Research Assignment

Tutorial Description:

The topic I have chosen to do my tutorial on is exporting objects from Google Sketchup into the Crysis Sandbox Editor. I used this in both experiment 1 and 2 however it was only until exp 2 I had to export multiple textures. Now usually exporting a Sketchup model via PlayUp Tools it only allows you to export 1 texture, but at the same time that texture has to cover the whole object, so that not one face can be left untextured. In saying that it meant that you could only have one texture as one component so every time you wanted a different texture you would need a new component and therefore resulting in heaps and heaps of objects in the Sandbox Editor that you had to piece together. Not only that, but that has also given reason for a bunch of other problems to arise such as mismatching locations, objects not scaling properly etc. As a result of these issues I thought there must’ve been a way to fix this issue, so I started experimenting and downloading different software to test out if it could be fixed and I did find a way to fix it and so I intend to do a tutorial on it as I thought it would help out other people who wanted to export objects with multiple textures.

This tutorial is target mainly at people an architecture related course at uni that requires crysis be used as a mean of presentation, but also creative gamers who want to build their own objects for their own crysis maps. This tutorial is for beginners who want to take this extra step and create their own objects rather than using default crysis ones. It assumes the view already has basic knowledge of Google Sketchup as well as Sandbox 2.

There may be of course other ways to export multi-textured objects into the Sandbox Editor but this is the most simple and efficient method of doing so. Despite the fact it took me so long to figure this out, now it has been figured out I can share it with everyone else to save them the time, effort and pain I went to figuring this. In essence what this tutorial aims to do is to inform users on how to export a multi-textured object from Google Sketchup into the Crysis Sandbox Editor via the simplest and most efficient method of doing so.

Download Link uploaded by myself as it seems that my version is the only version I can get to successfully work:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F3JKTBY5


For links regarding some helpful websites for both Exp 1,2 and this assignment refer to week 2

Uploads

I've put my Play Test Environment and also Sketchup Model into the downloadable file.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=D856G9LS

Just paste the Game folder and Mods folder straight into the Crysis Wars Directory and it is ready to be played.

Hotkeys for building:
K is for the Final Analytics Engine


Number Pad 8 is for the Social Network Bargraph
For other demonstartions move the buildings/objects back into the map it is currently outside on the water and re-enable the HUD displays for the different flowgraphs.

Final Videos

Final Video:

PLEASE READ DESCRIPTION FIRST BEFORE WATCHING VIDEO:
With my analytics engine I wanted to reinterpret the raw data from the pachube feed and create a much easier and clearer way to display this data rather than just the feed which is not too clear as the value bar of the left jumps quite a bit and it takes some time to read and match to find the value at that particular point and so I have reinterpreted it as a bar graph with values as well as changing light intensity to present this data in a much clearer and quicker way.
I did my analytics engine based on a light intensity sensor pachube feed. The feed says "A high value currently represents low light intensity, and a low value represents high intensity." and so I created higher building for periods of high low light intensity. I have also colour coded the city I created. The 2 red ones are the highest and lowest points of light intensity the bright glowing one is the shortest and represents the period with most light intensity, where as the dark red one represents the period of least light intensity. I have also linked the time of day to the flowgraph and to each building. I have tried recreate the amount of light that may be experienced during each period and hence each building I bring up the time of day changes. I also used figures to help display the data further, although the units of the data has not been specified the feed does say, "This feed displays light input data ranging from 0 to 1023". I tried to recreate a sidewalk of the city with various building sizes with the data from the Pachube feed.


Flowgraph:

The flowgraph analyses the xml and inputs this data into the scaling of the building. I also added nodes to bring up the numeric figures and to change the time of day when the key is hit. I have included the HUD node but disabled it because I used it for testing purposes, but it can also be included if desirable that is why I have left it there.




3 x 30 second videos: NOTE: These are just the videos any descriptions/flowgraphs for these are in the weekly tasks.

Week 05

Week 04

 The Building scales according to the distance of the player to the object itself. The HUD displays the distance of the player from the original location of the object (without scaling).

Flowgraphs:
Scales Building:

 Gives Distance From Building:

Draft Analytics Engine: This is is a bar graph I created for part of my analytic engine. Not all of the data conveyed is via flowgraph. The ones conveyed via flowgraph is the xml data, the HUD and the object scaling. Others that are not includes the more transparent the object the higher the light intensity is. The more it glows also represents light intensity. The higher it is represents lower light intensity, hence the larger shadows.


Flowgraph:

Tutorial Proposal: 

With my tutorial I would like to do it on the topic of exporting a multi-textured object from Sketchup into the Crysis Sandbox Editor. I used PlayUp Tools in both Exp1 and 2. If I wanted to apply multi textures to an object for exportation it would be such a pain because I would have to model the face as a single component and then match it up with object in Crysis again, and this would often cause problems such as not matching exactly and when I scaled the object it would lose its intended position etc. So finally when i solved this issue I thought it would be good to share around with other people who have the same issue.

Week 03

Although this is not an image I found it very good at representing something in a different way. It is an animation for the song Arabesque by Debussy. The size of the dot represents note length, the higher the dots go the higher the pitch goes. Each different coloured dot represents a different layer.

I found this one particularly interesting because it was words constructed in the shape of each nation. The size of each nation also determined the size of each word.




No video can be embedded, however it can be viewed via this link: http://vimeo.com/19486470

Again this is not an image but an amazing animation which details the real-time behaviour of hire bikes in London on October 4th 2010, the day of a major tube strike, and the busiest day for the scheme to date. Departure times and journey durations are real; routing is calculated from OSM data; average speed from journey duration and route length. In the visualisation, the fixed circles represent stands – when a stand flashes red, it means that one or more bikes have left it - and a yellow flash means a bike has arrived. The bikes themselves are represented by the Boris Barclays Blue Tadpoles whizzing around – leaving at the right time, travelling at their correct average speed, and taking a (generally) realistic route.

 This particular poster conveys information through a number of different approaches. It has visual, numeric as well as literary elements. It uses pie graphs, colour coding, and images relative to the topic. Can create a simulation of the data portrayed.

Poster uses colour coding as a key to identify each social networking site. It uses visual and raw data to convey the information across to the viewer quite quickly and easily. Breaks down the graphs in categories of age group. Can create a animated bargraph.

 Uses Colour coding as well as images of phones as a chart for comparison. Also uses pie graphs and figures. Could be reinterpreted in the sandbox editor.


http://www.niceone.org/lab/quakes/
This interactive data representation is very interesting, check it out yourself.

Part of my analytic engine:

Flowgraph:

Week 02 + Research

Flowgraph:

 Proposal

 With my feed I would like to create a flowgraph that makes a building change in size according to light intensity. The higher the value the higher the building gets the darker the day is. In the feed the higher the value represents periods of lower light intensity hence, higher buildings  = lower light intensity. The feed is frozen, so as a result I will construct my own Xml based on the values using approximations which will be quite accurate but not 100%.



Research:
http://www.moddb.com/groups/cryengine-2-developers/tutorials/cryengine-flowgraph-tutorial
Great website. Teaches you how to read a flowgraph/node and also gives you a good idea of how a flowgraph works.

http://www.moddb.com/engines/cryengine-2/tutorials
Good tutorials on a variety of things for the Crysis Sandbox Editor

http://www.playuptools.com/
For exporting models from a variety of modelling software into gaming engines.

http://benv2423-2011vn.blogspot.com/
Vinh Nguyen's blog. Immensely helpful as it related directly to me. Also a lot of great tutorials and flowgraphs.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25611536/SandBox-2-Manual-%28CryEngine2%29
This has pretty much most info on the sandbox editor as it is the manual for sandbox 2.