Computer "Ghost" Graphics

Week 8

2008-12-10T05:34:00.000-08:00

Ok we didnt do anything much for CompG practical except to continue on our assignment models which i have already finished.

We also learnt a more indepth lesson onto lighting and how different surfaces will come out different looks such as a flat square look or a smooth look on a sphere. We also learnt more about the huge chunk of code that helps us in lighting and what all the variables really mean.

Week 7

2008-12-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

In week 7 we learnt about lighting. By adding a huge chunk of code into the myInit part of our code we could make out model look better through the use of lighting. Due to the unfortunate incident where i lost my thumbdrive, my metool model has changed to the model of a Bogle.

We also learnt about the mechanics of lighting and how it affects objects in OpenGL.

Week 6 Practical

2008-11-21T23:26:00.000-08:00

Army Of Metools... Nuff' said....

This week we were told to create a 3D robot model, this could be used as a starting point for our assignment as well. For my practical i have done a Metool from Megaman, and then i printed out multiple Metools using a for loop.

This week's lecture was about Hierarchical Modeling. This was something like, if the top arm moves the bottom arm will also move, we learnt how we could use this to properly model an arm. We also learnt about Matrix stacks, then we will know which transfromation will be done first.

Week 5

2008-11-11T02:48:00.001-08:00

This week during practical, we were told to make a solar system which rotates and responds to key inputs. My solar system is as shown, when "o" key is pressed all the planets start to rotate, and when "t" key is pressed the ring around the pink planet starts to spin. I also added a command for the planets to fill up with colour, but it looked ugly so i refuse to add a screenshot.

During lecture we learnt about Aspect ratio and a lot of transformations such as rotations and translations, and the math behind all of it, about how the rotations would affect the matrix and everything. We also learnt about Matrix stacks and the Push, Pop functions.

Week 4

2008-11-06T04:48:00.000-08:00

We learnt more about the different perspectives in viewing things. Along with how to calculate the U, V and N. There are also different views, such as a one point view where only 1 point is visible and the thing looks flat and 2D. We also learnt the importance of point of view, which can affect how a thing looks like.

In the practical, we were told to create a 3D image. This is the 3D image that i created. The 3D image was created by using flat rectangles and squares to create the sides and finally a whole image.

CompG Week 3

2008-11-01T01:50:00.000-07:00

This was what i did for CompG Practical. Basically its a Big W with a sphere in the background. I also changed the background color to gray. The W also rotates around using the Rotatef function.

The W is formed using 9 triangles so that theres more colour and the bars in the middle are just squares.

During the week 3 lecture we learnt about the 3D rendering pipeline and about 3D Geometric Primitives such as triangles and polygons.

Comp G Lab 2

2008-10-23T03:47:00.000-07:00

Question 1 – Define a Callback function?

A callback is executable code that is passed as an argument to other code. It allows a lower-level software layer to call a subroutine (or function) defined in a higher-level layer.

Question 2 - When exactly is myDisplay() called? How do you get to your findings?

myDisplay() is called when the main function calls it out with glutDisplayFunc(myDisplay); The main function calls it out by typing out the name of the function.

Question 3 – List the process to access the VRAM.

This is achieved by obtaining a memory space with the same size as the VRAM and double buffer. After manipulating the memory, we copy the content to the double buffer and OpenGL accesses the VRAM.

Question 4 - What color format are we using here i.e. 8 bits, 16 bits, 24 bits or 32 bits?

24 bits.

Question 5 - How much memory have we allocated?

800 * 600 * 24 / 3 = 1440000 bytes

Question 6 – Describe what has glDrawPixel() done.

glDrawPixel() reads pixel data from memory and writes it into the frame buffer.

Week 2 Computer Graphics

2008-10-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

The lecture this week was mostly about colour. Firstly is that our perception of colour makes me unable to distinguish between the same shades of a certain colour.

We also learnt abit of biology, about how the human eye really works. It actually has rods and cones that help us see. Rods help us to determine dark from bright, while Cones helps us see overall colour.

We also learnt about all the different types of graphic file types and what they do, such as GIF being able to have animations while JPEG does not.

Question 1 -I want my game to run at 800 x 600 on 32 bits. How much VRAM do I need?

Answer 1 -800 * 600 * 4 = 1920000 bytes ≈ 1.83 Mbytes.

Question 2 -My artist are told they have a maximum of 32MB to use for textures. How many textures can they use if they are limit to 256 x 256, with a 24bits palette of 8bits color depth?

Answer 2 – ~507 Textures

Summary on Week 1 CompG

2008-10-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

The increase in the amount of realism that computer graphics has over the years has increased dramtically over the years. From the very pixel and cartoony looking games such as Doom 1, to the realistic games such as unreal tournament.

There are also many different uses of computer graphics, such as for the use for making Art and movies. For the industry, where it can improve how well people know about the human body and helps them design things better. It can also be used for virtual reality.

There are different programs that people can use to create computer graphics, such as DirectX and OpenGL.

Ninja Gaiden 2

2008-10-15T21:57:00.001-07:00

Title of the Game: Ninja Gaiden 2

Platform of Game: Xbox 360

Genre of Game: Action Adventure

Developer: Team Ninja, Tecmo

Product Model Year: June 3, 2008

Game Requirements: Xbox 360

Description

Ninja Gaiden 2 is one of the games that has managed to achieve an M18 rating, and for good reason too. With the main character able to cut off the limbs, heads and almost whatever the enemy has attached to himself off, anyone that plays this game will be literally seeing red for the whole duration of the game.

The story is about Ryu Hayabusa, as some may know from other games in the series, as Ryu Hayabusa tries to stop the awakening of Archfiend, which is esentially a really big monster that wants to destroy the world.

Although there is nothing much about the story that really stands out, the game itself is great.

Gameplay

Similar to the previous game in the series, you will have an extremely large array of weapons available for you to use. Basic combos are extremely easy to do, just by button mashing, Ryu will do a spectacular array of slashes to dice the enemy into a bloody mess.

Although cutting off the limbs of the enemies in the game might make you think they have become weaker, that is not the case, as the enemies will become more desperate and will resort to suicide attacks or will attack faster. But if the enemy has some part of his body cut off, the player will be able to do a Finishing Move, which is a gory display of Ryu cutting off the enemy's head or smashing his body with whatever weapon Ryu is using.

But advanced combos are actually very hard to do as the game is extremely fast paced, with the player fighting against at least 4 to 5 enemies at once.

The camera angles are also abit of a pain as when the game requires you to do certain jumping puzzles, the camera changes and makes you fall off, and also with so many enemies, sometimes you cant see Ryu on the screen at all, because he is blocked by some ninja or wolf.

The difficulty level of the game is also a problem. The game is so tough that you may be spending hours on one boss even while playing on the easiest difficulty level. Sometimes the game might just make you want to throw your controller at the wall.

The learning curve for this game may be quite steep as initial enemies already have methods to kill you fast.

The enemy AI has also been improved from the previous game, as the enemies will now throw you, break your blocks and then double team you, therefore leaving you almost no time to stand still and block.

Graphics

The game looks fantastic. With the amount of blood and gore and flying limbs and heads, the game's combat is fantastic to look at. Cinematics are also really nice to look at as you see Ryu jumping around slashing and splitting Ninjas in half.

Environments have to be improved though. Most environments look bland and very repetitive, such as a green goo cave that just repeats. The environment graphics is not one that someone would expect from this type of console.

Another problem is that the blood and goo from opponents sometimes stick to invisible walls. So most of the time you will see floating blood, and this really sticks out sometimes.

The game graphics has improved vastly from the first Ninja Gaiden made in 1988 for the NES.

As you can see both graphics differ vastly.

Sound

The sound in the game are the normal for an action game, with loud, fast paced music during combat scene.

Sounds like swords clashing or bodies being cut are all there, but nothing really stands out, but nothing really sticks out neither. The sounds used also feels very reused, with weapons making the same sounds, sometimes making for a boring audio experience.

Conclusion

All in all, the game has great looking combat, with a very challenging gameplay. If you are looking for great combat with alot of blood and gore, this is the game for you.