Progression

where should i begin....

i made myself a spreadsheet that helped me with my previous projects and kept me on top of things and kept me organised. so i decided to create one for my final major project as it would benefit me for my F.M.P and keep me organised.

here is a snapshot.

As you could see on the spreadsheet i started to model a few asset's which is 3 wood box types that you normally have, on the side of town or a market and a bike holder. Here are some renders of the assets i have modeled...

I have done some simple assets today due to my illness, not feeling well what so ever. got a bad headache, sore throat and runny nose with a bad temperature...looking forward to a better day tomorrow and more of a productive day but for now i need this illness to go away...

FinalMajorProject MAP

Here's the layout of my final major project.. as you can see, you start right at the bottom, by the the outdoor market. You walk up to the statue on the side before you get to the statue, are some accessible shops that you could enter and check. soon after you have discovered the stores you get back to walking up to the statue where it leaves you to two directions, one side is barred and the other side has a hole, which leads you through the indoor market. Where you could go in and find other stores but you don't have that much room to explore as you come to a stage where its blocked.

White box - Progression 01

basically you start from here and you move down the level and then you lead to a statue which leaves you to two ways, one side's blocked and the other, you have access to. so you go through the cracked fence and go through the building and explore and try to figure why all this has happened. there would be some smashed stores and a small path that leads you to the smashed building that is blocked by its remaining's. (more to come)

Project Brief...

Islamnoor Khan FMP – Project brief

Overview/ Genre

My project is inspired from a film called ‘28weeks later’ the idea I took from that movie is, where they have a deserted city but mine is going to be a deserted market in the style of 1900’s, where everything is robbed and smashed up. It’s a small town that directly leads you towards the centre to the statue that leaves you to two directions into the indoor market. One side that is shut and one side that is open where you could go in and explore the indoor town but the interior is completely damaged and no way to get through as the path is trapped with broken objects.
The story behind this is a character who has returned to his local town where he finds out that everything is not the same which is clearly shown by the deserted market that’s been absolutely smashed and robbed which leads him to so many questions, as in…what happened here? Why is it like this? Etc. So the puzzle of the game is that he/you as the gamer go throughout the level to suss things out and find the reason for its doing.

The genre and theme to this environment is very unwelcoming even though it has some hint of likability like the weather which would be around 6ish in the evening with a hint of sunlight but the environment shows a whole different story.
Platform/style

I will try and get my environment in 3D and try to give it a photorealistic style and finish to the model. I’m going to try to make it look as realistic as the reference or the town itself and merge it together in a way that it looks as one environment and it will be aimed at Xbox360, PS3 and the PC.

Technical Specification

Tri count Environment
My tri limit for the environment itself would be 70,000 triangles. My town is not small sized environment as it seems it is pretty big where as you got the outdoor market and a bit of the indoor market and few buildings that are accessible. In basic environment in game industry intend to use more triangles than I have actually used but I personally think I have been reasonable with the tri count I have chosen.

Texture budget
Once again for one of the projects we had 30mb of texture page and that was for one of our small project which was the, ‘rooftop’. Whereas my final major project, is huge compared to my roof project so I will give myself 50mb of texture space as it would be reasonable as I have a lot of big buildings that will be 1024x1024 each possibly with alpha and some that are without. So it will easily round up to 50mb so I personally think 50mb is reasonable.

Big buildings – 1024x1024 24bit with alpha 1024x1024 32bit
Small buildings – 768x768 24bit or with alpha 768x768 32bit
Accessible buildings – 2x 2048x2048 24 bits or 2x 2048x2048 32 bits as it will be very detail as the character with interact with the items in stores.
Assets tri count

I would have 20,000 triangle limit for my assets as I would have a lot of assets that I would have that would be very complex such as the statue, interior shops, bazaar, tables, chair etc. as I won’t have the freedom of saving triangles by multiplying I would give myself 20,000 triangles that seem reasonable but not too much freedom as I need to keep it within a limit of any game that’s been made for ps3 and Xbox360.

Texture Budget

As for my texture budget for the assets would be 20mb that Is around 5texture pages of 1024x1024 with alpha which is not as much but I personally think that is more than enough for my assets and some will be detailed and for those assets I will use this size, 1024x1024 and where as some would be very small object where I could use one of the smallest size which is, 256x256 24bit.
Accessible shop interior – 1024x1024 24bit or 1024x1024 32bit with alpha
Statue – 1024 x1024 24bit or 1024x1024 32bit with alpha
Small assets – 768x768, 512x512, 256x256 24bit or 768x768, 512x512, 256x256 32bit with alpha
Bazaar which is a small outdoor markets where they sell fruits, material, products, possibly anything – 1024x1024 24bit or 1024x1024 32bit with alpha

Scales

The scale I will use is the UDK scale which is 2.54cm: 1UUS (in inches)
Assets to be created
-Large buildings: that’s just viewable from the outside
-Medium building: just viewable form the outside
-Small buildings: just viewable from outside
-Accessible shops: items – clear stock, clear fridge with few cans left, robbed tills, few cash on the floor, cigarette store at the back.
-Bazaar (outdoor market)
-Shutters
-Statues
- Chairs, tables which falls in place with the interior
-Broken buildings
-Dome
-Pipes
-Cracked window
-Drain
-Plank of wood
-Possible some trees
-Bins / papers / books
-Shop signs
-Lamp post
-Rotten fruits
-Boxes
-Sky dome

Textures would be from realistic photographs that are going to be edited with Photoshop.

Scalable option

Possibilities: extra bits that I am thinking of is having a few vehicles in the scene and having some interact with the environment and having some rats going across the interior buildings and some pipes that are leaking and broken but this maybe added if I have done everything above within my time frame. As I have chosen a medium sized town to model and get done but not just the outdoor but the indoor as well with the accessible shops, I will leave this till the last. If, there is time I will definitely try to involve everything that I have mentioned if not I will just stick with my original plan.

Tools and Software Required

Software that I would use would include:

• 3D max for all bases and low poly models
• Baking normal and ambient occlusion from high poly to low poly
• Photoshop for texture authoring
• Using Marmoset to render everything individually and it shows how it will look in unreal engine
• UDK for the walkthrough the level and the completion of the project with a sky dome

Time frame

Time is very important for this project so planning it professionally would help me with the completion of my project.
Term starts on the 9th January 2012 and we got till the 8th of May 2012
Overall we have a number of 17weeks including the Easter break but I don’t guarantee that the projects start on the exact date or finish but I have roughly 15weeks including the Easter break.
Large and medium buildings within the first 4weeks and then get the small building with the interior that are accessible would be around 4weeks which leads me to have 6weeks left. Another 4 weeks will go on the assets and indoor market and the dome itself with authoring textures which then leaves me to 2 weeks to edit every little bits and bobs and put it in the UDK and work on the sky dome and make the character to interact with the level.

Concept plan

For my concept plan, I would gather images for various towns and merge it together and do quick concepts and see what works and what doesn’t until I come to a stage that I have the final concepts from several views which will then help me to achieve and make me visualise my final goal that I would want to achieve. Overall I should have a number of sketches with possibly 3 or 4 finals with a box model that I could quickly concept ideas that would help me to visualise not myself but the viewer as well.