EXP2 Documentation Methodology

Documentation Methodology

Click to watch in HQ:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDHMdya0Sbs

(video may have no sound because of youtube's licence block)

Song Credits: Linkin Park - Numb

Solidworks file:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ezmgmzrn54j

3dsmax file:

http://www.mediafire.com/?momnwnwz4zj

Crysis level & objects:

http://www.mediafire.com/?mdzjwzkmni4

Image Captures of Townhall with installations (without colour)

Explanations

At first i planned on making moving obstacles for my installation, but found that this particular installation can not work to my advantage, and so i decided to come up with a scenario of where Townhall and the city was abandoned and for you to get out, you'll have to pass by obstacles and follow the light to the upper levels. But this too was too hard to plan out and create, and did not satisfy what i wanted to produce. Then after, i moved on to creating lights that would guide the player on a certain route. But when i was adding lights in, i found that if i moved to certain angles, i cannot see the light at all, even in player mode. This was a major obstacle for me to overcome because i have came to a conclusion to challenge players this way. So then instead, i thought of using signs, arrows and crosses in place of green and red lights. Thus the installation became a series of arrows and crosses which are used to challenge the players perception and navigation.

The arrow tests peoples initiative to follow given directions. The arrows are specifically set out to take players the long way around the station to the end point. By doing this, most players would, to save time, try to find shortcuts. My installation will test would people do this, or would people simply follow signs and directions.

The result i returned was that, most people will follow set directions, while some will try to find shortcuts, but once they find that its a mistake to take shortcuts, they will keep to the given directions, ignoring possible shortcuts to avoid making the same mistake again and pro-long their journey any longer.

Research Assessment

Research Question: Which method is more efficient for modelling, texturing and exporting accurate, semi-complex objects (objects with higher number of poly's - cylindrical shapes).

Click on the link to watch in HQ:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32XTGt5PxVI

After-word and explanations

In terms of efficiency i focused the assignment on which one is quicker to complete set tasks. I found that the quicker it is to complete a task, the less steps there is to be taken, therefore the more efficient it is.

Sketchup as it is, cannot be argued that it is simple and easy to use, especially for beginners. But it is because of its simple-ness that makes it much more time consuming to produce a more accurate model. Sketchup is a simple and straight forward to use program for modelling, but when it comes to exporting and converting the files to crysis compatible, it is more confusing, and involves more steps. And while importing into crysis, the initial measurements i had on sketchup completely blew out of proportion. This may be because i did not set it right from the beginning, but i did go back and check again to make sure measurments are in centimetres, but as it is, when i imported into crysis, i had to resize, which is yet again, a time-consuming task to do, plus it is less accurate - at least in size. Materially, sketchup is easy to apply materials on, but i found that the end result is less neat compared to 3dsmax.

On the other hand, solidworks came out as the more easier program to use when modelling the set object. Its advantages include its more complex interface, with the more complex tools that users can use to save time. Like the linear tool that i used within the research, it proved to save me a lot of time, compared to having to draw and extrude each and every one in sketchup. Though one disadvantage would be that i cannot do every task in solidworks, that there is a need to use 3dsmax to apply materials on. This turned out to take a little more time, as i had to export and import. Materially, 3dsmax took longer because i had to take more steps into applying the material on the faces, and setting them to the correct setting. But an advantage of this is that the end result came out much more nicer and neater in crysis. And finally, compared to sketchup, exporting (both materials and object) from 3dsmax was much more quicker and easier. When imported to crysis, the object also came out the correct size, with no needs to resizing, which in the end saved me much more time and effort.

Therefore by my comparison of which method overall took the quickest to complete, i concluded that the solidworks method was much more efficient when it comes to modelling semi-complex models.

Real Time Image Captures