Final Published Map Fabrication 16/06/09

The Hydropolis Map is finally complete. Working from our previous map fabrication for assignment 2 we basically wanted to fix up allot of the issues and problems that were current. Important entities such as elevators and doors were fixed up as they were a main access feature for getting to different parts of the building. Portals and Visareas for the underwater areas were also fixed up as best as they could be to work nicely in conjunction with the surrounding structures.

With our final the main focus was designing areas that we did not for assignment 2. One main area was the interior of the shell. We felt that we needed to design something special and thus decided to build a casino, after all it is Dubai. We have also incorporated a reception and lounge area where hotel stayers can relax. Inside the complex is a two storey cafe/restaurant that we modelled in 3dsmax and imported into Crysis. We finally figured out a way to import objects to Crysis although sometimes that came with missing geometries, but this was expected considering the import tool was developed by modders and not Crytek game developers. This just means it wasn’t the perfect tool for importing geometries but it worked nether the less. The Casino consists of poker, blackjack and roulette tables that really help define the “miniature casino”. Lighting was also added around the island because this helped enhance the ambience of the Hydropolis at night

With everyone now doing specialisations, we felt it was important to incorporate as much of it as we could. Firstly we included our own team member’s specialisations. As the Hydropolis is an underwater hotel we designed fish tanks, “grahams idea” and incorporated them into the map. We made this a main feature in the shell interior as it helped set the tone of sea life and underwater elements etc. Other specialisations include a waterfall as we felt that the original water fountain on the island wasn’t that fascinating to look at; so creating a waterfall in its place provided a nice spectacle for people to look at. Other specialisations from our group were switchable lighting which we used for our interior rooms under the water. This helped set a nice ambience during night scenes. We have also included a mini map that will help guide users around our map and our screenshots and videos were exported through Crysis with the help with one of our team member’s specialisations.

Going back to our design we felt the graphical visualisation was the best method of making the map more attractive and professional. In saying so we have integrated elevator, exit, and train signs etc that help guide users to where places are in the map. Inside the shell area there is also a presentation room that shows concept art of the original Hydropolis as well as our own renders to compare too. There is also some information about the Hydropolis and its design in the presentation room.

To finish off the map we tried to incorporate cut-scenes to liven up the map but due to the massive drop in frames per second that the file was playing at, it kept crashing; so they werent put in.

Even though this map has been designed around an architect’s vision, we think that using the Crytek engine and its realistic graphics has really helped to bring out our vision of the Hydropolis and its wonders of underwater architecture. Our team also hopes that anyone who is interested in underwater architecture or an island resort to have a play of our map as we believe we have met that expectation.

We want to say thanks to our classmates who helped us in creating the Hydropolis Map because without their skills in there specialisations we might not have finished in time. And another thank you to the tutors Jeremy and Graham for their help throughout studio in guiding us to create this map

And lastly we feel that our team has done an excellent job in creating Joachim Hauser unbuilt architecture “The Hydropolis”.  Joachim Hauser quotes “the Hydropolis is not a project; but a passion” and this is how we have felt when working on this assignment. And exploring new areas in real time and using Crytek’s Crysis engine has really inspired us in how we approach architecture and visualisation.

Here is the Link for our Latest Map to Download:

http://www.fileplanet.com/201546/200000/fileinfo/Team-Atlar-Final-Map

Below are the 30 second trailer and 2 minute extended trailer.

Proposed Team Plan for Polished Fabrication – 20/05/09

 

Week 10 – 21/05/09
Allan	Fix Doors, Elevator Create individual sheets of glass for skin of shell Added Texturing for underwater environment
Phil	Look at importing models within 3dsmax with textures applied Create shopping environment inside of shell and walkway Fix scale of stadium
Stephen	Import Dubai skyscrapers Create more entourage-people with AI
Eva	Continue Interior Furnishings and fix them up

 

Week 11 – 28/05/09
Allan	Fix textures on train
Phil	Create warf and boats models
Stephen	Add weather control to in-game (Rain, snow, day and night)
Eva	Interactivity of lighting

 

Week 12 – 04/06/09
Allan	Create underground train station furnishings
Phil	Re-import water fountains
Stephen	More exterior lighting on island
Eva	Every model and surface will be textured

 

Week 13 – 11/06/09
Allan	Details Will be added in as weeks progress
Phil
Stephen
Eva

 

Week 14 – 18/06/09
Allan	Set up of presentation and exhibition
Phil
Stephen
Eva

Team Atlar’s Final Hydroplis Dubai Map Fabrication Hosted by Filefront

Here is the link to team Atlar’s Final Hydroplis Map Fabrication File

There are 2 folders and one instruction file within the Hydroplis.zip file

http://files.filefront.com/Team+Atlar+Hydroplis+Dubapzip/;13719469;/fileinfo.html

Final Map fabrication

Continuing on from our first submission of the final draft our team has worked on achieving goals set out from our week 5 schedules. We have managed to create an Environment that compliments the Hydropolis in many ways. For our Final fabrication we have created part of the Dubai Coast that is next to the Hydropolis in the real world. We used Google earth to create a 1:1 scale of the map. Because our focus for this project was to make our environment as realistic as possible, creating the Dubai coast with its surrounding vegetation, roads and buildings was necessary. With the environment modelled to scale we were able to now create the Hydropolis to its actual scale compared to our draft where it was a rough estimate. The underwater environment containing reefs, rocks and fish was created again to align with the new terrain and map.

The underwater structure has now been created as 4 levels instead of 2. The underwater structure has been redesigned to look more realistic. Window frames, interior walls and furnishings were created to help enhance the look of the rooms. The underwater structures are now all connected with hallways where you can look out into the water, much like an aquarium. We have also created rooms that allow access to the water while being underwater. These rooms are for scuba-diving and snorkelling access. The webbed shell structure was modelled using generative components and edited using 3ds max. The shell is now one complete structure and houses the stadium, reception area and shops. Access to these underwater rooms is through an elevator that gives entry to the four levels.

An underground train system has also been modelled within Crysis as the main transport route from the mainland of Dubai to the Hydropolis Island. The train was modelled within 3ds max, but then exported into Crysis. We made the train move between the two stations by using a flow graph system within Crysis. There is a reception building with a surrounding parking station that has been modelled up in Crysis that serves as the main entry point to the underground train. Access again is through the lift area that also houses stairs. Once users have taken the train to the Hydropolis, they then enter the lift which then travels up to the surface to arrive at the reception area within the webbed shell.

Because of the realistic looking day-night settings within Crysis we wanted to test how night would look, especially with the underwater environment. We created a spotlight lighting system centered along the exterior structure of the underwater rooms. These spotlights concentrate on the underwater environment including the sea life and helped bring it out during the night since it gets quite dark down there. To add to the ambience of Hydropolis we have also incorporated sound to heighten the realism. Crysis naturally has a nice underwater sound but we added a little bit more such as elevator and sliding door noises.

Texturing has played an important part in making this map realistic as well. We have emphasized more detailing in the texturing for the underwater environment as this was our number one priority. Texturing has been applied to the underwater structure and also the furnishings. The map environment has also been textured to look as realistic as possible.

Through collaborating as a group with our team members we feel we have achieved our goals for this final fabrication. The main design intent for our fabrication was to create a realistic looking underwater environment that would serve as the main focus for the underwater structure in Hydropolis. We have added entourage such as cars and people to help give the Hydropolis a sense of scale and also provide further realism. A.I has been added to the entourage to simulate what a typical day would be like at the. By comparing our Final map to actual renders and created compilations of the real Hydropolis we feel the results resemble the original design quite closely. Although some modifications and changes to the structure had to be done to make everything work using the Crysis engine. We have found that underwater structures were never meant to be a building element within Crysis. After messaging users on the forum within www.crymod.com underwater structures is possible only because of a glitch using visareas and portals which was never meant to be used for complete structures but a partial structure such as the submarine model used in Crysis. However users on the forums have quoted that proper implementation of complete underwater structures is something that the design team at crytek might implement into future game engines.

Below are some screenshots from our final fabrication.

Final Map Fabrication Hydropolis

Week 7 Progress Report 29/04/09

Since Our last team meeting our final group fabrication has been coming along quite nicely. We have stuck to our proposed schedule and have reached certain goals. We have used group meetings and emails as our main source of collaboration with each other. Taking off from our draft fabrication, we have re-created the entire map of Hydropolis using google earth imaging to help reference the actual size of the island and the Surrounding Dubai Coastland. This has allowed us to re-create a relistic looking map environment for the Hydropolis and provide appropriate scale which we had a lack of in our last draft. The underwater rooms have been re-designed to be more relistic. The vis-areas and portals for the underwater spaces are working quite well with less graphical glitches then in the draft. Underwater Environment has been worked on as well as new underwater structures for the Hydropolis Resort. The Main feature of the Island is the Webbed Shell and we have worked on creating one whole piece for the final. This has been done succesfully in Generative Components and then edited and added to using 3DS Max. Work has also started on the underground train system that will connect the main land of Dubai and Hydropolis. Areas that still need to be worked on include lighting, entourage, A.I, Furnishings of interiors and exteriors such has tables, door models, A working transport system from the mainland to the Hydropolis, transport models, texturing of surrounding environment such as skyscrapers on the mainland and elevators.

Below are some progress shots of our fabrication

Week 5 Stuidio Task – Proposed Schedule (9/4/9)

Easter Break
Allan	Complete underwater environment More tests with portals with round and imported models Man made beaches on island create more underwater structures work on train system
Eva	Start interior design of underwater rooms and apply textures experiment with boat models light fixtures interactive models doors curtains/blinds
Phillip	Start GC structure Learn how to make elevator functions in crysis Look into door and entry functions in crysis shopping centers within webbed shell
Stephen	Start outline of mainland of Dubai Work on public entry or stations In the Dubai main land Dubai main land buildings and vegetation lighting a.i and entourage transport models

(Group meeting on Tuesday 21^th of April)

Week 6 Thursday
Allen	Collaborate on tasks completed from Easter break
Eva
Phillip
Stephen

TEAM ATLAR MUST HAVE A WORKING ENVIROMENT COMPLETE WITH UNDERWATER STRUCTURE AND WORKING SHELL BY THE END OF WEEK 6.

(Group meeting on Tuesday 28^th of April)

Week 7 Thursday   (High Detailing Week)
Allen	Sea life, lighting,
Eva	interior of underwater, lighting and textures
Phillip	Interior of shell, lighting and stadium.
Stephen	Work on Ai bots, lighting and working transport system around island

BY THE END OF WEEK 7 ALL DETAILING OF HYDROPOLIS WILL BE COMPLETE WITH AI

(Group meeting on Tuesday 5^th of May)

Week 8 Thursday (Work on presentation)
Allen	Slideshow
Eva	Video
Phillip	Blog
Stephen	Speech

Strengths and Weaknesses 09/04/09

Atlar-Hydropolis

2 strengths:

• Underwater rooms work well with visuals & graphics within Crysis
• Underwater environment shows alot of realism

2 weaknesses:

• No sense of scale on the island
• because island is quite large, a transport system needs to be implemented for public transport

Strength

1.      One of the strength I had found from the draft fabrication task we had done was, Allan had modelled the unbuilt project in crysis which look very identical to the real one.

2.      The second strength was imported the structure from GC to crysis looked similar to actual one.

 

The weakens

1.      One of the, weakens I had notice was a movement from the site to the hotels room.

The second weakness I thought of a hotel room must be well modelled and split into different room

Team Omega: Culture Center

2 Strengths:

• Structure of the building is being rendered nicely in realtime within the crysis engine
• A.I was used to show scale and general social pathways around the culture center as its a public space

2 Weaknesses

• The scale of the building still seems to be dispraportionate to the surrounding street scape
• Having a building surrounded by a city scope of structures might detract your attention away from the cultural center

Team Orange

2 Strengths:

• Lighting was very effective. Brought attention to the building straight away.

• The form for the building structure was very appealing. Also the scale of the overall design was appropriate.

2 Weaknesses:

• No approach to building. The approach was laid down with a grass texture making it difficult to see where the entry and exits were.

• Lack of detail in model and landscape. The building had no interior space and the landscape was a bit too plain.

Team Digilism

2 Strengths:

• Surrounding environment fit the building very well.

• The video collaboration was very detailing and gave good knowledge about the building.

2 Weaknesses:

• The structure should be squarer but it was round.

• Building was not to scale. Compared with the surrounding building s it looked out of proportion.

Urban Team

Strength

It’s very interesting form and the planet around the structure .The interior part will be interesting in crysis game when walking through dome.

Weakens  

The structure must be well detailed other wise well look very straightforward as a dome. The scale doesn’t look like appropriate and the very essential part of the building is to get the appropriate scale.

E-volve

Strength

Is very interesting building the way is been structured underground and the room where well modelled the sizes looked fine.

Weakens

The terrain is need to be landscaped well other ways it won’t be look interesting ,this is one key was find the building looked interesting  ,this will refer an   indication  of the building  underground and this is exterior part of this structure .