Thursday, November 5, 2009

Research

Question: Which workflow (SketchUp to Crysis or Solidworks to Crysis) involves the least amount of steps and procedures to get a textured model into Crysis?

Research Video available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9I9AbxcSyw

Uploads

http://www.filefront.com/14861823/Crysis.zip

http://www.filefront.com/14861827/Solidworks.zip

http://www.filefront.com/14861829/3ds%20Max.zip

Final Submission



My aim for this experiment was to create elements of Town Hall Station which has more than one function. I decided to do this with the use of the columns. I wanted the columns to not only function as holding the entire structure up but also wanted to carve a space out of them to allow a human being to physically be able to walk into them. After coming up with this initial idea I then wanted to make it so that the columns would be used as some sort of transportation. The columns which I have made function as travelators as well as supporting beams.

For the efficiency of Town Hall Station, the column travelators will be reserved for the elderly, disable, mothers with children or people who have heavy luggage. This is to avoid massive queues which will clog up the station even more. The columns will take the person to the closest set of stairs from the train or vice versa.

To test out the efficiency and general use of these travelators I decided to ask other people to navigate their way through my model. The three subjects who participated in my experiment where given one task, to walk through my Town Hall Station model in Crysis and make their way to the ticket boxes which were black. I was very vague on what I wanted and they were not given any directions nor were they how they would get there. It was up to them to navigate their own way through the model. I wanted to see how they interacted with my environment. They were timed on how long it took them to complete the task and they were noted down.

Subject number one did not interact with any of my sketch installations as they did not know what they were when they first saw it. They were just black objects moving around to them. I can conclude that these columns/travelators are not the most obvious objects to identify immediately. It took 27 seconds for them to make it all the way up. Subject number two used the columns/travelators the entire way. This method of travel took 39 seconds to make all the way up to the concourse level. Subject number three used a combination of both which ended up taking 45 seconds.

Through the results collected, I can conclude that walking around Town Hall Station will be the most efficient mode of transport. If your mode of transportation through Town Hall Station is through the use of columns/travelators, it may take you a bit longer to get to your destination than if you were to walk but the extra time which it takes is not so bad in some circumstance. The elderly and disabled would not be able to walk as fast on their own and if you were carrying heavy things, you’ll be able to take more things with you as opposed to carrying an item one-by-one to your destination.

Week 6 Independent Study

Week 6 In-Class Task



Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Friday, October 23, 2009

Stuart Bull Lecture

The lecture which Stuart Bull from ARUP gave made me realise that there are a few similarities between his workflow at ARUP and our workflow for BENV 2423. He discussed how programs such as 3DS Max, Rhino,AutoCAD, Revit and ArchiCAD are great help in creating and calculating successful designs. They are able to produce highly detailed designs and plans for various people such as architects, engineers and clients.

The collaboration of these different programs will produce very good models as they will take the strength of each program. The use of several programs to achieve high quality work can be compared to our workflow for experiment two where we are using three different programs: Solidworks, 3DS Max and Crysis as each program has its own strengths.

Week 5 Independent Study

Research Question
Which workflow (SketchUp to Crysis or Solidworks to Crysis) involves the least amount of steps and procedures to get a modelled/textured object into Crysis?

Week 5 In-Class Task

Vinh took a look at my videos and he suggested a few things for me to consider about my sketch installation and my Town Hall Station model

- Do the columns aid people's navigation?
- Are they impeding
- Does the installation create efficiency for Town Hall Station
- Are the columns obvious? Do people know to use them as travellators?
- Which option is most efficient? Compare how long it takes to travel to the top via walking or through the use of the columns.
- Who will be able to use the columns?
- Only change Town Hall Station for the better

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Week 4 Independent Study

Refined Version of Sketch Installation

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Week 4 In-Class Task

Screen shots of multiplayer mode



Videos which Minh and I recorded of us exploring my Town Hall Station Crysis model in multiplayer mode.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Week 3 Independent Study

Draft Sketch Installation


- Columns/pods will be used for transporting people when they get off the train to the stairs, escalators or lifts
- Will be available to the disadvantaged such as the elderly or disabled but will also allow people with heavy luggage
- Use of capsules limited to certain people to avoid long lines and/or overcrowding

How long does it take to transport?
May take longer to move around in capsules than to walk but person will be able to carry more things which in the end will save time

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Week 3 In-Class Task

Light House Track View


As and initial sketch installation I first made a plane do "somersaults" by making it follow a certain path. It wasnt very interesting nor was it interactive or challenging for the player so I will decide to do something else.


Light House and Aeroplane Track View

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Week 2 Independent Study




Realism is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life. It is the treatment of colour, form and space and the way in which they are represented by individuals based upon their own visual experience

With the use of gaming technologies, models of real life objects are usually made in virtual reality because it is often the cheaper and safer option. If a person would like to conduct experiments on a certain object they would most likely conducts their experiments in their model rather than doing it in real life.If anything was to go wrong there will be no casualties in an experimental simulation. Another advantage would also be being able to test things which wouldn’t be physically possible in real life.

Realism is the realistic representation and approach to the world.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Week 2 In-Class Task

Exporting Solidworks to 3ds Max to Crysis


Week 1 Independent Study

To measure and document Town Hall Station as accurately as possible I have decided to use obtain information through the use of photography, video/sound recording, note taking and to make some rough sketches. Many of the elements of Town Hall station are quite repetitive such as the treads of the stairs and escalators, balustrades, platforms, columns and many other objects. This will require me to only measure one set of these on any platform and I will able to apple such dimensions to all of the other similar items around the station.

The advantage to taking photographs and note taking of the station is that I’ll be able to refer back to them when I am back at home trying to model it in Solidworks. Objects such as the public telephones, ticket gates and machines can be measure at any station making myself look less suspicious while observing Town Hall station. Such objects can also be used as a reference object within photographs. If I know the length of such an object, I can use its length and scale to measure other objects which I was unable to measure at Town Hall station.

Photos Taken At Town Hall Station




Basic Draft



Improved Model



Week 1 In-Class Task

Geometry
Measurement – Tape measure, laser pointer, trundle wheel, sonar
Photography - Taking photographs or recording videos
Scaling - Using a pre-measured object and measuring other items using its scale
Dimension of tiles - Measuring and individual tile and then count how many there are over a certain distance to estimate length and width of plan

Materiality
Drawings/Sketches - Using plans and sections
Notes – Writing down certain things
Videos
Observations
Sketches

Light
Photography
Notes
Videos
Observations

Sound

Voice/Sound recording

Interaction
- Drawing/Sketching - Flow diagrams and sketches of circulation around Town Hall Station
Notes – What happens and occurs around the circulation areas such as the stairs, escalators, lifts, ticket machines and ticket gates
- Video Recording – Real-time evidence of people travelling around the circulation areas. Time is an important factor as the circulation varies at different times of the day and can be done through a timed video recording.
- Observations
- Photography

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Physical Effects of Explosions on Porosity

Physical (fiz’i kəl)
adj. of nature or matter; material; natural

Effect (ə fekt')
n. anything that is caused by some other thing; result

Explosion (ek splō'zhən)
n. the act of exploding, or blowing up with a loud noise

Porosity (pôr äs’ə tē)
n. the quality or condition of being porous

Porous (pôr’əs)
adj. full of pores or tiny holes through which water, air, etc. may pass

Jonathan L. Goldman, Webster’s New World Student’s Dictionary, Simon & Schuster Inc., 1992

Final Submission



Crysis
http://www.filefront.com/14454877/Porosity.zip

SketchUp
http://www.filefront.com/14454887/Ramp1.zip
http://www.filefront.com/14454885/platform.zip

Week 5 In-Class Task