Games Portfolio - Journal (Week 9) - 3D Model Creation

Project Journal - Week 9

Project activity for the week of 20/04/09 (Week 9):

This week I spent my time with Supreme Commander attempting to produce work in the map editor and in 3Ds Max. More final models were worked on for the completed product to be handed in 3 weeks from now. With such little time left, me and most other class mates are still very unsure how to utilise many of the features in Supreme Commander, such as getting models and characters to animate and successfully creating camera paths etc.

In the lesson this week I spent my time wisely attempting to complete my final terrain in University due to the editor not working back at home. Now roughly half complete, I hope to have the map entirely finished next week by spending as much time in University as possible.

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Easter Break - Work Overview

During the two weeks for Easter, several pieces of work must be completed.

Currently, Games Design 2's 'Game Mechanic Article' has been completed on my part with several thousand words being written on four different gameplay mechanics. The mechanics I chose to discuss were 'Dual Wielding', 'Grenades', 'Shield Regeneration' and 'Turrets', all of which are in the context of the game 'Halo 3' on the Xbox 360.

Team Project work has also been completed, with the Progress Report now half-finished, the Games Design Document in its final state and the final level build itself started. Hopefully, more progress on the level build will take place during next week.

Research regarding the final assignment for Games Design 2 has also begun, with more being added to the research report next week. Examples of subjects discussed in the report consist of how existing levels in the chosen title (Half Life 2) are laid out, how they work alongside the story and other environments, what's found inside the levels, how often enemies spawn and how difficult it is for the player to reach the goal. Ideas for our own expansion level and Visio Diagrams of the existing levels will also be produced and include in this report.

Games Portfolio - Journal (Week 8) - Existing Levels

Project Journal - Week 8

Project activity for the week of 30/03/09 (Week 8):

This week I spent my time with Supreme Commander playing though stages of the main campaign mode and analysing how the single player and multiplayer maps are built. Whilst most seem rather simply made, the terrain constantly remains interesting in terms of obstacles and items and in multiplayer they always remain balanced with the maximum amount of armies allowed to battle on that particular map always kept in mind.

The lesson this week was cancelled due to a lecture taking place in the games lab. An email from the office however suggests we keep checking our mail inbox during Easter for some work from the lecturers. Despite this however I attempted to begin work on my Supreme Commander map, although came across a major problem with the Supreme Commander GPGNet software. Unable to access the GPGNet 'Vault' due to it not loading, me and the majority of other students on the module could not download the Map Editor to produce terrain on computers at home. All other versions of the Supreme Commander Map Editor downloadable from the Internet crash upon creating a new Map.

During Easter, I hope to solve this problem with the map editor and begin work producing my final map ready for showing off at the end of the unit.

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Games Portfolio - Journal (Week 7) - Cameras

Project Journal - Week 7

Project activity for the week of 23/03/09 (Week 7):

This week, not much work was spent on the Supreme Commander project outside of lesson time. With many other project deadlines for other subjects drawing near, priority was key with assignments such as the Team Project Presentation and the Games Design 2 Research Assignment to be handed in the same week.

During lesson we spent our two hours working with Cameras in the Supreme Commander engine. Adding in cameras to the map allowed us to perform a variety of things, whether it be dynamic panning of units or to give players more movie style effects for some in-game machinima.

The Cameras were added in by first changing the .lua script file for the map at hand, of which are:

"local ScenarioUtils = import('/lua/sim/ScenarioUtilities.lua')
function OnPopulate()
ScenarioUtils.InitializeArmies()
end

function OnStart(self)
end"

Before this however, all entries found in the official map editor tutorial of the Supreme Commander Wiki must be entered for the map to run. Next, the map editor is opened and a variety of tools can be used to insert the cameras into the level. The "CameraStart" and "CameraEnd" markers create a path for the cameras to follow, with them moving from one marker to the other. It's possible for the cameras to also focus on armies by creating a small set of script and linking the cameras to the "InitilizeArmies" markers. All of the items taught in lesson were recorded onto paper and printed out for later use, something that's to be of great aid during the production of my final mod.

For next week, I will hope to work more with cameras and create some dynamic video footage in the Supreme Commander engine.

To see all posts concerning this unit, click the 'Games Portfolio' tag below. To see all project journals, click the 'Journal' tag.

Games Portfolio - Journal (Week 6) - Modelling

Project Journal - Week 6

Project activity for the week of 16/03/09 (Week 6):

This week I worked mostly in 3Ds Max, tweaking my skills and getting once again used to using the tool set. For my final product, I hope to use 3Ds Max to create two units for players to use in-game, with both low and high polygon count versions imported. The high polygon model will be used for when the camera pans close to the units, while the low one for when the camera pans out. This is done to preserve CPU usage in computers, taking much less power to render tens of low polygon models on screen than high ones. 3Ds Max plays a vital role in the production of my project, therefore it's best to become used to working with the program before the final models are produced.

During lesson time this week we were told how to run the PC performance check for Supreme Commander. This allowed us to watch a pre-fought battle programmed into the game and test out if the machine playing the game at hand could run it efficiently. Although I couldn't really see how this could help our project in any way, it'll be interesting to see the pre-recorded match using our own units and map to see how PC efficient it all is.

For next week, I will hope to get more 3D Models finished ready for the final product.

To see all posts concerning this unit, click the 'Games Portfolio' tag below. To see all project journals, click the 'Journal' tag.

Games Portfolio - Journal (Week 5) - Research

Project Journal - Week 5

Project activity for the week of 09/03/09 (Week 5):

This week I spent most of my time conducting research into how the development process of my assignment can be undertaken. Searching various resources online, I posted up an article earlier in the week explaining what tutorials I found and how I am to import 3D Models and SupCom Edited maps into the tool set. You can read the article here.

During lesson time this week we started playing with the debug option in the Supreme Commander tool set. To access debug, the Supreme Commander .LUA file had to be edited, and cheats enabled in the options menu. Debug allows users to place down any object available in the game at any time they desire, also including any custom made models. We were taught how to mod the engine using 'Shadow' folders, editing the Supreme Commander system files to add our own edits into the game.

For next week, I hope to put research learnt into practise and import some models into Supreme Commander. Hopefully, I will also be able to figure out how to create and import animations for those models also.

To see all posts concerning this unit, click the 'Games Portfolio' tag below. To see all project journals, click the 'Journal' tag.

Games Portfolio - Model and Terrain Development

Model and Terrain Development Overview

For our final assignment, we are expected as individuals to create and import our own 3D Models into the Supreme Commander Tool Set, producing and shaping our own terrain. Before this development process can take place however, research must be conducted as to how these 3D Models are created and imported, and how the SupCom Map Editor works.

When creating models for Supreme Commander, several different programs will need to be utilised. Firstly, custom units are produced in 3D Editing Software such as 3Ds Max or Maya. These models will need to be fully textured and exported as .MDL files, ready to be transferred into Supreme Commander.

When finally importing models into Supreme Commander, a 'Model Importer' can be downloaded from the Internet and used to transfer custom models into the game files. The importer has been made available from here and allows users to import saved models created in 3Ds Max or Maya, and then simply export them into the game.

Terrain creation for Supreme Commander can all be taken place inside the official SupCom Map Editor, of which is available here. The map editor allows users to build up terrain, place in scenery such as trees and lakes, and paint the areas with a series of different textures.

The following links give some very useful tutorials when attempting to use the SupCom Map Editor:

http://supcom.wikia.com/wiki/Official_map_editor_tutorial

http://www.supcomtalk.com/2007/06/11/official-map-editor-released/

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Games Portfolio - Journal (Week 4) - Final Pitch Video

Project Journal - Week 4

Project activity for the week of 02/03/09 (Week 4):

This week I spent most of my time finalising my project pitch video, of which was handed in to the University office Thursday. My pitch ended up at 2:50 minutes long and consisted of images, sound and descriptions of ideas. Unfortunately, I could not gather the appropriate equipment to add a voice over, however will take this into account and make sure to get it for future works on the project. You can view my final project pitch video online below.

Click the link below to be taken to the video!

http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/technology_and_gaming/watch/v18122284n8zTkzjc

During lesson time this week we worked through several Photoshop tutorials. These tutorials taught us how to create, colour and apply textures to a 3D virtual model using Photoshop and 3Ds Max. Using these tools, we created masks in Photoshop, used the paint tool to add colour, text tool to add wording and applied these textures to a gas canister, of which was all done in 3Ds Max. These tutorials are to be useful for us in the future, with us creating models for our project in 3Ds Max and texturing them with the aid of Photoshop.

For next week, I plan on spending some time researching Supreme Commander. I hope to learn how models are imported and created, what is involved when creating a Supreme Commander map and what it's like to get to grips with the scripting language. All of this research will be posted up on the blog next weekend along with a sum up in the project journal. This is all in preparation of practical work, of which will be beginning in week 6.

To see all posts concerning this unit, click the 'Games Portfolio' tag below. To see all project journals, click the 'Journal' tag.