MMOs

The number of quality MMOs active now is vast and more join the fun all the time. No brand new MMO can get it right out of the box, but SWTOR seems to be doing better than most. There is a pervading logic to the gameplay for the whole genre which only changes slightly across an array of titles. Even though there is alot of sameyness, within each game they do cater to different playstyles of course. There is the trend towards Free2play with Star Trek Online joining City of Heroes, LOTRO and others.
With things only shifting slowly in the MMO arena it does leave the space open for bold experiments in this space, but it is very very expensive to try. There are lots of little things that I would like to see evolve, find a way not to need separate 'servers' for people - bring the community together in one vast 'world' (EVE style). Have the AI/NPCs go about their lives and not stand there ready for us to slay right in front of the next set. See if we can find a way to have what is done stay done, how many thousands of times must players retrieve the locket for an NPC before they stop losing is at the bottom of a flooded mine... I like what Bioware have done with the story side of SWTOR and some of the promises that Guild Wars 2 might bring are interesting.

Anyhow, lets throw in some gorgeous visuals from some of these titles - oh if there was time to taste them all !!!

Star Trek Online
Now free2play and looking great even under the shadow that is SWTOR at the moment. The graphics dont seem to have the fidelity that I would like to see though, to pick up a game I want to be excited by it on multiple levels.



[STO Screenshots via the official site]

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Guild Wars 2
A better update soon, but this video is great great great and a pair of teaser screenshots before I look in more detail as well.


[Guild Wars 2 Screenshots via the official site]

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As always I like to swing by MMORPG.com to see where things are at as well, but really all the big news at the moment is around Star Wars the Old Republic. Here is their upcoming changes vid:

Electroshock

The shot french animated film Electroshock is exquisitely crafted and is a real standout in terms of every facet of short film making. We have some nice writing supported by groovy production in all categories from design, modelling, animation, lighting, editing and sound.
The fact that this little jewel was created by a suite of students at ESMA (Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques) makes it all the more impressive - what is not to like!

The Electroshock Facebook page has mor einfo and images from the production which is great, seeing behind the scenes shows even more clearly how much effort and skill goes into such things.

 

[Production images from Electroshock via their facebook page]

Titanic Mod

The staggering volume and quality of the work put into this CryEngine 3 mod by the team at ORM Entertainment really shows off the amazing vessel that the Titanic must have been. The Titanic: Adventure Out of Time blog is the home of the project with guides and links to all manner of info. Seeing the attention to detail with the models as well as operating doors, blinds, toilets and so on.

Here is the killer Update #5 Video to start off.

There are some tempting images on the site for the interiors as well - but they are all low res - darn it.

Arrietty

Studio Ghibli's latest film is The Secret World of Arrietty which takes on Mary Norton’s book series “The Borrowers” which suits the charm of the studio to a tee. Here are three trailer versions showing how the same film in Japanese, American and British can have quite a different feel and quality. All of them look gorgeous and I like those Brit accents.

Here are some of the stills released that show off things:

Real Time Architecture

Having spent a little time over the last few days with some of the work being done here at UNSW Built Environment with repect to bringing in Architectural models into real-time environments like CryEngine I had a quick browse through some videos on Autodesk Showcase.

Showcase takes data from packages like Revit and manhandles them into a semi-attractive real-time walkthrough or flythrough engine. There are some nice features like the sectioning and the expected features of floor/wall detection etc. That said it certainly doesnt have the audio, visual and emotional richness we are getting with the CryEngine Free SDK.

Being able to link Industry apps like Revit with the vanguard of visualisation tools would be a nice future for all. With PlayUp doing such a great job with Sketchup, the bar has been set and there is plenty of room to grow from there.

SW-TOR Tempation

With the release of Star Wars : The Old Republic MMO by BIOWARE the temptation to head over and join the Jedi and Sith going at it is very high. When we were all blown away by each cinematic trailer as it came, I was somewhat let down by the actual gameplay footage. But now watching more videos the look isnt bad and the storytelling focus that BIOWARE have brought to the MMO looks very attractive.

MMOs generally arent too hot when they first release and take some time to mature, generally the longer the better. Even the king of the MMO, WoW, is a vastly improved game now than the revelation it was all those years ago at release time. So, dive in now with all the hype or wait until things settle and the content starts fleshing out and the initial chaotic bubble of players calms down??
The key is clearly having some friends (or family) to play with and everyone's fun and investment in WoW is always there - calling...

Before we throw some cool videos showing off characters, story, gameplay and more - check out the CGSociety article for some info and imagery on design and modelling for the game.

[SWTOR Modelling images via the CGSociety article]

ok VID Time:

Affinity Software

I was watching some of the promo vids for Trelligence Affinity which offers a pretty extensive set of tools and integrations for doing architectural programming. I like the links with sketchup and BIM and the logic of designing to a detailed specification of rooms and relationships.
It will be interesting to see if software like this is intuitive enough to bring into the design degrees, it seems as though it would be, though not appropriate for all design studios I am sure some would derive great benefit from the rigor.

Eat3D CryEngine Vids

I have started to work through the Eat3D videos: CryENGINE 3 vol 1-3 Introduction and Application. Just watching Crytek's Hélder Pinto do his little intro as he flies around a gorgeous level created with the freeSDK is inspiring. Admittedly having only watched through the first 4 parts so far we are getting a slow and steady intro to the editor - but I am keen to see it all come together. The vids arent too expensive, I grabbed the download versions rather than the DVDs, the quality seems great so far!

I will have to work through some 3ds Max tutes when I want to swap in another app...

Three Vids

Some videos that are sitting here demanding to get their day of glory on the blog - they just wont quit with the nagging.

Out of Sight is a delightful Grad project takes a nice idea and delivers for us. I like the polite cuteness of the whole thing, good films dont have to be edgy and confronting. The polish and production quality is really very high, put that on top of a lovely idea and this is a must watch.

The Embrace Life TVC I saw first on Gruen Transfer and was suitable amazed. Really poetic work and wonderfully executed.

What's not to love about a Dark Knight Rises trailer. Seeing The Dark Knight on IMAX was an intense experience, seeing this trailer reminds me of that and a hankering to do it again!

LA AutoShow Design Challenge

I always enjoy seeing the fun that designers have with the Auto Show competitions. They go far beyond a few thumbnail sketches, creating complex fleshed out designs and renderings. The 2011 LA AutoShow Challenge had a movie star theme which gave the entries a different feel. Here are some images from entries in this "Hollywood’s Hottest New Movie Car" Design Challenge which brought something interesting to the table in design and presentation - see the site for more:

[LA Auto Show Design Challenge Images via the official site] 

and a vid as well:

Crysis2 Concept Art

Some more concept art for Crysis2 is up on CGtopia by Viktor Jonsson. It is inspirational to see these environments come alive in his illustrations to such a level that they feel playable. Here we have mood and detail, colour and lighting. Here are a couple, but see the post for more:



[Crysis2 concept art by Viktor Jonsson via CGtopia]

Techy Bits

Here are a few interesting bits of tech that swam past over the last little bit that are worthy of a few seconds of blogginess:

Throwable Spherical Panoramic Camera Ball

The Ball Camera is a clean and simple idea of having enough cameras in a throwable ball so you can get a 360 degree look at a spot once thrown. Quality of the splicing looks like it could be better/smoother, but the video speaks for itself - clever.
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Sony HMZ-T1 3DTV Headset
The idea of nice headsets for VR or AR is till something waiting for something of a revolution. We generally dont want to have silly headsets on, but when the quality gets good enough to blow our socks off we will change our minds fast enough. We wear headphones for things and when 3D vision headsets give us full peripheral screens at hi-res we will don them as well and it will be super.

I am doubtful Sony's HMZ-T1 headset will be what is needed - but perhaps it is another little step along the way - maybe it will be a big step, bringing a fully realised commercial product to market.


Here is the same unit with some head tracking thrown in:


HP Envy Laptops
While we dont seem to get these HP Envy Laptop babies in Oz (why?) there are things worthy of note. The design is frustratingly too much like the MacBookPro. We know the MBP design is gorgeous, but that doesnt mean there arent other designs for laptops that can look just as good. Sigh - HP have crafted a laptop that looks basically the same...

 
[HP Envy Laptop promo image via the official site]

Looks arent everything though, the laptop boast some serious hardware including the 3D screen and some nice sub-systems.

WoW TCG Artwork

With the family still enjoying some WoW-time together here and there I like some of this artwork that has been created for the World of Warcraft TCG. WHile some of the pieces might just be nifty illustrations of the basic races and classes and generic enemies, some are loving representations of some of the cooler characters and instance bosses that we all remember. Check the site for more, but here are some to lure you there:





[World of Warcraft TCG images via the official site]

Thor

Got to watch the Thor bluray the other day and they have done a great job in bringing another Avenger to the screen for us. This time we have a tale spread across the stars as well as time with our gods living so long. The environments of Asgard and Jotunheim contrast so beautifully with the simplicity of the New Mexico desert and township. We get another stirring tale of powerful people strugglign to understand their role in things, but in this case the main struggle is far far away with the politics and struggle between the mighty Norse gods and the Frost Giants which spills over onto Earth.



Kenneth Branagh assembled a great cast, we get Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins bringing their class to Aussie Chris Hemsworth's ripped Thor. The sound stands out in the film (as it has in many the recent superhero movies) - lifting the experience for us into the other realms and to the right plane for thinking all supery.
The occasional tie to the Avengers here reinforces this concept that we are leading upto something huge, something that will require Nick Fury's whole team to tackle (plus with Joss a the helm, whats not to love).

The CG and visual effects were stellar, the world of the front giants feels cold, the magical technology of Asgard transports us there and the blasts and power of our God of Thunder are fully integrated. See the CGSociety article for more detail and some great production images like these:

[Thor CG imagery via the CGSociety article]

Here is some gorgeous concept art done for the film by Michael Kutsch and Craig Shoji. They have each designed and captured character, environment, prop and mood of these grand places and the heroes/villains - inspirational stuff. See their respective sites for much more, but here is a taste:

Michael Kutsch

[Thor concept art by Michael Kutsch via his site]

Craig Shoji

[Thor concept art by Craig Shoji via his site]

Game Trailers

Just saw the review of Battlefield3 and Uncharted3 on GoodGame, so thought that was good enough inspiration for some Gaming videos of cool things around atm or soon to be. It is incredible the number of things modern games can have going on at once on screen for us, while we may have a fair way to go to reach 'reality', they are still a joy to behold. The modelling, animation, effects and gameplay are all very mature now...

Windows 8 Preview

Well I took the plunge and have downloaded the Windows 8 Developer Preview from dev.windows.com and thrown it onto my HP 2760P to see how it handles the touch screen and so forth - or perhaps just as importantly how I handle it.

The Install
Downloading was simple, the ISO just needed unpacking so the install could proceed from a USB key (thanks Jas). Super super smooth after hitting the setup.exe as it nicely went about the upgrade in maybe 10 mins or so with just the one restart. Most of my devices were detected by the install, not sure what I am missing yet - but the key things are there.

First Baby Steps
Well talk about a confusing start, the whole concept of the green start screen thing is quite mystifying still. Esp as the installation has hidden all my previously installed apps away from me...
The splitting up of the new apps and the more regular desktop experience feels highly disjointed. Though ALT-TAB works, this is far from the joy of the Win7 taskbar with all its clever icons, aero preview and unified logic. The idea of strangely discovering which part of the screen I can swipe over to get things to come up is odd. Plus the intuitive thing might be to swipe up at the edge to get something to appear - but to get it to go away again, why swipe up again :-)

Progress?
First real problem is getting onto the wireless network, that is just giving me unhelpful errors so far. Moving on I have started to re-install apps, that seems to be what is needed and the WIn7 versions are popping on there one by one ok so far.

Where Does that Leave Me
Well it is actually working surprisingly well in one way considering it is early days yet. The Metro interface is still a mystery waiting to be solved and I am stuck to a network cable, but the rest seems to be alive...

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A little video (not mine) of how that Metro is looking etc:

HP2760P and SketchBookPro

A little while ago now I finally got an HP 2760P to replace my iPad as the portable computer in my life. While the Star-Trekky coolness of the iPad was great, as an actual tool it was left wanting in almost every regard. I am a computer user and to be hamstrung by the apps and the IOS logic at every turn meant either a great journey or just greatly reduced functionality and efficiency.

So, rather that just going back to a baby laptop or ultrathin I decided on a convertible tablet PC. This way I got the small form factor, the fully functional OS (and all the apps that run on it) plus retained the touch screen as well. In fact the HP 2760P screen is a fully functional WACOM tablet with pen so the lure of using it for graphics work was high.

The Windows7 OS isnt super at doing touch as yet and many of the apps assume that it is easy to press a key at some point which isnt easy when in full tablet mode. For example Photoshop's navigation and tool controls often need the shift or control keys etc which is too hard in this mode.

I am loving the portability of the device and the i5 version I have is quick (though it isnt too much more to get the i7). The handwriting detection is surprisingly good, though even my junk typing is generally  faster anyhow.

One of the first pieces of software I was keen to try was SketchBookPro as it works nicely with the touch and pen interface (not perfectly, but nicely). Over the last few weeks I have done a handful of little sketches of various Moth and Butterfly characters and here are some of them. Clearly I have plenty of practising to do, but I think it shows merit as a sketch tool for me...

Vitaliy Modelling

Found Vitaliy Naymushin's modelling via a look at some Rage concept art. Seeing behind the scenes of each creation (the inner workings of the 3D models) always gives me a much greater appreciation of the craft and creative talent required to deliver the final vision.

Check out these amazing images for the Rage character models by Vitaliy from Ben Olson (lots more on his site):



[Vitaliy Naymushin character models from Rage vis his site - SHRUNK]

Should finish off with a Rage video: