Request for Carter

Would it be possible for you to send me a few quick screenshots of my glass shards and glass bottles with the glass shader applied, thanks. A white background would be preferable if possible, but doesn't matter too much.

Notes on Evaluation

Here are the written up notes from the meeting, they've also on my own blog if for some reason you care.

Positives
In a lot of people's eyes the very fact we managed to finish with everyone completing at least a small number of assets is a decent positive in itself. However, in the broader scheme of thigns there was a unanimous agreement that the major benefit of this project has been a general increase in Max competance, both in terms of speed and skill. Similarly, there has generally been at least some greater familiarity on the technical side relating to engines.

Negatives
The primary negative that most people have is that as a group we suffered from awful communication throughout the project, and relied too much upon the blog to communicate and not enough on face to face. This in turn lead to the secodn biggest problem, that our concept was at no point really defined, and everyone tended to have varying images of what the final piece was - also a factor in this was lack of later stage concept art to nail down what the level was going to look like (rather than the ealeir what *could* it look like). Another by product of the communicaton was that people tended to get pigeon holed in their roles, which other than Carter no one needed to do really. The art style being completed earlier, plus a more defintie asset list which didn't leave room for interpretation would have also helped everythign to be more cohesive. At the end however, it was also questioned whether the groups where too large for the project - meaning that some people never had much important to do.

What we have learnt
Obviously following on from the issues, the importance of communication has been demonstrated very clearly. In addition to the improved modelling, most people stated they felt like more competant texturers than previously, including how vital a colour palette is, both in havign one and ensuyring it is adhered to. Additionally most people now have at least a passing familiarity with Unreal.

What would be done differently
We suspect that if repeated, the Tech lead (Carter) should also be group leader, and for the most part, the other roles aren't needed - beyond the art lead defining the art style (although that should probably be more public in its creation).The concept would also need to be nailed down in a much clearer way, which would partially be achieved by a more rapidly produced art style guide, and later a more specific asset list. Also of note was that i would probably be easie to start with limited ambition and then later add to it time permitting. More regular communication is obviously also needed with people meetign face to face (although not necessarily in a formal meeting) quite regularly.

FRIDAY!

Yo peeps on friday evrybody needs to come in to the labs for 12.00. We need to sum up how the project went and then work out what we are going to say/ do in our presentation, im thinking some kinda dance might go down well.....we can talk about it anyway.

gas masks

was having some serious problems recently regarding my laptop choosing not to turn on. Looks like i missed the dead line for handing in models but they are done anyhow, maybe you will take them, maybe you won't.... if not I'll put it into my project portfolio.

Quick update, we now have sandbags n guns

Group Meeting

As we need a group meeting of some sort to do this (from Carter's post):

2. A bullet-list post-mortem, based on discussion with the team:

we need to sort something, as we haven't managed to be all together in the same place in ages can I suggest that we all agree a time to meet on msn or something? Or at the very least just post comments to this until we've got a little bit of oppinion going. I won't suggest a time as I don't know peoples schedules, but I can realisitically do whenever.

Assesment structure for group project

Each group to put a folder on K drive labeled for their team. The level will go here. Then each team member has a subfolder below that for their personal work.

1.A walk-and-talk through of the finished level in Unreal, highlighting:
A) the development from initial concept to final environment (how well the finished product replicates the initial concepts)
B) any alternative ideas tried and rejected
C) highlighting any special features

2. A bullet-list post-mortem, based on discussion with the team:
A) what went right
B) what went wrong
C) what we’d do differently and
D) lessons to take forward
for an example see:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3606/postmortem_saber_interactives_.php
but there’s no need to write a huge essay, just summarize the key points

3. Each team member to produce a visual presentation of their own assets in sub-folder below group folder
A) conforming to industry-standard presentation style
B) JPGs viewable in Windows Pictures and Fax viewer are sufficient – no need for powerpoint
C) all assets should show clearly wireframe, rendered and textured view, with box outs for texture sheets and any special features you want to highlight

4.each team member to place their max files in a their personal sub-folder
A) use a logical file structure so that we can find things without effort
B) include all necessary files, textures, etc
We will also have a verbal debriefing based around the post-mortem where we shall extract essential lessons that need to be taken forward to third year work

And so

The images below are from a completely new build of the map I've essentially had to build from scratch after the other one messed up so amazingly, I've reimported everyones models, although your probaly not gonna see them here -alot still need to be placed, tighened up the materials for the blockworld as well as improved the materials for peoples models

The lightings brand new and has been shifted to night time with a strong moon present, which solved alot of the problems i was having and gives a nice contrast to the amber yellows of the gas lamps. The lighting in the main room is about 60% complete I'd say so far

Cutoff day is this Monday

The final date for completing your models and giving them to me, with the pivots in the right place and so on, is this monday (14th april) - any later and I simply won't take them.

Carter

Moss Questions

Just a brief thing - I'm just getting onto texturing the moss that I'm supposed to be doing - basically I'm going to make 3 different size circular clumps and one or two broad 'sheets' of it which could then be combined with the a selection of the clumps to get varying patches - is this the best way to do it?

Or alternately, could someone (presumably Carter) send me a really quick rough floor plan of where you want it to go so I can make sometihng more specific to that area. Thanks

Blockworld texturing (pretty much final)

Thought I'd post iup a few shots of the blockworld with the new improved textures. Models have been toggled off and is displayed in full bright mode

Lobby has been retextured a fair bit, textures now blend with each other and all look part of the same theme. The section containing the lift was raised up to create a step and to seperate it from the main lobby section. A new tile texture was created to replace the pink one i had before, although im thinking it might need desaturating a bit.

This is a shot of the main room looking from one of the alcloves near the lobby. The useless space to the right of it was raised up and is using a rusty galvanised metal texture im thinking a machine or something could go here to better use the space

This is the main room looking back towards the lobby the original red bricks were desaturated a fair bit while windows were added in to create focus and to better display the scale of the room, the section containing the top windows was cut short to make it look as if a section of the building was created inside the main room in fitting in with the ruined/industrial theme


So this is what I've done email me or leave a comment, aditionally im planning on dialling down how much work i do on this to concentrate more on my art work so don't expect any huge jumps in stuff over the coming weeks

oh yeah probaly should mention the parts of the texture that don't line up or obviously tile im planning on slapping a trim model over them to disguise the fact

Rough area plan

Thought I'd respond to a few questions I've received over the corrugated iron and pews and where everything is going to go.

The image to the left shows roughly the size of the two areas, the pew and stage area in blue and the subsidence hole and chimney area in red and how the two will overlap, this certainly isnt set in stone and the two sections will shift and change shape as stuff is added to them.

As for the stage Dale is making it might be worth posting up what you've done so far so everyone can see what your up to

For the corrugated iron, Hicks if you fancy making your own corrugated iron models that'd be cool - the variety of textures in use should makie it look pretty nice

here are some bits of it carter but the way it deforms is a bit mad and i have all ready made some for the gate and a couple of other bits man, so if u see mine and u see yours there compleatly different so its going to look a bit weaired mate, so its your choice.....and no i don't know y its underlined and i can't turn it off.

Snow?

Are we actually still going to be using snow in the level? We've had a pretty decent coating today and I've taken a ton of reference photos incase we end up needing them, so if they are useful I'll put them online when I'm back at uni in the week, thoughts?

Main room progress and stage placement pics

Hullo Alls,

Read your post Dale and you seem to be making headway with that, sorry i couldn't call you back think my phone's dying which is a lil annoying.

But whatever, progress seems to be happening on the stage. I like the direction your going in with the stage although remember to grunge it up a bit. Also im not sure if it would be appropriate to have it more ramshackle as if the stage was constructed from bits of debris lying around or look as if it was once clean and new like the last image you had and then slowly became more and more dilapidated with chunks falling off.

I've included three images showing the progress I've made on the main room which also indicates the rough position left for the stage and chairs - the space for all the stage, chairs and various other bits n bobs not directly related to the subsidence hole is a little over half the room so it gives plenty of room to play around with.

Lectern and stage would go presumably to the right or even middle facing downwards towards the entire hall, with Nikki's symol directly above it
drawing the eye

This is the view of the main room so far looking downwards from the lobby, the subsidence hole in the centre helps break up the flat boring floor while breaking the repition of the walkway pillars down the centre and the problem of masking a huge obviously tiling floor texture. The corrugated iron fence came from looking at pictures of WW1 trenches which is kinda what i imagine this area would look like

Another view of the 'stage space' the subsidence section will run up roughly to Bends chimmney model and then slip into the lectern stuff. Im planning on nuking the half pillar lecture theatre thingy to the right as it just looks retarded however which way i dress it

So thats what I've been up to so far please comment or Email me, I need comments for me to continue confidently

Main Room Asset

I have done a quick concept for an asset to go into the main room, before I continue with it I would like to discuss the idea with the rest of the group. The asset is a stage, I reckon it would be a wise asset to include since we have announced that there will be a dictator. Having a stage will allow us to use to most iconic logo, banners and graffiti designs made by Nikki plus it will fill the room up quite nicely. Also it allows us to us chairs to fill some of the up, e.g broken chairs, fallen over chairs, chairs to shoot if you get bored etc.

Here is a quick concept of where I think the most logical place to put the stage in the main room.

Let me know what you all think, I will further concept this to give you all a better idea of what I want to achieve.

Something like this but on a smaller scale, also I would like to have larger posters in the back of the stage or even the large the graffiti fist.

Annoted main room wonderings

After a pretty fruitless day idly modelling stuff I've decided to annotate a screengrab of the main room similiar to what i did for the lobby showing a few of my thoughts on how to present it all, certainly none of this is final and it was more a series of notes and reminders to myself but i figured i should post it up

Feel free to post your thoughts

Oh and since blogger won't let me upload an suitably sized image heres the link for it http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/4897/mainroomplansv3.jpg

Few idea's for the main room

Now that the Lobby is more or less complete with a few bits 'n bobs left to model its time to start thinking about the main concourse room.

We talked a few things over with Powell and here is a quick bullet list of what we came up with,

• Subsidence near start - breaks up floor
• Collapsed walkway
• plants scattered around near light - nice shifts of colour from grey to greens
• Chimmney collapsed around centre
• Various pillars to model
• Hanging banners with Nikki's designs
• corrugated iron and plank debris along parts of the walkway
• walkway glass bricks on floor
• Nikki's symbol made from debris placed on far concrouse wall - light from hole in ceiling would draw attention to it
• holes in ceiling highlighting interesting elements
• far end of concourse - collection of pews moved after subsidence
• Crates of there 'Bible' with symbol on them

Theres a fair bit of stuff here to do which needs to thought out and planned from now until the end of Easter

Stuff for Tuesday

Okies here are some screenies of what were gonna show on tuesday, Unreal did a fancy trick today of apparently saving work then losing it all so i've been reimporting stuff at home I've also adjusted the lighting, moved around some of the existing models a bit, imported and tweaked existing normal and specular maps and tryed to get it looking a bit more complete.
There are still some pretty large gaps and really obvious errors but overall i think its looking alright for tomoz

Lobby update

Thought I'd post up a few pics of whats been done so far hoping to fix the obvious problems in the images - stetching or missing textures, poor lighting etc for tuesday. Upstairs is pretty barren at the mo' so im hoping to flesh it out as much as possible for Tuesday.

Nikki: I completely forgot to ask you yesterday if you've rescaled those doors if you can have them for monday that would help make it look more complete

Hicks: How are those vending machine models doing? Again be useful if there done for monday

Thanks

Almost finished the walkway!!

So ive basicly finished the walkway! what do u guys think?
i still need to do the ol' glass brick floor bit, im gonna do it like Kian did it for their group, or i maybe a copy will just appear on my computer sometime soon............who knows(wink wink Kian)

Lobby texturing and lighting update

Two quick images showing the work in progress lighting and texturing i did today, also started adding in peoples assets.



Me and Ben decided to use limited electric light linked up to generators - its just too hard lighting it with 'natural' light and all other artifical light candles, glowsticks etc just don't have the same radius

Im currently having problems in patches of the tiles coming up pure black not really sure why is doing that

Nikki: I still need you to post up your email so i can send you the doorframe models - the one you can see in the pic is the one i scaled and it looks kinda out of place

Dale: I've heard you've been working on some staircase models be awesome if there done for monday

Hicks: Im using Ben's collapsed chimmney model as a placeholder for your vending machines to block up the entrance to the concourse - any thoughts?

missing email

Ok for whatever reason it looks like I don't have your email address so I can't send you the max files, be really helpful if you got in contact with me so this stuff can be fixed in time

Doorframe scale models for Nikki

Got your doorframe models, everything looks really good but the scale when imported into the blockout is miles off and i can't scale them in the editor as doing it non uniformly squashes stuff so it all looks weird.

I'll email you the sections of the blockout with the doorframes when i get home, if you can adjust your models to fit them they'll slot in perfectly, best way would be typing in the vert positions of the blockout to the 4 corners of your door models and yeah i should have split the blockworld into ppl's relevant parts ages ago

Oh yeah saw your poster textures/designs for the first time today they look really nice really gonna help with the revolutionary aspect of it a helluva lot

Lobby wip - model pass

Okies, thought I'd post this up quickly been hammering out assets all night and I'm starting to populate the map with them.

All the models there are untextured at this stage i want to get stuff like the placement and scale of objects correct and perhaps start thinking about lighting it properly.

If you wanna talk to me or Ben where gonna be in the lab from 12 onwards today (28th feb thurs)

If you can give your completed models to Ben, upload them somewhere or email them to him, I can start arranging them around - I'm pretty poor at keeping track of what everyones doing so i may inadvertently start modelling the same asset as someone else, speed is key ppl!

Oh yeah please post crits and so forth - like i've just realised those pipes are in a 'orrible position...

Wall Reference (for Carter)

A Few Belated Asset Guidelines

This is probably way too late, but as I've just covered in my response to Joey's post there are some guidelines to choosing what asset you are going to make. I'd have thought some of these would be common sense really... Remember, this is a survival horror thing, some things are just inherantly not scary and ruin any atmosphere we have.

1) DON'T use famous brand names - it dates the environment too much, we want to leave it ambigous.

2) AVOID using plastics in anything but minimal quantities, as a general rule just switch it to the most plausible alternate materials. Plastic looks cheap and common, not mysterious, it generally just breaks the tension. Don't just necessarily do a straight coversion either unless its a pretty generic product (ie bins) find a similar product made of metal or glass or whatever.

3) This is abandonned DON'T leave objects looking new and ready for use. This should be obvious.

4) Mute out strong colours and stick to the pallette, it is there to help you - just because something is labelled as rust colour doesn't mean you can't use it on bricks, just because something is labelled ice doesn't mean it can't be used on a crate. The categories are starting points just to give you an idea of what we want with specific things. Don't pick colours way out of the palette without getting it by Nikki or me.

5) A general rule, but look at reference from the Queens building itself if possible if you are making things. Certain people in the group clearly are not using it and it's obvious in their work.

Assets

All my assets

Right Jesus, finally managed to get a quick video recorded briefly explaning how to prepare a model from exporting into Unreal - Having to use Youtube at the mo which took freaking ages to upload and yeah can barely see it but i think its clear enough just listening to it.

Stage Six won't work for me and im not entirely sure why, gonna try and work it out tomoz as well as doing one for importing into Unreal and creating a simple material but in the mean time theres this





Wooo...

Modelling & Texturing Guidelines

All art assets should be constructed and textured adhering as closely to the reference and concept as possible. Geometry should be built economically, with a polygon and texture resolution to fit their game play requirements whilst ensuring they convey a faithful reproduction of the real world settings.

Pipeline

Below is the pipeline that every asset will go through. You must follow this when working on the asset you have been set. If you do not show the relevant people your work at each stage there’s a very high chance you will get to the end and be told to do it again.

Modelling Guidelines

Below is a list of guidelines and standards to adhere to when creating scenic assets.

Basic Guidelines

• The assets should be created in max 9.
• The asset should be aligned so that the front is visible in the Front viewport.
• The asset, materials and maps should adhere to the specified naming convention.
• Ensure verts are welded.

  

• The intersection of separate model pieces is allowed; a judgment call must be made on when the use of intersection saves polygon count over mesh consistency/stability.
• Ensure all face normals should face outwards (or as seen) be aware of flipped faces.
• The asset Origin should be at 0.0.0. Reset the transform and collapse before exporting.

Naming conventions and file structure

• The filenames should be in the following formats:

  max: object_type_00.max
  

  psd: object_type_00.psd
  tga: object_type_00_d.tga
  export: object_type_00.x

  The number represents a variation of the asset. Do not include back

  ups of the completed assets. In the situation where multiple max files would share the same texture files then that texture file should have both number variations in.

  The tga files need a postfix that denotes the type of file it is:

  _d = diffuse
  

  _s = specular

  _n = normal
  _h = height

  _a = ambient occlusion

  examples: light_small_01.max

  chair_blue_02_d.tga

• The filenames should have no more than 20 characters plus the file extension.
• When all the parts of the assets are completed they should be put in a folder with the asset name. This folder can then be zipped and sent to the 3d lead.

  

Example folder

Additional

• Model in a representational amount of detail, but do not over complicate, detail can be textured in.
• Afford most of your polygon assets to th ose within the playable area, anything beyond this area will need less detail.

• Pay careful attention to your smoothing groups, these are important as they define the shape of the model.

• Avoid non co-planar and non co-linear polygons (bent quads or polygons with 3 verts in a line), as they do not convert to game well.
• It may not always be beneficial to weld certain pa rts of the object together, for example all the stairs on a staircase.

Bevelled edges

Assets should have bevelled edges applied as this substantially improved the quality of the model in the way that it will interact with light.

Bevelled edges on an object

Poly Count

There is some flexibility within the polygon count for a

ssets. With the unreal engine we will be using more polygons than we have been able to use before but the general rule of thumb is Don’t use polys where they aren’t needed. The lower poly the model is the faster the game will run.

A: Object built using a reasonable numbe

r of polygons
B: Excessive use

of polygons does not improve object

Units and Scale

All assets are to be built to a rea

l world scale. Refer to your project manager for the correct unit setup and reference model.

Stripping

When working in Max the artist should build a model that will strip efficiently when exported into the real time engine. In order to do this, three main areas need to be taken into consideration: Mapping, Smoothing and Structure.

Stripping

· Mapping

Areas that need to be tiled should b

e mapped using the “polygon planar projection tool”. This will ensure that all the vertices are sharing the correct UV coordinates.

Whenever possible avoid mapping a quad and then tiling the geometry to create a surface; this method will result in a mesh that will not strip efficiently.

· Smoothing

Any area of polys where stripping is desired needs to share a smoothing group. A “Hard” edge will stop the surface from being stripped. This is not to say that all edges should be smooth, use hard edges when necessary – on the edges of buildings for example.

· Structure

When creating objects try to avoid producing polygons that fan outwards. Meshes should conform to a grid like struc

ture wherever possible. Fan shapes will not strip. The 3 images below are examples of this; the two to the left are how a mesh should not be modelled, the third image to the right is how a mesh should be mode

lled (note the grid like structure).

Texturing & UV Mapping Guidelines

Below is a list of guidelines and standards we adhere to when creating a scenic building.

Basic Guidelines

· Textures are to be created using Adobe Photoshop

· Textures must be one of these sizes : 2048x2048, 1024x1024, 512x512, 256x256, 128x128 or 64x64

· Textures should be shared where appropriate, ie 2 identical chairs should not have exclusive textures

· A combination real world base textures and Photoshop techniques should be used when creating your textures.

· You may find it preferable to work at a larger resolution when editing the UV’s for clarity of point placement, sizing down at a later date.

· Maximise the use of your texture sheet.

• Textures should be saved in the .tga format.
• Textures should adhere to the given naming conventions.

Unwrapping guidelines

· Fill as much of the box as possible

· Duplicate areas can be overlapped

· Every part of the model should be unwrapped but try not to waste time unwrapping unseen areas to a high detail.

· Make more detailed faces bigger than less detailed faces on the texture page

· Make sure all pieces are facing the correct way, if they are not then when a normal map is applied then it will go inverted on the pieces that are not facing the correct way. A easy way to check is to apply a texture with text on and see if it can be read.

Photoshop guidelines

All the different textures (e.g. diffuse, normal and specular) should all be in one Photoshop file before been saved out as different .tga’s. To keep from the Photoshop file getting messy the layers should be arranged into different folders.

Photoshop files authored for each texture set should contain the following:

Diffuse Map:

Diffuse texture

The diffuse texture should have as much light information removed from it. Windows should have reflections removed and replaced with a texture that represents what the texture would look like without reflections.

Specular Map:

The specular map is black and white and is used to control how shiny/reflective parts of the texture are. Black will be used for parts of the texture that appear matt, and white would be used for something that 100% reflective e.g. a mirror. In most cases the majority of the specular map will be shades of dark grey. If you want the specular to appear reflective rather than just shiny you will need to add an environment map to the shader in max.

The specular can also include colours, a good example of a situation of when to use a coloured specular would be on something like a beetle shell:

Height (displacement) Map:

The height texture can be used to help create the normal map. Areas of the texture are painted to show how high or low they should appear on the model. White is 100% high and black is 100% low. To create the effect of bevels etc the edges of the height map components should be faded using a glow effect.

Height map texture

For the unreal engine any height (displacement) maps created need to be saved in the alpha channel of the normal map texture. Do not use a displacement map on your texture unless asked to because at this stage we are unsure if we will be using them atall

Normal Map:

Normal maps are a way of creating the impression of a bump or indent on the surface of the model. The main thing that needs to be remembered when working with normal maps is that they do not actually move the surface of the polygon to make it stick in or out, all they do is add shadows and highlights in real time so it looks like that is happening.

In order to be good at using normal maps you will need to understand almost everything on this tutorial:

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/normal_workflow.htm

The first two pages of that tutorial are not as important for this project because they are about baking out normal maps from a high poly source but the 3^rd page is very useful for what we are trying to do because it explains in detail how to add texture in Photoshop with normal maps.

Exporting to engine

Asset completion checklist

On completion of any asset, the following checks should take place:

• Remove any textures/ materials from the material editor that are not used.
• Ensure the correct material is on the asset.
• Remove any smoothing group problems and ensure bevelled geometry has the right smoothing applied.
• Unhide and delete any unwanted geometry, lights, cameras or helpers in the scene and make sure there are no hidden verts or polys in the asset.
• Ensure that all verts are wielded up if they need to be.
• Select the mesh and make sure the x-form is reset and the normals are facing the correct way.
• Ensure the pivot point is central to the mesh but the z value is set to 0. The whole asset will then need to be set to 0,0,0 in max world space. In the case of small objects that meet the ground, the pivot point should be positioned centrally to the portion of the object that meets the ground.