The 3D struggle

This week 3D project consisted in creating a photo realistic building with a maximum budget of 2500 triangles and 8mb of texture space.

I have no prior experience using 3D software and even though I have been in the Game Art course for 8 weeks I'm still figuring out how to use the vast amount of tools that 3D max can offer.

I am quite pleased with the outcome of the building. There are details I would improve such as the windows and the wood beams. Also, the roof was mean to be dark grey but it turned out lighter than expected.

If I were to start this project all over again I would've done it differently. I used too many triangles for such a simple design!

The most challenging part? I would say making the 3D model. Making sure all the verices were connected, that the shape was right and that it looked as close as possible to the original building.
Texturing was not difficult, it just took time and a great amount of patience.


Well, compare yourselves:

This is just the beginning. Even though I get frustrated and angry at the software, I want to keep on doing projects. I know I can become better.


Thank you for reading,


Carla.

Video Games: The Origins part III

The 1990s were a time full of changes, starting with the collapse of the soviet union in 1991 and the end of the cold war when, a year later the Berlin wall was taken down.

In terms of gaming, at this point, Japan is the leading country with its innovative Nintendo consoles. Every one wanted a Game Boy when it came out in 1992! Also, the most popular game made its entrance that same year, yes, I am talking about Tetris.

As arcades went down, other console platforms launched very successful games such as Sonic by SEGA.

CDs are becoming more popular, giving birth to a whole new generation of consoles. Starting with the PlayStation in 1994! No more horrible pixelated graphics! It is the begining of the 3D era!

Titles such as Resident Evil from Capcom, Golden eye from rare and later in 1998 Zelda, revolutionized gaming and set the bases for future generations of games.

Games were seen as funny and entertaining until the columbine killings in 1999 turned them evil. The two boys that carried the killings were not into gaming that much but the industry got damaged anyway. This view sadly, is still present nowadays.


In 2000 the PlayStation 2 arrives with new and better graphics! Also online gaming is becoming quite popular with titles like World Of Warcraft.

In conclusion, in ten years we went from pixelated images to reasonable good 3D graphics which I believe is a huge step.



Next chapter: from 2000 to the future..



References from google images.

Video games: The Orgins part II

The next stage for gaming was heavily marked by the cold war. The 1980s were a time of anti-nuclear protests, protect and survive publicity, the raise of electronic music and also the raise of the pesonal computer!

During the 1980s, Atari 2600 dominated the market. Later on, Coleco Telstar created a console where you could play simultaneous games. One hardware and lots of games!

In 1983 Nintendo steps into the market and for the first time, the US has a competitor.
On same year, Atari loses popularity and meets its end. Not only Atari but many other consoles desappear over night. There were simply too many devices. Also, personal computers are becoming more popular since one could use them for work and entertainment at the same time.

By the end of the 80s Sega and Nintendo are the most popular consoles on the market. Specially Nintendo when in 1989 released the Game boy, a portable console!

The decade starts with a multitude of gaming devices but only a few remain at the end. Also, 3D games can be seen by the end of the 80s and even though they weren't that popular they showed what games could become in the future.





Next Chapter: History of video games part III (1990-2000)



References from google images.

Video Games: The Origins.

The first computer game was not officially recognised until 1948 and that is not too long ago. Computers though, they had been known since the 19th century. The difference engine (1849) created by Charles Babbage was an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions.

The biggest jump towards computing happened during the second World War. The urge to engineer new weapons and machines to break the enemy's comunications coding made a huge impact on the developing process of computers.

The size of computers post WWII was huge, they would occupy a whole room! At this point though, only big business and the military would use computers.

Then in 1948 using an army computer that tracked the trajectories of mssiles, William Higinbotham came up with Tennis for two, the predecessor of Pong.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG2mdU_i8k   (Tennis for two short video)

From this point onwards computers started their first revolution. Smaller personal computers started appearing on the market as entertainment devices. Arcade gaming took over in 1960s. Big computers were still used by business but from this point, computing wasn't limited to creating and solving codes but as an artístic tool as well.
In 1973, 77 Xenox park in California created the first form of digital painting software which they called 'Superpaint'.

In 1976 Apple would launch the Apple I and computer games would change course. The 70s marked the beginning of the end for Arcade games and the very beginning of gaming consoles!

(Atari vcs)

Next update: History of computer games part II.



References frm Wikipedia and google images.