UNREAL TECHNOLOGY

Doing some research into the ureal engine ive come across this for anyone who is doing a character in their project so i thought i would share it with everyone. If anyone has any more info please let us know?

Typical Content Specifications

Here are the guidelines we're using in building content for our next Unreal Engine 3 based game. Different genres of games will have widely varying expectations of player counts, scene size, and performance, so these specifications should be regarded as one data point for one project rather than hard requirements for all.

Characters

For every major character and static mesh asset, we build two versions of the geometry: a renderable mesh with unique UV coordinates, and a detail mesh containing only geometry. We run the two meshes through the Unreal Engine 3 preprocessing tool and generate a high-res normal map for the renderable mesh, based on analyzing all of the geometry in the detail mesh.
Renderable Mesh: We build renderable meshes with 3,000-12,000 triangles, based on the expectation of 5-20 visible characters in a game scene.
Detail Mesh: We build 1-8 million triangle detail meshes for typical characters. This is quite sufficient for generating 1-2 normal maps of resolution 2048x2048 per character.
Bones: The highest LOD version of our characters typically have 100-200 bones, and include articulated faces, hands, and fingers.

Normal Maps & Texture maps

We are authoring most character and world normal maps and texture maps at 2048x2048 resolution. We feel this is a good target for games running on mid-range PC's in the 2006 timeframe. Next-generation consoles may require reducing texture resolution by 2X, and low-end PC's up to 4X, depending on texture count and scene complexity.

Dave has asked me to put the URL in here so everyone can see where i got it from so here it is. It lists everything that anyone needs to know what is required to importing your finished models into the Unreal engine.

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UT3ModHome.html

Rationale stuff

Hi part-timers,

Tony asked for clarification on his rationale. I thought I'd feedback via the blog so that everyone can share the info.

When you do your 'When will it be done' section of your rationale don't just add your gantt chart here but just list the key tasks you will be doing and dates when you propose to do it. Remember these dates stretch into April next year.

Hope that helps…

Huddersfield University

For all of those who have not signed up as a student of Huddersfield University, the process is simple enough, phone Admissions and Records (Tel: +44 (0)1484 473969)http://www.hud.ac.uk/contact/index.html, tell them who you are and the course you are on and they will provide you with a user name and password, simple as that. This allows you full remote access to their facilities.

The benefits truly outweigh the time and cost of the call, for those who are still doing research you have access to zillions of online journals and papers, a whole community is out there waiting to share, help, commune. Make the call and explore.

Dr

I read somewhere that an experiment was conducted where they attempted to give away twenty pound notes, no strings attached, surprisingly this proved difficult as most people refused to accept the money.

Part-timers Group Crit

Hi Part-timers,

The next group crit is next Wednesday at 9:30 in C431 focusing on the rationale. Everyone will discuss their rationale to get feedback - @10 mins each. Look at Tony's post "Rational work: am I on the right path?". It is a good example. Check my comments back to him as it explains how he can improve it.

Post your drafts to the blog before the crit and I'll advise ASAP.

After the crit I'll happily see everyone individually to support Pre-production planning, rationale writing and dissertation support. Hopefully starting individual tutorials about 11:00 I will see you on first-come-first-served basis. Hit comment below to request a slot. I'll see you in order of requests.

*UPDATE*
Tutorial Order: 1st=Ste Chabeaux, 2nd=Scott Tasker, 3rd=, 4th=, 5th=

Steven Chabeaux rough Rationale

Hi Dave here is what ive done so far for my rationale ive still got to finish off: Who is involved? Intellectual Property Rights? and Who is my audience? Is that all that's needed Dave?

What is my project?

My project is to create original high polygon models of a human character(Main Character), his weapon/s and his vehicle that could be implemented into any next-gen console out on the market to date, PlayStation3, Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii.After the models have been built i shall implement them into the Unreal Engine and share it with the Unreal Mod community.
I shall be creating a totally new I.P.set in the future where humanity is struggling to survive on earth and must start to colonise other planets.
The reason why i chose this is because i wanted to create a brand new I.P. that after the course i can carry on building on and build up a portfolio of work ready to show to an employer.

Why this project?

I have a keen interest in character modelling and hopefully one day will be working in this area at a later date in a development studio. So i have chosen this as my project as i believe that this learning process will help me alot in the future. I also chose this project to acuire new found techniques from concept designs through to the actual building of the 3D models and also how game engines work.

How will this be done?

My project will be split into two sections:

The first year will Pre-production where i shall be doing all my research from various sources i.e. internet, books/magazines and taking photograhs myself. I shall then start on loose designs formulating as many ideas as possible, before moving onto more finished pieces of work. I will then create blueprints of the 3d models ready to be used in the second year.The applications to be used for this stage of the project will be Photoshop along with my drawing tablet. I shall also be using paper to create the initial ideas with pen and also using my digital camera.

The second year will be production this is where i shall actually build the 3D models using mainly 3DS Max along with Z-Brush to create textures, Normal and Specular maps that will be required. After my models are built i shall implement them into the Unreal Engine and share it with the Unreal community for them to enjoy.

See what you think ive got to go out for abit but i shall finish it later when i get home so ill check back later.

Over to you…

As you can see I've posted some samples of full-timers work. These are only a taster of the work that has been done by them so it is over to you all to make the blog more visual…

Miles Turner Work In Progress

The lowest level of the map is going to consist of the basic platforms and subway tunnels. This section of the map is going to be the gloomiest of them all. There is going to be very few strip lights lighting up the platforms themselves but only in certain areas.

The image gives a good idea of how I would like the platforms to look, once again with pillars creating obstructions and cover for the player. The lighting would be changed because it should be dark to create anxiety. The platforms will have waiting rooms which will create more obstacles and wont make the platform just be long and plain with no objects.

The tunnels themselves will be lit quite well, a few lights will be turned out but generally it will be quite bright with some different coloured lights like red lights indicating that there is something wrong in the subway tunnels. In the subway tunnels I will add a fog effect because this will help with the atmosphere, and with the lighting being quite bright and a different colour, the fog should make the view quite distorted.

Finally to add to the perimeter of the subway tunnels, I will need to have something to block the player. I hope to achieve this by creating possibly a train which I will have overturned. I may also have a train which will just be halted at the station because of the pandemic, and it should be enterable and would serve well for weaponry
spawns. The enterable carriages will serve as a bridge to get the player from one side of the platform to another.

Karen Costello Work In Progress

Jenny Swann Work In Progress

For the human building I originally was going to have them inspired by Saxon design since I wanted them to look similar to old historic settlements. I then decided to step back a little further back in history and choose round buildings similar to Celtic huts. Originally I was going to make them out of stone but there something not aesthetically pleasing. Looking at some wooden and stone modern buildings and found out that maybe having the panel/wooden log style. I decided to create the building to that style, and also make it so it mirrors through the other buildings. I also added some decoration with stone/rock, this is to make it have a bit more of a feeling they have been settled for quite a while. The way I’ve done the building is to have them designed fully, then destroyed.

Dave Roberts Work In Progress

The images are from a play that I photographed and the music is Clair de Lune, it is a test piece but it helps me with judging what scale the final image should be. The image represents 1/8th of the musical composition, to complete this composition would require 2,500 images.

Note Taking

If like me you are swamped with notes from research for your dissertation help is available (well sort of). Follow this link;

http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/NoteTakers1/index.php

The 'surfulater' looks good and if I could find a pirate version I would definitely use it. I am using trial copy of 'NoteScribe' http://www.notescribe.net/ which is pretty good and I will most probably keep it (cost about £20).

Would be interested to hear from fellow scholars what note taking software they are using and what they think of it.

DR

More loose concepts

I met John on friday again and i showed him my looser smaller thumbnails he said that it looked too methodical as all in a straight line and to try to not concentrate on being too precise on where the drawings go on the page. Also he mentioned to me to think about the actual physical body more and to experiment with different body shapes. He said to really experiment as this will be the only chance ill have to do exactly what i want because when you get in the industry you will be told exactly what is needed. So anyway ive gone away and here is some new sketches ive knocked up thinking more on the body shape more than anything with some other ideas thrown in.

Dissertation

Hi all,

Remember to see Kate if you're having issues with your dissertation. Email her to request a tutorial.

I'll happily support you and her with tutorials about structuring (or getting started if that's bugging you). Email me.

Full-timers Work

Hi Full-timers

Don't forget to share you work on the blog. If you won't I will :-)

(that goes for part-timers too!)

*UPDATED* More new sketches

Well after coming home from work today and having shown John via email my drawings he said im definately getting there now but added this at the end of the email:
"On the 50 thumbs. A thumb is size 2cm maybe 5cm. Yes on doing on e in black pen. Follow the book !
The book that John has lent me explains this reason for doing your thumbnail sketches so small it says:
"The small size of the drawings forces you to think in terms of major shapes and not detail. With this method, there is little pressure to produce good drawings, so you can focus on generating lots of ideas"
So this is what i done when i got in its on 1 sheet of A4 paper, im really starting to understand this process now and it helping with my ideas.

I saw John briefly on friday and i showed him my latest thumbnails and he said much improved but i could loosen up even more. So ive decided to use a Bic pen to see if that helps and i think it has feel like im definately on the right track now after all this time :)

Having looked at my thumbnails i know i needed to loosen up even more so still using a blue and black biro ive reworked on some of my previous drawings and here is the result.

I sent these new drawings to John and he said:"Good on the loosening....Are these thumbs 3 cm high ? Thats what you should be doing dont forget"

So im going to fit about 60 pics on a A4 piece of paper from now on will post more up when i have one completed.

Ive now produced 60 thumbnails on a A4 sheet of paper quite pleased with the results. What do you think Dave?

Rational work: am I on the right path?

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to get an idea on how to complete this rational so that I can present it to my audience.

Thanks


Character Project Rational

What is the project?
My project is to create a highly detailed game character that can be used in a next generation game; the game engine I have chosen to use for my character is the Unreal engine.
The theme of my character will be a mixture of post World War One and steam powered technology (Steam punk style). This theme will fit in with the back story of my character that is an agent part for a secret organisation that is the fount line defence against the paranormal and bazaar super natural enemies of Great Britain.
The reason I have chosen this theme is to step out of the comfort zone of creating the usual characters that are seen in most games and try to make something different.
132 words

Why this project?
As a consumer I have enjoyed playing Bio Shock, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War which all use the Unreal engine. What attractive me into buying these games, was the great marketing, outstanding graphics and most importantly good game play.
Another attraction that I like about the games mentioned, is that new content can be added by downloading content from the developers or you can learn to custom build your own content.
72 words

How will this be done?
The first step to creating a character is to explore my ideas, generate as many ideas possible onto paper and by brain storming lots of ideas I will send my drawings to my audience for feedback.
For the production of the character I will be producing concept designs, exploded diagrams, blueprints and modelling the character mesh.
By following the principles of modelling characters for Unreal engine, the mesh, textures, normal maps and specular map of my character I will be imported into the Unreal engine.
My custom character will be fully playable within Unreal Tournament multiplayer modes I will give users from the mod community access to my finished character and they can download my character for free.
123 words



When will this be done?
For this character project, I have created a Gantt chart which will mark out the deadlines dates of when each module is to be complicated. So far the date for the pre-production pitch bible and this rational document will be done by the end of March.
46 words

Who is involved in this project?
I will be producing the work that is required for the pre–production, production and post-production stages of the project.
Following the progress of my project will be my audience (Epic forum), mentor and tutors. The reason for this is to gain extra knowledge of what my audience would like to see, take into consideration any opinions made and not to become self indulgent due to the fact that I am creating work for an audience.
76 words

What Intellectual Property Rights are used?
I have found out information from senior users of the Epic forums, about the rules behind IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) when creating content for Unreal Tournament 3.
Within the IPR documents there was lots of information about many subjects relating to the content of Unreal Tournament.
My understanding of the IPR document is that it protects the content made by the studios artists from anyone outside of Epic who may claim the artwork as their own. Epic has given users access to the unreal engine so they may freely import custom content into the game engine and anything users create outside of the engine is the creator’s property.
However if users are using any of the content provided by Epic, users do not have the right to claim this content as their work.
133 words

Who is my audience?
Unreal Tournament 3 has been released on three formats (PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox), from what I have leant of Unreal on the PC and Playstation 3 formats is that users can import custom content directly into Unreal.
So my audience is the Epic mod community for Unreal tournament 3 and I will create content that can import onto both formats for a broader audience.
http://forums.epicgames.com
65 words

Total 647 words not including title or word count

1920s reference - Hercule Poirot

http://uk.youtube.com/results?orig_query=poirot&search_query=hercule+poirot&orig_query_src=3

Answering the call for more Visual Work

This is what ive produced this afternoon when i got homeafter our group crit today. What does everyone think? As requested Dave here is the other picture that i showed at the group crit today. Having abit of trouble with this blog Dave dont know why put i cant rearrange the images when im posting. Any idea why Dave?

Call for a more visual blog

Yep its that time again.

Let's get some samples of work-in-progress up on the blog. Don't be shy - share.

If you don't I will.

Get posting!

Character Design Links

A big timely thank you to Graham Williams from graphics for these links about character design:


http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/08/character-design-primer.html


http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/20_character_design_tips


http://www.characterdesigns.com/


http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/

Reminder to Part-timers - Wed Group Crit

A quick, hopefully not too late, reminder to Part-timers that their 1st group crit is tomorrow (Wed). The focus is on developing your rationale and catching everyone up with progress. We will also discuss the last stages of your first year too.

Room C431 - 9.30am. Be on time. We may not have a projector so we may get cosy round a table and monitor instead.

Be good to see you all.

Message from Kate about the dissertation

Hello good people,

Monday, 2nd March. Could you please e-mail me at least 3,000 words of your dissertation by this date. This can be an introduction and chapter, or two chapters, depending on how you are approaching your research. Please include references and bibliography in this.

It is very important that you complete this as I need to see your progression and check if you are on the right lines.

REMEMBER: dissertation is 6,000 words and DEADLINE is Monday 27th April. We cannot go over this deadline as late submissions cannot be ratified at the summer Course Assessment Board. This means you will have to wait at least until September, which in turn will delay your graduation for a year!


Good luck!
Keep in touch,
Kate

Reminder to FULL-timers

Just to remind the full-timers that their 1st session begins tomorrow (Friday), 9:30am in J313.

Dave will introduce the module, the specialist-tutor/student relationship, assessment and the deadline at 9:30am
Stas will then take the module over as module leader for the remainder of the session.
Dean will drop in to support.

Make sure you're all there on time and ready to get going.

Academic Writing - planning

Hi all,

I will post the final stages of my recent piece of academic writing as soon as I can scan in my working drafts.

In the meantime, in preparation for the Production module, I thought my planning for my next piece of academic work would help the full-timers. As part of production you full-timers will also have to document what you are doing. This process will follow on from what you did as part of WBL last year but to a higher analytical degree. This will be explained next week.

To support this, I thought it may help you to see how I am planning to write a different academic research paper on the Traceur Tag summer project. This paper will be 4000 words in total. In the following screenshot you will see how I propose to set it out, the sections I propose to include and the word count for each section. This will help me edit my text down to keep it concise so that each topic will communicate clearly without waffle.



This planning is still fluid and will change as I start to write, but it will inform me when I am straying from what I need to communicate. The word counts are indicators only. If required, I can go over the allotted word count for that section if I sacrifice words from another section, and vice versa. This allows me to hit the 4000 words set for the entire paper, but still be flexible within it.

The software I have used is Scrivener, a Mac-based writing software but you can use actual cards to plan any writing you do. Planning can and does save you so much time later and helps to stop writer's block.

Start date back

Happy New Year all!

January is here and a new start beckons.


Officially you all begin on Wednesday 21st January, but your actual sessions to attend will be different (see below). This term the full-timers and part-timers split onto their own study streams. They will now be dealt with separately for the practical modules. Kate's dissertation module will be as normal. If you haven't already done so use the time up to the formal sessions to work on your dissertation. Request a tutorial from Kate.

I will be posting a final insight into how I write academically, showing techniques I use to plan, draft, refine and reference over the weekend.

Full-timers - first session = Friday 23rd 9:30 J313

Production module.
Module Leader/Specialist Tutor: Stas Krakiewicz
Specialist Tutor: Dean Betton
Specialist Tutor: Stuart Carter

During the day you will formulate a working brief from your Pre-production rationale. With Stas you will have an individual tutorial to discuss your design document with him in order to now implement the work you've planned. By the end of the day you will agree a plan that will last 11 weeks resulting in the creative outcome you proposed.

Once this is done you will each be assigned a primary specialist tutor to consult for the duration of the module: Karen and Miles with Stas, Jenny and Kurzon with Dean, and Dave with Stuart. You are free to consult the other specialist tutors for secondary opinions, but their priority will be on their assigned students. Consultations through regular tutorials will be student-led and will be for guidance and monitoring only. Specialist-tutors are not there to teach.


Part-timers - group crit = Wednesday 28th 9:30 C431

Pre-production Module
Module Leader/Specialist Tutor: Dave Wood
Specialist Tutor: Dean Betton

You will begin a week later than the full-timers. On this Wednesday we will have a group crit on your rationale. Look to earlier posts on the blog to what was required of the full-timers. 10 minutes each, you know the drill.