EXP 2: Week 4: Research Continued...

Entity Rotation of 360 Degree’s:

As part of my mastery demonstration video’s I intend on presenting the Entity: AttachChild flow graph node through a simplified version of my porosity lens which requires the core attachment entity to rotate 360 degrees. However to perform such a task in Crysis is more difficult than one would think due to that after 180 degrees is set, it immediately assumes 360 -‘x’ degrees within the opposite direction. However I have managed to come up with a flow graph to overcome this issue which simply runs two 180 degree rotations with a time delay, as presented below.

It is a rather confusing process, but simply it uses a key input to obtain the current rotation of the defined entity before adding 180 degrees upon a set axis to the current rotational value, before ordering the action to happen with a set time, i.e. 3 seconds. Meanwhile upon that initial key press a time delay of also 3 seconds has begun to perform the same task. Thus immediately when the initial rotation ends, the position is obtained and yet another 180 degrees is added, rotating the entity through a “Movement: RotateEntityTo”.

Entity Attachment and Detachment – Experimentation Three:

After experimenting further with the initial idea of using a very simple attachment flow graph system last week I discovered that it wouldn’t in fact work correctly as the attachment of each cube would need to be set for every option. Thus I began researching again other options for a way in which I could identify the cubes surrounding the central rotation point. I remembered within a lecture of Russell Lowe’s he demonstrated the notion of ‘Ray casting’ and after a discussion with a friend I began to realise it may be a possible solution. However upon planning out the way in which this could work I discovered that it was going to be extremely difficult and not very precise or accurate. Due to the manner in which a fired beam determines an output through collusion, I first realised it may be difficult for the beam to reach the corner cubes due to the edge cubes being in the way. Secondly I realised due to the variable shaped entities which will make up the surrounding cube, it will be difficult to ensure the beam makes contact with the correct entity. I have therefore decided to not pursue this option any further, as I begin to consider the use of physics triggers.

Entity Rotation – Local Player Tracking:

One of the main components of my porosity lens documentary exists within the main interactive component which uses the local player or an AI to control the rotation of each surface. Thus I needed to therefore come up with a way in which I could convert the protagonist’s position into a relative rotation to a selected entity. After some research and some help from Vinh, we worked out a way to achieve this notion. Such simply subtracts the values of the entity and the protagonist to present a vector which we discovered needs to flipped before the result is then multiplied and presented to the rotational node. However there remain some issues at the moment including the way in which the entity snaps to the current rotational position of the protagonist, and the lack of control due the use of both the x and y axis. However it still achieves the basic principles of interaction I am looking to achieve. I have included the flow graph beneath.

EXP 2: Week 3: Town Hall Station Element Separation

The image above presents the modified station prefab divided into each of the 27 components. The overall modified station is roughly 30m cubed, allowing for 10m cubed sections. Such is large enough to create roughly a two meter gap between the structural members allowing a person to walk through, while furthermore allowing enough room for the required number of doors to be placed upon the installation with the main sectional levels of the structure. Finally in the final scaling and separation I had ensure I considered the point that people would be walking on top and beneath the installation planes, thus meaning with it positioned in the centre of each component that there would remain enough room, while additionally some particular members were required to be reformed as discovered in the first Sandbox version of the installation.

EXP 2: Week 3: Installation – Sketch Up Development

The images below presents the beginning of the transformation between the sandbox components and the custom Sketch Up pieces with reference to my installation. With the basic concept decided upon I have begun to fine turn the layout of the doors to allow access between the various intersecting planes as documented below. Displayed below is also an image regarding the initial final design of the installation. The intent is to have slim and thin platforms which are very ‘light’ upon their impact on the structure.

Upon developing the concepts above I discovered that the notion of creating a thin series of platforms was not going to be successful due that there would not be enough room due to the requirement of doors. Thus the platforms will need to be wider to accommodate this, while remaining to be thin enough to fit between the structural members of the station.

The concept sketches above portray the development of my Sketch Up installation as I have begun to consider and plan a more effect layout of the doors between the various intersecting planes. This has been difficult as one needs to consider the path of the person walking to ensure for one that they are able to make it to the next door, and secondly that they are not going to step through and fall between. I have also begun to develop the potential notion of stairs and ramps between the levels to see if what I thought would not be able to be achieved could be in fact. This has been unsuccessful as there is not enough room between the various structural members and the openings within the planes. Furthermore they would need to twist back and forth as it would be too step to achieve in one run, thus meaning more room would be required as well as an extra level of complexity.

EXP 2: Week 3: Installation – Crysis Sandbox 2 Elements

The video and images below portray the conceptual nature of the installation I wish to use for experiment 2 regarding my porosity lens focused on portraying the nature and experience of depression within a unique environment.

Note: Highly recommended to watch in HD 1080p.

- Installation Conceptual Statement -

The installation I wish to incorporate within experiment two takes the form of various complex interconnecting platforms which will allow the protagonist to move between the stations structural prefab when it is rotate at any angle upon any axis, thus allowing for one to interact with the environment. Although the overall installation appears rather simple, it provides a medium for the interactions to occur, and when considered further becomes quite complex. The simple geometry of the platforms needs to provide level surfaces which line up perfectly when rotate and moved around individually as it becomes separated into 27 components, while remaining to allow a way for the person to walk between the intersections. This notion provides the interconnection to my porosity lens which I attempting to portray in the sense that this installation appears simple in form but in context and application is extremely complex and involved. Such is the same with depression, as from an exterior point of view one is unable to grasp the true depth of such a condition, while those who experience it (hence interact with) are able to truly comprehend the complexity of the condition upon the individually physically and emotionally, thus enhancing my porosity lens.

The collaboration of images above presents the overall composition of the installation within the station prefab. We identify the manner in which the installation is uniform in its geometry working the same at any rotation upon any of the axis, allowing an individual to move throughout the structure. Such is enhanced through the collaboration of stairs as one is further able to move between the two levels. However within the final installation there will be in fact three levels. Additionally through careful consideration I have decided to remove the stairs component allowing the protagonist to simply ‘fall’ between the levels, thus doing so in a more ‘swiftly’ movement to represent the manner in which on with depression simply floats in a sense unconsciously through life.

The series of images above portrays the interior aspect of the installation concept. Hence the multi-dimensional paths and doorway, as one identifies the manner in which they interconnect. I quite like the manner in which the persona of the environment, through the unique dispersion of light is enhanced due to the influences upon the structural members of the station. However within these images we identify the first issue between the interaction of the station and installation as within the bottom left image we can see particular members block particular pathways and thus will need to be cut way and re-formed.

EXP 2: Week 3: Research Continued...

Entity Attachment and Detachment – Experimentation One:

Within this week’s lab class I began discussing with the tutor Vinh Nguyen my porosity lens concept in terms of having numerous entity’s in a large cube formation which independently attach and detach from each other as the surface of the main cube rotates. He suggested I start looking into the ‘Entity: AttachChild” and “Entity: DetachThis” flow graph nodes. After playing around with these nodes on a few basic cubes I came up with the following flow graph which allowed me to attach and detach the cubes upon a single key press input.

Basically this works very simply, the key input triggers the attachment function of the Entity: AttachChild node when pressed, which sources the child from the Entity: EntityId node, attaching the two. Upon the release of the defined key, the Entity: DetachThis is triggered, detaching the two entities. It is important to note that I discovered that for this particular application I am required to ensure the ‘Keep Transform’ on both the Entity: AttachChild and Entity: DetachThis is set to true, hence 1. I feel as though through planning the layout of the attachment and detachment management system I may be able to very easily use the flow graph above to control all the attachments and detachments within my porosity lens documentary.

Entity Attachment and Detachment – Experimentation Two:

Through some research on the internet regarding the attachment and detachment of various entities I discovered the system of organisation with the Crysis Sandbox 2 editor in the form of parent/child linking. The most appealing part of this discovery is the manner in which one is able to attach numerous entities together without having to use a flow graph. However as a resultant one is unable to detach the attached entities once attached within the game, meaning I would not be able to interact with my environment within one continuous motion. Therefore unless I am able to find a manner in which I can disable parent/child linking within game mode, I will stop researching this technique. The image below presents the manner in which this notion works.

Interactive Environments Within Popular Culture - Mars Bar Commercial

Upon watching television I noticed a new commercial for Mars Bars which presents a prime example of an interactive environment as the protagonist directly influences lights within his environment as he gains energy from eating a mars bar. It was rather interesting in terms of the way in which lights had been used to define the resultant of eating the Mars Bar as it alluded to the path of the man as a secondary state. Such made me consider a similar notion in terms of my own porosity lens through the notion that my protagonists environment may not interact due to his movements but rather his purpose. I have included the video beneath to portray this concept.

EXP 2: Week 2: S.W.O.T - 3 Nodes Analysis

1. Entity: AttachChild:

S – Strengths: The main strength of this particular node is its direct ability to interact with an entity as well as its accompanying Entity: DetachThis node. It allows for one to identify the child entity and activate its attachment through other influences such as a Key Input.

W – Weakness: The most significant weakness of this particular node is its option for only a single child. However this may be able to be overcome by using a some sought of logic gate. This may allow for multiple entities to become the child, but will reduce the potential individual control.

O – Opportunities: The opportunity for this node to be included within my experiment exists within the attachment and detachment of the numerous entities to a central core. The child feature will define one of the numerous moving entities, while the node itself could define the core entity.

T –Threats: The most significant threat regarding this node exists upon the potential overloading of the flow graph when numerous entities are being attached and detached simultaneously. However this may be able to be overcome by using many of this node individually, rather than running all attachments through only one.

2. Entity: EntityPos:

S – Strength: The most significant strength of this node is its ability to alter a entities rotation, scale and position while defining previously through additional inputs and calculations. Hence one is able to combine various values and numerous calculations regarding these movements within the node, as it works as a manager.

W – Weakness: The main weakness of this particular node is the manner in which through initial research it appears difficult to set a value within the node, while then attempting the alter the set value through a vector node.

O – Opportunity: This node has many opportunities as it has the ability to be the core of the player entity rotation. It would allow for an updated position to be calculated regularly to be updated in terms of rotation in association with the players global position. Hence rotating the entity in association with the player’s position.

T – Threat: Threats regarding the use of this node within experiment two exists around the updating of the rotations position, as if this lags, then over time the rotation will become out of global sync resulting in the potential clash of entities as the rotate between different axes.

3. Entity: GetPos:

S – Strength: The main strength of the Entity: GetPos node is its ability to receive the world position, rotation, scale and direction of a defined entity upon any axis while separating this information accordingly. Such allows for a particular element to be altered rather than having to later separate the information out, allowing for various different tasks to be completed on potentially each field.

W – Weakness: There are not all that many weaknesses for this node, except perhaps for the point that when used with say a “Vector Sub” node it may be difficult to determine which value is being subtracted from the other, especially if we wish to produce a negative number not a positive.

O – Opportunities: The opportunities to use this node are immense, mainly within determining the position of various entities to determine whether through the vector outputs they are in range for attachment on a face, or calculating the rotation of an entity with reference to the player.

T – Threat: The main threat of using this node is the potential confusion when altering two or even all three qualities of an entity by the same value or ratio as one will either need to combine the values or alter them separately however within the same ratio of values.

EXP 2: POROSITY LENS BRIEF

Depression is a mental state which alters the individual’s perception of reality within their own environment. It is a manner which is much more than a simple state of sadness and grief, but rather a complex continuum of disorder. Such influences the individual upon a physical and psycological level as the individual may feel lethargic and emotional worthless, however such defines the manner in which they interact with their environment.

Through my porosity lens documentary I intend on exploring the manner in which an individual with depression interacts with their environment through the influence of their mental state. I intend on perceiving the manner in which the individual not only attempts to restore disorder but also the manner in which they unknowingly develop disorder within their environment. My initial perpeception of portraying such involves using the Town Hall Station Prefab as a representation of the individual’s environment alluding to a sense of depression and lioness through its surrounding environment in the form of a few un-habited islands within the middle of the ocean as the station is suspended in-between. Thus the environment (station) will be separated into numerous uniform sections in a cube formation, allowing the individual through custom pieces to walk throughout. Through such general interactions will individual sections rotate upon the influence of the protagonist’s movement, re-organising the original state portraying disorder. Such will allow for one to attempt to restore order, while within a sense remaining defined by their environment and thus there state of depression.