Unit 66: 3D Modelling Unit 67: 3D Animation Unit 68: 3D Environments - james

Unit 66: 3D Modelling Unit 67: 3D Animation Unit 68: 3D Environments

3D Modelling

3D modelling is the creation of assets or objects using programs such as Maya, 3D studio max or cinema 4D, Using polygons in order to bend/shape/morph them into an intended object. Objects created using 3D modelling software can then be used for things such as TV, Film or Video games.

As mentioned 3D modelling has many applications, being very useful for providing the visual effects and CGI of most films and TV shows today, alongside being used to create game characters and objects. One film that uses 3D modelling is star wars, which utilises 3D modelling to create stunning realistic visual effects such as a lazer blast or a spaceship flying away.

As you can see from the image a green screen is used which allows for 3D modelled assets to be added later, such as the ship and the background, creating the illusion that it is really there when it is instead just a 3D model and not the real thing. Also you can see an image from the film Beowulf, an animated film that uses 3D modelling to create characters that mimic their voice actor counterparts.

3D modelling can also be used for educational purposes, for example if a model of a human body is created with the organs and bones in proportion to a real human it can be used to show medical students or kids the key areas of the human body, also being able to take a look at the organs in detail. The same can be said for a car, being able to take a car a part piece by piece virtually will allow mechanics to understand each part much easier, allowing them to see every piece of a car without having to work on a car, allowing them to practice.

Another application for 3D modelling is architectural walkthroughs, which allow users to see a building in 3D virtually either before it is built (for a builder/property developer) or before it is to be explored (archaeologists). Architects are able to create a virtual 3D model of the building before construction, making it easier to make changes or add crucial parts to the building before it has been built. Archaeologists are able to create a 3D model of what they believe to be either a tomb or structure, and then assess with that the best way to tackle digging at it or exploring it.

Displaying 3D polygon animations

In order to display 3D polygon animations you need an application such as open GL or Direct 3D,

Depending on how many polygons are in an object, determines how detailed that object will be. As you can see by the image below poly counts has increased over the years, making 3D models very realistic, and now characters created are no longer blocky looking.

As well as having more polygons to work with, shading and texturing is a big part of 3D modelling as this adds depth to objects and brings them to life. When using Maya Hypershader is a good tool as it allows to create professionally shaded objects by adding a new material onto the object, and then playing around with the shade used to create a light effect that helps the object to reflect light in the intended direction.

After creating the 3D model it will then be rendered using one of these methods, Rasterisation, Ray-Casting, Ray-Tracing or radiosity.

- Rasterisation - The fastest currently used method of rendering 3D models however does not produce the best quality, this is done by compiling the object from a vector graphics format into a raster image (pixels) to help file size, or to be used for video display.

- Radiosity - Radiosity is another method of rendering using a different algorithm to normal rendering methods, instead of using path tracing, radiosity uses light paths, and allows light to reflect much better. This has been used in games such as battlefield and need for speed.

-  Ray-Casting/Ray -Tracing - Once used together, these rendering methods are distinguished due to ray casting doesn't trace secondary rays of light for reflection whereas ray tracing does. Now used separately.

Geometric theory

Geometric theory refers to the mesh that is created on programs such as Maya, that has various options over the objects, such as vertexs, faces and edges.

Vertexs - These are the corner pieces of the mesh, for a cube there are 8 corners/vertexs, which means 8 points that you are able to move/extrude however you want to form a new shape.

Edge - An edge is the side line of the shape, for a cube there 12, with the edge you are able to extrude just the length of the edge/face of the object.

Face - The face is the flat space of the object, a cube has 6 faces, if selected each are able to be adjusted or transformed separately to the rest of the object, this can be useful for expanding an object on just one side.

When using Maya there is a coordinates box, this refers to the coordinates of the object, the scale of the object and rotation of the object all in the form of x,y,z. When altering each of the x,y and z it is key to note which one changes what, for example 'y' changes the vertical properties of the object whereas x changes the horizontal.

Mesh Construction

Rigging - As you can see from the picture there is a skeleton rigging on the object in green lines, this is how an object is animated, animating the parts of the rigging that then goes on to move the corresponding body parts. Rigging is relatively easy for a human character as you add lines where bones would be, however other objects or assets may be harder to rig as their structure will be different to a human, for example a car.

Box modelling is when you take an ordinary shape such as a cube and use it to create something else, as you can see here in this image you are able to take a simple cube and extrude and change it into the object that you want. This is then smoothed over with the smooth mesh tool to give it that realistic look instead of the blocky outcome.

3D development software

When saving assets in Maya you end up with a .mb file type, which is only accessible on Maya, however is normally a small file type, so will not take up much storage space. Other software such as 3D Studio Max has its own file type also, which is 3ds. Again this is a file type that can only be accessed on that software, but it is able to be rendered/optimised and converted into a different file type, or it is able from Maya to be sent straight into unreal with a drop down option making it easier to send over assets into your environment.

Constraints

Polygon Count - As mentioned before polygon count allows for a much better detailed asset than an asset with a low polygon count. This can be considered a constraint as sometimes it is hard to add more polygons to an object, therefore making it harder to give it a detailed look. Another constraint is how long rendering takes, which depending on the size of the asset and the amount of polygons in the asset determines how long rendering will take which is normally a long time.

Unit 70 P1 P2 - Gaming engines

Unit 70 P1 P2 - Gaming engines

What is a game engine?

A game engine is a piece of software used in the creation of a video game. An example of a game engine would be R.A.G.E, the game engine that is used to create Grand Theft Auto and other Rockstar exclusive games. This is primarily a 3D engine, used for graphic intensive games and has quickly become one of the most advanced engine to date. An example of a 2D game engine is Game maker studios, which has the ability to create 3D games but is built to create 2D games. A game engine helps to create all the components of a game and put them together in order to create the game, these include the objects, characters, weapons and environment used for the game. Alongside being used to create games, Engines have also been known to help create mods for games, which edit some of the core features of games to change or add new things, this normally being done by fans of the game who want to see changes to the game such as different skins for characters or new objects that add new life to a game. A game engine contains the core components of creating a game, such as the character generation and environment creation, however navigating through the intense and advanced UI can become hard and therefor takes some time to get used to.

Physics

A physics engine is used in most game engines to create body movement, collision in a game between two objects. Physics in a game normally abide by the physics that are also in real life, for example if a person jumps they will come back down to the ground due to gravity.

Rendering

Game Rendering allows the user to see what is in the world/game. Each engine has its own way of rendering, some being more advanced than others which results in a better quality of the models used. For example Frostbite 3 (EA engine) uses a powerful rendering system which allows for photo realistic models to be viewed in a game.

Closed and open engines:

A closed game engine means that the engine can only be accessed by members of the company that own the engine, or those who are trusted enough to use it. An open game engine however is open to the public, either for free like MAYA or costing like Unreal Engine, both are good game engines and do the same as the closed engines but have the difference of being able to be used by the general public.

Examples (closed engines):

Frostbite (EA):

Frostbite is the exclusive closed engine for the gaming company EA, it is the engine used to create games such as Fifa, Battlefield, Need for speed, Mass effect and Medal of honor. Arguably one of the best game engines to date, Frostbite is one of the most technically advanced engine's which produces some of the most graphically perfect games on the market. However being a closed game engine means that to work on this engine would require you to work at EA, otherwise you cannot use it.

Now being known as Frostbite 3, first used with the game battlefield 4 the engine has undergone a few changes in order to improve the issues and improve the engines overall quality. Now also being adapted to work as a mobile engine device with Frostbite Go, a new engine that will allow EA to create mobile games too. The unique tool set that Frostbite uses is made up of 3 primary components, these being FrostEd, Backend services and Runtime.

FrostEd is a desktop program used by Artists, designers, Animators and programmers at EA. FrostEd uses a unified interface that allows everyone using it to be creative, and efficiently build high quality products/games.

Backend is the data storage system that Frostbite uses, being able to handle hundreds of thousands of data packets and assets to be stored, this allowing EA to create various game assets at the same time and not worry about storing them before they are optimised in order to reduce space. Within this EA has systems called blizzard and avalanche which handle the storage and the caching of the data, with daily updates to keep the system up to date.

Runtime is what allows EA to diversify their games and code them so that all platforms are able to run the game, this being the final process in the Frostbite engine, allowing games to be compatible with the various platforms such as XBOX 360 and now the next gen being XBOX One and PS4.

Fifa 17

Need For Speed 2015

Battlefield 1

Rage Engine (Rockstar):

Rage stands for Rockstar advanced game engine, created by Rockstar in order to further their game quality for certain franchises such as Grand Theft Auto. First created in 2006 the Rage engine changed the quality of Rockstar games significantly, now producing games with photo realistic graphics that allow the users to fully immerse themselves in the game. Like EA's Frostbite engine the Rage engine is only exclusive to Rockstar employees, meaning it is a closed game engine specifically designed for Rockstar and Rockstar alone. With recent releases such as Max Payne 3 Rage has been compatible with Directx 11 and 3D rendering programs allowing for the best quality in games on the PC platform. This is due to the fine tuning that took place over the recent years whilst Rockstar created GTA 5, allowing for the specific changes to be made in order to create a realistic life like game environment for their games.

Rage uses the Bullet physics system created by erwin coumans, This is what allows GTA to have the realistic physics in game such as collision between cars, people when fighting and gravity when planes are shot down. Bullet has been used in multiple other games such as Trials HD, Toy story the game and diRT the racing game, also being using for visual effects in the films sherlock holmes and hancock.

Grand Theft Auto 5

LA Noire

Red Dead Redemption

Operation arrowhead engine/Day Z Standalone Engine:

Starting off as a mod, Day Z become its own game, however the engine used for the standalone game was taken from the original engine used to create the base game arma 2 which day z the mod was created off of. Now being updated to meet the needs of Day Z by Bohemia interactive who now own the rights to the game, the engine works specifically for the game and is a closed game engine, however the Arma 2 engine is able to be accessed. This primarily being accessible so that content creators are able to mod the game and create add-ons. 

Until 2015 the engine used was virtual reality which as mentioned was the Arma 2 engine, now bohemian who have taken over the production of Day Z have started using their own updated Enfusion engine. This was greatly appreciated by players of the game as it allowed for a more fluid movement and physics system for when characters performed actions or when they collided with objects such as stairs, which previously would make the character bob up and down awkwardly.

This engine is not as advanced as the Frostbite or R.A.G.E engine however it still uses similar features to both of these engines, such as a physics engine and a rendering engine capable of HD image rendering allowing for games to have a crisp photo-realistic look. 

Arma 2

DayZ (The mod)

DayZ Standalone

(Open Engines)

Unreal Engine:

Unreal engine is an open game engine created by EPIC games. Providing users with the appropriate assets in a large library for free, it isnt hard to find scenery, objects and characters that can be used for your games. The engine uses direct X 11 and 12 Rendering which allows for their games to make use of dynamic lighting, light reflection and HDR full scale scenes. As well as dynamic lighting, Unreal uses cascade visual effects which allows the creation of movie quality effects, allowing the creator to add various detailing such as fire smoke and dynamic particles.

Thanks to the unreal engine gameplay framework, artificial intelligence is made easy and also works more fluidly with AI having spacial awareness, allowing for them to judge a situation better and being able to navigate without bumping into walls or other objects. The user interface for Unreal is friendly, and allows an instant game preview in the centre of the screen, allowing for the user to edit things in the game such as buildings, characters or scenery and then simply click the play button to test it to see if it works to their satisfaction. This feature makes testing game easy, allowing for each scene to be tested properly to see if it works all to the users needs.

Unreal has had multiple versions throughout the years, now being known as unreal engine 4.13, there has been 4 versions of the engine, with more updates being added every so often to keep the engine up to date. 

Unreal Engine 1:

First created in 1998 with the game Unreal, the engine was capable of creating 2D and 3D games, however not being able to create as HD environments or large as what it is capable of now. Using the Glide API this engine had good rendering paths for its time, and was later updated for Open GL and Direct 3D.

Unreal Engine 2:

Being released in 2002 with the game Americas army Unreal engine 2 was the updated version of the first engine, being able to produce much better quality games thanks to the new physics engine used which was the rag-doll engine. Still using relatively the same rendering tools as the first engine, the look of the games had been improved slightly but not dynamically. During an update to Unreal 2.5, the engine had improved rendering allowing for better game quality and vehicle physics.

Unreal Engine 3:

Unreal Engine 3 was created in 2004, after the success of unreal engine 2. Being able to use shader hardware it allowed for light to be done per pixel as opposed to per vertex, which improved the immersion and the quality of the light in games. This changed the overall look of games created using unreal 3, one being bioshock infinite which used a photo realistic style. Also having destructible environments and soft body dynamics. As well as being a game engine, UE3 has also helped to create sets and backgrounds for the show lazy town, and has been known to create various visual effects for films and other tv shows.

Conclusion

In my opinion Frostbite or Unreal is the best game engine at this current time, the reason i have chosen 2 is because of how Frostbite is only EA exclusive, so i am not able to work on it unless i have a job at EA. However the technically advanced edge of the Frostbite engine is what puts it at the top of the list, with its storage capacity, and its HD image creation capabilities. Unreal is also at the top for its technical edge, being updated over many years now to create the perfect game engine which has my favourite feature which is the game preview screen that allows for specific scene testing which is helpful as it allows you to edit anything that isnt working properly at that current time instead of waiting for it to be properly tested by other people. It also allows you to see how far along you are in the creation process, and with its soft body animation capabilities i feel that unreal engine is able to create some of the most fluid and graphically pleasing games.

Unit 74 : computer game story development

Worked on my own (Charlie Long 111659)

Unit 74 : computer game story development

Task 1:

My story begins at Debbies house. Following on from the events that took place a year ago where killer klownz arrived from outer space to kill everyone in their path.

Characters: Debbie, Dave, Mike and 2 Killer Klownz.

Start: Debbie wakes from a nightmare of past events with the klownz, getting up to grab herself a drink of water from her bathroom she remembers how she was attacked and panics. After calling Dave he comes to comfort her since he can understand what she has been through. Whilst comforting Debbie the door goes, so Dave goes to check it out leaving Debbie upstairs alone. Dave opens the door to see Mike, Debbies current boyfriend who gets annoyed that Dave is over. After a heated discussion between the two they hear a loud crashing noise from upstairs, so quickly rush up to find that Debbie is nowhere to be found and that there is cotton candy on the floor. Mike rushes to the window and looks in horror as he sees Debbie covered in candy floss and being dragged into a Klown car. Rushing down the stairs together mike and Dave jump into Daves police cruiser and follow in hot pursuit.

Middle: Whilst pursuing the klown car things get tricky at high speeds with other cars getting in the way causing Dave to drive recklessly. Dave pulls out his revolver and starts firing at the Klown Car.
“No you idiot you could hit Debbie” Mike shouts.
“Don’t worry I can handle this” Dave Replies. As the chase starts to turn in favour of Dave and Mike the Klown car suddenly drives off of the cliff and starts to fly, turning into a small aerial vehicle and heading towards the pier, the location where Debbie was taken first. Upon arrival at the pier the Klown car is nowhere to be seen, instead there is a fog that shrouds the pier in mystery. Dave and Mike on foot search the pier carefully, after no luck with finding Debbie or the klownz they eventually make it to the end of the pier where the old tent was a year ago. This is when it clicks to Dave that this must be where they have taken her, and they must be survivors from a year ago.

Ending: Entering the abandoned site of the old carnival tent Mike and Dave hear a sinister laughing sound. However that is not the concern, as Mike spots Debbie in a candy floss cocoon hanging from the sealing, rushing over and pulling her down. As soon as this happens however the door slams shut and the laughing intensifies. Dave pulls out his Shotgun and starts aiming in every direction, fearful of what was about to come out of the darkness that surrounded them in the abandoned. Out of the darkness walks slowly a Klown, Dave without thinking shoots at its nose but instead only hits a mirror, and that’s when they all realise. They have wandered into a trap, a room full of wacky mirrors. Freaking out Dave and Mike start to smash mirrors, not knowing where the klown is coming from. After smashing all mirrors Dave turns around to find a klown who shoots him with a candy floss gun and turns him into a pile of candy floss. Distraught Debbie passes out, however Mike sees the opportunity to save the day and grabs the shotgun and shoots the klown in his nose. As the klown dies he laughs once more, then turns into a pile of ash. The building collapses and Mike drags Debbie out saving her, but leaves the pile of candy floss that is Dave. Night time turns to morning and the police show up to the scene, after checking over Debbie they are both questioned about what happened and the disappearance of Dave, Mike explains what happened and then takes Debbie far away from that place. However they may have left the area, but the fear of a killer Klown will always haunt them both. 


Task 2:

Beginning

Old man gene gets killed when space clowns land when hes looking for his dog and investigating the crash site that he believes is going to make him rich. Theres a few couples at a 'makeout' point where they see the falling star  land. They go to investigate unknown as to whats there. Mike and Debbie go into the circus tent at the crash site to find its bizarre looking, he jokes about and they investigate. They find out it is a spaceship and that killer clowns are inside, after a chase they get shot with popcorn and then run away. The clowns start walking towards the town as mike and Debbie tell Dave the cop whats happening. Kurt, another cop, doesn't believe them and starts laughing at the situation, whereas clowns in the town start killing people.

Middle

The clowns are now killing people whenever they want in the town whilst Debbie goes home to shower. The tent has gone so cop Dave arrests mike on suspicion of wasting police time. As they drive back towards the town they realise that Dave was telling the truth, as makeout point has been attacked. Kurt the cop believes this all to be a lie and ignores all the calls from townsfoke. . Dave and mike witness a clown killing the people with a shadow and try to kill him but the clown escapes. Dave tells kurt whats happening, but he doesnt believe them. Mike meets up with the ice cream guys in order to warn people of whats happening, but they find it hard to believe him. Meanwhile at the police station Kurt gets attacked by a clown and sees what they can do. Dave gets back and searches the police station to find it out of power and covered in clown footprints. Dave kills one of the clowns by shooting its nose. Debbie gets attacked by  mini clowns and another clown that captures her.

End

Mike turns up to see them capturing her. A chase begins between clown car carrying debbie and the ice cream truck with mike and the boys. The clowns hideout at the amusement park, thats where mike dave and the boys are heading. They arrive at the amusement park to find a dead park guard and the clown car. The clowns turn on their tent at the amusement park. They go inside the tent to find a weird layout with smoke on the floor. The boys go missing, found to be with 2 female clowns (as a joke) and dave and mike go and search for debbie in the depths of the tent. Dave and Mike witness the clowns drinking the blood of the people they have caught, and turned into candy floss. Dave saves debbie. Mike dave and debbie get saved by the boys in the truck, however the sealing starts lighting up and a giant clown comes down from the ceiling. Dave stays behind to fight the giant clown to let the others escape. The tent begins to take off and fly away. Dave kills the giant clown with his badge blowing up the whole ship. Dave falls to earth in the clown car safe and sound.

Task 3

My game for the film will be adapted into a hide and seek type of game, with the objective being to find the female character who starts wandering off as soon as the game initiates. The issue however is that you are placed in a map that you cant see fully, so need to explore in order to find things. Along with this enemy clowns will be patrolling and once in a certain radius of you will engage you. By pressing space bar you will be able to swing at the clowns to defend yourself, each taking 1-2 hits in order to kill replicating the hitting of the nose from the film.

Main Character: 

Main Character Attack:

Female Character:

Enemies (Klownz)

Clowns Candy Floss Room

Forrest Room

Clown Tent Upon Entrance

Overview of the forest room

10 questions for wayne

Charlie Long

10 Questions

So what did you think of the assignments?

I enjoy the assignments, they give you a challenge but at the same time they are fun and allow you to learn as you go along.

How would you rate the assignments in terms of difficulty?  Look at them both, and just tell me which ones were easy, which ones were harder.  Or were they both easy or both hard? if so, can you give me an example of a subject you’ve learnt? 

The assignments presented different challenges, i found the assignments i first did to be harder than the last few as by the time i was creating space invaders and the maze game i had become much better with using software such as game maker, so therefore i found it easier.
For 3 in one gaming you did 2 games .. (so answer two out of the following three questions)

In the platform game, name one thing you learned during its development.  

I learnt how to use drag and drop to create a game, also to create a game using a brief thats been given. In the maze game name one thing you learned during this assignment.

I learnt how to code for games, i studied various methods of how to make the character move in an animated style, using phy_position in order to code it. All this i learnt whilst doing this course.

Right, here’s a slightly off the wall one:  did you learn any maths during this experience?  These assignments?

I did not learn any maths since i have done full GCSE but i did use maths multiple times in coding processes and for the creation of my Maze game.
Do you think you gained any maths when you did any puzzles for the maze game? 

Yes as i hadn't done maths for a while, so making this game required me doing more maths again which i almost re learnt whilst doing the game.
How do you rate your maths?  Give us a scale, are you good?  
What GCSE grade have you got etc?

Out of 10, i would say around 8 as i can think quickly and work out sums and other areas of maths such as fractions quick too. I got a C at GCSE level.
How hard did you find the maths during these assignments?

Not too hard at all, it is relatively simple with only a few times being confused, but always resulting in an answer.
Do you think your opinion’s towards maths has changed?

A little, i now understand that maths is more transferable and needed much more in daily life than i previously thought, especially in game design.

Btec Extended Diploma in Games Development Unit 73 Sound For Computer games

Charlie long 111659

Btec Extended Diploma in Games Development
Unit 73 Sound For Computer games

Plan

- footsteps

- door sound handle

- elevator noise

- key pressing

- door closing noise

- enemy noise

- Main theme

- bumping into solid objects sound

Create 4-5 stereo sounds which are high quality using a shotgun mic. I will be saving the files as mp3 files as they are going to be used on a small platform game and not a console, therefore file size matters and mp3 is a compressed file which has a low file size.

https://youtu.be/HeOvUghSvjU - proof

 Here you can see the sounds saved as mp3 format sounds. This was so that the files were small enough to be added to the game with ease, and to also save space on my harddrive. The issue with this however is that analogue sounds have been compressed meaning it has lost some quality.

Here you can see me adding sounds to my objects in the game, more specifically me adding the door sound when the player collides with the basement door at the end of level 1.

Here I am adding the elevator sound to the player object.

 Here i have created a controller object which has no physical presence, however upon its creation in the room it is set to play the main theme as shown here.

Here you can see the two screenshots of my main theme which i created by editing various soundpools that i found on a music creating software in order to create my own theme.

Here you can see the raw audio in which i condensed down so it wasnt so long, and also made it stereo allowing it to be heard in both ears through two audio channels.

Evaluation

In evaluation i believe all of the sounds retained their high quality, which was mainly due to the microphone i used which was the shotgun mic. I encountered issues at first with turning some of the tracks from mono to stereo, however audacity has an inbuilt function for that and it wasn't hard to use. As for improving on any of the sounds i would of liked to add more sounds, maybe the sound of enemy characters. As for the backing song in which i added i am happy with how it turned out, it creates an atmosphere of urgency, which i wanted to player to feel. I believe i stuck to my plan well, using the shotgun mic in order to record and creating most of the sounds i had chosen to create, however i do aim to create all the sounds for a final product instead of only a few. My favorite sound was the door sound, which was used at the end of level 1 to transition into the second room. My inspiration from this was the game pokemon, which had used sounds such as a door closing to signify the movement of the character from one level/room to another, this allowing the player to understand what happened. This worked well for my game, and i was glad that it worked. Another improvement i would of made would be to lower the decibels of my main theme, which is a little too loud and can end up drowning out the other sounds, however this only seems to be the case for the keyboard sound on level 2 or the elevator sound on level 2. In conclusion my sounds did well to fit the game, and work well at immersing the player into the game.

space invaders documentation

Space Invaders Documentation - Charlie Long 111659

Here is the plan I for the game, you can see the main player at the bottom which is supposed to be godzilla, then with the enemies at the top which are tanks. i decided to use this as my concept for the game after i had watched the newest godzilla film.

https://youtu.be/Qdlc2MEBppk - video documentation/walkthrough

Regan review - I think the game has a good concept and I like the idea, it could be improved by giving the player lives instead of dying instantly.

Sam Review - i think the game is good the idea is good but i think it could be made easier and it would be good to have lives or health.

BrainBox Documentation

Brain Box Documentation - Charlie Long 111659

Video Link - https://youtu.be/49dpbSbmKzI

Dads Review - Game works well and immerses the player to the game well, could of added a story screen so that it was clear what was going on, however besides that point it was a good game.

Sister Review - I enjoyed the easy controls and how well the 'hacking' level worked as a good challenge in order to get to the next level. The levels could be made harder, and have more levels to keep the players entertained more.