30th August 2013

Entrance to Spike Island Prison. 

I have also been trying to make a flag to go on top of the fort entrance. I have been able to create a flag in 3ds max by rigging and skinning a plane and importing it into UDK. 

It waves like a flag but the plane is only one sided so as it waves one side is invisible as seen below. 

At the moment the only possible solution I can find to this problem is to download an older version of 3ds max as the 2012 version does not allow ActorX plugins so I am downloading the 2011 version to see if I can get it to work.

EDIT: This was easily fixed by checking "Two Sided" in the UDK material editor window for the flag material.

2012 version of 3ds max no longer needs ActorX plugins as the use of the .fbx file format allows everything to be exported within the same file.

29th August 2013

I have added some sound clips to the cells. I used some clips of generic sounds such as doors banging and footsteps in the distance. I then added a plugin to the clips to recreate the reverberation of the spaces. UDK requires that the audio files be in a 16bit .wav format with a sample rate of either 22.05Hz or 44.1Hz. 

In the C Class cells I added an AmientSoundSimple to the level which is a constant background noise. The sound I added is the hum from a fluorescent light bulb which could be heard the day I visited the cell. I also added other sounds into the level which are triggered as the player walks around the space. I added these sounds as AmbientSoundSimpleToggleableNonLooping as these sounds can be triggered using kismet. I then added a trigger to each sound in the level and set them up in kismet so that when the player touches the trigger the sound clip is played only once and does not continue to play in a continuous loop (this was done by setting the max trigger count to 1) so that the trigger is only set off once and not every time the player touches it.

I also added some more texturing/decals to the C Class cell to get across the damp and mould effect.

28th August 2013

This is my model of the solitary confinement cells in the Mitchell Block on Spike Island Prison. These cells are extremely dark and oppressive. They consist of a small barrel vault room made of brick. There is a lot of mould and they are very damp. The cell has a small window which leaves in hardly any light. The only furniture in the room is a mattress on a concrete base. These cells are basic to say the least.

I focused on texturing and lighting to really capture the atmosphere of the space. I used a very high resolution red brick texture which matched as closely as possible to the brick found in the actual cell. I then applied decals to the surfaces in order to get the moss, mould and damp effects seen on every surface. 

I also used bump mapping in order to bring out the texture and feel of the red bricks which works well with the dim lighting used in the cell.

These cells are very dimly lit, even more so than appears in the renderings I have shown. The cells are extremely dark and you can only begin to make out shapes after a few minutes of your eyes adjusting to the darkness. For this reason I have added a dim point light which can be turned on or off to allow the user to get a feel for the damp and oppressive cell. I have also added a flashlight which can be turned on or off however, the flashlight can only move in a horizontal direction and cannot move up and down. This is something that I am working on. The effect of the flashlight can be seen below with the light both turned on and off.

I have prepared some audio cues such as banging doors, jangling keys and dripping water for use with in the cells. The audio cues have a reverberation applied to which matches the acoustic environment of the actual cell.

26th August 2013

This is the model of the 'C Class' Cells from Spike Island Prison. These cells held four prisoners and while they were considerably more 'comfortable' than the solitary confinement cells, they were still very grotty and dull. 

Texturing a lighting was very important. The mattresses were filthy and the surfaces were mouldy and damp with peeling paint. I am happy with the texturing on the ceiling as I added some decals to create a crumbling type of effect but I think some more could be added to the walls. The bump mapping does help bring out the texture of years and years of layers of paint. 

The cells have a toilet and washbasin and also a mirror above the sink. The mirror was made using a  SceneCaptureReflectActor (seen in the image below). This actor allows a texture to be created which can be applied to a static mesh, which results in a dynamic reflection that changes as you move within the space. 

However the SceneCaptureReflectActor does not appear when the game is run. I would like to add some lighting coming in through the window however I have not been able to do this yet.

I have made some audio cues for this space to go in the background. The main sound created for the cell is the hum of fluorescent lighting which was very prominent.

20th August 2013

I completed the Island level of my project last week. This week I have been working on getting through the models of the cells and creating the interactive elements. I should have most of the modelling completed by tomorrow evening. 

I managed to improve the lighting and efficiency of my Island level by changing some of the environment lighting settings. The first thing I changed was to change the world lighting colour values from black to a lighter colour in the spectrum. This immediately solved the problem that I was previously having with my models appearing black when I played the game. Below are some screen shots from the game showing improved lighting.

I have also been working on trying to create a particle emitter to algorithmically produce damp and mouldy effects on the surfaces of the prison cells. I have not yet managed to create this effect however, I have produced a particle emitter which creates a flock of seagulls. A number of seagulls between a minimum and maximum value are produced at random intervals, with various lifetime values. They are situated within a spherical area. Increasing or decreasing the radius of the sphere results in the seagulls being close or far apart. 

The seagulls themselves are created on a texture which is a .tga file with four rows of static images of a seagull at various stages of the flight cycle. The images are evenly spaced with a transparent background. I then set the texture in the Unreal Cascade particle emitter to be gridded into an 8x4 grid. I then added a SubUV Movie Module which cycles through the texture sub images in order from left to right which has a set framerate. (It is similar to how a flip-book animation behaves.) 

The flock of seagulls add an animated element to the level bringing movement and another visual interest to the environment. 

13th August 2013

One thing that I cannot seem to get right is the lighting of my models when I bring them from 3DStudio max into UDK. They appear very dark and are only well lit when I place a spot light in front of them (this is not a solution). All of the models have light maps and a second UV channel. I have tried changing the values in the world lighting properties but have not yet had success. 

12th August 2013

When creating models in 3d studio max to import into UDK the file format of the textures used is extremely important. I had been working with PNG file formats. I would unwrap UVW for each mesh. Then create a UV map for my mesh and render a UV map in a PNG file format. I then would import my PNG file into photoshop and texture as appropriate. After that my PNG texture would be applied to my mesh in 3dstudio max, which always worked fine. I would then export my mesh as a .FBX file which includes both the mesh and the textures. Next I would import my mesh into UDK as a package. After this one of two things would happen. Either UDK would immediately crash or else the model would import with no textures attached. After a lot of trying and trying again it became clear that the problem was the texture file format. I then began saving my textures as .tga (TARGA) files and the whole thing worked perfectly with my models being easily imported. I still have not been able to successfully also apply a bump map to my meshes.

7th August 2013

This week I am concentrating on finishing the 'Island Level'. I have begun modelling the pier and roads. I have also made the sea. Water is a very complex material to make. The water material is unlit as unlit materials render much faster it also needs to move randomly, appear to reflect the sky and it also requires a level of specularity. The following texture creates a surface that moves in realtime and also has reflections. 

This resulted in the material which can be seen in the image below. I also added fog as this adds atmosphere and a more realistic appearance to the sea in the distance. In this case I added an Exponential Height Fog actor.

31st July 2013

I have not posted over the last few days so this is a recap on what I have been working on and some of the developments that have been made. 

I finally created an accurate heightmap in photoshop which I was able to bring into UDK. I created the Island using the Unreal Landscape Editor. I was able to measure the Island in Unreal Units and then convert these dimensions into metric dimensions in order to create as accurate as possible model of the island. The actual dimensions of the Island are 900m x 700m with an elevation of 24m. The heightmap I used was 509 x 509 resulting in 127 quads per section, with 4 sections per component, and 4 components in total. I then smoothed out the contours of the model using the various brushes in the landscape editor.

I then began to apply textures to the model. I created a material for the Island and added a few different textures to this material. I painted these textures onto the Island. (I did not spend a lot of time perfecting the texturing as this is something that I can come back to, and is also something that I could end up spending/wasting a HUGE amount of time on.) One issue that I would like to correct however, is the tiling effect that can be seen especially on the grass. I have tried looking at a few tutorials to correct this but none have worked so far. I will keep looking. The tiling effect is very visible when you look at the Island as a whole as can be seen below.

It is not too apparent in game mode in the areas close to the viewer however it does become very apparent in the distance as seen in the image below. I also decided to get rid of the default HUD and player weapon/arm from the game interface (as seen below) as these were in no way in keeping with my project.

I wanted to create more of a "tourable" environment. Taking away the arm was simple. All that was required was to go to - View - World Properties - World Info - and tick the "No default inventory for player" checkbox. This removed the weapon and arm.

The HUD was removed using Kismet. This was done by right clicking and adding a New Action - Toggle - Toggle HUD. I then added an event to trigger no HUD. I chose the event to be Level Loaded. Once the level is loaded and visible I connect this to the Hide the HUD. I then added a variable to tell the HUD to remove from all players. This was done by right clicking and adding New Variable - Player - Players. The HUD is no longer visible.

Below is the level with the HUD and arm removed leaving a much more clear and cinematic type of view.

I also have added a sky dome to my level which already brings the scene to life and gives it a more realistic feel. I also plan on adding the sea and some fog to enhance the atmosphere of the Island and create moving clouds.

My aim for the next few days is to focus on the areas of importance and work out from that. I will create block models for all of the buildings on the Island and the fort and then begin modeling the spaces of interest in more detail. I will not be texturing the whole Island in detail as I do not feel I will have the time. Instead I will focus on the path that the user will take from the pier up to the fort. At the moment I think that my "game" will consist of three levels. The first being the walk from the pier to the fort. The second entering the fort and the third level being entering the prison cell. 

I have also done some research into creating the damp/dirty/weathered effect on my buildings. I have been looking into Unreal Cascade, however, have not found anything that could help me in developing the effect. It has been suggested to use decals to achieve the effect, so I will also look into this.