Monday, 23 July 2012

Week2


 Find 5 reference images of different landscapes.
In a short sentence, list characteristics of the vegetation, terrain, lighting for each one.

 Chile, Patagonia
The terrain is very earthy, full of bright green small bushes, solid rocky foundations along the lake and the lighting just make it vibrant.

Grand Canyon
A high solid earthy structure with a valley creates an excellent lighting effects and the texture is quite simple.

Miguel Island, Azures

Greece Meteora

Snowy Mountains



Monday, 16 July 2012

Week 1


Make a blog post listing 5 things you learn about the sandbox folder structure:


1. Bin 32 and bin 64 are operating systems. bin 64 is faster and loads faster and allows you to have more memory depending on the your operating system bin 32 is okay as well.


2. Games foler has .pak files which provide all the effects of the whole game e.g. sound, animations, objects etc. it can be opened in winrar and it can be edited.


3. Tools folder exporting textures and plugins, contains a settings manager .exe makes sure the engine runs right.


4. Bin folders can be linked to photoshop as a plugin by copying and pasting a few files into photshop.


5. Crymaxtools folder in tools good to install and its simple brings up a DOS window type C and it provides a window within the game with a lot of functions which can be very useful.


"Overview Of The CryENGINE 3 Sandbox User Interface". Make a blogpost listing 10 tips and tricks related to the Sandbox User Interface.


1. Perspective views can be changed on the top left hand corner of the interface or it can be changed in the display tab. can change to wireframe or a simple hotkey F3


2. By name selection you type in the search bar 'rock' or 'lighthouse' only works for enities isolating them and filtering them making it easier to select and model.


3. The button next to speed on the bottom tool bar of the interface toggles collision on the terrain only.


4. Ctrl + G respawns in game AI physics and esc to turn off.


5. go to position performs accurate positions within the map


6. you can double click the comments bar to turn things on and off such as sound or the very bottom right hand corner '...' looks like three dots


7. you can export anything to a .obj file to import it into other programmes which is very flexible for designers in the File tab generating obj


8. In the top of the interface you can change the select all to something else and isolate it for easy selections making it handy


9. XYZ moves the objects in those axies although there are snap buttons which either snaps to the terrain or the terrain and the objects. snap to grid and angle snap is also useful for precision positioning or rotation.


10. select objects is a useful tool it shows all the objects that has be used within the map and it can be mass selected or singled out for editing.


"Customising The Editor" Make a blogpost listing 5 ways you might


customize your Sandbox editor setup.
-material editor is 'M'
-data base view
-flowgraphs
drag on top of each other with three all in one all the panels are useful


1. you can attach panels on the top left bottom and right of the view port and it can be resizeable.


2. you can show console which also can be deattached and the rollup bar can be repositioned


3. tool bars can be turned on and off by right clicking the bar


4. customised window you can create your own tool bar for your liking by going into comments and you drag and drop into the empty panel. in options you tick show select... and it shows the name of the key and shows the hotkey for it very handy. key board can be used to assign a hotkey to perform something for a faster result.


5. perferences can change the colour of the each panels
-deep select is the ranged of selection when you double click it
-viewports is a range of options to change and customise everything


6. tools => configure user info - can shortcut a toolbox macro that can toggle things


"Viewports" Make a blogpost listing 3 different ways of moving around your level.


1. using W,A,S,D keys to move around the map SHIFT to gain speed and your mouse to look around.


2. you can use different view such as top, left and front views perspectives. 


"User Interface Panels – Overview" Make a blogpost that identifies 5 shortcuts or buttons, and what each of their functions are.


1. M opens up the materials editer

2. Ctrl G is to enter game.