Wednesday, October 14, 2009

GUEST LECTURE: STUART BULL FROM ARUP ENGINEERS

HI ALL,

AS I'VE MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY MANY OF THE WORLDS GREAT EXAMPLES OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE HAVE BEEN ENGINEERED BY ARUP ENGINEERS.

THIS WEEKS LECTURE WILL BE FROM STUART BULL FROM ARUPS SYDNEY OFFICE.

STUART WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE INTERDISCIPLINARY NATURE OF ARUP PRACTICE AND WILL PRESENT EXAMPLES OF THEIR CUTTING EDGE RESEARCH.

IT'LL BE A GREAT LECTURE AND AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO GET AN INSIGHT INTO A FIELD YOU MIGHT CONSIDER FOR YOUR OWN CAREER.

TAKE A LOOK AT ARUPS 2009 YEARBOOK TO GET AN IDEA OF WHAT THEY'VE BEEN UP TO: ARUP2009 YEARBOOK

I EXPECT FULL ATTENDANCE AND WILL BE RECORDING ATTENDANCE.

CHEERS, SEE YOU TOMORROW.

Monday, August 24, 2009

GUEST LECTURE BY RICHARD GOODWIN

HI ALL, THIS WEEK ARTIST/ARCHITECT RICHARD GOODWIN WILL BE DELIVERING A LECTURE ON HIS WORK AND ESPECIALLY HIS NOTION OF 'POROSITY'.

TAKE A LOOK AT RICHARDS WEBSITE IF YOU'D LIKE A PREVIEW OF THE WORK: www.richard-goodwin.com/

AS YOU'LL SEE IT'S GOING TO BE AN EXCITING AND VERY RELEVANT LECTURE.

LECTURE ATTENDANCE WILL BE RECORDED SO I EXPECT TO SEE YOU ALL THERE.


CHEERS

Friday, August 21, 2009

SONY VEGAS EXPORT SETTINGS

HI ALL,

MR WALLACE HAS POSTED THE SETTINGS I USED TO EXPORT THE VIDEO AT YESTERDAYS LECTURE. TAKE A LOOK HERE: http://benv2423-2009-aw.blogspot.com/2009/08/sony-vegas-settings.html

CHEERS

Monday, August 17, 2009

LOST APPLE EARPHONES

HI ALL, DID ANYONE PICK UP A SET OF APPLE EARPHONES FROM LAB 2034 ON THURSDAY DURING OUR LAB SESSION?

IF YOU'VE FOUND THEM CAN YOU RETURN THEM TO ME? THE STUDENT WHO LEFT THEM BEHIND WOULD APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH.

CHEERS

Friday, August 14, 2009

HI RESOLUTION SCREENSHOTS

HI GUYS, THERE ARE SOME NOTES ON HOW TO CAPTURE HI RESOLUTION SCREENSHOTS HERE: http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=35045&hilight=con+restricted+0+and+hud

BUT TO SUMMARIZE ...

FOR STILLS:
1. WHEN YOU ARE IN GAME (CTRL+G) HIT THE TILDE BUTTON (UPPER LEFT OF YOUR KEYBOARD, JUST UNDER ESCAPE).
2. IN THE CONSOLE WINDOW THAT OPENS, TYPE IN "con_restricted 0" (THAT'S A ZERO, AND DON'T INCLUDE THE QUOTATION MARKS ...).
3. THEN TYPE "e_screenshot 1" (AGAIN, WITHOUT THE QUOTATION MARKS) ... THIS WILL TAKE A SCREENSHOT IN *.TGA FORMAT @ 2000 x 1500 PIXELS. THE SCREENSHOT DOESN'T CAPTURE THE TEXT OR HUD, WHICH IS GREAT.
4. THE SCREENSHOT WILL BE IN YOUR ...Game\ScreenShots\HiRes FOLDER.

FOR CAPTURING ANIMATIONS:
1.
WHEN YOU ARE IN GAME (CTRL+G) HIT THE TILDE BUTTON (UPPER LEFT OF YOUR KEYBOARD, JUST UNDER ESCAPE).
2. IN THE CONSOLE WINDOW THAT OPENS TYPE IN "con_restricted 0" (WITHOUT THE QUOTATION MARKS). IF YOU TYPED THIS IN EARLIER, YOU WON'T HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN.
3. TYPE "cl_hud 0" (NO QUOTE MARKS), THIS WILL REMOVE THE HUD ELEMENTS SO YOU'LL GET CLEAN VIDEO CAPTURES.

CHEERS

Thursday, August 13, 2009

LANEWAYS BY GEORGE!

HI ALL, HERE IS A LINK TO THE EIGHT PROJECTS SELECTED FOR THE LANEWAYS BY GEORGE ART INSTALLATIONS.

http://www.lanewaysbygeorge.com.au/projects.aspx

SOME BACKGROUND FROM THE LANEWAYSBYGEORGE.COM.AU WEBSITE:

Eight exciting and innovative proposals have been selected by Curator and urban designer Dr Steffen Lehmann and the City's Public Art Panel. Each project focuses on collaboration, sustainability and the changing role of public spaces, and has been created by interdisciplinary teams including artists; architects, urban designers, landscape architects, and others such as musicians, poets,
a scientist and a lawyer.

TAKE A LOOK ...

CHEERS

Monday, August 10, 2009

BRING HEADPHONES TO CLASS ON THURSDAY IF YOU HAVE THEM

HI ALL,

YOU'LL BE FOLLOWING A COUPLE OF VIDEO TUTORIALS IN THE LAB ON THURSDAY ... YOU'LL NEED HEADPHONES SO YOU CAN HEAR THE AUDIO TRACK.

CHEERS

Thursday, August 6, 2009

SKETCHUP TO CRYSIS WARS TIPS

HI ALL,

AFTER THE FIRST DAY WE'VE UNCOVERED A COUPLE OF THINGS TO AVOID WHEN MAKING MODELS IN SKETCHUP TO TAKE INTO CRYSIS WARS:

1. DON'T USE TEXTURES WITH SPACES IN THEIR FILE NAMES .... LIKE "red test.jpg" . IF YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT USE EITHER RedTest.jpg OR red_test.jpg.

HAVING SAID THAT, DON'T USE GENERIC NAMES LIKE "REDTEST", USE NAMES UNIQUE TO YOU.

2. ONE STUDENT USED A *.png FILE TYPE FOR HER SKETCHUP MODEL. I DIDN'T KNOW THIS WOULD BE A PROBLEM, BUT IT SEEMS TO BE. SHE GOT AN ERROR WHEN SHE TRIED TO COMPILE THE MODEL. IT FROZE AND SHE GOT A *.dmp FILE INSTEAD OF THE EXPECTED *.cgf FILE. CHANGING THE *.png TO A *.jpg SORTED IT OUT.

3. IT LOOKS LIKE THE COMPILER (THE BIT WHERE YOU RIGHT CLICK ON THE *.dae FILE FROM SKETCHUP) DOESN'T LIKE "INSTANCED" OBJECTS IN SKETCHUP EITHER. SO IF YOU MAKE ONE THING AND REPEAT IT SEVERAL TIMES, MAKE SURE YOU "EXPLODE" THE OBJECTS IN SKETCHUP BEFORE YOU EXPORT THEM.

IT'S AMAZING HOW MUCH YOU LEARN WHEN A WHOLE CLASS IS DOING A RANGE OF ALMOST UNPREDICTABLE THINGS.

CHEERS, AND DON'T FORGET TO USE THE DISCUSSION FORUM IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION OUTSIDE OF CLASS...

A FEW EXPLOSIVES, AND FRAPS SETTINGS

HI ALL,

LOOK HERE FOR EXPLOSIVE BARRELS: Archetype Entity/Props/storage_local_barrels/barrel_explosive_red.

(SHOOT THE BARRELS TO SET THEM OFF, THEY ARE FULL OF PETROL)

AND HERE FOR "C4" EXPLOSIVE: Entity/Items/C4

(DRAG THE ENTITY INTO THE LEVEL, THEN PICK THEM UP WHEN YOU ARE IN GAME MODE ... F-KEY ... AND F-KEY AGAIN TO DROP THEM ... THEN LEFT CLICK TO SET THEM OFF.)

WHEN YOU ARE FILMING WITH FRAPS, SET YOUR CAPTURE TO "HALF SIZE" AND FRAMES TO 15 PER SECOND. YOU'LL STILL NEED TO IMPORT INTO AN EDITING PROGRAM (ADOBE PREMIER OR SONY VEGAS ... USING A FREE TRIAL) TO CUT THEM TOGETHER AND COMPRESS THEM ... BUT AT LEAST THEY'LL BE A BIT SMALLER TO START WITH.

NOTE: DON'T TRY UPLOADING UNCOMPRESSED FRAPS VIDEOS TO YOUTUBE, IT'LL TAKE FOREVER AND THEN WON'T WORK.

CHEERS, ENJOY

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

CRYSIS SETUP FILES ON EMUSTORE

HI ALL,

YOU'LL FIND THE CRYSIS SETUP FILES ON EMUSTORE HERE:

\\Emustore\resources\samples\benv\BENV2423 - Lowe\Crysis_SetUp_Files

FOLLOW THE CrysisWars_SetUp_Instructions.txt TO SET UP YOUR CRYSIS WARS TRIAL.

STEPS 6 AND 7 SET UP THE 3DSMAX 2009 TO CRYSIS WARS WORKFLOW (WHICH WE'LL USE LATER IN THE SEMESTER).


TO SET UP THE SKETCHUP TO CRYSIS WARS WORKFLOW LOOK IN THE "CrysisSketchup" FOLDER. THERE IS A PDF FILE THAT SHOWS YOU THE STEPS REQUIRED. WE'LL BE GOING THROUGH THIS IN CLASS ON THURSDAY.

CHEERS

Thursday, July 30, 2009

CRYSIS WARS SETUP ON YOUR OWN MACHINE

HI ALL,

I'LL TRY TO GET THE "CRYSIS WARS INSTALLER" SAVED TO OUR FOLDER ON THE RESOURCES DRIVE TO SAVE YOU THE LARGE DOWNLOAD ... BUT UNTIL THEN FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Get the Crysis Wars trial installer from here:

http://www.bigdownload.com/games/cry...l-single-file/

2. Install Crysis Wars.

3. Run Crysis Wars once to authenticate it (the game won't start, you'll just get a flash in your screen).

4. Run Crysis Wars again to make sure it works on your PC.

5. Update Crysis Wars to the 1.5 patch:

Start -> All Programs -> Electronic Arts -> Crysis Wars -> Check for game updates

or get the patch manually from one of the links here:

http://www.mycrysis.com/newsdetails.php?news=41381

6. Get the mod SDK at the bottom of this page (this will also complete the setup required to use 3dsMax 2009 that we will use later in the semester):

http://www.mycrysis.com/filebase.php?fileid=9441

7. Install the 3 files in this order:
a. CrysisWars_ModSDK_Tools_v1.1.exe
b. CrysisWars_ModSDK_SPMod_v1.0.exe
c. CrysisWars_ModSDK_SourceCode_v1.0.exe

8. The editor is found here: C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis Wars\Bin32

CHEERS, WELL DONE TODAY AND SEE YOU NEXT THURSDAY.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

WELCOME TO THE BENV2423 BLOG FOR 2009

HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE BENV2423 REAL-TIME INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENTS BLOG FOR 2009.

THIS IS A SECOND SEMESTER COURSE; THE FIRST CLASSES WILL BEGIN IN JULY.

THE COURSE USES CONTEMPORARY COMPUTER GAMING TECHNOLOGY (SUCH AS ut3 AND GARRY'S MOD FOR hl2) TO CREATE ARCHITECTURALLY CHALLENGING INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENTS.

CHEERS, SEE YOU LATER IN THE YEAR.

RUSSELL LOWE, COURSE COORDINATOR.