Unity Session 1 (23/10/2012)

On Tuesday I took part in the first of four sessions that plan to examine the program Unity.

Opening the program I was pleasantly surprised to see that a pre-existing game was already built into it and that you could play it. It was a fun bird's eye view shooter which got me excited to start, especially since the tutor running the session seemed nice and loaned me his I pad so that I could play the same game that had made it onto the device.

As for the session itself, I am afraid to say that I was extremely disappointed with it. Both in how it was organized and how it was taught. Why? Well even though I sat close to our lecturer he spoke too quietly for me to hear, let alone others further away from him. This along with his rapid pace of delivery didn't help.

Sadly most of the session wasn't even spent doing anything as after every section he went through there were numerous members of my group who were behind. But instead of being louder and/or repeating the same process on the projected screen he decided to go through it individually with those that were behind. Thus almost half the session (if not more than that) was spent doing nothing, which was annoying as we had already started half an hour late. This made the session seem like a waste of time, especially since coming out of it I can't say with confidence that I feel I learned anything.

Overall: 

Unity seems like a great program to use and one that I would love to get better at, especially since we got a taster of how a game plays on it thanks to the shooter already installed on the program. It was also cool when I did manage to make a basic game within the session.
I thought that the lecturer was a nice guy, but just needed to be louder and more assertive as I never felt confident in his teaching abilities during the session. 
Therefore, if these sessions are to continue then I hugely advise that the session is planned better for next time and that the lecturer is both louder and perhaps takes a more direct way when teaching us. If this were to happen then I believe that these sessions could be enjoyable and most importantly educational.


The session itself was also recorded so if you wish to check out how it looked visually then please see below:

https://plymouthart.adobeconnect.com/_a958359218/p8tn743vdc1/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal

Models for Games Notes (24/10/2012)

High and Low poly crates and images:

Robin Foale        24/10/2012

• Downloaded the crate available from Moodle and put into 3dsmax.
• Went onto Unwrap UVW and then opened up the UV editor. 
• Copied the low poly crate and called the new one a High poly crate.
• Isolated the high poly crate.
• Selected all the lines on the high poly crate except for the corners and inner lines.
• Selected Chamfer and up the high poly crates Edge Chamfer Amount and its Connect Edge Segments until the crate looked smoother.
• Selected the whole crate and selected Auto Smooth. 
• Dragged my cursor through the middle of the crate and then selected Connect and made the segments 50. I then did the same but through the middle of the crate with the same amount of segments chosen.  
• I then opened up the Soft Selection and made my Falloff 3.0, my Pinch -0.25 and my Bubble 0.02.
• After that I then selected the vertexes that I wanted to drag in or out, thus making the crate look as if it had bumps or bullet holes all over it.
• I then used the Projection modifier and picked my low poly crate from the Pick List option. After this I then chose to display both the Cage and ticked Shaded.   

Need to go back to this as I have no further notes!

Models for Games Notes (17/10/2012):

• Make a plane in the front view point with a width of 48 and a length of 60.
• G switches off the gird. 
• M brings up the material editor. 
• Go onto object properties by right clicking the plane. Tick Freeze and then un tick 'show frozen in grey'. 
• Place another plane and make this one see through on top of the previous one. 
• Turn the plane into a editable poly. Select vertex. Work the vertices into a shield shape.  
• Select border and click on the shield's outside line. Drag out using the move tool whilst holding down shift. This will make the shield thicker. Then deselect see through. 
• Go onto modifier list and select 'FFD 4x4x4'.     
• Select control points and drag out the middle. 
• Convert it to a editable poly again. 
• Open 'Unwrap UVW' and select open 'UV editor'. Select Mapping 'Flatten Mapping' and then ok. 

Models for Games Notes (10/10/2012):

• Right click on the object and tick the box next to extrude. When the 'Extrude Polygons' window pops up select 'By Polygon' instead of 'Group' and choose the number you want in 'Height'. In this case I choose 4 (Ref 1).
• When mapping go onto 'Unwrap UVW' and select 'Open UV Editor'. When on it I then select 'Mapping' and choose 'Flatten Mapping' (Ref 3).
• If I am using UV Mapping / Editor then do not forget that 'Stitch Selected' will help connect the sides of a crate. But to do so I have to first break them (Ref 4).
• Using the 'Smudge' tool along with turning 'Normal' to 'Multiply' helped to make the blood look more realistic (Ref 7-9).      

Models for Games Notes (3/10/2012):

• How to make a cardboard box on 3ds max –

o   Make a square.

o   Go on Modifier List and choose Unwrap UVW.

o   Open UV Editor and select polygon in the bottom corner.

o   Drag out the red squares.

o   Select the top right drop down menu and pick Checker Pattern (Checker) so as to make the cube checkered.

o   Reset UVW’s to make the sides of the cube return.

To be completed… 

Images from this session:

Models for Games Notes (26/9/2012):

• We will be using 3ds Max.
• Use power of two numbers when working with the parameters of the objects in 3ds Max. This will make rendering much quicker e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8, 18, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048.
• Set up ‘Snap Toggel’ at the very start of my modelling. That way I make sure that each object connects perfectly. Also right click on ‘Snap Toggel’ and click ‘home grid’. Make ‘Grid Spacing’ (8.0) and ‘Major Lines every Nth Grid Line’ (16) for perfect fitting.
• Bend is also a very cool modifier as I can make any of my objects look bendy with it.
• Always ‘Collapse All’ my objects as it makes modelling an object easier and it also takes up less memory in the end.
• Then convert the object to an ‘Editable Poly’.
• Try and get another free three year trail with 3ds Max otherwise I won’t be able to work at home as mine has run out now. :(