Week 2 : 5 Landscapes

Urban Landscape

The urban landscape is manmade, in comparison to nature, the urban landscape isn't as bright and colourful. Even though the image is black and white its still a good example of reality. Grounds are made of grey concrete and buildings of silver/grey steel and  glass reflect more greyness!

Grounds are flat and vegetation is minimal to be more accessible to humans. The urban landscape is designed to give off more light for humans to see, so aswell as windows and glass to bring in more light, man made lighting at night is accessable to survive.

http://designm.ag/inspiration/urban-landscape-photography-showcase/

Rainforest Landscape

The landscape of rainforests arn't flat, forrests are filled with moist and muddy grounds and rocks. The humididity moistens vegetation and allows vcegetation to be wet most of the time. Rainforest lighting varries from area to area. Where there is more dense vegetation, lighting is darker and cooler but in open ares where vegetation is low, the sky brightens the area due to the reflective nature that the moist vegetation gives off.

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=rainforest#/d2r2no2

mountains and plains

Depending on the country mountain plains can be either dry or wet. Not much vegetation grows in mountain areas due to lack of soil. The ground is mostly rocky. Due to high altitude, in colder seasons its generally very cloudy and the landscape is distorted. Lighing is cooler in mountain areas because the clouds give off an opaque white fog against the rock grey and dark tones.

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=mountains#/d134726


Desert

Desert landscapes are arid and dry. There isn't much vegetaion but the vegetation that is there survives from very minimal water. The vegetation is generally sharp with thorns or spines and leaves are very thick to save whatever water is absolbed to  protect itself from harsh weather and keep it moist. The landscape is made up of sand and dust and ground is curvy due to the wind blowing the sand in different directions. Lighting is warm due to lack of vegetation and the colour of the sand gives off the warmth to the landscape. 

http://www.wallcoo.net/nature/2008_landscape_1680_desktop_02/html/wallpaper23.html


Coast

Coasts are made up of cliffs that are eroded from the weather and the salty ocean water hitting the cliffs. Vegetation is generally minimal to grass as soil isnt great on cliffs. Lighting is bright due to the reflectivness of the water and the lack of high vegetation.

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=normandy+coast#/d2wx2dh

Week 1: Independent Study

CryENGINE 3 - Vol 1 - An Introduction and Application
User Interface Panels – Overview

Shortcuts

1. H: hide

2. F: Freeze

3. Delete: Delete key

4. DB: Database

5.FG: Flow graph – where you script your levels

Week 1: Independent Study

CryENGINE 3 - Vol 1 - An Introduction and Application
Viewports

1.       Keyboard movement:      w: forward

                                                             s: backward

                                                             a: left

                                                             d: right

               right click: on viewport to look around

             middle mouse button (scroll): to pan around

2.       Mouse movement

        Requires only scroll and right click button to move around

        Shift key:  speeds up movement with mouse

        Alt + middle mouse button:  camera orbit around object or screen

        Speed: next to speed is 0.1,1 and 10. Or you can custom the speed value.

        Q: Movement through terrain shortcut

3.       Go to position: enables to establish and find current or key coordinates.

        Saving camera scene to shortcut: ctr+f1, second camera shortcut would be ctrl+f2

        Loads the saved shortcut: shift+f1, second camera load would be shift+f2 and so on.

        (all this shows in the variable console.)

Week 1: Independent Study

CryENGINE 3 - Vol 1 - An Introduction and Application
Customising The Editor

1.    Tools> preferences: enables you to change the colour of certain panels such as console etc

           Automatic work back-up: tools >preferences > files

2.    Tools > configure user commands: enables you to create a panel that has your mostly used command so that they are easier to access

3.    Go to macros and create new, name it then create the command next to it then click apply then ok. Once this is done you can go to tools and under config. User, the shortcut should be there, simply drag it into viewport and attach it anywhere you like.

4.    Tools> customizing keyboard: to add commands or create new tool bars

You can also right click empty area and click customize :(options > tick show shortcut.  keys in screen tips)

5.    If you open a few panels such as materials, data base and flow graph, u can drag and drop them within each other 2 create three tabs into one window instead of having 3 seperate windows.

     You can also attach the panel at the top, bottom, left or right of the view port

     You can attach or detach virtually all toolbars

6.    You can right click the toolbar to turn certain toolboxes on or off

Week 1: Tips and Tricks related to the Sandbox User Interface

I have produced a collection of screen shots that summarize the video "Overview Of The CryENGINE 3 Sandbox User Interface".

Sandbox User Interface - Basics

Sandbox User Interface - Console Variable Command

Sandbox User Interface - Rollup Bar

Sandbox User Interface - File Bars

Sandbox User Interface - Tool Bars

Week 1: Sandbox Folder Structure

1. Bin 32 and bin64 Folders are where the executables are, game files and editor.

2. 64 bit windows recommended bin 64 recommended putting the editor in bin 64 folder. Loads faster and allows using more memory.

3. Editor folder will never be used.

4. Engine folder: is where shaders get stored and things engine related

5. Game folder: fairly important, bunch of pak files. Inside these pak files is basically where the whole game is! You can open the pack files with winzip and extract objects from in the paks to unlock and use them.

6. Logbackups, statoscope, temp and TestResults folders are not really important. They are all for logs and temporary files.

Tools folder is fairly important: SDK.crydev.net huge list of articles/guides well documented for helps.

7. Open up SettingsMgr.exe make sure root directory has the appropriate rc.exe. this should be the drive that cryengine is installed in and appropriate folder.

8. Installing exporter plugins

a. To install Photoshop plug-in: you need to manually go into bin 32 folder, look for files zlib1.dll, jpeg62.dll and libtiff3.dll. you need to copy them and paste them into root of Photoshop folder. You also need to copy the crytifplugin from the tools folder into Photoshop folder.

b.   To install exporter for 3ds: go into tools folder. Go into 3ds folder, open plugins folder and paste cryexport.dlu file. (depending on which year and version accordingly)

c.   CryMaxTools: very useful. Load copytoMax.bat, it will bring up black screen and then type in the drive letter where 3ds max is installed eg (c) and it will automatically install it for you. So when you open 3ds max you will get a new menu with a useful panel for debugging and function for collision proxys etc.

9. CFG. Files (system.comfig): to add more commands open up a notepad file and save it as user.cfg to save custom comments such as turning off sound etc. And it will automatically load once the editor is opened.

10. Dmp. Files and log. Files: if you have unexplainable crashes those files will assist in debugging that.