RESEARCH FINAL SUBMISSION

Most Efficient Way To Import A Model Into Crysis?

SketchUp

SketchUp is by far the most simple and easy to use program when it comes to modeling. For beginners its a good way to begin to start playing around and getting use to producing a quality model. It is also fairly simple to apply materials and export the model.

However, large, complex models and groups seem to not work when exported and therefore its best not to use SketchUp for this. I have found that once exported as a KMZ file and changed to a ZIP file, things begin to stop working. For this research clip I was lucky to get it working first go, mainly due to the simple model, however I have found that very few of my attempts throughout the course have been successful, and therefore I wouldn't use this program for this purpose.

SolidWorks + 3DS Max

SolidWorks is a lot more difficult to model with for beginners. It took a couple of semesters to grasp the main concepts. Once you become familiar with it, it is quite simple to use, however I prefer SketchUp with modeling as I find it is a lot easier and quicker to use, and if a mistake is made or you want to change something it is quite simple. The viewing of the object, and the ability to get to a hard to reach place is a lot easier than SolidWorks.

However, exporting and importing into 3DS Max is very simple, and can be done with the click of a button. Once in 3DS Max, it takes some practice to be able to export a successful model into Crysis, as it took me quite a few goes before it worked, as there are so many minute details that can easily be overlooked. For example, I forgot to click 'Physicalise' and once imported into Crysis, the player 'fell through' the object as it was not solid. Also, I find that it often fails if all work is done on say, the desktop, and then transferred to the Crysis Wars Objects Folder. All work must be done in the Objects folder to ensure a successful transition into Crysis.

Most Efficient?

My research was based on the efficiency of the programs. Therefore I chose simple geometry, hence a cube. The benefits of choosing simple geometry allows me to portray the successfulness of the programs, as modeling a cube allows me to keep the research fair and therefore comparable to the 3DS Max work flow.

When looking at efficiency, I am concerned about the time taken to perform each task as well as the effort of performing the task. The effort of the task changes depending on the situation. This is how I determined which program was most efficient. I am not concerned with the complexity of the task, having chosen to model a cube. Below is a table outlining the times taken to perform each task and the effort put in:

Therefore, after all my research I believe SolidWorks and 3DS Max are the most efficient programs to use to import a model into Crysis. Large scale models can be successfully imported and the overall result is far more spectacular.

I found that beginners grasp the SketchUp to Crysis work flow quicker, but still seem to have a little trouble towards the end. However for our sake, having used these programs for at least a year, SolidWorks and 3DS Max is clearly the most efficient way to import a model into Crysis.

After completing the research, I have noticed a number of things I could have done differently. I didn't take into consideration the units and scaling in both programs, which in the end, caused the SketchUp cube to be far larger than the SolidWorks to 3DS Max cube. I also looked at putting a clock in the video to portray the length of time each part took, however I couldn't get the timer to speed up with the video. This would have clearly shown the time taken to complete each task and would have given a good sense of efficiency.

EXP2 FINAL SUBMISSION

SYDNEY DUST STORM

The Sydney Dust Storm, caused the city to awake to a red haze, unlike anything seen before. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the fiery haze was the result of the sun hitting the blanket of dust. The reason for the dust where the strong winds from inland NSW and South Australia, for a sustained period of time. This wind lifted a whole lot of dust off the ground of dry areas. The lifted dust was then carried by the wind into Sydney.

The dust caused havoc with the city's transport system, with visibility reduced to only a few hundred metres in many parts of Sydney. Train Stations, highways, and the Sydney Airport were all affected, causing many delays and road closures.

Health problems also arose from the situation, with emergency services being stretched by the conditions. Some asthma sufferers were taken to hospital as a result of the dust haze, and many more made triple 0 calls.

The Dust Storm is a natural consequence of a very long drought. These are a daily event in the nations inland areas. However, the storm was unusual as particles were carried as far as the coast. Future dust storms will get more frequent and far bigger, as the climate warms. Therefore, this video is a virtual simulation of the affects of the dust storm, and how it will effect the flow and movement of people through the Sydney Town Hall Station.

FINAL VIDEO CLIP

When placing various people into my Town Hall environment, i noticed that when things were normal and there was no threat of a dust storm, they tended to move fairly quickly through the station and chose to walk in the center of the walk ways. Once the dust simulation began, each one moved rather slowly and cautiously and mostly to their right, staying close to the walls. They all commented on the visibility factor and the sense of feeling alone, realising it was safer to walk along the sides as this gave them a faint idea of where they were heading.

This installation challenged a persons navigation through the station in a distinctive and significant way as outlined above. Moving slowly and towards known objects allowed the user to keep out of harms way. This simulation outlines the dangers in which can be faced if such a situation occurs again. Not being able to see where your going could cause serious injury, and even death. Hopefully this video shows that train stations can be dangerous, with platforms having no barriers blocking passengers from the train tracks below. On the news recently, a baby was lucky to be alive after her pram rolled onto the tracks a second before the train came hurtling over her.

Download EXP2

Week Six - Independent Study

Edited Research Clip

Town Hall

Week 6

Lecture 11 - ARUP Engineers - Stuart Bull

During Stuart's lecture today, I gained a great understanding into not only experiment two, but also the research assignment. Stuart kept discussing the fact that the design process would go through many stages and involve multiple software in which the project would be imported and exported, using each program to do a specific aspect of the design. They obviously use the best software for the job, and therefore with our research assignment, where discussing the pros and cons of the two, and therefore gain a broader understanding into the research task, as well as giving it a sense of purpose.

Stuart showed us a mini city which is being developed. ARUP Engineers used a program to simulate different situations, such as rain and wind etc, which impacted not only on the buildings, but also on people and vehicles. This is similar to what we have to do for experiment two, in which we set up an installation in our scenes.

Testing Research Question

Week Five - Independent Study

Research Question:

Most efficient way to import a model into Crysis? SketchUp vs SolidWorks + 3DS Max!

* Create a simple object (the same in both programs). Record length of time taken to model
* Record adding materials and discuss the pros and cons
* Importing/Exporting models and see which is the most efficient
* Advantages and Disadvantages of the programs

Week Five

Navigation Clip Critique

The clip of my classmate Lachlan, navigating my Sydney Town Hall Subway Station, combined not only the navigation aspect, but also portrayed a possible installation I could look into. I chose to submerge the Town Hall in water, so once the user was below the top level they were immediately engulfed by water. This provided a sense of what it would be like in this situation.

Strengths of the clip are the ideas and beliefs associated with the installation. The clip provided short snippets of the town hall causing an interesting and to-the-point statement. The song chosen matched the intended message and brought the clip to life.

Weaknesses of the clip are minor details such as scene transitions and lengths of some of the snippets. Town Hall isn't complete at the moment and therefore textures and objects did not seem real and brought the overall look of the clip down.

Opportunities of the SolidWorks -> 3DS Max -> Crysis workflow, include the ability to create more realistic models, and far more complex designs. The exporting is far easier and less work that from SketchUp, from a click of the button the model is exported and ready to be placed into Crysis.

Week Four - Independant Study

Navigating Crysis Environment

Sydney Under Water

Week Three - Independant Study

Sketch Installation

Sydney Dust Storm

Week Three

Animated Particle Effect in Crysis

Week Two - Independant Study

Realism

Realism is an "intent to portray ordinary contemporary life, with attention to individual and regional eccentricities". The definition for realism, is "the epistemological position that objects exist independently of our knowledge of their existence".

Realism can be accomplished by many methods, which can represent or make something look as close to the original subject as possible. Its function can lead to a wide range of things. These include military schemes and strategies, which Russell talked about during the week eight lecture.

Representing realism through models allows us to experiment and observe how things interact with the environment, which in turn allows us to be able to come up with solutions for further improvements and understanding.

Games and simulators nowadays appear as realistic as possible. The player can be taken on a journey of navigation and response in terms of space, through interactive elements. When modelling the Town Hall subway station and importing it into Crysis, creates installations that challenges a person's navigation through the station and further gains insight into the system and how it functions. My Town Hall model will be used for testing to show the real effects of alternate conditions and courses of action.

Week Two

Level Test in Crysis Wars

Week One - Independant Study

Statement

When documenting the Town Hall Subway Station, only a handful of instruments from the list below are relevant. This is mainly due to the cost and availability of many of these instruments, as well as the scale in which I'm working in, will eliminate a majority of them. The main tools ill be using to document the station will include:

* Surveyor's Wheel

This device for measuring distance is a small to medium scale instrument which will allow me to fairly accurately determine distances with ease. Allowing me to quickly and efficiently map out larger areas.

* Tape Measure

This will allow me to accurately measure smaller scale areas of the subway, in a fairly simple way. I will however need another person to help hold one end of the tape measure.

* Microphone

Used to record voice will allow me to measure the many sounds that can be heard within the subway. This can be done using my mobile phone or another readily available instrument from home and therefore wont require any additional costs and will allow me to document and keep a record of any sounds heard.

* Camera

Using my mobile phone or canon camera, I'll be able to capture as many photos as I desire, which I will then be able to take home and will help me to document the area, giving me a visual representation in which I can continue to develop a model of the subway, renewing my memory with a simple glance at a photo.

* Infra-red Camera

This will allow me to gain a sense of interaction, showing people and how their interacting in the relevant areas. This will also allow me to keep images on record.

* Myself

I will use my own interaction, and senses to document the subway. This will give me a first hand account of the area.

These are cheap, relevant and readily available methods to documenting the subway station, as this is a fairly small scale project and measurements don't need to be highly accurate.

SolidWorks Town Hall Subway Station

BENV2423 - EXPERIMENT TWO - Week One

Measuring Aspects of a Real Site

GEOMETRY

Architects Scale: a specialised ruler used in making and measuring from reduced scale drawings, such as blueprints and floor plans. It is marked with a range of calibrated scales.

Caliper: a device used to measure the distance between two symmetrically opposing sides.

GPS: Global Positioning System provides reliable positioning, navigation and timing services to worldwide users on a continuous basis in all weather, day and night, anywhere on or near the earth.

Odometer: indicates distance traveled by a car or other vehicle. device may be electronic or mechanical.

Ruler/ Tape Measure: is an instrument used to measure distances and to rule straight lines.

Surveyor's Wheel: also called a clickwheel, hodometer, waywiser, trundle wheel, or perambulator is a device for measuring distance.

Taximeter: is a mechanical or electronic device installed in taxicabs that calculates passenger fares based on a combination of distance traveled and waiting time.

Planimeter: is a measuring instrument used to determine the area of an arbitrary two-dimensional shape.

MATERIALITY

Durometer: one of several measures of the hardness of a material. Hardness may be defined as a materials resistance to permanent indentation.

Impulse excitation technique: a small mechanical impulse causes the sample to vibrate. The vibration depends on elastic properties, density, geometry and inner structures. Finds elasticity of a solid.

Universal Testing Machine: is used to test the tensile and compressive properties of materials.

SOUND

Laser microphone: is a surveillance device that uses a laser beam to detect sound vibrations in a distant object.

Seismometers: instruments that measure and record motions of the ground, including those of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, nuclear explosions, and other seismic sources.

Microphone: is an accoustic-to-electric sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal, used for recording voice.

Sound level meter: measure sound pressure level and are commonly used in noise pollution studies for the quantification of almost any noise.

LIGHT

Camera: device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images.

Light Meter: device used to measure the amount of light. Often used to determine the proper exposure for a photograph.

Photodiode: capable of converting light into either current or voltage, depending upon the mode of operation

Light dependent resistor: is a resistor whose resistance decreases with increasing incident light intensity.

INTERACTION

Olfactometer: is a device typically used to measure the keenness of the sense of smell.

Medical thermometer: used for measuring human body temperature.

Human Body: Using yourself to gain a first-hand account of the area and interaction within it.

Infra-red camera: device that forms an image using infrared radiation.

Week Five - Independant Study

The Physical Effects of Explosions on Porosity
Final Submission

Machinima:

Crysis Wars:

Crysis Wars Level Link

Google SketchUp:

Ramp/Platform SketchUp Link

Week Five - Students Review

Week Four - Independant Study

Mode Statement

The documentary mode I am using to create my machinima documentary is the 'observational mode'. This is where the user, me for example, is able to witness the actions of other characters to show the idea behind the machinima. Using this type of mode ensures I am able to see first hand the scene (environment) and what happens to it during the explosion.

Through my documentary I am able to view the explosion from different vantage points which allows me to evaluate the maximum/minimum destruction. The benefit of utilizing the observational documentary mode is that I will be able to experiment the effects of porosity and explosions.

Week Four - Documentary Production

The Physical Effects of Explosions on Porosity

Week Three- Independant Study

Interactive Opportunities of my environment incorporate the time of day and rain. Time of day constantly changes over time allowing me to observe the lighting and shadow effects this creates. The rain becomes constant and provides a sense of life-like opportunities. I have continued the sense of interaction between man and his environment.

Week Two- Independant Study

Effects of Explosions

Hypothesis:

An explosion on my 3D field, will cause a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. The explosion will create a shock wave. The blast will also cause debre to be shot into the air and thus scattered around the area. Therefore the explosion will have a mast impact on objects surrounding its radius.

However, this is not all true, as explosions can also have a minimal impact.


Filmed Explosions:

Using the eplosive barrels, I assumed this would cause the greatest impact and carnage, however as you can see, out of the three explosions, this one had the least amount of destruction. Placing the houses next to each other I would have expected both houses to be damaged, however only the one house had minor damage.

Using the ramp, I was able to gain a good view and advantage point to access the damage caused by these grenades. This was clearly the greatest amount of damage out of the three explosions. The house shattered into many pieces and can be seen clearly from the platform. I thought this explosion would have the least amount of damage, as it is a small grenade, however I was quite wrong.

This explosion used C4 which I placed and then had the power to detonate when I chose to. This explosion had a reasonable amount of destruction as I thought it would. Placing the vehicles near each other, I was able to conclude that due to the eplosion, the vehicle was shot up into the air and was endangering the other vehicles and therefore caused a great deal of mayhem.

Week Two- The Ramp

The ramp and platform are made to incorporate the whole idea of interaction. All my ideas are based around this notion of involvment and interacting with the environment around you. Therefore I designed this ramp, which isn't over the top and getting to unrealistic heights. This creates the effect of involvment in the destruction making and feeling the affects first hand.

Week One- Independant Study

Environment In Progress



The development of my environment promotes this sense of interaction. I have decided to show the relationship between man and the surrounding environment. It creates a sense of involvment and gives me a first hand account of what is happening which allows me to gain a good understanding through my observations.

BENV2423 Week One