Conclusion

This is likely to be my final entry for this blog so I decided to look back over the course of the project, summarise what I've done and how I achieved it, as well as explain things in more depth.

To start with I worked on my own with no assistance on any part.  it was incredibly tough, especially as I started late and only had a couple of days a week to work on it.  this meant I had to work very quickly, as 3D modelling and texturing can be very time consuming.

The design and concept evolved over the course of the project, from a game about chasing Dracula around Whitby, to a game where the player collects Jet artefacts whilst exploring Whitby Abbey, to a scene that tries to capture the style of a painting by Francis Jukes.

The concept art was produced to help me plan how I wanted to layout the level, as well as act as a very short storyboard for when things would happen.  I also worked on making the project logos that I needed for the submission.  With the changes in design I was worried that I would need to rename everything, which thankfully never happened.

When I knew what I was doing, I started making the whitebox assets.  The models were constructed in a way that allowed me to add detail at a later point if needed. these models remained for the most part, relatively unchanged and being used in the current build of the level.

I decided to use a few texture sheets as possible and I've managed to use only two textures.  The overall aesthetic I was aiming to achieve was inspired by Francis Jukes (provided by The British Library's asset pack) and popular videogames that use a painted style (such as World of Warcraft and Vagrant Story).  Components that make up the abbey are chunky and angular, and the textures were hand painted by myself.  The brick texture took the longest out of the texture pieces, as this would be the most visible part of the game.  The UV's for all of the models were mapped to a single texture as stated before, which probably took the most time.

It's been hard work but very rewarding.  I've learned a lot more than I thought I would during this project.  I will most likely take this project further and turn it into a more polished portfolio piece, as I quite enjoyed the visual style used.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Shadow in Whitby Video

(Video showing the environment in CryEngine)

The project video has been uploaded and can be seen above.  As with the images from the previous post, it's a bit dark in places but I think it will do for the submission.  I made sure to put all the required logos in, including the one in the bottom right corner.  The video footage itself was created using CryEngine's Track View with multiple cameras.

Next step is to upload everything.

Finally, Some Images

It's been a long time coming but I finally have some images to upload and show.  They show most of the environment that I've created.  I would love to add more detail but I need to submit my work.  Some of the images are a bit dark but you can still make out what they are.

There are a couple of images I really like that show the hand painted texture used on the building.  Hope you like them.

Last Stages

I've done all I can to the scene in CryEngine (not at home for the next week so I can't edit the build) but I can still post some blog entries from my laptop to finish up.  I can officially say that there will be no gameplay in the level, so I can't call it a game.  The level works in sandbox (editor) but didn't in pure game mode (not sure why and I didn't have time to investigate).

The way it works now is it will play a video when you start the game in the editor and then allow you to walk around and take a closer look at the assets I've made.  The video will be uploaded to YouTube later on and I'll post a link to it.

Just need to prepare other bits and pieces ready for the submission and I'll be done.

Adding Collision

(One of the models with a simple collision box)

Just a short entry about adding collision to the models to make sure people can't walk through walls.  I'm still not sure if this will be a necessary stage, as I'm not likely to be able to get any gameplay in at this stage (I'll be unable to work on this project past tomorrow evening due to other commitments).

Ideally collision is added to the mesh before it's exported to engine.  In 3DS Max it's added as standard geometry that's given an appropriate name and parented to the render mesh (the model you see in engine).  This is done in the Schematic View as seen in the image below.  It's probably worth pointing out that the pivot point for the collision should have the same coordinates as the object it's parented to.

(Schematic View in 3D Studio Max used to parent objects)

The rest of the process is done in the Material Editor in Max.  Models use a material with multiple sub-materials (dependant on how many material ID's you are using), one of which is for the physics proxy.

(Material Editor set-up to turn geometry into collision in engine)

On the Crytek Shader settings (in the sub-material) it needs to be set to 'Physics Proxy (No Draw)', and the 'Physicalize' box ticked.  The diffuse sub-materials also need to use the Crytek Shader but don't need to be set to the same settings.

General Progress

(Progress so far on the level)

As this is the last full day I'll be working on this I thought it would be a good idea to give a general update as to the state of the project so far.  As you can see from the image above, it's far from finished.  The reference map it was standing on is finally gone and the models moved to ground level.  Over half the models have been UV mapped to display the texture properly.The main texture need a few more bits added to it and the terrain need a new one made.

So what does this mean?  Well I've decided to get the map as close to finished visually as possible.  The gameplay will most likely not be included in the submitted build, which will be a real shame (I am a bit stubborn though, so I haven't given up entirely on it).

I will be putting some images up of the finished assets in the next post together with some images of a finished map (hopefully).

Whitebox Stage

(Early whitebox stage with place-holder assets in CryEngine)

I finally started 3D modelling various place-holder assets to get a general feel for how the game is going to look.  It also means I can test the designed gameplay mechanics sooner, giving me more time to fix any potential problems.  I'm using 3D Studio Max to create the 3D objects for the world (both whitebox and finished versions of them).

I will be researching how to implement the game mechanics using the documentation provided by Crytek on their site, as well as any useful tutorial videos I find (I'll provide links to everything I use in subsequent posts).

Once all of this is done I can start replacing the place-holders with the actual game assets.  Texturing for the final versions will be done using Photoshop.  I will post images of finished assets as well from time to time.

World Scale

(Reference image in CryEngine)

Unlike the Mystical Wings project I worked on last year, where everything was giant in comparison to the player character, this project uses real-world measurements to the correct scale (or as close to it as possible).

(An object created in CryEngine used to measure scale)

I imported a reference image into CryEngine to help determine how big the structure will be in comparison to the terrain and player.  The image has a scale that I converted to metres (originally in feet), as this is what the engine uses.  I then used the CryEngine's 'Designer Tools' to create a box shape to the same length as the converted measurement.  Using this shape I could scale the reference image up until it matched the length of the shape (see image above).

With the scale set I can move on to sculpting the terrain to resemble the real location's, adding another element of detail and allowing me to create assets to scale.