid objects to have the character walk on. we then used the pre made character by opening it up on the layout objects.

from here we were able to place a pre made characters into the set using the objects list, and selecting it through the sprite option. we had then enabled it to mirror and react through the use of the keyboard. this is mainly just as simple as selecting the commands rather than actually coding the commands.

We were then able to add idle and running animations by using the given files and using the animation slides in the animation options, and ensuring the centre point was at the bottom of the character, we had created 2 different animation presets, one for the running animation, and one for the idle, ensuring we used lower case letters to prevent confusion. we had then applied the animations to the keyboard reactions, resulting in an animated character running on platforms.

we then went on to create our own mini game, and we created our own character, background and enemies and symbols and objects.

I created a background and a character, and put together several blocks and a door, and created a enemy sprite so that the character has something to challenge during the journey through the level. I created this by double clicking on the main screen, and creating symbols and then labelling them as solid objects. which lets anything on them stay on them rather than fall through them.

Before this process i had to do the walk cycles, for mine I just made my character appear to float for his idle and walk cycle, as I did not feel the need to particularly be too ambitious while creating prototype characters for learning development. so I attempted to create something simple and fun.

doing this I then went on to do something similar with the enemy sprites and makes them bounce on the spot to give the player something to kill and overcome within the level. 

from here I had put together an event sheet, which controls the mechanics of the game, you can select the the of mechanic by double clicking, each mechanic has its own type depending on what items you have on your board, most of them start off with a system mechanic which holds together the core mechanics of the game in construct 2. most of the game can be built from creating events using the items that have been drawn up.

creating the ticks and creating the collision detectors for the enemies and surroundings is one of the most important pieces for creating the game. I also created collision detectors for the door as well, which enabled the character to go to a new level upon collision. I had also had to add parameters to the game where if certain conditions were not met the character would die.

I then continued you to create a whole new layout level, which basically consisted of the blocks i had originally created, placed and reshaped in a slightly more challenging way, I then persisted to repeat the processes I had originally carried out.

this also included repeating the same mechanics that I originally had in the previous scene, which enabled the same mechanics.