Week 11 - excursion

This week we had an excursion to the UNSW Scientia building to experience the iCinema, which is a 360 degree 3D cinema room.

This was a really enjoyable experience and it was amazing to see what could be created using this technology and how this can be implemented and used within various workplace environments as a tool for education or experience, such as Mining.

Upload tutorial...

I have uploaded my beginners tutorial to the class wiki...

Beginner level specialisation tutorial

After much research and from endlessly exploring the Crysis folders I have managed to play around with the video files that run when the game is launched. I have tried manipulating and replacing these with other video files but they don't seem to be recognised and result in a black screen. Although this has not been successful I have managed to successfully rename all the launch video files so that when the game starts it skips straight to the game menu. So I have created my beginner level tutorial on this. It is very basic and can be executed quite quickly. Hopefully I will be able to find some more information and figure out how to replace the video files with my own custom ones. The tutorial is given below:

Beginner level PACKAGING / SKINNING tutorial:

To remove the video advertisements that run when the Crysis game is launched you can either delete them or rename them which is what I did.

The advertisements are video files which are located in the Crysis install directory on your hardrive. By renaming the files you are essentially hiding them and thus allowing the game to skip straight to the game menu.

Follow the instructions below to do this:

Navigate to your Crysis installation folder which on a Windows system would typically be:

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis

From there, enter the following folders to locate the video files:

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis\Game\Localized\Video

The videos are saved as .sfd files. You simply need to rename the files listed below, not all of them.

Rename the following files:

• Trailer_EA.sfd (EA Logo)
• Trailer_Crytek.sfd (Crytek logo)
• Trailer_Nvidia.sfd (Nvidia logo)
• Trailer_Intel.sfd (Intel logo)
• Trailer_CrytekC.sfd (Crytek Crysis text)

The easiest way to do this is by appending any character to the end of the file name. Anything that will be recognised by your operating system will work but it is probably better and less harmful to choose something simple such as "1." which is what I have used in this example.

You will also need to rename the video file which is located in the following folder:

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis\Game\Localized\Video\English

The file name is listed below:

• Trailer_Rating.sfd (Rating text)

After renaming all the video files they should look like this if you chose to append "1." to the end of the file name:

• Trailer_EA1.sfd (EA Logo)
• Trailer_Crytek1.sfd (Crytek logo)
• Trailer_Nvidia1.sfd (Nvidia logo)
• Trailer_Intel1.sfd (Intel logo)
• Trailer_CrytekC1.sfd (Crytek Crysis text)
• Trailer_Rating1.sfd (Rating text)

Once this is done upon launching the game it should automatically skip straight to the game menu instead of playing all these advertising video files.

If you want the videos back, just revert all the files back to the original filenames.

Thats the end of the tutorial!

Week 10 - guest lecture

This weeks guest speaker was Andrew Wallace who has recently graduated from UNSW and is now working for LCA (Lara Caldera Architects).

I really liked this lecture as it was interesting to see what others are doing and creating using the crysis editor. Andrew talked about the different real time engines that can be used to promote architecture and showed us various projects which he has done using the crysis editor.

Initial investigation into PACKAGING, SKINNING, ETC. specialisation...

Below is a list of all the links I have found in relation to my specialisation:

- http://doc.crymod.com/
- http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=12284
- http://maxedgaming.com/tutorials/kb_show.php?id=65
- http://doc.crymod.com/ProgrammingManual/
- http://maxedgaming.com/tutorials/kb_show.php?id=66
- http://maxedgaming.com/tutorials/kb_show.php?id=69
- http://crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=13312&sid=3fd96a1f0c2fb2dc5ed190630a3b256e
- http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=17982
- http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=11835
- http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=11373
- http://www.crymod.com/filebase.php?fileid=290

Detailed team plan for our Final “Polished Fabrication”

I wrote up our team plan and posted it onto our team blog...

Plan for Final “Polished Fabrication”.

Team Omega’s plan for our final “Polished Fabrication” is to implement and work on the weaknesses of our fabrication and improve various other elements within our environment. Along with these we plan to use, implement and combine all the various specialisations that are relevant to our fabrication. At the end we plan to have a successfully realised and “Polished Fabrication” that can be run as a mod game within Crysis and contains all the relevant features and elements necessary to portray and present our environment to a client. Below are lists of the various elements which we need to implement into our environment to achieve a successful and “Polished Fabrication”:

Weaknesses that need to be worked on:

- more interactivity, especially in hall
- interior textures
- landscape near surrounding buildings
- texture surrounding buildings
- materials and textures
- more AI
- interior furniture

Elements that need to be improved:

- terrain textures
- realistic vegetation
- implementing street signs / road signs
- detailed environments around building and surrounding buildings
- interactive elements (breakable glass, elevators, vehicles, boats etc)
- custom AI
- Interior textures, elements and furniture of building

Relevant specialisations:

- programming
- custom animated models (people, vehicles etc)
- AI
- cut scenes
- custom materials and textures
- elevators, escalators etc
- …
- …
- …
- …
- …
- …
- …(get list off Jeremy)

My Specialisation...

MY SPECIALISATION: Packaging, skinning, etc.

DETAILED OUTCOMES:

For my specialisation I have decided to choose PACKAGING, SKINNNING, ETC. Through exploration, tests and following tutorials the end result will be to create a customised mod game which can be loaded separately within the Crysis game and will run exactly like the game but with modified content, menus, text and functions. I am not sure how achievable this is but from my initial investigations I have found a small amount of information that could help and make this possible to some extent. Below are lists of criteria that need to be achieved to make this specialisation possible:

INITIAL CRITERIA:

- research any information about achieving specialisation
- explore information and research found
- find tutorials about specialisation
- complete tutorials
- document how modifications can be completed
- document what programs / software is needed to complete mods

DEVELOPED CRITERIA:

- compile found knowledge / research / tutorials
- experiment with various elements that can be modified
- document what elements can and can’t be modified
- ascertain to what extent various elements can be modified
- create custom mod game
- create custom text
- create custom functions
- create custom menus
- create custom content
- compile all elements
- create tutorial documenting specifics

FINAL SET OF OUTCOMES:

- successfully load mod game
- mod game functions properly within Crysis
- implemented custom text
- implemented custom functions
- implemented custom menus
- implemented custom content
- other in game functions successfully work and coincide with mod game
- completed tutorial/s

Week 9 - guest lecture

This weeks guest speaker was Shilo McClean who is a write, lecturer and specialist in the field of digital visual effects in the film industry.

I really enjoyed this lecture and it was amazing to see the variety of movies which utilise the area of visual effects in today's film industry. It was really hard in some pictures to differenciate between what is real and what is visual effects, which is an indication of how advanced CG has become in the last couple of years.

Other teams 2 Strengths and 2 Weaknesses

Team Digitilism:

2 Strengths:

- Very nice realised model with very strong contextual information and good crysis environment with surrounding buildings. Environmental elements such as time of day, roads etc well realised and executed.

2 Weaknesses:

- The only aspect that affected the environment was that the building was not modelled to scale.

Aspects that could be added to my teams fabrication:

- Their use of texture on the surrounding buildings was great and we could definately implement this into our fabrication.

Team Orange:

2 Strengths:

- Come a very long way from previous presentation. Good introduction and context as well as artificial lighting. Amazing garden features and city elements (signs, bus stops, cars etc). Very good use of AI and interactivity.

2 Weaknesses:

- Could have explored their interior spaces more and how people relate and experience these spaces.

Aspects that could be added to my teams fabrication:

- We could utilise their excellent use of AI and interactivity with cars as well as their textures on the shop fronts at ground level.

Team E-volve:

2 Strengths:

- Really good take on presentation; informative, detailed and entertaining. Very realistic environment and context. Nice furnishings and interior textures.

2 Weaknesses:

- Could add 'oasis' elements such as more greenery / birds etc. Internal circulation could also be explored further.

Aspects that could be added to my teams fabrication:

- Their amazing use of interior textures, especially on walls could be implemented into our fabrication.

Team Urbans:

2 Strengths:

- Great progress from last presentation. The structure definitely suits the new site and the building looks very realistic and well realised.

2 Weaknesses:

- Scaling of textures on the exterior of the building could be explored.

Aspects that could be added to my teams fabrication:

- They were able to import a very accurate terrain heightmap which we could also do for our fabrication.

Team Atlar:

2 Strengths:

- Great progress and very realistic. Well contextualised and the underwater environment is amazing and very well developed.

2 Weaknesses:

- There are a few problems with textures and water within the building.

Aspects that could be added to my teams fabrication:

- We could utilise their use of underwater aspects as well as the use of moving trains / elevators and cars that drive.

KNOWLEDGE SOURCE

"In today's organisations, knowledge is regarded as the key economic resource. The acquisition, retaining, development, and use of knowledge resources is thus an important issue. Activities such as the ones named before which take influence on the organizational knowledge base are subsumed under the term knowledge management."(1)

"Knowledge is the entirety of skills and capabilities which is used by individuals to solve problems. This entails theoretic insights as well as practical everyday rules and instructions."(2)

"Knowledge is supported by data and information, but other than these it is always tied to persons. It is constructed by individuals and represents their expectations about cause-and-effect relations."(3)

(1) C. Schmitz, "Self-Organized Collaborative Knowledge Management", Published by Kassel University Press, 2007, p.xv
(2) Ibid., p.2
(3) Ibid., p.2

RECORDS SOURCE

"In the last decade of the twentieth century recordkeeping professions (archivists, records and information managers) began to re-invent themselves, largely, but not exclusively, in response to the change from paper-based to electronic recordkeeping systems."(1)

"This is evidenced by the changing language of the recordkeeping professions, the recognition of related interdisciplinary research and knowledge, and the re-evaluation of recordkeeping theories and practices."(2)

"However the process of re-invention is a continuous one and many recordkeeping concepts are being further refined as a result of the impact of the internet and other communication technologies".(3)

(1) L. Iacovino, "Recordkeeping, ethics and law: regulatory models, participant relationships and rights and responsibilities in the online world", Published by Springer, 2006, p.1
(2) Ibid., p.1
(3) Ibid., p.1

Strategic Plan - Timeline

Created our Strategic Plan Timeline in Excel and uploaded to Team Blog...

Above is a detailed analysis of our Strategic Plan for the completion of our Fabrication Environment. It is displayed in a timeline stretched over the weeks we had to complete the project. It analyses our suspected work outcomes and when we propose each of these elements should be finished by and when they were actually finished.

Contribution to Fabrication Environment

Typed up and added our contributions to the Fabrication Environment onto our team blog...

Throughout the creation of our Fabrication Environment each team member has been involved in numerous aspects and elements of the design process. Our contributions are listed below:

Cameron:

Building Model:

> Find objects (artworks, furniture, lighting etc)

Surrounding Buildings:

> Research
> Modelling
> Façade
> Textures

Presentation:

> 10 Still Images
> Team Blog

Crysis Environment:

> Skyboxes
> Time of day
> AI
> Birds (seagulls)
> Sound (natural / artificial)
> Water (level, colour, movement)

Individual:

> Blog

Alichia:

Building Model:

> Find objects (artworks, furniture, lighting etc)

Surrounding Buildings:

> Positioning the surrounding buildings within Sandbox2 and aligning with terrain

Presentation:

> Work Outcome Strategies
> Fabrication Plan
> Progress Report
> Team Blog
> Strategic Plan
> Timeline

Crysis Environment:

> Landscape
> Terrain
> Vegetation
> Mountains
> Skyboxes
> Time of day
> Fix Wharf / Pier
> Add Boats
> Add Harbour elements
> Lighting (natural / artificial - street lights / harbour lights)
> External furniture (wooden benches)
> Roads / sidewalks
> Water (level, colour, movement)
> Rock walls

Individual:

> Blog

Kenneth:

Building Model:

> Two buildings modelled
> Outer façade
> Underground floor space and walkway
> Concert Hall
> Internal floor spaces

Surrounding Buildings:

> Exporting and importing the files from 3dsMax into Sandbox2

Presentation:

> Renders
> Contextualisation

Individual:

> Blog

Essmael:

Presentation:

> 600 words
> Team Blog
> Speech
> Contextualisation
> Videos:
> 10 Still Images:
> Renders:

Individual:

> Blog

Week 8 - guest lecture

This week we had DR Deo Prasad present "Think and act Glocally – global collaborations for sustainable future." to the class.

We learnt that the term "Glocal" refers to a mix between the words global and local. This lecture was very insightful as Deo explored the various trials with working in different cultures and countries. He also explored the notion of sustainability and how this needs to be implemented into our design practice.

Progress

Progress Screenshots

Progress...