Friday, 18 December 2009
Cargo Station: First post 18/12/09
Since the assignment was given the group has co-ordinated reasonably well with the odd exception which was ultimately out of that person's control, however everyone contributed to some degree.The work ethic was good and the amount / quality of work was also good, hopefully this ethic will continue over the Christmas holidays and on through to the end of the semester.The group has been together for past group assignments and the end product as always been of satisfactory quality, all team members contributed well, our time keeping is good.On the whole we work well as a team, we always do and as such we pour all our effort into our assignments to hopefully achieve optimal marks and as such are optimistic about this new assignment.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Shuttle Craft Hangar Cinematic Sequence
Planning Phase
We started this assignment with a multitude of ideas, varying in styles, themes, pacing and action. We knew that the camera work wasn’t going to be any problem as our first assignment prepared us well for the task at hand but as we discovered, there was a severe lack of suitable cinematic animations to use for our sequences which stifled some of our first designs.
After exploring all the different character meshes and animation sequences we knew our limitations and proceeded to research into professional game trailers. Observing the techniques employed in game trailers allowed us to better plan our sequences, sketching the storyboards, preparing Visio plans and finalise the design phase.
Construction of Sets
With the basic layout planned our aim was to construct the level in a similar fashion to a movie set, having multiple versions of the same location made the creation of sequences a breeze but before any of the detailing went into the level we created the basic geometry wherein our matinee sequences would take place, allowing for simultaneous work on both the level creation and animation pieces.
The downfall to having multiple iterations of the same areas were that in order to clone the location, every single brush and static mesh had to be selected, which is an irritating process as the editor tends to break down if you require a restoration point.
Compiling the Matinee Sequences
Following the storyboards that depicted the events we needed to create made most of the scenes very easy and quick to produce. There were a few issues regarding the sentry guns and the finale but the rest was a fairly comfortable experience due to previous experience with camera pathing and AI scripting.
Issues Encountered
The first issue we encountered was our sentry gun scene; the level editor game rules are set for standard death-match, which prohibits the use of vehicles and sentry guns. In order to overcome this problem required the use of a script we found whilst researching how to solve the issue, unfortunately the presence of the sentry guns in the level was only the beginning of the problem.
We were unable to command the sentry guns to fire via script and they wouldn’t fire upon AI controller assigned pawns. Not wanting to waste too much time on a sequence that would only last fifteen seconds at most, we replaced the AI controller pawns with bots. The bots were held up in small rooms until a trigger condition was met which would open the doors allowing the bots to follow the path nodes and for the sentry guns to open fire, fulfilling the scene requirements.
Another issue encountered was the inability to trigger music by means of an AI script; the option is there however when testing the feature the music failed to play. Being unable to trigger music once the level has been fully loaded presented us with a de-synchronisation issue between picture and sound, largely depending how quickly the machine loads the game. We tried to combat the issue by placing a ten second delay on both the game and music, which seemed to work the majority of the time.
What would we do differently?
I believe the most disappointing element of our work is the sound effects, tried as we did to solve the issues it would have been a far better outcome had the sounds been trigged in-game and setup in a manner that suits the sequences. Given as most sound effects in game trailers are a combination of in-game and video/sound editing I think that our piece of work turned out well but there is certainly room for improvement.
We started this assignment with a multitude of ideas, varying in styles, themes, pacing and action. We knew that the camera work wasn’t going to be any problem as our first assignment prepared us well for the task at hand but as we discovered, there was a severe lack of suitable cinematic animations to use for our sequences which stifled some of our first designs.
After exploring all the different character meshes and animation sequences we knew our limitations and proceeded to research into professional game trailers. Observing the techniques employed in game trailers allowed us to better plan our sequences, sketching the storyboards, preparing Visio plans and finalise the design phase.
Construction of Sets
With the basic layout planned our aim was to construct the level in a similar fashion to a movie set, having multiple versions of the same location made the creation of sequences a breeze but before any of the detailing went into the level we created the basic geometry wherein our matinee sequences would take place, allowing for simultaneous work on both the level creation and animation pieces.
The downfall to having multiple iterations of the same areas were that in order to clone the location, every single brush and static mesh had to be selected, which is an irritating process as the editor tends to break down if you require a restoration point.
Compiling the Matinee Sequences
Following the storyboards that depicted the events we needed to create made most of the scenes very easy and quick to produce. There were a few issues regarding the sentry guns and the finale but the rest was a fairly comfortable experience due to previous experience with camera pathing and AI scripting.
Issues Encountered
The first issue we encountered was our sentry gun scene; the level editor game rules are set for standard death-match, which prohibits the use of vehicles and sentry guns. In order to overcome this problem required the use of a script we found whilst researching how to solve the issue, unfortunately the presence of the sentry guns in the level was only the beginning of the problem.
We were unable to command the sentry guns to fire via script and they wouldn’t fire upon AI controller assigned pawns. Not wanting to waste too much time on a sequence that would only last fifteen seconds at most, we replaced the AI controller pawns with bots. The bots were held up in small rooms until a trigger condition was met which would open the doors allowing the bots to follow the path nodes and for the sentry guns to open fire, fulfilling the scene requirements.
Another issue encountered was the inability to trigger music by means of an AI script; the option is there however when testing the feature the music failed to play. Being unable to trigger music once the level has been fully loaded presented us with a de-synchronisation issue between picture and sound, largely depending how quickly the machine loads the game. We tried to combat the issue by placing a ten second delay on both the game and music, which seemed to work the majority of the time.
What would we do differently?
I believe the most disappointing element of our work is the sound effects, tried as we did to solve the issues it would have been a far better outcome had the sounds been trigged in-game and setup in a manner that suits the sequences. Given as most sound effects in game trailers are a combination of in-game and video/sound editing I think that our piece of work turned out well but there is certainly room for improvement.
Friday, 23 October 2009
Task 1 - Basic Matinee Sequence
Task Introduction
It was the first assignment of the new semester for Games Scripting two. The assignment required a custom level to be constructed in UT2004, a game engine that regrettably I’ve not used since a long summer and a semester ago. The level had to take on the similarity of a museum or at least give the audience the feeling of a museum.
Initial plan
Before any practical work took place I had the idea of a walk-in museum, where each room would represent the era of the featured displays within that space. Knowing that there were certain limitations with this project, such as time and the types of static meshes available, enabled me to have a good mental image of the result I wished to achieve without the need for detailed plans, further more because the level is purely to facilitate the single matinee sequence.
Map creation
Aware that it had been awhile since I last constructed a level in UT2004, I began with small steps, simple rooms with the intention of adding the detail via static meshes and building into the confined space with geometry.
I came across several static meshes that depicted certain themes, far Eastern and Egyptian, along with the obvious futuristic models. From that stage I had essentially three rooms to fill with themed objects and displays. More room was given to the Egyptian zone due to the superior number of static meshes within UT2004 and because I wanted to retain a believable scale.
There were no issues with creating the actual rooms however, due to using a vast amount of static meshes to decorate the rooms, left very few unique items to display, as a typical museum would.
The lack of unique static meshes available proved a problem for this assignment as it would be difficult to persuade the audience that the environment is a museum of sorts without feature displays. To combat the issue I reduced the amount of decorative statics within some of the zones, converting them to exhibits, aiding the overall image of the level.
Matinee creation
After creating a rough run-through of the level, using various techniques and timings I adapted quickly to the procedures involved. Utilising the knowledge I had on matinee sequencing in UT2004 I managed to create a sequence that I was pleased with and used for my final piece.
Conclusion
Upon reflection there are parts that I would like to add/change, I believe that’ll always be the case with level creation. For example, I could/should have had more signage to help convoy the look of a museum. I should have added an entrance which would have provided an ideal starting location for the first camera sequence. Alternatively I could have converted the camera into a character (surveillance cameras, floating recorder, security guard), anything that would have given the matinee sequence more significance. Adding more displays to the level would have improved the project too.
In the end, I am satisfied with the outcome and it has been a good way of re-familiarising myself with the toolset, so future projects can be completed quicker and with more planning.
It was the first assignment of the new semester for Games Scripting two. The assignment required a custom level to be constructed in UT2004, a game engine that regrettably I’ve not used since a long summer and a semester ago. The level had to take on the similarity of a museum or at least give the audience the feeling of a museum.
Initial plan
Before any practical work took place I had the idea of a walk-in museum, where each room would represent the era of the featured displays within that space. Knowing that there were certain limitations with this project, such as time and the types of static meshes available, enabled me to have a good mental image of the result I wished to achieve without the need for detailed plans, further more because the level is purely to facilitate the single matinee sequence.
Map creation
Aware that it had been awhile since I last constructed a level in UT2004, I began with small steps, simple rooms with the intention of adding the detail via static meshes and building into the confined space with geometry.
I came across several static meshes that depicted certain themes, far Eastern and Egyptian, along with the obvious futuristic models. From that stage I had essentially three rooms to fill with themed objects and displays. More room was given to the Egyptian zone due to the superior number of static meshes within UT2004 and because I wanted to retain a believable scale.
There were no issues with creating the actual rooms however, due to using a vast amount of static meshes to decorate the rooms, left very few unique items to display, as a typical museum would.
The lack of unique static meshes available proved a problem for this assignment as it would be difficult to persuade the audience that the environment is a museum of sorts without feature displays. To combat the issue I reduced the amount of decorative statics within some of the zones, converting them to exhibits, aiding the overall image of the level.
Matinee creation
After creating a rough run-through of the level, using various techniques and timings I adapted quickly to the procedures involved. Utilising the knowledge I had on matinee sequencing in UT2004 I managed to create a sequence that I was pleased with and used for my final piece.
Conclusion
Upon reflection there are parts that I would like to add/change, I believe that’ll always be the case with level creation. For example, I could/should have had more signage to help convoy the look of a museum. I should have added an entrance which would have provided an ideal starting location for the first camera sequence. Alternatively I could have converted the camera into a character (surveillance cameras, floating recorder, security guard), anything that would have given the matinee sequence more significance. Adding more displays to the level would have improved the project too.
In the end, I am satisfied with the outcome and it has been a good way of re-familiarising myself with the toolset, so future projects can be completed quicker and with more planning.
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