Final Major Project

Ok, so we've got to hand in a draft of our project proposal this coming monday, and from then on its all work towards the end of year show. I had a few initial ideas, namely a Resident evil style horror game using third person fixed camera angles and the like. While I was messing around with this idea, I did, with

the help of 3DBuzz, manage to figure out how to have multiple fixed cameras that would change dependant on the player position, all done in Kismet. A screeny is posted after the jump. Ultimately however, this idea was not what I felt would really show of all my skills. As a result, I've settled on Creating a game in the vein of "Loaded" and "Re-Loaded". As a result of this, it has taken me the better part of a week, amalgamating countless tutorials together in big pot confusion just to be able to figure out how to get a custom character into Unreal. More after the jump.


It Involves a very confusing Rigging process in 3dsMax, and lots of messing about with several .ini files. Until we go back to college I'm unsure if I can edit or even get access to these config files, due the college's network setup. So far, all I've done is a basic test character, made out of boxes and with placeholder textures.
Fortunately, by Epic offering up the base models for 4 of the different character types, I can model around the provided skeleton, rig it, and all the animations will (or should) transfer straight over onto my character. This is helpful because I've got alot to do, and creating all new animations would require a good few weeks that I don't have. Changing Weapon properties like fire speed and damage done is a simple matter of changing a few numbers in some different .ini files. Getting the top Down view I need that tracks onto the player is easy, in fact it was the basis of the kismet for this that helped me get the angles for the Resident Evil Idea. Still a long way to go though;

-Create my Final Character, Complete with Textures and Normal Maps (possibly)
-Figure Out how to Change the meshes and animations on the Weapons, OR create new weapon classes entirely
-Change the HUD
-Custom Meshes for ammo, weapon Factories etc.
-ALL Level Assets
-Changing the way unreal handles aiming (at the moment it fires in the center of the view, which results in shooting the floor)
-Meshes for Bots
-Changing Bot Behaviour (the play it like a deathmatch at the moment, killing each other, I need them to focus on the player only)
-Possibility of Porting to PS3?
-Some other things I've probably forgotten, watch this space.


The Kismet Showing the custom third person camera Angles and how they are done in Kismet. (Right Click, View Image for full size)






The Custom Test Character in the unreal character selection screen. It has to be Imported in parts, such as arms, legs and torso. (Right Click, View Image for full size)

Read the rest of this entry...

St. Basil's and the Unreal Editor

So we've been at college for exactly a week now, a despite a rocky start, were now stuck into two new units; 3D Environments and Game Engines, both of which can be fully realised on brand new quad core SLI computers.
The 3D environment brief has us ultimately making either a scene in 3dsMAX, with a video fly-by, or a interactive Unreal level. This has large crossovers with the game engines unit, which we started today, but will not receive a brief for until next week. In the meantime however, I have started modelling St. Basil's cathedral for the 3D environments unit (the big, colourful multiple domed thing right next to the Kremlin), as my original thought of a pagoda was shot down in flames after I learned Mark was doing something similar.
For today though, we concentrated entirely on the game engines unit, and from now on, I shall be updating this blog much more frequently than last year, so as to help me keep a record of my progress to help with end-of-unit write ups. Today's happenings after the jump.

The first half of the day we spent about an hour doing our environment work, while Shaun set up the shared drive and the resources we needed. After that, Shaun had arranged a guest speaker from NC-Soft, a QA games tester he had teached to use the Unreal engine over the summer. It was interesting to get his perspective on the industry, and obtain some first hand knowledge of one route into the industry (despite not being multi-lingual or having any qualifications), and how to progress up the ladder from an entry level position.
After that, we lunched, then got stuck into the Unreal Editor via some video tutorials. The editor its self is the the old 2.0 version, and the educational license, so bugs are abound (in particular an annoying saving one). Despite this, I found the tutorials easy to follow and a great help to me. I got quite far in the tutorials, in front of many others in the class, and I hope to complete that section by the end of our next session.
The Unreal engine treats the entire world as solid, so to create a room, you make a wire-frame box and 'subtract' it from the game world, creating a room. From there I proceeded to texture and light the room, learn navigation controls, as well as modify and delete aspects of the world that I had created. This was all fine and I had no trouble with it at all, but from then on, things got a little more complicated.
Next up in the tutorials was adding to the world via subtraction, which was similar to creating the original room, but focused more on replicating the brushes and moving subtracted elements. After that came adding to the world via addition, which is extremely similar to creating the room, but instead you 'add' to empty space you have created by subtracting from the solid game world in the first place. That sounds a lot more complicated that it is, but once I got my head around it it became surprisingly simple.
Following that came stair creation, which was deceptively simple. There's numerous options and limits (like a 45 step maximum per flight) and you have to do some actual maths (Gasp!) to work out your individual step height and the number of steps for how high you need to go.
Afterwards came placing static meshes in the scene, which caused no problems, and was very simple to do.
The trouble came next, by creating a static mesh from scratch (made more difficult by that every present saving bug, something we think is down the the college's horrible network setup, in which the unreal editor doesn't like saving to a hard drive that isn't in the computer, but instead is located on the other end of a network cable). The idea in the tutorial was to set up the beginnings of a lift, and as a lift moves, it has to be a static mesh, not a subtracted or addition element. I did it in the end though.
I only got part way through the next tutorial, which setting up the static mesh as a 'mover' so that it would function as a lift. It seems simple enough, such as setting at start position, an end position, the time it takes to rise and fall, how to activate and how long before it descends again. I just managed to get through to to testing the lift before we had to leave for the day, and it work fine, except for one bug. The lift worked and functioned like I'd set it up to, but it was invisible (!?). I talked to Bod about it, apparently he'd had the same issue, static meshes as movers not displaying. He's used the engine before though, and I'm confident he'll come up with a fix (hint hint).
If I remember to stick the files on my memory stick, tomorrow I'll upload some pictures of the tutorial level progress and the current state of the Cathedral.

Read the rest of this entry...

Long time, No Post

Ok, so summer is almost at an end, and still no word about grades from last year which is a bummer (also, when do we start again?!?).
Over the holiday, aside from going out ALOT (huzzah for no early mornings!) and working, ive been working on my drawing and general graphics skills, and trying my hand at some more advanced modelling. I'm fairly pleased with the results, having already filled two awesome Moleskine books, and a sizeable portion of my harddrive.
In Addition, ive managed to catch up on all my gaming. This effort will of course all be wasted, what with practically every game worth its weight released in the next few months.
In related news, i've also had a nice tax refund, so that going on a new Nehalem DDR3 system when Intel gets their act sorted.
Anyway, i thought i better get a post in to seperate next year from last year.

EDIT:

Oh yeah, completely forgot to metion Uni courses. I've a good hard look, and (if i do apply) i will probably go for something along the lines of Games Technology and Computer Science. Brighton seems to have a pretty decent course including a sandwhich year, but then again Kingston has a very nice alternative (Computer Science With Games). While I'd love to go to uni, I'm not sure it the wisest choice, as many degrees are outdated by the time you graduate, so maybe (if its achieveable) ill try and get a job straight out. Then again, going to uni purely for the sandwhich year would help...

Read the rest of this entry...

Statement of Intent

I am going to look at the effect of in game advertisements and advergames on the consumer and developer.

I will do this by
•Researching current spending
•Researching current trends
•Researching new technologies in use
•Research the beginnings of IGA

Read the rest of this entry...

Xbox Review Summary

As part of the critical approaches unit, we have had to summarise and compare two reviews of the Xbox 360 Console.
Hit the jump for summary and the two original reviews.

---

Review 1

Microsoft - Xbox 360 review
High-powered games console (06/12/2005)
IT Reviews
Taken from: http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h852.htm

Blurring the lines between computing and console gaming more than ever, the Xbox 360 is far more than a games machine. Some may cynically observe that it's a device that's allowed Microsoft to bring all manner of non-gaming, Microsoft-branded services and media functions into the living room (replete with tie-ins to Windows Media Center Edition and XP, naturally), but there's still no denying it's a capable beast.
Initial observations are that it's slightly smaller than the original Xbox, and heavier. The huge power pack takes us back to the days of the Spectrum +3 - and then some! - and the controller is far better than it looked on paper.
We should point out that it's the Full edition we're looking at here, replete with in-built 20GB hard drive and wireless controller. A 'Core' edition is available without these and a couple of other items for £70 less. There doesn't seem much point in opting for that, though, as a hard drive is pretty much a necessity here. That said, you can add a drive later, and with the various USB ports there's significant upgrade potential.
After a solid weekend with the machine, several pros and cons emerge. Certainly the power packed inside is immense: Call of Duty 2 was playing easily as well on the Xbox 360 as it had done on our test PC the week before, and looking the business too.
We'd also managed, with consummate ease, to get the Xbox 360 connected to a network. We tried both wired and wireless connections and in both cases we were up, running and taking advantage of a shared broadband connection in little time at all.
And that sums the Xbox 360 up to an extent. The things it does well, it does exceptionally well. Its interface is clean, it's as simple as you'd expect to set up, and we even managed to buy and download a small game from Xbox Live Arcade in a matter of minutes. Smashing stuff.
Sadly, our boxed review copy of Project Gotham Racing 3 exposed a flaw or two. Namely, the machine kept crashing. Now we couldn't replicate the Web-reported cases of the machine overheating (although given the cooling system inside, we were inclined to give the machine a little space), but when a launch title crashed four times in the first hour after being taken from a previously shrink-wrapped box, we weren't impressed.
In fact the launch line-up looked better on paper than it appears in reality. Perfect Dark Zero was a slight disappointment, Kameo we didn't warm to at all, and ironically it was a PC game that we'd played the month before that we enjoyed the most. That said, in spite of the hype, it's rarely the launch line-up that defines a console, and we expect lots of better games in 2006.
Other mild grumbles? We can see that 20GB hard disk filling up quickly for anyone who uses the online functions, and we wonder long term whether a DVD drive will be ample (perhaps Microsoft is looking for upgrade sales there). And it would be nice if a console manufacturer could one day make enough units to satisfy demand from the start.
Yet the Xbox 360 is a strong and important console, with plenty up its sleeve. Clearly technically superior to the Xbox and PS2, its real challenge is still cloaked in a degree of secrecy, with Sony's PS3 still months away at the time of writing. Thus we can only conclude that in the Xbox 360, Microsoft has delivered an astonishingly competent machine at a price that - if you tried to replicate the technology in a PC - looks an absolute bargain.
Now if you'll excuse us, it's Call Of Duty 2 time again...

---

Review 2

Xbox 360 Review
Paul Thurrott
November 8-22, 2005

Taken from Winsupersite: http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/xbox360.asp

Like a child on Christmas morning, I greeted the arrival of Xbox 360 in my home as a magical and unforgettable moment. The day was the culmination of 30 years of video gaming, from my earliest experiences with video arcade titles like "Pong" and "Space Invaders" to the recently completed "Quake 4," which I played at 1920 x 1200 resolution on my hopped-up PC gaming rig. Between these events, I've logged uncountable hours gaming. There was my first video game system, the Mattel Intellivision, with its amazing sports titles and quirky controllers, the Commodore 64 with hundreds of arcade, action, and flight simulator games. There was the Apple IIGS, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and, yes, the Amiga, with the majesty of "Shadow of the Beast," "Wings," "Defender of the Crown," and so much more. Id software's "Castle Wolfenstein" proved that PC gaming was viable in the early 1990's, and I've spent much of the time since slogging through id-created and -inspired shooters such as "DOOM," "Quake," "Unreal Tournament," and "Call of Duty." And of course, I've logged numerous hours on the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PSP, and Nintendo GameBoy Advance and DS, as well as various retro game systems like the Atari 2600, 7800, and Jaguar, Nintendo 64, and Sega Dreamcast. If it's a video game, I've probably played it.
But the Xbox 360. My God, the Xbox 360. Let's be frank for a moment, shall we? As good as its predecessor was--and still is--Xbox 360 is the holy grail of video gaming. It supplies HDTV resolutions with video-quality graphics. Surround sound. A triple-core Power PC processor. I mean, seriously: A CPU with three dedicated processing cores. All wrapped up in an elegant white and gray case and accessed via wireless controllers. Nerdvana in a box. That's Xbox 360.
I've spent a good part of this year figuring out how I would cover the Xbox 360. I knew that I could make a logical argument that the device's Media Center Extender (MCX) features would merit at least some coverage on the SuperSite for Windows. But really, the decision to go all out and treat Xbox 360 as an equal to Windows, Windows Server, and Office on this site was an emotional, almost religious decision. Xbox 360 is going to change the world, I think, in the sense that it will legitimize video games as a top-tier entertainment experience. And I can't leave it to the bozo video game sites to communicate why that's the case. Too much of the video game-related content out there reads like it's aimed at children, with annoying pseudo-cool language. I can do video games right, I thought, something that adults would like. So I'm giving it a shot.
And here we are. With the official launch of the Xbox 360 upon us, Microsoft has given me permission to start publishing reviews and other information about the shipping version of Xbox 360, its peripherals, and software. My first major effort is this product review, which primarily covers the Xbox 360 console itself, but also touches on the various accessories and games that are available at launch. In the coming days, I'll have a massive wave of additional content that will delve more deeply into the games and other products that out in support of Xbox 360. But this is my love letter to you, the video game fan. I'm serious about Xbox 360, and will remain so throughout its life time. So grab something hot to drink and settle in, because we have a lot of ground to cover.

---

My Summary

Review 1 gives both the good and bad points of the xbox360,, taking into account its multimedia capabilities and improvements over the original. The second review however seems only to praise the xbox360 as the be all and end all of computer gaming.
In review one, useful information such as price and SKU’s are considered, along with ease of use and setup. However, the bad points are also considered, such as machine crashes “…, the machine kept crashing…”, game line-up and Hard drive space. The review sums up the xbox360 as and improvement over previous generations “…Clearly technically superior to the Xbox and PS2…”, but makes the point of Sony’s PS3 having not been released yet as its main competitor “…Sony's PS3 still months away…”.
In review two, the reviewer only talks about the xbox360 as the ultimate gaming experience …” But the Xbox 360. My God, the Xbox 360…”, comparing to everything he’s ever played, “…I've logged numerous hours on the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PSP, and Nintendo GameBoy Advance and DS…”. Pointing out all of its good features and hyping them into obscurity, without considering any of its downsides.
In summary, Review one is fair and balanced, while review two is biased and inaccurate in places.

Read the rest of this entry...

Advertising for the Female Gender

Second part of that advertising research, focusing on females advertising. Hit the jump for the advertising goodness. Hit the titles for links. Boris Johnson unrelated, but awesome none the less.

Herbal Essences "Intensive Blends" Print

This herbal essences advert, promoting a new 'flavour' (for lack of a better word) is clearly aimed towards women as it uses the tagline - "Until now, you've only fantasized about it being this intense". This is a pun on female orgasms in reference to the enjoyment of washing your hair (!?).





Diet Coke Hunk 2008

Keeping in theme with their famous advertising of years gone by, diet coke have released a new advert featuring another hunk and aiming at fashion and diet conscious women (In response to declining sales for men the Coca-Cola company released Coke Zero).

Aero Chocolate Hunk 2008

In the vein as the diet coke advert, this Aero advert uses an attractive male to appeal to women.

Sheila's Wheels Advert

The product is aimed towards women but the advert is just plain annoying according to EVERYONE i know. But still, its pink.

Dove "Beauty has no age limit" campaign

A little to big to embed and shrink so hit the link for it. It is and advert aimed towards all women, be it old or young.

Read the rest of this entry...

Animating a City

As part of the video production unit, i've moddeled and animated a camera zooming in on and traveling around a city. I had a few problems doing this, mainly with lighting which has been left largely untouched in tutor sessions, so i took me a while to nail it. I'm pleased with the result though, and thanks go to Mark, Bod and Whyte for their expertise.
I'm going to use this as part of my music video, when i get round to filming the live action parts then i can get properly stuck into it. This is of course in between playing copious amounts of GTA4 and going out doing damage to my liver. Hoorah!
Also, still need to get round to finding a host...

Read the rest of this entry...