Week 4 - Substance Designer

Weekly upload 4 - Substance Designer (The test)

This blog entry will be based around the small test that we were set by our lecturer to see if we have a basic understand of how the program works and how to construct a simple material. This concept was brought up from the previous weeks which was to make a tiled pattern with a feel to it (emotion and construction). I went along the lines of old war-time tiles in a subway. Something that was allowed to be torn apart and also be well put together. The image below shows the end product of what I was looking to achieve, a simple tile pattern mixed with beat up tiles and some even chipped or blown off. At this range you can't quiet see the damage effects of the cracks etc. Shown below this image is a close up of this creation.

Full Finished project

Close up of cracks

The reason I chose to go for this sort of layout is because of the simplicity of it as well as the simplicity of the graph as well. The reason I liked the marble design so much was the realism of it alongside the honest simplicity of it. This is why I chose to do this tile pattern this way as well as the overall design plan. 

Week 3 - Substance Designer

Weekly upload 3 - Substance Designer

The third week of my blog is going to be covering smaller projects that were thrown together to teach us the important parts of the program. Again we were shown basic tiling shown below with the marble flooring and how to repeated the pattern with randomness adding in to make it look a lot less linear. A very basic pattern but something that is almost a necessity in any game with buildings. The simplicity of it was something that I learnt from this experience though, it has such a simple graph and pattern layout that when creating it we used minimal tools needed. Shown in both the image and graph below. 

The graph below showcases the simplicity of the actual making of it all as well as the amount of work needed for such a realistic material. 

After creating this marble material we then were able to ask what sort of materials/ideas we had and the lecturer would then show us how it was done. In this case we happened to stumble onto something relating for our first year which was bullet holes/damage. The issue I had when creating this was in the university is out dated versions whereas mine is the most up to date, creating issues with the actual material. The image shown is what I have manage to import over but shamefully due to the file being corrupted in the transaction a lot of the material didn't stay. 

As you can see from the graph below, the height map and more was used but when converting it all over it shamefully didn't bring that information. You can see the concept of what it is meant to look like by the image shown above but not the entire finished project. I retried opening it in the university but no luck was given and the file was forever lost. Either way the template is there if I ever needed to recreate this concept. These two separate sessions were very educational and helped me with the next project.

Week 2 - Substance Designer

Weekly upload 2 - Substance Designer

Second week going into Substance Designer we were shown how to adapt and create more in-depth detail into our tiles. This was something that was fun but un-necessary to showcase in this weeks blog. I'll skip this week and move onto bigger and better weeks whereby I have more to show and better understandings. In the weeks passed the tile generation piece, we were shown how to create a diamond floor piece. Something more along the lines of worker grilled diamond plated flooring, another floor substance but another challenge none the less. Creating this was simple as we had help quiet a good amount from the lecturer and having a common understanding of how the program worked from the previous weeks. The image shown below is the diamond plated surface we created. As you can see it has a 2D image masked over the top of the tiles, this was something I personally wanted to learn for a personal project so I'm glad we covered this in the session.

The graph shown below is a lot more complex than the simple tile generation that we previously had.
This is due to two things, one being that it's not cleaned up and very messy to read. Two being that the diamond plates needed to be on top of everything, including the original 2D image that's put on top of the background. Not only that, I wanted to completely put a sense of realism on the object by adding in scratches, torn paint and even stripped paint/chips. Accomplishing this was something we were shown but something I wanted to learn. This session was probably better than the previous 3 as it threw me right into the program rather than holding back.

Week 1 - Substance Designer

Weekly upload 1 - Substance Designer

The first week of Substance Designer was something I was looking forward to as I chose it for my specialty and it lived up to its expectation. The reason I chose this was primarily to go into level design as well as material substances which is something I've enjoyed in games more than the actual game play itself at times. Our lecturer introduced us to the basics of substance and showcased some work that can be accomplished. This slow introduction as well as showing us the basics allowed for me to get a full understanding of the sort of results we should be expecting.

 

This first image showcases what we learnt within the first session, a basic tile generation with some missing tiles and also a graveled background. 

Using tile generators we was able to finish off the creation of the end product. This was a brilliant and very easy to understand introduction with us getting used to the program.

Mazes

Mazes

Mazes being a basic understanding of a 'puzzle is something that is brought into the games industry as a way of paving out your game as a whole. It can start anywhere from a basic idea all the way to asset creation and level design. There will always be a different path you can take because everything has a different form and a different function even all the way down to a simple chair. The lecturers told us to take simple objects and find different forms of items that have the same functionality. A good concept of this is think of a common chair, then think of the one you use at home. A massive difference in this is the form of the chair but the function stays the same, there is no easy escape from the function it has but the form can be changed however you like.

This relates back to the first lecture of form & function and allowing different ideas to be casted even though the original will always be there. Take 'Destiny 2' for instance, it takes the form of itself but has the functions of Halo, No Mans Sky & more. The reasoning behind this is because of the simplicity of it having the developers take a big reference from these types of games and using that to their advantage to create something successful and relatable. These types of games use mazes to create simple forms of information for the development team as well as the consumer. These create a simple way for people to choose which path to go down in development from beginning concepts to final production.

The concept of a maze doesn't stop there either, you can put this into perspective when you play the game as well. Most games are developed around this concept of a 'maze'. These are the reason why most games are a challenge, because there is always a different path you can take. Sometimes it's not noticeable but most of the time it is especially with strategic games & FPS because of the different ways you can tactically take down any scenario giving the player the option to take control. This concept is the way we can develop more interesting and intriguing games instead of the same basic standards.

Forms and Functions

Forms & Functions

The introduction to our next term helped to illustrate to us the realities of the video games industry. The tone was more of a warning than a welcome. This was perhaps due to the content matter, which was based around cultural conflict, the form and function of video games, and their role in contemporary society.

Video games are playing an increasing role in the society we live in. It is often reported that the video games industry is more lucrative than any other media (film, television, etc.) and is an 'evolutionary step towards a brighter future', yet many people believe it to be a 'nonsense' form that does not contribute positively to society or engage sufficiently with contemporary life. Are we as game developers helping the world? We find a result in this through forms and function as well as distractibility. At that point though you really have to ask what you are doing, are you really progressing the world or are you trying to persuade people that you're helping but realistically not changing the world at all, if anything you're just hurting it more. The reason I say this is more problems are happening at this period of time in which we rely on things and materialistic possession to distract us. The question being asked is how does this relate to most games and the form and function of them? A simple question to be answered but can have serious consequences dependant on how you answer it.

It is important to think about the role video games play in society and to question their form and function. Can video games have a progressive influence or are they an escapist distraction? Are video games intellectually engaging or are they purely materialistic?

The forms of a game are simply just the mechanics of the game (i.e. aesthetics, dynamics etc.). Whereas the form is the way it moves us as a person, how they use our emotion to increase the game play. This allows for us to be able to relieve stress, endorphins & a rollercoaster of emotions that we can't find within the normal world because of the dramatic changes not allowing us to. People use these to enhance gameplay and experience but negatively, me saying this comes from personal experience and a very biased opinion on gamers because they're all my friends. The reason I put this is because they become upset, angry and even sometimes fascistic and racist. On the other hand dependant they become happy, joyful and smiling, forming a more happier understanding of life and games within themselves. Seeing this is something that I love to investigate and get a understanding of because most game developers and gamers themselves always negate about gaming especially when they are affected themselves. This is a crucial understanding people need to engage in because of certain terms such as 'gamerfication' and how games can be defined just as a distraction. People who choose to make these decisions are people who are scared of the automation period coming in as people are losing jobs and the global market is going down the drain, they need something to blame. People saying 'why are you always on your phone' to the younger generation, the reason most don't choose to look into the world is because it's being destroyed around them by the older generations and the different levels of crisis they've put the world into.

Games aren't a distraction and the forms and functions of games aren't the cause of this. The causation of people wanting to play games is the fact we're in a dark period, something people refuse to believe. In a few years time we'll be laughing and thinking 'what was we thinking' but until then these 'games, films and television' distractions are a way of releasing emotion that we struggle to showcase. Less of a distraction more of a reaction.

Fallout New Vegas - 'Serious' Game Review

The reasoning behind choosing 'Fallout: New Vegas' is the great divide the game showcases almost immediately upon playing the game. The idea behind gang rivalry within a territorial war is something that is stated almost immediately. The player is thrown into this madness without warning and is expected to make decisions within an instance of meeting people.

The way the game persuades the player is by using their own levels of emotion to be shown, either by helping a lonesome town or by helping a gang overthrow that town. It is also possible to just walk away from the situation but as a beginning quest you almost feel you have to complete the first quest you get, not only that it helps with the story line later in the game. It is very much a linear game using engagement to change the state to a non-linear game if chosen too. The way the game relays information itself through interactive HUD and UI is another way that the game slightly breaks immersion but there isn't much to be done about this. The best way to overcome this is choosing the options that you think would suit your character. If this means killing hundreds of people then so be it, you are allowing the emotional and psychological feedback to come your way through choice,

The game is amazing for the reason that it allows you to have these different levels of emotional connection, using the idea of karma and a feedback of this sublimely throughout the game. There is a pop of of the karma system but at the times of it appearing you are too enticed in the game play to care for what it says. This gives off a procedural rhetoric through game play in itself as it's something that can be deemed unnecessary. Noticing this, the rules of the game and the manipulation used to force you into choosing something you wouldn't necessarily choose. This is something unrelenting in games which drives the player to either stop playing due to boredom shown through a linear structure but also can entice the player to choose the worst options to make the game play more excitable.

Either way Fallout New Vegas itself allows for all these game rules to be changed whether the player chooses to. It's a manipulative game forcing the player to follow a linear path but also allowing them to be non-linear and discover new locations.

Barrel

The second task given to us in 3D was to create a oil barrel. This concept was something that seemed simple enough but knowing minimal amounts about 3D it was outside of my limits (with the amount of detail we went into). The concept was to create a cylindrical shaped oil barrel just like the ones we use everyday. I was curious if we were to create a futuristic version, knowing we didn't have to saved me a little bit. The process was simple, make a cylindrical shape (Shown below).

The second step was to cut out a ring shape within the barrel, then add in a indent into the barrel so that it gives off a curve form. This allows for a more detail, realistic view on the barrel itself. Not only that but creating the indent using the edge loop tool was a good way of me learning how to add in detail to a model.

We then took the cut out ring and created the same style of detail onto it. Using the same tools to create the indented detail and marking more detail on our actual barrel model. The best way of forming the barrel from this point onward was to discard the main part and using the extrude tool and creating the size, shape and dimensions of our barrel themselves. 

After completing the extrusions and adding all the detail and shapes that we needed, we then used the low-poly barrel to create a high-poly version. The way we done this was by smoothing off the low-poly and adding a slight bevel to it, this adds a bunch of tris to the model adding more detail allowing it to round off more and for it to be able to bake over the top of our low-poly. 

Low-Poly

High poly

A few weeks later we then went onto texturing the barrel and using the baking process. The best way to bake is by creating a 'cage' from the low-poly object and then wrapping it around both the low-poly and high-poly. The best way to think of this is the cage being the oven, the low-poly and high-poly being two metals melting into each other creating a detailed piece of metal but instead it's a detailed object. This also allows for texture and detail to be put onto the low-poly but also keep the tri/polly count low. 

Cage & Low-poly

The Arts Test (3D) - BA1B

Today we were set a brief, something to see how we are getting on. The brief contained a video game character which needed to be created, 1500 Tri-count along with a maximum of 512x512 pixel texture map. Knowing this was going to be very low resolution I set off with a idea of cel-shaded or just simple coloring ideas. The idea behind the limitations was something simplistic but allowed for many different variations. I went along with the idea of a mimic chest. It was one of the first things that came to mind as I'd seen it very LP in the game Banjo Kazooie.

The initial model came out at a count of 1336 Tris, which to me was the perfect amount for both the level of detail needed but also for the UV and texturing to be easy enough. The picture shown below is of the model itself front and back which shows how basic yet effective it is.

Having such a low budget allowance on everything including the texturing was going to be hard, the UV itself was easy enough for me to complete. I chose to only leave the model in Maya and the Final render in this blog post as the other components are necessary for the marker/marquee. I believe the product ended up being exactly what I wanted and done to the best of my ability (for the time it was at/beginner level).

I believe the art project turned out well and if I was to do it again it wouldn't be as much of a challenge. It taught me a lot and happy with everything.

3D Materials and Textures

Texturing and creating materials to go over 3D objects is one mandatory field needed to complete a 3D model. The way we normally paint/create materials for these models it by using the UV map and painting over that, but as technology has progressed we now have programs which allow us to paint straight onto the object itself.

The point of texturing a model is to give it a life-like feel as well as someone being able to determine what it is easier. Not only that but if every model was grey it would be hard to differentiate which is an object and which is the end of the map or area. The way we used this process was by adding our object into substance painter, baking over the top of it with our HP & Cage models and then working on it from there. We first started with the barrel which turned out a success from the beginning as we were shown how to do everything in that session (shown below).

Our barrier on the other hand was to be made by ourselves and as a test to see what we learnt from the session. Shown below is the image of my final damaged barrier with concrete dents, correct lighting and different shadings of grey to showcase indents. It gives off the form of a HP model but is only around 1500 polygons. Using the cage, HP & LP model I was able to create these textures and materials within 50 minutes.

The way in-which these have been made are completely different to each other. I tried to learn two different styles to allow myself to understand the program better. The same I did with Maya and Adobe Photoshop, it helps me understand the programs. I chose to do a plane idea for the barrel, simple colors and a image, where-as for the barrier I wanted high detail/realism to see the difference even thought they're both around 1500 in tri-count.

3D Baking

The concept behind baking is taking a texture map of a high Polly (HP) model and wrapping it around a low Polly (LP) model creating detail but not doubling the tri-count. This can be done with any two models that are the same, the reason I chose a HP and LP model was because we had to get this done for a test, so it is easier to explain. In other words, you would 'bake' all the textures and apply them to the surface of another model to create a texture.

When creating the barrier & barrel we created both a low tri-count and high tri-count model. This gave us a chance to learn how to bake and then give it a try for ourselves. The involvement of the high Polly model is so that it can be used to create a high definition texture to be wrapped around the low Polly model. This can be done many ways but all end up with the same end product.

(LP barrier failed first version)

The way we done the barrel is explained exactly how we done it, by creating a low-Polly and high-Polly model and wrapping the texture. The barrier on the other hand was a little bit more troublesome. The way we created the barrier was called 're-topology'. The way this works is by taking a high-Polly model, creating a layer around it and drawing on the wire frame/faces ourselves. This did take some time, and yes I did manage to fail at my first attempt (learning curve). The second time I tried to create the correct wire frame it came out perfectly. After creating it we put all the faces together which turned out to be the low-Polly barrier. The images below are of both the HP & LP barriers.

(LP barrier)

(HP barrier)

As you can see, there is a clear difference between the two but one allows for more detail rather than the other. I attempted to put in a good amount of detail on the parts needed, but the bake normally would take over and create most of the detail itself anyway. We then created a 'cage' which in retrospect allowed for a smoother and cleaner bake, is a way of making the render look more clean with hard edges. The way you use a cage is by grabbing the LP model and making it bigger than your original LP which determines how far the rays from automatic UV will cast. It's normally used for control and clean edges, some people find it tedious and unnecessary but for this part we were being taught it in-case it was needed in future reference.

(LP cage)

After doing this your model is ready to be put into a texture program such as substance painter to be properly painted and textured.

3D UV Mapping

The concept behind UV mapping is to deform a 3D object and making it into a plane 2D flat face. This allows textures to be taken and placed/painted on the 3D object easily.

When painting over the 2D planes they then wrap themselves around the 3D object to give off the impression that the 3D model has been textured and painted onto it whilst keeping maximum amounts of detail. There can be many different ways of using the UV feature in 3D, one being it allows you to manually choose where you want to UV and place the cameras exact to that. If you want to do it a faster and easier way there is a automatic option which does it all for you and allows you to be able to connect the different planes at a faster rate.

My barrel itself was automatically UV mapped and I used this to create the base UV for it. On doing this I then inserted a cut into one of the edges around the cylindrical shapes to allow it to unfold properly. Doing so allows me to be able to open up the cylindrical shape and texture over the top of this.

Image UVs done by Automatic UV and then cutting the cylindrical shapes down (Barrel)

Before automatic UV (Barrier)

After Automatic UV (Barrier)

The process used here allowed for me to be quick and efficient, allowing me to complete my UV mapping within minutes. Using this method allows for a industry standard way of thinking whilst also allowing the pressure of time consumption to be minimized.

My personal experience using Csikszentmihalyi's theory of Flow

For this experiment I chose to do something that is engaging and actually interests me, I chose to play Resident Evil 7: Bio-hazard as it has its difficulties and it's scare-factor. The game resides itself around the fear of losing a close one and fighting for their live, putting your own at risk. This game is based around its stress, fear and lack of respect to a sensitive audience.

My first impression on the game when setting out to play it (Without the help of tutorials, I choose never to use them as they ruin the immersion/feel of the game) was to grab what little I knew of the controls and attempting to understand the story. At first glance I was immediately hooked by the call of a girl (who we later find out to be the girlfriend of our character) telling us she is leaving her baby-sitting job and readying to head back home. During which she never makes it back, thus the main protagonist (i.e. the main character/playable character) follows to find her. During this experience I found myself in the character, doing anything he can for his loved ones allowing me to feel at the same level as the character. During this state, I was immersed to the point that I felt as if I was the character, feeling the same amount of stress, allowing myself to get into that state. I tend to do this with games and realised that there was a state of 'flow' based around this.

Csikszentmihalyi's theory of 'flow' in games allows for people to get a better understanding on what type of games they prefer to play and whether boredom takes a toll in every game. The idea is that the state of flow resides in between the stress of a game and being bored of a game. My understanding of this became surreal after playing this game because at every time in the game I could pin-point where I sat on the scale, making his theory almost 100% correct.

My thoughts on 'Game Studies, Year Fifteen' by Ian Bogost

My understanding of Ian Bogosts 'Game Studies, Year Fifteen' is that he is implying that games have more meaning than what we believe to know. I will try to break it down as he has wrote it.

The idea of 'Ludologism' being the combination of ludology and narratology is something that debates with me entirely because it gives off a formalist view which he mentions. The idea of studying a story and the structure of it is something that needs to be looked at differently, it's very hard to combine them both if you are say reading from a book. The great thing is that he allows the combination of the two to come together through games and bringing narratology into ludology. The idealist thinking behind this was to generate a story through visual effects which is what most games try to achieve.

Formalism is something he speaks very strongly of but does not wish to go into detail entirely so that he keeps peoples minds open and not allowing them to choose a path, he is letting everyone have these separate options so they can choose themselves, much like what games do today. He writes 'It's interesting to note that elsewhere in cultural criticism, post structuralism led to a many decades long rise of the hermeneutics of suspicion' here is something that I can agree on for once with his writing. I believe that culture and religion changes peoples opinions on the matter but some people refuse to look past their stubbornness and decide rather to ignore what is either fact or something that is proven to be real (normally close minded people).

Rather than rambling on about his writing I prefer to give my own opinion on the piece, the blog itself always manages to bring itself back around to game studies and how they're perceived. The issue I have is that he has minimal relevance with a lot of the writing such as saying 'after the 2008 global financial collapse' when realistically if you look at how games have been taking over way before this period and way after it so why does it need to be included other than him shoving some useless information in there to make him sound intelligent. This is just how I feel about it and others may feel the same if not more strongly about it. I just wanted to say that this piece was very insightful but also unnecessary at times.

My thoughts on 'Computer Game Studies, Year One' by Espen Aarseth

Computer Game Studies

To those who believe computer game studies are to be renounced this article may be able to persuade you otherwise. To me though it means much more. Going through history is all well, but to get a point across you need to look at the now and how it has changed the world either for the better or for the worse.

In Aarseths post he mentions how games are like normal medias such as Texts or Films, but they are something that is to be 'played'. He continues to mention many other comparisons to games such as 'hypertext' etc. These don't matter too much as I believe he nailed it in the coffin with the idea that the minor medias such as texting or film aren't anything near what he wishes games to be. 'Games are both objects and process' This quote taken from the sub genre 'A cognitive, communication revolution' is the best quote I found in the text. The reasoning behind this is that it's down to the player or person whether or not to objectify it or make it a reality. The player themselves are the ones who determine the success or the failure of a game, movie, text or any type of media. As soon as we stop listening or paying attention it will disappear. Given people still believe that games aren't to be studied or produced is unproductive in the way the world is evolving, especially around the new medias such as Twitter, Facebook & more. 

If you believe that games aren't to be studied and produced at a higher quality, you need to re-educate yourself to understand how the world works and how we're moving into a era of where people would rather fixate on the imaginary rather than seeing their world be destroyed around them.