Week 9- Milestone Two

Beginning of this week Rob have finish building the final building. Every block have physics and logic in it and it also have a mouse trigger. This building is build based on the Leeds Town Hall because it is build by Portland Stone. All the assets use to build the building is build in 3D Max by our group and import it in to blender. Then apply physics to it.

The final building that is build is running very slow when the game is start. It is only running at 4 - 5 Frame Per Second, as supposed it should run at least 20 -50 FPS. This issue was confirm by the group that every one in the group try the game in different computer it is still the same issue. So the group have started to look for solution for it and also carry on with what each of us are suppose to do. So I have put the Rotating, Moving, Zooming Camera that I have modified and build in the previous prototype. I have also added the reset key for the game as well.

After adding all the function I have look into texturing because Chris is looking for solution for the game lagging. So I have take over the texturing task. I have search around for Portland Stone texture. Then texture the building with portland stone texture. After texturing I resume in to the searching for solution through Forums, Internets, and Blog. I have also leave a forum on about the Issue that we was facing but we have no luck of reply from other people. The only conclusion that our group make is that there is too much physics and logic in the game world so the game engine cannot process the game at the normal speed. Although it is not a perfect running game but it shows that we as a group have working collaboratively through out the project.

This is the texture that I have done for the Model.

Then our group have a discussion using emails and texting that worst come to worst that the game is not working because of too many model in the world, then we could reduce the amount of the model in the world or recreate a lower poly version of the game. These options will be the result if there is no solution for it by next week. However if it comes to it our group will be more likely to have a working game other then a good looking but not working game.

Chris have run the game in his computer and using Fraps to record it. It seems to run faster in Chris computer about 10 - 12 FPS. But it is still slow when playing it. After this Chris take over the texture and uses UV Mapping to texture on some of the texture, because some of the texture is stretch .


On Wednesday we have arrange a meeting at 10:30 , me  and Rob were there but Chris have arrive at 13:30.  He showed us a better version of textured game using UV Mapping. But it was still a little bit dark and we have take note into it and because of the presentation was in about half an hour time so we are not able to change it. Then Rob go through the presentation made by him and discuss who in the group take part in the presentation and how to present the prototype to the client.

We have present our presentation and waited for the client's brief feedback. The suggestion is that we need to look in to the context of the game where should this game, how the user would access to it. Where the product is place within the market. One Idea that we can think of is to execute as an .EXE file and can be downloaded from the Portland Quarry and Stone Trust website. We have also point out that the game is not running at a acceptable frame rate. Then the suggestion for this is that we can render an animation of the building falling if we cannot solve the game engine problem. Another suggestion is that we can change the game so that player are able to pick up pieces, building could be rebuilt and also changing to a "First Person Shooter" style that it will be more interesting. But for the time being we are most likely to keep to what we have started and get it to run.

Week 8

On thursday me and Rob have a meeting after the research practice module to discuss what task do we need to finish and to delegate them. We also have a discussion with Nick Cope as well. He have showed us an example of what can be done using Blender game engine that is very close to our tumbling game idea.So we have communicate among our group and decide that it is a good way to start.
The task is split into different part:
Rob is to build the model, I am going to add assets to it such as moving camera and more, and Chris will look into texturing.
So Rob have start into importing the model and building the model based on the Leeds Town Hall. Then I have start looking at the camera rotating and game controls.

I have look into a few tutorials about camera rotating.

Here is the link
Link: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/3D_interaction/Navigating/Camera_View
This tutorial teach about adding camera, How to navigate it and setting the active camera and the camera view.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRIJJL_a9A4
This tutorial is a video tutorial teaching how to track the camera to an object. When the object it move the camera will follow it.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBFL_TliCcI
This tutorial taught how to rotate the camera 360 degree using tracking to an object with a circle path.

Then Rob have build a prototype of the Tumbling tower game and share it on Media Fire. So since I have learn through the tutorials. I use this prototype to try and error on the camera moving. I have absorb what is taught in the tutorial and combining all the technique that i have learn then modified the settings, controls and physics of the camera.

I have use and empty point as the centre pivot after that add a camera adjust to the point where is able to view the object. Then parent the camera to the empty point. Using this empty point I have set the control of rotating around moving up and down using the keyboard. So it was able to rotate around the building and also able to move up and down. Then I have also set the camera able to zoom in and out using the mouse scrolling.

Week 7- Milestone One

On monday afternoon our group have a meeting. This meeting is held is for Rob to show us the presentation that he have done over the week end. Then we are also discussing who will be taking part in the presentation. Rob will be starting the presentation then Chris will talk about the progress of our group and what is done after the last presentation. I will be talking about the modeling and content that we are doing. This include the game idea and the augmented idea, but we are focusing on modeling and flexibility of the pieces at this stage. we also suggest that our group will buy some simple block and stick Augmented Reality marker on it and demonstrate it to the client on the presentation. Rob have also include my falling block video into the presentation as well. This is included because it is to show the client how the tumbling tower would look like and the reason of why it is needed to split up. Rob also put an image mock up showing the Augmented Reality marker on the block and the display on the screen. This is to let the client to have a more clearer idea of what is Augmented Reality.


On Wednesday we present our presentation for Milestone One. This is better then the previous presentation. We have show a clear idea of what we have up to at this stage. There is some confusion during the presentation about Augmented Reality because we didn't explain it clearly, we have assumed that the client know about it. In the previous we are focusing on modeling and keep our ideas open (Augmented Reality/ Tumbling Tower). But now we are going to nail down on one of them. Our group have chosen Tumbling Tower other then Augmented Reality after discussion, It is very important that we are going produce a product that is nearly complete working prototype by the next two week for milestone two. After the presentation Nick mention an open source software that have a physics engine in it. It is very suitable for our game.

Week 6- Virtual and 3D Modelling.

week me have a meeting with Nick about the Augmented Reality idea as an end product. We have discuss a few ways and some detail for the idea such as using the existing code by substitute our model with the existing model and changing the marker and tweak the code by using AR tool Kit and Virtual as the software. Nick also demonstrate a few ways we can achieve our goal.

This idea is very interesting Nick also tell us that Virtual not only can do the Augmented Reality it also able to do the game idea as well. He also show us what he have done in previous as an example. We have discussion after the meeting and come out with that we should continuing doing what we are going to do previously because this doesn't affect what we are doing now and also research into virtual and start building the 3D assets.

I was assign to make a 3D pillar (square, round) using the picture from Rob research at leeds as a reference.

 This is the pillar build by me and this is build using the reference from the picture taken by Rob two weeks ago.

 This pillar have the detail of the real world pillar.

AR toolkit

AR toolkit is a software library for building Augmented Reality Application. AR toolKit uses computer vision algorithms to know where the user is looking in the real world and draw the virtual imagery. AR toolkit video tracking libraries calculate the real Camera position and orientation relative to physical markers in real time. 

Features of AR toolkit :

• Tracking code that uses Simple black squares.
• Single camera position/orientation tracking.
• easy camera calibration code.
• The ability to use any square marker patterns.
• fast enough for real time Augmented Reality applications. 
• SGI IRIX, Linux, Mac OS and Windows OS distributions. 
• Provided with complete source code. 

This is the the PDF file of AR toolkit

Link: http://www.tinmith.net/lca2004/ARToolkit/ARToolKit2.33doc.pdf

Here is the link for some publication of AR toolkit

Link: http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/publications/

This week we have a second meeting with Nick during the Collaborative practice session. We have discuss both the Tumbling Tower idea and also the Augmented Reality idea. We show him what we have build and he suggest that the model should be cut up into smaller pieces. In real life all this part is also in pieces and put them together when building the building. This the explanation for it but for reason to cut up in to pieces is that in Tumbling Tower Activity the pieces would fall a little more naturally and from the Augmented Reality side, each market represents the one part of the pillar for example then the user will stack up the block and have a whole pillar display on the screen.

Our group have a discussion of what each of us will do after the meeting with Nick. Our group have discuss that we will split our model in to pieces and update the latest version of building online and update the group mates.  

After the meeting i have split up my 3D model into parts and i have also done an animation. This animation is to show the client an example of why the model is split into pieces. 

This is the split up of the pillar .

 This is an animation about how a pillar will be falling.

After upload the file to Mediafire ( an open source online storage) . Then Rob start to build a building construction in order to give the client an idea of our progress and avoid any confusion. At  first we plan each of us in the build build one building but Rob suggest that we all should contribute to a making the same building. As this module is to collaborating with the group. After Rob have finish part of the building it is passed to me and I go on building the building when I have done my part I passed it to Chris to finish up the building and do the UV Map Texture.

This building Rob has done

I have added an extra level and also pillar.

Chis have add the roof and tower. He also done the texturing.