Up lighting, up-lighting, uplighting? I don’t know! But I made some at the request of my client…

Today I have mostly been doing this…

After meeting Brad last night there are a huge amount of minor changes to be made to my client project. Many of these are quick and easy, some of them are more difficult and time consuming. I’ve been working at the easier ones this morning to get them out of the way. The images below are mainly for my client, but I felt it might be useful for others to see this.

Time is tight so pictures must suffice for now…

There’s not much to say with this update, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Basically I’ve been working in UDK, using my own meshes and textures, mixed with some UDK packages. This time I’m working with meshes rather than brushes, because it seems most games are made this way now. I want this to really come across as a better considered game level with art direction. I don’t want people to look at it and think it’s an experiment or test.

Hopefully my next post will make a little more sense, I might annotate some images so you can get a better idea of what I’m trying to achieve.

After speaking to Andy it was decided that Artefact 4, 5 and 6 would all be related to one another. Artefact 4 I will put together the layout for a map, then in artefact 5 I will put together the lighting and other elements, and artefact 6 will be a large user survey. The reason for doing it spread out like this is that putting it together will take me more than 2 weeks (especially with all the other work we have on). The test will be very similar to what I’ve done in previous artfacts, only now I can correct any mistakes and undertake a much more in-depth study.

Below is a quick sketch I did of the map layout. The goal will be for the player to reach the flag and return it to their base. Along the way there will be various things influencing the players decisions. My ultimate goal is to have three different maps, testing out different factors. The first will test lighting and dynamic elements, the second will add signage to the mix, and the third will contain weapon pick ups.

This time I am going to deliberately make it hard for myself. The path I am going to try to make the player follow will be the least obvious path. Let’s see how it goes!

I’ve been looking at my work, both past and present. I’ve been looking for work I’m proud of and which I believe demonstrates my skills in 3D. Below are some of my initial choices. Some of them I’m not 100% happy with, but these will more than likely be replaced with images from the live client project (when it’s done!).

My client has requested that I send over some lighting tests which will better represent the final product. Up until now all screen shots have had a simple directional light, mimicking sunlight. For the final hand in however I want something much more advanced. This is the first test.

The purpose of this artefact was to explore the impact dynamic elements have on the design and aesthetics of game environments. Through writing the research document it was discovered that techniques such as moving foliage and weather effects were utilised to make environments more immersive. It was deemed that environments composed of static objects were less realistic and thus less engaging.

Using the Unreal Development Kit a scene was built consisting of terrain covered in foliage made from simple planes and alpha masks. To make these appear more alive a ‘wind actor’ was added which would make the meshes bend and flutter as they would in real world wind. A similar technique was applied to the trees. While the foliage added a lot of movement to the scene I felt more effects should be explored and implemented. Fire was created to add a central focus to the scene, and a flag simulating cloth physics. The flag was also affected by the wind to give the scene an overall cohesion. Lastly rain was implemented, again using diffuse and alpha masks on a plane.

When combined these elements made an otherwise simple and lifeless environment appear to be alive. Through feedback during the presentation it was agreed that such effects do in fact aid in immersion and make the environment mimic the real world. It was important to test this theory as it is intended that future artefacts build upon this one and what was learnt in artefacts one and two. I want to discover if dynamic elements have any power over player’s movements. It may be possible they are attracted towards moving objects, especially when coupled with factors such as lighting and signage. A map will be built over the course of three artefacts taking on board these findings.