Week 3 - Tasks

Week 3 Development:

Reference Images:

Capability Brown

Claude Lorrain

Humphrey Reptom

William Gilpin

JMW Turner

This weeks lecture we were shown examples of landscapes down by a number of artists, this was to develop our thinking patterns into how our island may shape up. Some of these artists included; JMV Turner, Humphrey Repton, Claude Lorrain, Capability Brown.

Week 2 - Tasks

Landscapes:

Aosta Valley, Italy - The Valley consists of very Green vegetation due to the moist climate,  open and bright natural Lighting.

Country Side, Australia - Very flat Terrain, dry and hot climate, open and bright lighting.

Zakynthos, Greeze - High mountains and steep cliff faces, very blue and clean water. Bright as light reflects off the water.

Lake, New Zealand - Dull lighting, moist and cooler environment and terrain, very hilly. 

San Rafael Falls, Amazon - Enclosed and dense rainforest/jungle. Cool and wet terrain. Quiet Dark.

5 Images of Developing Island Textured: 

Vulnerable

Lifeless

Desolate

Lost

Intriguing 

Second Island:

New Terrain Texture:

Lecture Reflection:

This weeks lecture gave us an understanding of methods to create and represent terrain. We were given some tips from Russell.

Week 1 - Tasks

5 Things I Learnt About Sandbox Folder Structure:

1. The 'Game Folder' is where .Pak Files are stored and they are very important as they are where all the game files are stored, from animations, sounds, textures etc.
2. The Sandbox Editor and Game SDK are run from the 64bit Folder (Provided you are running a 64bit machine.
3. The engine Folder stores the Shaders and all things engine related.
4. Tools folder is fairly important as it stores the files needed for plugs in with Photoshop and 3ds Max.
5. If editing the System Config, it is best to add custom comments to a new notepad file and name it user.cfg

10 Tips and Tricks Relating to the Sandbox Editor:

1. X, Y, Z are related to the axis in which you can move objects around in.
2. Speed input box's control the speed of the perspective camera, 0.1 is default which is quiet slow, 1 is quicker and 10 is even faster. You can also enter custom parameters. 
3. Clipping with terrain button prevents you from going through the terrain, if you turn it off you will no longer collide with the terrain.
4. 'go to position' Allows you to enter custom coordinates to visit.
5. The third tab in the roll up bar allows you to show and hide objects and elements within the game.
6. Fourth tab on roll up bar allows you to control your layers within your level.
7. 'Follow Terrain' Snaps to the terrain and allows you to move objects whilst snapping them to the terrain
8. CRTL + G, Enters you into game mode
9. Angle Snap allows you to control the amount of rotation of an object
10. You can create and save custom Groups, for example you could group 5 rocks together and then save selected objects, and import them into another part of your map.

5 Ways you may customise your Sandbox Editor:

1. Drag and drop multiple Panels into one another and they merge.
2. Drag a panel around and you can see where it snaps to e.g Drag a panel to the left and it will snap to the left part of the Editor.
3. Resize editor Panels but clicking on the edge of the panels and dragging them to resize them to the size you want.
4. Detach a Panel but clicking on the tab and dragging it off the panel it is currently attached too.
5. If you click customise keyboard which will bring a customise window panel up, you can customise the tool bars, add comments to tool bars and even create your own tool bars.

3 Ways to Move around in your Viewports:

1. W - Fly Forward, S - Backwards, A - Left, D - Right. 
2. Right mouse Button Looks around, Middle Mouse Pans around, Middle Mouse Button + Right mouse allows you to move around in your scene without keys.
3. Shift Allows you to move faster around in your scene.

5 Short cuts or Buttons and their Functions:

1. CTRL + T - Object Selector, has a list of all objects within your scene, and allows you to Filter, Select etc.
2. CTRL + S - Saves Project
3. Time of Day - Adjusts the Time of day
4. Terrain, Allows you to manipulate the terrain and add custom textures
5. Select and move allows you to grab objects and move them around your Scene.

Lecture Reflection:

This weeks lecture introduced us to the basics of Cry Engine and creating Real Time environments. We are going to be developing an 'island' relating to the Last letter in our last name and the Last letter of our student Number. For me that is 'S9', We are required to create 'subliminal' messages throughout our island design and incorporate various hidden ideas. We will be creating a movie trailer featuring our island and subliminal messages/ideas. We were Also shown various work from students in previous years.