The Future Of 3D Gaming?

3D Gaming? well it makes sense and is the obvious rout to go down, however I cant help but think its just a fad and been developed for that cool flavour of the month feel, which is no doubt what is experiencing at the moment and no doubt it will go onto sell millions but is it really that benifitial?

With all these 3d films been developed. Ok i cant comment on 3D films but having seen for example Beowulf which is a movie I enjoyed in 2D,only let down was all the cringeworthy action scenes inwhich it was going out of its way to interact with the audience with the typical body thrown towards the camera scenes that u expect from 3d, and I just cant help but think why,Id much prefer imaginative and well thought out scenes and storylines which would impress me move than this gimmick. I fully agree with this statement below.

"3D can compliment a film experience if it’s immersive and worked into the story rather than the shameful pointy gimmickry that many seem to crave from 3D films. The best case in point being My Bloody Valentine 3D, which used a pick axe as the antagonist’s weapon of choice; possibly the pointiest of all weapons used in a horror movie http://techmeblog.co.uk/2009/07/19/3d-film-whats-the-point/

I just feel unless 3D films can develop and include brilliant storylines whether its in 2D ir 3D and restrains itself from using gimmick scenes which from what ive been told from fellow studets it has not yet and in a result the storylines have suffered then im not in favour which I fear is what will happen to video games when they inevitaly develop 3D in that well thought out intriquing storys will be ignored for unoriginal action games and cramming as much 3D effect in as possible without thinking.

The only 3D expeience i have been involved in is Shrek 3D at Universal Studious which is actually really fun and entertaing however is 5 mins and incorporates a kind of 4d effect with water squired at you and your chairs vibrating and the temperature of room changing. Even with all these effects it still did'nt feel as if u were part of the action as your in that sense of mind that its a just a screen which I feel that no matter how technology develops you have to be in that state of mind to actually believe its happening.

What Is The Value Of Creativity To Society?

I started of this task with my opinion that creativity only comes from those in the industry from games design, product design and more. In which case these are the people who go out of there way to demonstrate there creative skills in creating something that has never been made before and in pushing the bounds of technology

The value of creativity is certainly huge in the industry, this is the importance between some companies surviving and going bust so as far as a the competitive industry goes, Creativity is the most important factor and the amount of competitive rivalry forces industries to push their limits in creating new original ideas which have never been seen before. Which is kind of what the human race, is a competitive rivalry trying to earn a living, that’s where we have to display our creative abilities but we work together too.

Without a creative mind we would not have the ability to set ourselves aside from everyone else and follow our own steps in life and how could we could develop as a race if we all followed the same goal in life as we need creativity in all areas, for example people who are creative with numbers and solving equations not many others could, or people who are creative with food and serve delicious meals. All occupations display creative strengths to make them a successful living, and displays originality and expressiveness in their jobs to which creativity can also come with monetary value.

My conclusion is We all hold creativity, the stimulation of creativity can be something as simple as Cleaning you teeth, as there’s many solutions in which people perform to their liking and what suits them best displaying originality and a creative frame of mind so yes creativity is hugely important and influential in where we have come today and no doubt will continue in the foreseeable future.

Reference - http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/33307/self_improvement_and_motivation/the_value_of_creativity.html

http://www.projectesin.com/index.php?id=27

Evaluation - LATE (moodle said 25th march to be uploaded by)

I started of the project with a quite a negative view on the whole Second life experience, I just did’nt see the logic behind it and just thought it was basically a place for your internet steriotypes. But after getting to learn the software and learning the capabilities it really grow me. I really enjoyed editing your characters apearance as Ive never experienced that much freedom to basically become what ever you want.I also really enjoyed the building side of it as unlike over software such as maya I found it rather straightforward to build interesting unique constructions and picked it up very quickly. Although I did’nt perform any scripting myself I was really impressed with some of the feauters such as been able to fly your own vechiles and opening and shutting doors.
For my project I teamed up with Dan and Steve and did the Steampunk island. I started off kind of out of my comfort zone which I liked as it was a new challenge to revel in having not knowing an awful amount about steampunk However I enjoyed researching it and found it a really interesting subject to perform.
As a group, we shared mixed experiences. We all came up with really good ideas but we did’nt work as well as we should have.We were all given certain roles within the group however within time we all were kind of overlapping and doing other peoples job for example my role was come up with concept art, yet I also found myself doing alot of Construction and building. Another point was our communication between eachother was not great as for example some of our buildings and designs looked nothing like our concept for our group to then comment they never saw no concept art, and at times we started of building without planning or drawing concept art which was a mistake as 9/10 the buildings looked horrible.
Things I did enjoy is I really liked the freedom, even though we were given a criteria of things to include on the island I love the freedom of basically been able to come up with crazy ideas see for instance our carousel. I also liked with working in a group geeting other peoples opinions and enjoyed splitting up and letting over people who have more skills in a pacific area do that role.
Overall Im quite pleased with the island and the buildings,and some of the ideas we came up with as a group were really good and unique of cause if I was to do this project againg theres things I’d do complely different, for example first thing Id do is redisign the fort as I believe it is a weak link and to straight. I definatly even though it wasnt particulary my role on the island work more with textures cause some of them are horrible and work more with sound and some scripting. I’d also start blogging from a much earlier date as towards the end it got a bit messy on the blogger and may seem confusing. And finally most importantly as a reference for more group work, plan ahead and keep everyone focused on what needs doing and so on but in general I quite pleased with the happenings.

Game Art 2.5

Heres just a reminder of some of the concept/ideas I came up which early in the project, In which I have used or taken forward and developed on the island.



Heres a screenshot of the two mining rigs I have developed, one is accessed normal by people via a lift and the other is accessed by the mine cart which drops down on the lift into the mines with the target of collecting coal to power the boilers of to produce steam powered energy. I really like the designs and Believe they work well together. They would both look good if they were scripted to animate however unfortunately we didn't get round to that.



Heres the mine cart design with the magnetic wheels I planned before. I really like the design of the cart and would be really good if we could get it animate along the track and follow it if its possible.



Heres a screenshot Of Stall I designed, not sure what the shop sells but would be nice to get an appropriate flag. I themed the stall to fit in with the surroundings and give it a rusty theme which is appropriate for a steam punk world.



Here is the fountain I constructed unfortunately we have not animated it yet as it would look really good with the water shooting up. I also like the location as I deliberately ,I made it as the first thing u see when u enter the fort as I wanted it to wow the visitors upon entrance.

Game Art 2.4

Here is final concept art for the Fort, during this project we've had loads of trouble with the fort and basically been unable to settle on a final design and we keep changind ideas. We've now decided to get rid of the roof as I thought it was too repetitive with the interlocking pipe effect and looked average and spoiled the view. Plus when we experimented in delelting the roof I think we all agreed it looked better without. It aslo made constuction easier within the fort as u did'nt have the roof blocking your view. Within this concept they arnt much changes from the previous but a few things which have been included plus I did better quality sketchs and a top elevation plan.Most noticably we decided to add a walkway on the top of the fort whicg can be used if the island or fort ever becomes under attack.

Heres some screenshots of the Fort.







Unfortunatle for some reason we are unable to construct on this side of the fort as we did'nt plan on leaving the wall empty as we wanted to add some pipes onto the wall to complete the circuit around the wall. However we decided to cut into the fort and complete the circle that way.

Overal to be honest im not overly keen on the fort. In stand its purpose as a tall domiant building which will protect the building wihin, however there some parts of the fort which just look plain and boring and its too straight edged for my liking. I would have preferred to develop a more organic shaped fort. Howver as a group we did not plan the fort effectiantly and rushed straight into the design. However this is something we'll learn by in the future

Game Art 2.3

Here is a slighly modified verion of the market from the previous design I did, basiaclly I decided to give it more of a carousel shape than the previous design and I decided against the idea of kind of having housing on the top, and Ive atached the market stalls onto th axis to hopefully rotate which we plan to do or another idea is to have them rotate to the next position and have it stationary for a while. I only drew one main concept image as with it been round and symetrical the sides were gonna be the same and its a rounded shape so there was little to achieve in doing a top elevation



Here is a built version with a few textures Steve put on. I really like the design and if we could gat it to rotate I believe it will look really good and unique. Originally we he decided to go with 2 identicle carousels next to eachother and the plan was to have them both rotating in different directions.However I came across this while looking at a few images of carousels on the internet.



Its an image of a double acrosel ad I though it would be intereting to put this idea i use following the same idea of having them rotate in different directions. Obviously I also thought about how the guests would be alble to reach the top of the market, and I thought of experimenting with the idea with using a crane lift which Ive mentioned previously and if possible to get it animated moving up and down.



Heres a screenshot of the double carousel I just created. Unfortunatly at this point i was running out of time Is it was heading towards the deadline so I didnt have enought time to come up with concept art so basically I just went straight into building.



Having looked at the image of the double carousel again I decided to add a few more pillars to give the ride abit more stability and seem more realistic. I did this for both the bottom and upper part.



This is a screenshot of the bottom of the lift with the railing added. I also put in a switch which we could use as the visitors press the button and the lift opens if this is possible. Would be a nice touch to include.



This is the top half of the carousel inwhich I went with my idea of having a crane lift which I oringinally made some concept of earier on in the project so I took that idea and developed it further. I decided to attach the crane to the roff of the carousel and I drew reference from some images of cranes on the internet. Im fairly pleased by the results however I realised it is not as acurate as it would have been if I would have had concept to follow.



I decided to add a few pipes to the roof as it was quite bare and it would basically give the effect it was steam powered like most items/buildings on the island.

Overall I really like the design as its imaginative, it might not be the most practical of designs but it offers something different,and hopefully we have enought time to animate the floors so they rotate in different directions which will be a great feature to include I believe. All there is to do is to complete some of the texturing and then the market shall be completed.



Final screenshot of the Market area, this is probably my favorite design on the island. And I really like the new looking lift which i accendently found while searching through different textures to use, I added a few copper textures to go with the feel of a steam punk island and basically i'm very pleased with the final product.

game Art 2.2

Here is concept art for the Lighthouse with pub, as you can probably tell we went for a traditional style lighouse with the pub located at the bottom. We located the lighthouse inside the fort but had it at the edge of the fort and have it dominate the skline for obvious reasons. I also really like what Danny did and have the light rotate which is a great feature included. I quite like the lighthouse as its a simple idea I think which is done well and is placed in a superb location.

Heres some screenshots of the Lighouse with Pub






I really like the sign added, just a simple but great idea add just adds to the depth of the ireland.

Game Art 2.1

Heres concept design for the warehouse. I decided to go with the boiler/powerplant on top design which will be the main source of power for the island. The actual warehouse is going to be just a basic building with a basic interior. just going to include a few boxes scatterd around.

Heres a screenshots of the Built warehouse/Powerplant focusing from different angles as shown in the concept, top, front, back and sides.








I think this area is more aless completed all the textures seem to be complete. The only texture that may need experinmenting with is the warehouse roof but overall think it looks really good and u cant see from these screenshopts but it combines well with th port too. I also really like the smoke effect added which just gives a sense of realism. I also included a screenshot at the bottom of the pipeline ehich is conected to this plant which will spread across the island. Overall were satisfied.



Heres a screenshot of the interior of our warehouse which is just our typical warehouse, where everything is stored.

Game Art 2.0

Here is more detailed concept are for the port area as you can see I took influence from my previous idea and just brushed it up a bit sticking with the idea of having magnets for the vechiles to park up to which I really like. So I did a some concept from the front,top and the side to give a view on how it will look from all angles. I only did one side view as the port is going to be symetrical.

Here is a a few screenshots of where we are at with the port, taken from similar angles to the concept art to give a acurate acount.





As you can tell the port is not yet finished as we still need to finishing on the texturing, however im really happy with the development and is looking really good and similar to the concept art in ehich we designed. However since then we have come up with a couple of ideas to improve the area. Firstly to include a kind of platform for visitors to get out of there vechiles which should not take too much time to design and secondly to design a vechile to be parked under the magnet which is a good idea as it would demostrate tho thouse unsure the function of the magnet, but overal im pleased with how the port is looking.



Screenshot of development as the platform we suggested earlier is complete and a view from the top to five a idea of how the port looks from above now as the platforms are complete.



Heres just a close up of the platform



Heres a vehicle which me and Steve modeled between ourselves and placed in the parking area of the fort to demonstrate to the viewers the concept of the idea of using magnets to secure vehicle's.

Game Art 1.9

Here is the concept art for the interior design of the pub, basically we wanted to keep a kind of tradition pub feel, so this is what I came up with.



Here is a elevation of what we want the interior of the pub to look like, basically just gives a better view of where we want everything to be situated within, of cause it could change but this is the idea were heading towards.



Heres a screenshot of where we are at on the Interior design. We have made a few alterations from the concept art, firstly we added a few more tables as it was quite spacious and it looked alot better and fills the room more. At the moment there are no chairs under the tables but they planned to be added later. And we put a few chairs by the bar area.also I added another slot machine as they was plenty of room. And ive not got round to doing the claw machine but plan to do that later possibly in a new location as its a bit cramped over that side and finally the TV and Fire place are not completed yet. Overall i really like how the development is coming on
and forfills out goals.



Heres a screenshot of our Bar area which looks really great, added detail has been included from the concept art such as the drink taps and the bottles and glasses which look really great. I also really like the extra feature of been able to sit on the chair which Steve did which is just a cool feature allowing visiors to interactive, The bar area is complete and were really happy with it.



Heres the Arcade achines which I think look brilliant from the onscreen to the texture which realls adds something to the pub. Of cause we got a steampunk kind of influenced games. Overall im really pleased with the final result of these.



Heres a screenshot of the fireplace, its not completed yet as still to incude some pipes and its not positioned correctly, and an idea is to include a few logs and would be a great idea if we could animate the fire which would look really good, depends on time as theres more important factors to deal with on the island first.



Here is the most recent and final update of the pub Interior, all the textures have now been added, and I added a few chair in next to the tables as shown on the concept art. I removed the TV as it didn't blend in well with the surrounds. However I really like dans fire animation he did. It look really effective and I also like the way he used one of his research images as a poster over the fireplace. Which adds to the kind of relaxed and warm feel in the pub. Overall i am please with the interior and personally think its one of the stronger areas on the island.

Game Art 1.8

Heres some concept ideas for furnature and ideas to be included within the pub, Within the designs basically I thought of the most common things which are included in a pub apart from the obvious in been tables,chairs and so on. Popular things include slot machines,TV, and pool tables which I think could be included into our designs. We were quite lucky as we are situated quite close to a kind of steampunk influenced pub in the Dry dock inwhich we could draw reference too as shown below.



Within the pub were aiming for a bright kind of relaxing feeL to it and we all really like the idea of using a fireplace to add that kind or relaxing and cosy feel to the pub and have a few posters thrown in. Some concept ideas I also came up with was have a kind of mirror reflection for example having chairs and tables stuck to the roof which I think would be really cool. And another idea I quite liked was to have a kind of conyayer belt which would take drinks to the tables So theres a few ideas we can exeriment with there.

Game Art 1.7

Heres some ideas for some buidings/scenery to be included within the island.

We pretty much decided in that we wanted a kind of mine shaft in which would allow acsess undeground in which to hunt for coal to use for the boiler, and to keep the city with energy. I also liked the idea of having the Mine carts drop into underground via the mine lift. I was looking at the new ride at Alton Towers and was thining something like this at around 1 min on the video, which is a vertical dop but obviously not as fast and on a lift.



I was also looking at a ride called Mystery Mine in Dollywood which has a simiilar feature, however I love the theming of the area as it kind of has a mining theme with elements of steampunk, and I really like the water tower used which I thin would look great on our island.



I came up with a couple more ideas involving the aspect of using a crane which I mentioned earlier, The first one is a topple crane, which is basically a crane which can bend in all directions.The other idea is to have the crane act as a lift. I think this would work well with the fort if we decide to include a lift to get to the top. Another interesting concept is the idea of using magnets instead of the wheels on the mine carts and having the cars float by repeling the magnets, which is a really good idea which Steve came up with.Other ideas include a Gallows,TNT boxes,clocks and weaponary.

Some ideas which I came up with to be used within the fort area included benches and chairs and steampunk influenced lamposts,fountains and a few buildings such as a kind of coco influenced building at the center of the fort which could act as a clock and could look very good animated every so often coming out. Other ideas include a sea and nature exhabit which could look good and a few other buiding designs.