Just thought I'd post as I have my driving test coming up on thursday. Just say I am absoulutely crapping myself because I have thrown every single penny at it, apart from my bus fair to college I have spent money on nothing else! Basically I have been having a 1 hour lesson every week for the past 20 or so weeks, this week my test is on thursday, which was £60. Then because I want to pass that much I have booked a lesson for tomorrow (tuesday), then I have also booked a 2 hour lesson the morning of my test which is £40, then you have to pay the price of a lesson to use his car during the test so another £20.

So basically this week has cost my a total of (£60+20+£40+20)

=£140

£140 quid to get told I didn't check my friken blindspot or some other stupid reason for failing. Basically us learner drivers are being blamed for conjestion! Thing is most people are desperate to pass so they are just going to keep throwing money at it till they eventually pass, the DSA know this so therfore take advantage to make money!

I hate the world! Im now emo...plz feel sorry for me. (Wish me luck too please lol)

High polygon knife I have just been working on. Practice to create high density mesh with all the details in order to bake a normal map and apply to lower poly (realtime friendly) version of the same model.

Notice how each edge catches light, this is using high density sub-division modeling in order to create realistic edges and shapes. This process is where polycount doesn't really matter as this is only used to bake a normal map containing the high detail information, this will be thrown on a MUCH more obtimized lower polygon mesh, but will still obtain those smooth corners and details.

Basically I have been pretty abscent from 3D related stuff the past few months. The last few days I have been practicing hard surface sub-division modeling.

Whats that I hear you scream? OK well I will explain for anyone in GS8 if your reading this...

Sub-division modeling is the process of creating a basic 3D model and spliting it up into many segments in order for a modififer (Such as turbosmooth or meshsmooth) to sub-divide the segments into higher polygon geometry. This process ultimately results in very smooth life like results if done correctly. When you subdivide, your mesh will dramatically increase in polycount. So why would this be useful for realtime rendering in games I hear you ask? The answer is 'normal mapping'.

So what is normal mapping? Basically, a normal map is a generated or 'baked' image file which contains lighting information. This can be added to the low polygon game model to 'fake' lighting. Ultimitely this enables the engine to render the low polygon game model, but render the lighting from the original high polygon model. So your basically getting the ilusion of light from an extemelly high polygon model, but the engine is only having to render a low polygon. Normal mapping is MEGA important today, every and I mean EVERY modern game/engine use some form of normal mapping technique.

I will give you an example: Say for instance you have a screw, a very minor detail to many objects in the real world, and too minor to actually bother about modeling for realtime rendering. Before normal mapping came around, you would of had to add it to your diffuse texture because there was no alternative, this would look flat and planar. Nowadays, you can add the screw into a normal map and on the in-game model you will see the screw as if it was modeled into the geometry of the object and actually react to the various light sources within the game world. This is awesome because you can actually create an ubber detailed model without having to worry about performance issues.

Thought I would post about this because it's extremelly important if you want to get into next-gen modeling. However, try to learn traditional methods of game asset creation first off. This will help you learn and understand texturing light sources and such, although most engine render lighting in realtime nowadays, it's best to have a firm grasp on light sources and how light reacts with real life materials/objects etc...

Yes it's been friken ages since I posted, but this means I have alot of things to post! First off Modern Warfare 2? Let me just say WOW. This game has got to be the best FPS ever made, if not the best GAME ever made! Just to clear things up I am now a fanboy of CoD, I am actually a dedicated fan which has stayed loyal to the call of duty series since the very first game!! lol. Anyways, although the multiplayer has been added to slightly, the main concept stays relatively the same but with new maps. The aspect of the game which really stands out is the single player, hands down the best single player experience I have ever encountered! Awesome stuff and well done infinity ward for yet another awesome game! Now lets wait for Treyarch to make a crappy WWII spin off with the engine! ZzZzzz (please don't)

Anyway I am going to double post about the next subject (3D YAY!)

Just read about the new handheld device which is in development by Microsoft. By the sounds of things it's on its way very soon.

CLICK AK47

AK-47 model with camo paint. Inspired by Call of duty 4, obviously! ;)

Click Colt Defender
Click to see defender magazine/clip

M60 Heavy

Just some more I found. ;)

CLICK HERE

So I realized I have never posted any of my 3D work up. I decided to round a few renders up of weapons I have done. The reason I have done alot of weapon models is because In games such as counted strike source, you can export your own models so you can create custom guns and such.

This is a makarov, its a Russian soviet weapon which I made ages ago, but it's some of the only work I can find. All you see here is just a DIFFUSE textured model, so there is no rendered lighting or ANYTHING, the model lighting in the image is PAINTED into the texture itself in photoshop. The grip area took bloooomin ages to paint but was worth it.

Well today we went on a tour of Monumental Games, it was amazing! It was so interesting to see how a real studio works together to develop a game.

Just thought I would post! ;)

Pros/Story
OK, I am going to begin G.O.T.M with Dead Space. Got this last month and played through about two levels, then it rolled behind my HUGE wardrobe, I was unable to get it for three weeks!! Finally got my dad to help me fish it out from behind, and I tell you, there was sweat and a little blood! (I got a splinter :0)

Anyways, this months game is survival horror game 'Dead Space'. Now to cut a story short, your basically a guy named Isac and you arrive at the U.S.G Ishimura with two other crew members. Your spaceship crash lands on the Ishimura and your objective is to survive while trying to find a women that is close to you. The game really is something special, the visuals are really artistic, reminds me of 'THE THING' a little. Easily the best element of the game is the audio! The sound is truely the best I have ever encountered in a game, vents rattle above you as creatures move through them, a womens voice echos through the ship and overall the sound is VERY creepy.

Cons
The only critisism I have with the game is it's linear gameplay. The whole game is spent trapt on a clostrophopic spaceship, and alot of the time you feel like your just following a path. Another thing which bugged me was I felt forced to use the ripper gun, although it's a fun gun to play with, most of the ammo pickups were for this weapon and the others seemed to be ignored.

Apart from those cons it was probably the best game I've played in a while.

Game play: 8
Storyline: 7
Visuals: 9.5
Audio: 10

Overall: 8.6

Well I try and buy a new game at least once a month and complete it. I've posted a few times and written a review about a game (CoD and Stalker) but haven't really made it official.

WELL NOW IT'S OFFICIAL DUDES!

That's if anyone actually cares, I mean I don't think anyone actually reads this damn blog anyway! (Apart from Kelly)

Check post above for GAME OF MAY ;)

Clicky click click

Just did this messing about. Just did some plain text and started adding texture, got a little carried away and ended up with this. This doesn't really reflect the style I was going for when it comes to the game, but like I said I was messing around. Everything was done from scratch using brushes and a little photo manipulation.

Oh well pitch tomorrow, I'm really nervous! :P

I'm falling behind again! Ughh, I'm sick of the roadworks through Kimberly making me late, only answer is to leave early I guess. Anyway fell a little behind on assignments but really trying to get them on track, going to work hard on assignment 5.3 as it's more graphical.

Anyway, I finally got Dead Space! At last I went into game and picked it up preowned, two games for £30 which was cool. I got Unreal Tournament III because I liked the previous Unreal games, and this seems pretty much similar to the others with improved graphics. Dead Space is absoulutely amazing, the graphics and atmosphere are both original and amazing. I wouldn't say the story is anything new but the actual style of the characters and enviroments is pretty refreshing, it's actually quite scary!

One more thing, when I got my Xbox360 at christmas I really believed I was getting the strong console on the market. However, just as my luck usually turns out, PS3 seems to be the stronger console when it comes to upcoming games(Killzone 2 for example). But I don't think i'd be able to cope with the PS3 console, the position of the Analog sticks on the 360 are perfect(IMO).

Well thats all I've got to say really, kind of in a rush! But i'll try and post sooner next time.

Due to the recent failure of 'HAZE', Free Radical Design which is based in Nottingham, has been declared bankrupt.

It's a real shame because their isn't a great deal of game developers in the Nottingham area, especially ones which produce first person shooters. I haven't played the game myself but it received terrible reviews and feedback, I do believe that it was over hyped and I think being a PS3 exclusive was one of the reasons for this.

Click here to read the article

Last night me and my girlfriend ventured into town for a meal, we decided on the Soulville steakhouse on Queen street. It's lucky we went when we did because not long after we left a fire destroyed the place.

I'm pretty gutted, it was a good restaurant and I hope it's refurbished back to how it was.

Thought I would post it because I'm shocked!

Click to read article

Just posting my survey, if you have a few spare minutes just answer the 10 simple questions. 

So I said I would post an image of my website yesterday and here it is! I really enjoyed designing this and it's probably my most enjoyed assignment yet. I am quite proud of the design, and really pleased with how it turned out. I'm looking forward to getting the feedback from Kelly and really hoping I get a distinction as I've really worked hard on it.

Anyway I've been thinking about my blog and I might just design and code my own! Sounds like a fun idea if I get some time. Web hosting is cheap so that's no problem, just finding some spare time to actually do it. May do it in the same design as the website I did, so it doesn't go to waste, although I am quite tempted to make something new.

Today I designed a character in class, even though people may of thought it was a little silly, I actually liked it! Haha, but seriously, I actually might use it. I'm thinking of making a plat former type game for my final project, the reason for this is aiming to create a fully fledged 3D game is a pretty unrealistic target in my opinion, therfore I am aiming for a more practical concept.

Now I must sleep. Zzzzz...

It's been TOO long since I last posted, I can just never get round to it. Anyway, hope your Christmas was good. As I've said in my post before Christmas, I have now got an Xbox360(Wahoo!) so I feel more at home in my college course now, because to be honest I wasn't really playing many games on the PC, it's was just too much trouble. The reason I haven't posted is because I haven't really had the time, when I've actually had some free time it's been spent on the Xbox or with my girlfriend. So I'm really going to try and post updates on my work and stuff every lesson if I can.

I have a meeting tomorrow with Ariana and Jamie about my attendance, it's really sad because I've recently realised how important the course is to me and now it's too late, hopefully I can pursuade them to give me another chance.

Anyway thats the bad news out of the way, the good news is on Friday my website project was completed, I wish I had used my blog more when I was creating it. I am really pleased with my finished website and I actually enjoyed making it, I will post some images of it tomorrow.

For now I am going to get some sleep! ;)