Post 24 - Milestone Three

We arranged to meet at the university for a prep meeting at 11:30. Jon arrived on time, but
Chris was unable to meet us until 12:40. We discussed the presentation, who would talk over each section and looked at some final changes which Chris had made. We created the files, burnt them to several CD and set off to present our milestone three.

The presentation went quite well. I feel that we all contributed towards its delivery and demonstrated the product with all of its features. We answered any questions and took on board any feedback we received. The majority of the client panel approved of its format and were pleased with the outcome. It was mentioned that "it was ok that it was an activity, rather than a fully fleshed out game" and that it was apparent that it was a product, which could have more elements added to it. I was pleased with the feedback and discussed with the group the individual submissions process.



Here is a link to milestone three presentation:

http://prezi.com/btvxlyz9g2yl/group-07-collaborative-practice-milestone-03/

 

Post 23 - Week 11 Meeting

We arranged to meet up on Monday the 6th of December. All three team members participated in the meeting and was primarily organised to run through the final presentation that I had been tasked with making. We edited some of it, added the legal and ethical slide and then moved on to discussing the game. The final version of the game has now been optimised even more and Jon has now added an additional 'arm tool' so that the activity is less violent. It was working really well, but Chris was tasked with looking into exporting the game as an exe file (stand alone application) and to tweak the textures. In this blog are a couple of pictures of the game on Monday.

 

During the meeting, it was agreed that more information on our product's market and its place within it needed to be confirmed and included into the presentation. At this stage, its place lies within the downloadable content (game) and I looked into XBox Live Arcade (game could be downloaded from the Portland Quarry and Stone Trust) and the notion of it being in a 'kiosk' form in or near the PQST headquarters / museum. The kiosk could also be made to be portable so that it could be placed in towns, or in the Portland Quarry.

When the presentation is finalised, I agreed to send the team a link to it, but at the end of the meeting it was almost 100% complete. 

Post 22 - Week 10 Meeting

On Wednesday the 1st of December, the group arranged to have a meeting with the client about our product. At this stage, Chris and Jon have been looking on both the lag issues and the 'cannon ball' method of knocking the building down. Luckily, with our collaborative efforts, the game now runs at an acceptable speed. Chris looked into the problems and altered the object properties to make them more efficient. I streamlined the building by taking out unnecessary detail and objects inside the building, and Jon experimented with the firing mechanism. The result is a working game, which has a first person firing mechanism. This was then altered into a 'tank' or 'cannon' style system. We had a meeting with Brian Larkman, who gave us a couple of suggestions about how to improve it. These included changing or adding another 'knocking mechanism' such as a finger, thus reducing the element of aggressive destruction and focusing on the educational element. Unfortunately, Jon was unable to attend due to the heavy snow, so me and Chris sat down and wrote out what we needed to do. The list includes:

-Texture the Cannon and cannon ball

-Improve building textures by making them look more like Portland stone and increase coverage.

-Create an additional knocking mechanism (such as a finger)

-Look into an 'undo command during game'

-Attempt to make the game into an executable format (thus eliminating the need to run Blender)

-Look into marketing research, such as the product's place and use.

Jon was later filled in and suggested that we have the game completed by the weekend.

Post 21 - Milestone Two plus meeting

We arranged to meet up at 10:30 on Wednesday. Me and Jon were there, but Chris arrived at 13:30. Despite attempting to contact him, he could not be reached. He showed us the UV mapped version of the building, which did show some improvements, although in my opinion was still a little dark. This is something which we noted down. We went through the presentation (made by me) and discussed who would discuss which parts, as well as how to showcase the working prototype.

We presented our presentation and awaited for the client's feedback. It was suggested that we needed to look at the context of the game and how the user would access it. An idea which we thought of was that as it can be made into an executable file, it could be downloaded from the Portland Quarry and Stone Trust website, to allow for an activity to be played with and manipulated. 

Other suggestions were mentioned such as creating a rendered animation of the building falling down. If we cannot solve the game engine problem, then we will consider this, but as the project title is 'Tumbling Tower Activity' we would much prefer to try to get it working. Suggestions of changing the game so that pieces could be picked up, buildings could be rebuilt and even changing it into a 'first person shooting style' of interaction were interesting but in the time we have and the game engine issues taking most of it, we are most likely going to build on what we have started, whilst attempting to look carefully at the context and how people would get a hold of this.

Milestone Two Presentation - http://prezi.com/p2uw5fgg1sl3/group-07-collaborative-practice-milestone-02/

Post 20 - Lag issue update

Chris has been looking into third party applications, which helps in the processing of frame rates. The one he has used in known as 'Fraps' This has somehow enabled Chris to record the game at a slightly faster frame-rate. It is still slow when it is played, but a good effort at improving the current problem and something to explore. If this can be used to run the game to an acceptable speed, this would solve our problems.

Also, after a remote team meeting, we decided that Chris would resume his role as texture developer as he will look into UV mapping. Jon's initial work on texturing the building can be seen in the image below. It is rather dark and it was left at the textures needing to be lighter. However, as Chris has now taken over as texture developer, Jon is the support for texture as well as cameras and movement.

Post 19 - Final Build - Major Lag Issues

The images provided in this post are of the final building, built in Blender. Every item in the scene has been coded with the appropriate logic and psychics, as well as the mouse triggers. As mentioned previously, this has been based on the Leeds Town Hall, as parts of it have been built using Portland stone. This was an epic build, but I was pleased with the outcome.
 
However to my horror, when the game is activated, the frame rate is about 4fps, as supposed to the 50-60fps that it should be. To confirm this issue, the model was uploaded onto a file sharing website, so that Jon and Chris could confirm this. This issue was confirmed and so the group began to look into both the nature of the problem and any possible solutions. 

We all worked on this problem. We sent emails to people for advice, plus looked into forums, databases and manuals for information on this problem. All group members were in constant communication about any information we found or possible areas that we could tweak. We as yet have found both an official cause and a solution. The only conclusion we came up with is that there is simply too much in the game and with each component having a physics and logic script, the game simply cannot process the data to a usable speed.

This is the major problem with the final product as it is a game and requires the ability to interact with it. So as it runs at 4-6 frames per second, it is currently a game which cannot be played. As a lot of work has gone into this, we will continue to look into the problem and seek advice, then respond constructively. I feel that although this issue is a major problem, it has demonstrated a good working structure, and shows that we were all working collaboratively towards a common goal. I am aware that this is how we should be working throughout the process, but this was a personal highlight as this process actively showed it in motion.

Worst case scenario, if it is a matter there being 'too many models in the scene', we could reduce the amount of items in the scene, or recreate the final model in a much more simpler version. However, both these options are drastic and would result in a product that would not be using the game engine's full potential. However, if this is what it comes to, I would rather provide a game/product which works than a good looking product that does not.

As Chris has continued to look into the lag problem, and solutions for getting it to run, Jon has now been tasked with looking into texturing it.

Post 18 - Prototype

As Blender is a rather new software application to me, I wanted to make sure that I was able to:

A) Use it to achieve the project's desired outcome.

B) Experiment with the physics, as well as the process of importing items.

This resulted in me creating a working prototype. The prototype is comprised of 56 pieces which were a series of columns and stone slabs for both the bottom and top of the pillars. Physics and logic was then applied and once working, was then exported as an exe. file (executable, meaning that it was able to be played outside of blender). This was a good start as it ran, was working and gave me confidence to begin the main build.

This was then passed onto the other group members for their feedback. They were pleased with the outcome as it was a working demo.