My Bachelor of Arts research in Virtual Worlds in Video Games

My Bachelor of Arts research in Virtual Worlds in Video Games. A study in video game worlds, where they started, and their way to today's super realistic 3D Video Game Worlds.
The Evolution in software and hardware from the Text adventure games to the gigantic virtual world of the modern MMORPGs.

Unfortunately this is in Greek, a translation is coming soon.


http://nikapa.freehost.gr/baWeb.pdf

The Abstract Wallpaper

Click for bigger resolution. 1600x1280p.

We are moving!

Hello everyone, because this blog is general for my projects, now that the adventure project has a name I'm moving it to it's own blog here:


http://multiversethegame.blogspot.com

Everything from now on, will be posted at the new blog, where you can also find the old posts and comments.

There will be no new posts here for the adventure project so if you wish to follow the project just come in it's new home!

Have a nice Autumn!

The laboratory

Hi again, here I am once more with another update.

The whole project is on the go but the progress is short of slow. This is mostly because officially I'm on vacations and I swim, I get out and things like this and on my "free" time I work on the project and also trying to get familiar with open source programs, like gimp and inkskape. You see I really want to work exclusively on open source programs, for many reasons.

Anyway this is not the place to say why to use open source, so I return on topic.

I'm working on the laboratory, actually the first level of the game which will also be the "intro" of the whole story. I did had an accident with the first file I made with the laboratory, I made the "teleportation device" and then the saved file didn't want to open again, vue 8 was just keep on crashing, I also tried to open it in my desktop and no difference, crash on load. It was short of push back because I designed a mechanism to hydraulic open and close the device's door, and also linked the objects in a way to be used for easier animation. It took me about 4 hours and all are lost. At least I designed the mechanism in hand first and it will be easier to remade it.
After that I decided to design each part of an object separately and then join them in a new file, this seems like safer way to do things.

The results are this:

 

The main body of the device.

And this:

This is the window of the device and I made an aged alternative of it to use elsewhere:

Also I used the lamb from the preview post and joined all the objects together to make the "teleportation device":

All I need to finish the device now is to make the door and the mechanism to open and close it.

Also I made some handmade artwork with a BIC pen... I don't have any other mediums available here so that was the best I could do, another problem was that I don't have a scanner available so I shotted it with my macbook's web cam, the image is terrible but you can get an idea before I will scan it.

So this is the artwork for the teleportation device and the door mechanism:

and a plan from top view I draw to know what will go where inside the laboratory, because of the terrible quality you can't read what is what, sorry for that I will scan a better image soon.

Also I did a high resolution render to the device to see more details:

You can get it from here:

http://fav.me/d2ut7ub

That's all for now!

A little update

Hello! I finished with my college for this year so I'm enjoying a few days of vocations. However I still work on the adventure project.

I though of a name, since the game will take place in parallel universes, I though it might be cool to call it "Multiverse".

I was also working on the first scene of the game. The laboratory where the whole adventure will begin...
A disaster! I worked overnight to make the "teleportation" device, with some short of real looking mechanism to open and close the door, I saved the file and once I tried to open it up again... BOOM! Vue 8 crashes!

I was hoping that this is some short of problem in my macbook so I tried, full of hope to open it in my windows desktop, still crash...

It seems I have to remade it from scratch, at least I draw the mechanism in hand before go on with the 3D modeling, so it will be easier this time.

I also remade a scene which is not part of the current project, but it can be used for it.


It is some short of water well, the original is this:

and the remake is this:

Also I made a lamb :

and an attempt to add it on a wall:

The Island animation

I know it is stupid to keep working on the island without even a project plan yet, but I can't stop!
So I made the animation and did a small render to check things.

Scenario

Hello everyone I hope you are all fine, the latest events in Greece does not make me feel fine myself but well...
Anyway I fall behind a little with the project, I was busy with my studies and yesterday it was a bad day, and my morale was really really down, because of all that shits that happens in my country.
As I said a part of the scenario is already done, and all it was needed was to translate it. So here it is:

Our hero is typical scientist who works day and night in his laboratory and he tries to make a teleportation device.
The research in theory is moving smooth but the experiments does not, since so far he is not able to move an object from the place A to place B, or maybe he did, but he does not know where the hell this place B it is.
Another routine day in the lab and our hero is doing some changes in the device (think a box with a door, for the device), and one of the cats he got for experiments in the lab went free from her cage and pressed the activation button of the device. As a result our scientist (he does not have a name yet, maybe Gordon Freeman? :P) he disappears!
After a really crazy and surrealistic journey he lands in a strange place. The place looks like a desert but there is no sand, just an infinite plane. All of a sudden, in front of him appears that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU8iXPbC-oI and starts to talk to him.
The strange life form, explains to him that Einstein's theory for the parallels dimensions was right, except the part of how many they are, because there are an infinite number of them.
Each dimension is been over watched by it's guardian, like that life form who talk to us. The guardian have to make sure that there is balance in his dimension and in rare cases like now, to help any "intruder" return to his dimension without disturbing the balance and order in the other ones. The problem is that the connection between the dimensions are one way, what means we can not return back that easy. We must found a way through the other dimensions with the help of their guardians.
The guardian inform us that our life form will change in each dimension, like it did now (here it pop ups a mirror like thing and show us that we look like the guardian), and we must find the guardian of each dimension to move us to the next one (till we made it to ours).

After that we are been teleported at the next dimension. There we see that it is an artificial world where the only living beings are robots and computers. A small robot show up and says that the guardian sends him and he will help us to find our way to the guardian. This will be a dummy entry level to make the user familiar with the controls and in most of our way to the guardian we will do thinks that the little robot instruct us to do.
Next it is the island level which I gave shots a few days ago. From that on we are at our own and we have to use logic and tips around the world to made it to the next guardian.
When I say logic I mean for example that : "there is a boat, it seems clickable but nothing happens once you click. The reason is that it is useless without the paddle which is somewhere close but with smaller clickable area, so it will be harder to found it with a simple mouseover". In that scene with the boar if you can't find the paddle and move on the next area there will be a dead end, but if you look careful enough, you will see a tip, which says that you will need the paddle to take the boat, and go to the island next to that one you are!

This is it so far, I have a couple of ideas about other areas and I will make some artwork for each one of them soon.

Later.

The Island Wallpaper

OK here is a wallpaper from the island.
You can use it or distribute it for free as long as my watermark remains.
If you want to give it trough your site please link back here.

Enjoy:

The Island Vue 8 step 2

So with the newest version of Vue on my hands I decided to sacrifice my sleep to move this scene a little closer to completion.
Day by day I'm getting more and more exited about this project! Especially now with that powerful tool on my hand... aaaaah sweet like wine, yes this is how it tastes to create new worlds!
Enjoy!

Also the story behind the game is gaining form day by day. But I have it in Greek right now and I'm working on the translation of it. It is not something which take a lot of time, but I work on my studies as well and I'm very, very short in time right now.

The Island Vue 8

YEY! I got hands on the newest Vue available. The difference is huge since it is 2 versions after the 6 I was using so far.

Check by yourself:

The land sculpturing tools in Vue 8 are just amazing, and the water more realistic than ever, the improvement is great! I work the new tools out now!

The Island

OK so here I am again, I was bored last night so I created something close to an idea I had. It is close to the myst-riven philosophy With an island in the middle of nowhere, even if I go a little close to the Riven's feeling I will be happy, because this is what I want. To make an atmosphere close to Riven, to watch the scenery and feel amazed, to just look around and feel "wow".

I don't know how well Vue can perform in heavy populated scenes but since it is the only tool I have available now I have to try my best with it.


So here is the first scene.

And the second where I did some changes.

Light and Shadow

So in my research about the games creation, I came through what people call "feeling" or "game atmosphere".

It is when you are looking at a creepy scene with a couple of corpses, at night, in the woods. And even if it is just a game scene you see in your computer, it gives you the creeps.

This is a hard part in gaming making, even in a simple game like the one I want to make.

What make the difference in that scenes?
The light, and the shadows!

Yes, yes... it seems that a scene can have nothing else than shadows and dark silhouettes and give you the creeps.
Plain and simple... not?
No! It may sound pretty easy but there is a whole theory behind the usage of light and shadow. Even if you are painting in canvas, drawing freehand, making CG images or whatever involves a scene which must give a specific feeling to it's audience, it is a hard part of the creation, to use light and shadows in the way you want.

Even the prospective can make a scene boring or awesome.

You can notice that here:

(bigger here http://nitro912gr.deviantart.com/art/Shadows-161729243)

I made this to demonstrate the lighting and shadows in vue 6, but while you look at it, the feeling isn't right. I wanted to made something to make you feel a melancholy, or something like that. But it is not working.

In the following video I used the same scene, but changed the focus of the camera. The results are way closer to what I wanted to show at the preview scene.



So when you are attempting to make a scene you must take in consideration the theory of lights and shadows, even the prospective of the camera.

That was good lesson for me, mostly because I learned it in the initial state, before the project start for good and have to correct big mistakes in my scenes.

Change of plans

Well I was thinking deeper about the scenario of the fantasy project and realized that the "fantasy setting/scenario" is not what I really want.

So I came up with the idea of having a crazy world, something like Alice in Wonderland. With no limits. Everything can happen, everything can be seen. This give a nice opportunity here to mix up any idea that will come to light. I was even thinking of making it like some short of psychedelic cyberpunk world where logic is gone and the principles of nature does not apply, as I said, like Alice in Wonderland.

Then I was wondering about the characters. I really have no knowledge of how to make 3D persons, so this can be a trouble and a big slowdown in the progress. But since I decided to go on with the cyberpunk think I guess the characters can just be anything.

So I made this:




Also I was thinking about doing a "voice over" on the dialogs by using the great text to speech which coming with the MacOSX.

Wall and grass

So here is a little (and bad) addition, I added the wall and the grass, but the wall is very fake, I don't like the final come out so I will change it.

It is very isometric for a man made wall of that age and it ended up very mossy, I need something more sunburned stone to use as material.
Also I changed the door a little so it is more realistic at the joint with the frame.



Anyway this is the result.

Fantasy Project

I recently started a project, which most likely will be my Bachelor of Arts subject next year.
Since in the first part of my BA I picked up to do research and write about the Virtual Worlds in Video Games, I though it will be a nice idea to make a virtual world on my own, not something too difficult, just a simple adventure style game, with not much challenge. It will mostly be a nice looking multimedia application, with a few pretty easy riddles.

The game will be made in Vue 6 infinite and Photoshop, and I will compose the images and videos on Flash, where I will add some interactivity as well.

It is pretty soon to start this project, but even if it will not be difficult, it will need a lot of time, so I started a few months ago, with some other small projects, to learn how Vue 6 is working and what it is capable of.

Yesterday I did my first major step, and created my first complete item. A castle,stone framed, iron reinforced, wooden door.

Here is the final render:




























Click here for bigger image
http://nitro912gr.deviantart.com/art/Castle-Door-157658706 (click on image to enlarge)

And some details which are hidden in the shadows:

NiKapa Graphics Design live!