unit 66

Geometry

3D computer graphics employ the same principles found in 2D vector artwork, but use a further axis. When creating 2D vector artwork, the computer draws the image by plotting points on X and Y axes (creating coordinates) and joining these points with paths (lines). The subsequent shapes can be filled with colour and the lines stroked with colour and thickness if required.





Geometric Theory and Polygons
The basic object used in mesh modeling is a vertex, a point in three dimensional space. Two vertices connected by a straight line become an edge. Three vertices, connected to each other by three edges, define a triangle, which is the simplest polygon in Euclidean space. More complex polygons can be created out of multiple triangles, or as a single object with more than 3 vertices. Four sided polygons (generally referred to as quads) and triangles are the most common shapes used in polygonal modeling. A group of polygons, connected to each other by shared vertices, is generally referred to as an element. Each of the polygons making up an element is called a face.
In Euclidean geometry, any three non-collinear points determine a plane. For this reason, triangles always inhabit a single plane. This is not necessarily true of more complex polygons, however. The flat nature of triangles makes it simple to determine their surface normal, a three-dimensional vector perpendicular to the triangle's surface. Surface normals are useful for determining light transport in ray tracing.

A group of polygons which are connected by shared vertices is referred to as a mesh, often ferred to as a wireframe model.x










Primitives


The term geometric primitive in computer graphics and CAD systems is used in various senses, with the common meaning of the simplest (i.e. 'atomic' or irreducible) geometric objects that the system can handle (draw, store). Sometimes the subroutines that draw the corresponding objects are called "geometric primitives" as well. The most "primitive" primitives are point and straight line segment, which were all that early vector graphics systems had.










3D Development Software


Autodesk's 3DS Max is a professional piece of software for modeling animations, pictures and games. All these scenarios 3DS Max has made it easy for the user to create anything in the programme when you learn most of the basics. Even if you are new to using the programme you get free tutorials to use that pop up when you start the programme. This is useful even if you need a little refresher on how to use 3DS Max.




Autodesk's 3DS Max has a simple interface with many options you have to learn to create a 3D model, animation or game. You have four viewports to work from Top, Front, Left and 3D perspective view. You can navigate through the 3D view to see the whole model you are creating by using the mouse wheel on your mouse. You scroll to zoom, click and hold the wheel to move the camera and holding the alt key and holding the mouse wheel you rotate the camera around the perspective, or you can click and hold the transparent 3D cube and move it to move the camera around the model you are creating. You can even select to have only the any window you want by selecting the camera view you want (You will know by the yellow outline on the viewport) and clicking the "Maximize viewport window" button on the bottom right of the programme so you can get a view you like for modeling your design.




Once you have learned the basics of 3DS Max you have the tools to create anything you want from a simple box. You can even create a simple mesh constructed computer monitor by using a simple box and the tools you get with the programme. Even more advanced you can animate that computer monitor to turn on the spot without people having to own 3DS Max to view it. This process is called rendering and it creates images for one animation for when the monitor turns in an orbit and are converted into frames and animated in a format of the users decision, for example .avi (video), .JPEG (Image), etc...




Another technique that 3DS Max brings to modeling a product is by letting the user put a colour texture on what they have created and render that texture on the model to give it a good look for who they show the model to. The user will have to select a polygon that they want to colour or they can create a texture for the whole model.







The user will be able to save the file format for use in another programme but not from the "save as" menu. In the save as menu you can only save the file as a file for 3DS Max only. However when you go to the "Export" selection you will get a variety of file formats for the user to be able to work with this product in other programmes to use some tools that 3DS Max does not have. File formats like .DWG and .DXF are stored in the export options so you can edit your model in another AutoCAD programme.




However 3DS Max does take a big hit on your budget because this program costs a total of $3,675 (£2.451.51) which if you are a young enthusiast into 3D modelling you are not able to get this software. However there are other free programs on the internet that have some of the same compatabilities of 3DS Max but are avaible to the puplic free of charge. For example there is a 3D modelling program called Blender.











Blender is a 3D modelling software that opens the world of 3D modelling to everyone who is willing to give it a go. You are able to make models and animate them like the same way as 3DS Max does but with more freedom of tools that you do with the student edition of 3DS Max which you can get for free if you are using a student licence. Also if you have got a student version of 3DS Max and have a model you want to work on with no restrictions of tools you can use a certain save file type in 3DS Max that will allow you to cross model between program's that is very useful if you need to use some certain tools that you need for the model that is on one of the program's but not on the other. You can even go from Blender to 3DS Max so you can just keep swapping if that program does not have the tools that you need.




However there is another program compatible with these two programs that can make animating 3D models easier than using other 3D programs. Autodesk have a program called Maya and it focuses on character rigging which gives the character human joints and features. This will take practise to get the rigging exact on the character but it does pay off when you are there animating the model quicker than you would have been in 3DS Max or blender. However this also cost's money and is a blow to your budget because this also costs $3,675. So if you want both 3DS Max and Maya you will have to fork out more than $7,000 just for these industry programs. This is to costly for anyone who is just ambitious for 3D modelling and does not have the money for these programmes.






However another good program that is free to use is a 3D character rigger and animator from Daz. The company gives you the free software to do the same that maya does with its character rigging but with free software and they let you buy some pre-made and rigged characters to use in the program. However buying characters is optional you can still import characters and models into Daz's program and rig them yourself. These can be models from blender (which is also good with character rigging) and from 3DS Max (Which you can also do some character rigging on). This is probably one of the best free 3D riggers and animation programs you can get from a company because you do everything maya can but free of charge and you can also buy characters if you need a quick model in your scene that you are modelling in the program.







Types of shaders

There are 2 main types of shaders. Pixel shaders and vertex shaders. Pixel shaders work per pixel and are used for things like lighting and bump mapping. vertex shaders are oriented to the scene geometry of 3d space using the x, y and z coordinates and can add toon shading etc.

Pixel Shaders

Pixel shaders is a GPU shader that works on a per pixel basis. It applys textures and renders the image to the display per pixel. Pixel shaders add ambience to textures adding shadows, lighting and shapes. Using pixel shaders you can create a wide range of colour's throughout the environment by maniplulating lighting and shadows to create complex and realistic scenes.

This picture shows and example of the pixel shaders and how they have evolved. As you can see on the left there are shadows along with dim lights but it doesnt look very realistic whereas on the right is the newer version of shaders which allows the shadows and lighting to give a more realistic effect adding sharper edges and depth to the objects.









Vertex Shaders

Vertex shaders are run once for each vertex given to the graphics processor. The purpose is to transform each vertex's 3D position in virtual space to the 2D coordinate at which it appears on the screen (as well as a depth value for the Z-buffer). Vertex shaders can manipulate properties such as position, color and texture coordinate, but cannot create new vertices. The output of the vertex shader goes to the next stage in the pipeline, which is either a geometry shader if present, or the pixel shader and rasterizer otherwise. Vertex shaders can enable powerful control over the details of position, movement, lighting, and color in any scene involving 3D models.


pplications of 3D:




Models:




Models (like cars for example) are designed in programmes like "3DS MAX" because 3ds max has exclusive tools for users to easily create 3D models following simple steps of texturing, designing and rendering. If the user is not comfortable with the user they can customise the tools to their liking for comfy editing. It is good in businesses because it provides tools to draw from so they get the best results in the quickest of times to stay on deadline.












Product Design:




Product design is used in business is in the car industry. They create car alloys in a 3d program like 3ds max and use a CAM (Computer aided manufacture) technique to create the car alloy in the size the creator has told the machine to make it on the computer, and they tell it how many to create so it is also a way of mass production so the car manufacture can create a mass amount of car alloys for their customers.















Animation in film:




3D animation is used in hit blockbuster films like avatar and the matrix and it's programmes like 3DS Max that help achieve the professional standard of the modeling and animation. To achieve the standard they model the character in a spread out skeleton form and create an animation rig to give the character human like movements. The model + rig would be stored in it's own save file so whenever the company need to use the character or need to edit it, it will have its own save file so it does not get in the way of the work you are working on.















environments.

in the environment creation i used the scale tool on a empty landscape to rise the nods and such creating the mountains and paths this then lead to the creation of the games land this took a few hours in creation and the mountains would later be edited to create the caves and rooms.

unit 6 unfinished

Student Name: Ryan Wickham

Unit 6, Assignment

My survey evaluation

I believe in my survey I could have chosen batter games to do this on , it seems most did not know what the game was and there for didn’t answer or simply just said no to everything this was what happened on a lot of my surveys.

I believe I could have done better on my questioning it was mainly based around knowing the game, so I could have had more questions for if the person had never heard of the game this was my personal problem for this survey.

I should have asked why they didn’t have the game , if they would have if they herd of the game , if it was because there was lack of ads on the tv for the game and more to get the survey to have more of a response.

On the first question it seems to be something I was slightly expecting , most people didn’t know the game and from the record they really didn’t .

The reason I believe most didn’t know of this game or play it is mainly in high school you are not in the mentality to be a ‘nerd’ this made people stop playing or just never looked in to it to find out how fun the game can be.

Most people just didn’t rate this because they hadn’t played it but the ones who had rated this fairly high.

Some of the people who had not played the game simply put they wouldn’t play multiplayer or no the others yes.

Most people put open world showing that open world online if the best for games and I expected this , others chose differently but it’s to be expected.

The others seemed more open to co-op or team fighting this is rather odd because the types they selves were not really liked last I checked with communitys.

This question shows most would rather make their own character as would I with this question.

I believe most chose create a character because they could then create themselves in this space to become more immersed in the game itself.

Most said here it was not their type of game others didn’t answer or didn’t know about it.

I could have been more open for answers in this question allowing to see what the reviewers thought.

Most didn’t answer the ones who did not care much about the game this was a fairly honest oppioning.

The area stayed around 10 pounds or 30 pounds for how much the people would pay for the game, this was fairly foreseen by myself.

The people who answered said they would like to play this with friends this is normal for all gamers to want.

2 of the seven reviewers said that played the table top game and I was not surprised from earlier results.

Like with the first question

The reason I believe most didn’t know of this game or play it is mainly in high school you are not in the mentality to be a ‘nerd’ this made people stop playing or just never looked in to it to find out how fun the game can be.

Defining Media Audiences

It is critical for any product within the media industry to understand its target audience to best sell its product, without a target audience to aim for the resulting product will either result as confusing to the consumer or be poorly received.

Creating a game based on a target audience relies of three factors; Platform, Genre and Theme, to find the best Age Range and Social Class suitable for your game to be aimed towards starting with Platforms;

Young Children (5 ? 9) will often have iOS devices such as Tablets and IPads rather than any platform made solely for gaming as such devices are most likely owned by the childfs parents.

Children (10 ? 14) generally have Nintendo branded platforms; these include handheld devices such as the 3DS and consoles like the WiiU as children of this age will often have more responsible to own their own possessions, these platforms are ideal for children as their overall games are more complicated then iSO games but are still bright, colourful and only resort to slapstick violence.

Teenages (14 ? 18) at this age will own consoles from either Microsoft or Sony, these include the Xbox One or the Playstation 4, these platforms often have game of graphic nature and violence that are less suitable for a younger audience.

Adults (18+) a fair few adults will often stay with consoles like the Xbox One and Playstation 4, however due to people of this age having a financial income it is likely they will invest in a PC as they may be used for both work and gaming, as well as the ease of access buying games on Steam through a bank account online.

Genres are also just as critical to getting correct for your target audience,

iOS: Clicker Games, Platformers.

3DS: Platformers, Action-Adventure, Japanese Roleplaying Game (JRPG).

WiiU: Platformers, Racing, Party,

Xbox One: First-Person Shooter (FPS), Racing.

Playstation 4: First-Person Shooter (FPS), Roleplaying Game (RPG).

PC: Realtime Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO).

These are the Genres most often seen on their corresponding platforms with this knowledge it is easy both to see what Genre each Age-Range likes an example Is (10 ? 14) defiantly being interested in platformers due to their success on both WiiU and 3DS with both systems being made from Nintendo who directly target towards this audience.

Lastly we have Theming which largely define a game and often allow it to stand out, it makes the difference between a shooter being dark, grity and realistic (Call of Duty) to it being bright, colourful and cartoony (Splatoon), theming is crucial much like the previous steps as it can be the difference to attracting your target audience and alienating them.

With this information we can look at developed games to analyse them and put them to the test, an example I will be using is a game named gShovel Knighth

Shovel Knight is a bright, colourful 2D Platformer that is released on all systems named previously with the only exception being iOS, using are research we can determine that sales for the game will be best on 3DS and WiiU due to the target audiences interest in Platformers and more bright, vibrant games, with the sales numbers from Shovel Knight 3DS and WiiU combined made 50% of the sales over 180k copies sold.

However even with this information it is still possible to target towards a niche audience and contradict the information given to us, this is proven to be a risky move for marketing however if done successfully it allows your game to stand out much more on its chosen platform as well making it more like for the product to be spread through word and mouth.

A good example of this is Microsoftfs gViva Pinatah for Xbox 360, despite the information wefre given telling us that the audience for Xbox 360 play First-Person Shooters and prefer grittier and darker games compared to games published by Nintendo, Viva Pinata is a bright and colourful Simulator Game where you raise cute animals and watch them interact within your garden.

Viva Pinata was able to sell 1.62 million copies on what most would consider an unviable platform for the game as there target audience is clearly children rather than teenagers however due to large amounts of marketing, news covering and public interest it had managed to become successful.

Overall to conclude my analysis on Media Audiences theyfre the most important step you can make whilst planning your game and should be done so within the earliest stages to best find the target audience youfre aiming for and what is suitable for them as well as overall public demand.


Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. Qualitative data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques. Some common methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and participation/observations. The sample size is typically small, and respondents are selected to fulfill a given quota.


Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into useable statistics. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables – and generalize results from a larger sample population. Quantitative Research uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research. Quantitative data collection methods are much more structured than Qualitative data collection methods. Quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys – online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations.

Title	The Last of Us
Genre	Survival, Horror, Action, Adventure
Selection of Content	Dark, Claustrophobic, Dimly Lit, Exploration, Post Apocalyptic
Construction of Content	Linear, narrative and character  driven
Narrative Conventions	Story driven, infections, survival, Looking for a cure.
Codes and Conventions	Health and Ammunition, fast paced action, cover shooter, objective based, killing of enemies, variety of tradition weapons
Target Demographic	Older, generally male audience(Young adults-adults)

Title	fallout 3
Genre	Adventure,rpg
Selection of Content	light hearted, dark aspects,post apocalyptic
Construction of Content	personal character, character driven
Narrative Conventions	story,side story's, open, looking for father and more.
Codes and Conventions	health, ammunition, can be tactical mainly shoot fast, quest based, loads of weaponry. 3rd/1st person.
Target Demographic	all ages mainly 16+,males and females (young men and some women)

Title	zombie game
Genre	action,survival,horror
Selection of Content	mid apocalypse, dark, low light,moggy, chilling
Construction of Content	character driven
Narrative Conventions	slight story delivered by light notes or character.
Codes and Conventions	health,slight tactical
Target Demographic	16+, young male's maybe females.

Media text is any form of media that can be examined by the public; this can range from TV shows, games, movies, newspapers, posters, magazines, leaflets, advertisements etc. In this case we are looking at how your 3 games are represented and advertised to the public. Explain what media text is and compare and contrast your 3 games marketing style and how they represent each game. A good way to do this would be to find examples of marketing material e.g posters and adverts. Think about the way the product is marketed. Is it dark and gritty trying to appeal to an adult audience or bright and colourful aiming for a young audience?


Genre


In the case of video games, genre is used to define the type of game that has been created. With video games this is based primarily on the type of game play experienced.

Examples of main video game genre are:
Action
Shooter
Action-adventure
Adventure
Role-playing
Simulation
Sports
Strategy
Survival horror
Massively multiplayer online

There are also lots of sub genre you could go into.

Selection of Content



What kind of content does the game have? Think about the visuals, sounds, images used, sequences, colours and fonts. Why have they chosen that content?

Construction of Content

How is the game set out? What is the content of the game? E.g narratives, layout, captions, anchorage.

Codes and Conventions


Does the game use codes and conventions? First Person or Third person? Is the HUD set up how you would expect? What about the level? Character design? Is it similar to other games in it's genre? How do these help the player identify the type of game they are playing.


It would be useful to discuss semiotics in this section. Semiotics is the study of the meaning of signs and symbols and can be defined as the media term for reading and decoding something. For example, in The Last of Us there is a visible Green Bar shown in the corner, this can be assumed by the player to be a health bar, especially with the health pack icon above it.


Target Demographic



The Target Demographic is the type of audience that the game is trying to appeal to. At a basic level this can be broken down to Geography, age and sex.

with the games last of us and fallout 3 there is much different about the two and little the game apart from the fact they are both rpg's, shooters and action adventures in ways yet last of us is also a survival horror where fallout 3 is a open world post apocalyptic game.
in target demographic fallout 3 is designed to appeal to all ages and sex's even if the age raiting says otherwise, where as last of us seems to be more looking down the path of young males and older males rather then females, when it comes to point of view fallout 3 has 3rd and 1st person views and huds for the player to enjoy where last of us only has 3rd person views showing that you not playing your self but another person.in fallout 3 your game content if based around the questing and create your own path in life way being set in a post apocalyptic world this is used very well and allows a massive flow of new content sounds and creatures in its universe, not to mention its also part of a changed timeline where Tesla didn't die and Tesla coils and such became reality.
in the past of us it seems more story driven showing lack of later addition content and also make's it more of a one time play with some(very few) unique mobs, but where it sawed was its sound creation some good atmospheres in the game its self.