Here are some photos of me building the computer. I used my iPhone for convenience at the time so the picture quality isn't the best. I suggest you open the photos in a new window so you can ready the writing I've put in.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Computer Build
Here are some photos of me building the computer. I used my iPhone for convenience at the time so the picture quality isn't the best. I suggest you open the photos in a new window so you can ready the writing I've put in.
The Computer
Just thought I'd better put in information here about the computer (what the specifications are and how it compares to others like it). Here is the list of components, how much they cost and where I bought them from:
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.8 Ghz Quad Core LGA1366 $349
GPU: EVGA GTX460 1GB Overclocked External Exhaust $289
GPU: EVGA GTX460 1GB Overclocked External Exhaust $289
MOBO: Intel DX58SO Extreme X58 LGA1366 CrossFireX/SLi $333
RAM: G.Skill 6Gb DDR3 1333Mhz 3x2Gb F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ $205
PSU: Silverstone ST1000-P Strider 1Kw 80+ $238
HDD: Seagate 500Gb 16Mb Cache $ 75
DVD: LG SATA DVD Burner 22x $ 45
CASE: Antec 902 Black Midi-Tower $208
MONITOR: ASUS MT276 27" LCD $415
KEYBOARD: Logitech G15 LCD Backlit Gaming Keyboard $ 85
MOUSE: Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse $ 95
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech MK250 Wireless Combo $ 35
COOLER: Zalman CNPS9900A LED $ 75
NETWORK CARD: TP-Link TL-WN851N 300Mbps Wireless PCI $ 35
FANS: Enermax Apollish Twister Blue LED + Arctic F12 $ 30
LIGHTING: Bitspower 30Cm Blue Cold Cathode x2 $ 19
MOUSE MAT: Razer Goliathus Fragged Alpha $ 29
WRIST STRAP: Anti-Static Wrist Strap $ 6
CABLE TIES: 100 White Cable Ties $ 2
___________________________________________
Total: $2857
+ shipping
CPU: pccasegear.com.au
GPU: pccasegear.com.au
GPU: pccasegear.com.au
PSU: megaware.com.au
MOBO: techbuy.com.au
RAM: pcdiy.com.au
MONITOR: pccasegear.com.au
HDD: 9289.com.au
DVD: 9289.com.au
CASE: 9289.com.au
KEYBOARD: 9289.com.au
MOUSE: 9289.com.au
KEYBOARD/MOUSE: pccasegear.com.au
COOLER: pccasegear.com.au
NETWORK CARD: pccasegear.com.au
FANS: pccasegear.com.au
LIGHTING: pccasegear.com.au
MOUSE MAT: pccasegear.com.au
WRIST STRAP: pccasegear.com.au
CABLE TIES: pccasegear.com.au
I did lots of reasearch on how the different parts work and how each component affects performance in games. I then selected which parts I would buy that gave me the best price:performance ratio (I could get the best computer available but $18000 is a bit too much to spend). This computer achieves about 90% of the performance available with current computer technology. To get that extra 10% you have to spend thousands and thousands extra.
In terms of running Crysis, I looked at other computers that people had built (YouTube is really good for this). My computer is similar but not every part is the same, making it unique. For my processor I chose an Intel Core i7 930 which has four cores and a speed of 2.8GHz. This is a relatively common processor to play Crysis on.
For graphics I chose the very new GTX 460 from nVidia which had been branded by EVGA. This card had been out for less than two months when I bought it. It gave the best price:performance ratio of any card available in the mid-high performance area. It has won many awards from online review websites. These cards cost me $289 each, meaning that they are priced as mid-range cards even though they have high-end performance. I went and put two of these in, meaning I spent $578 on graphics cards. By using two cheaper cards instead of one expensive card, I can actually match the highest end cards on the market that cost $620-$800. Because these cards a relatively new, not many people have them yet and even less people have two of them.
My motherboard is one of the rarer components in my computer. It is made by Intel (the same as my processor) and it was the first motherboard to be released for the new i7 architecure back at the end of 2008. New motherboards were quickly released by other companies that offered more features. Not many people have this motherboard because it is older, I just got it because it was cheaper and it had all the features that I needed. I would be one of the only people in the world with this older motherboard and very new processor. Most people who have bought an i7 930 processor would buy a newer motherboard to go with it. The Intel DK58SO motherboard is very stable and causes less problems than other boards.
I have 6Gb of G.Skill DDR3 (double data rate version 3) that runs at 1333MHz. G.Skill is a relatively common brand but is most common in gaming computers.
I have a SilverStone 1000w power supply to power everything which is really good because it is modular. Most power supplies have all the cables coming out of it and are unremovable. This isn't ideal because you'll never end up using all the cables. A modular system lets you plug in or take out cables depending on what you need. This is important because it doesn't fill up your case with unused cables, which impacts airflow (not good for cooling).
There are other minor parts but the last major part is the case. I'm using an Antec 902 which is a very feature-rich well-built case. It is made from steel and small amounts of plastic so it's very strong. It also has lots of features such as dust filters on all the fan intakes to prevent dust build-up inside the case.
While this computer uses many common parts, some of them are not so common and it is highly unlikely that there would be many, if any, computers with its exact specifications anywhere else in the world. This is because there would be very few people with my new processor in my older motherboard with my exact two graphics cards in my case. Then you have my power supply, RAM, DVD drive and hard drive. It is very unlikely that all these parts would make their way into someone else's computer. Even if they did, it would be a very small number of computers.
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.8 Ghz Quad Core LGA1366 $349
GPU: EVGA GTX460 1GB Overclocked External Exhaust $289
GPU: EVGA GTX460 1GB Overclocked External Exhaust $289
MOBO: Intel DX58SO Extreme X58 LGA1366 CrossFireX/SLi $333
RAM: G.Skill 6Gb DDR3 1333Mhz 3x2Gb F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ $205
PSU: Silverstone ST1000-P Strider 1Kw 80+ $238
HDD: Seagate 500Gb 16Mb Cache $ 75
DVD: LG SATA DVD Burner 22x $ 45
CASE: Antec 902 Black Midi-Tower $208
MONITOR: ASUS MT276 27" LCD $415
KEYBOARD: Logitech G15 LCD Backlit Gaming Keyboard $ 85
MOUSE: Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse $ 95
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech MK250 Wireless Combo $ 35
COOLER: Zalman CNPS9900A LED $ 75
NETWORK CARD: TP-Link TL-WN851N 300Mbps Wireless PCI $ 35
FANS: Enermax Apollish Twister Blue LED + Arctic F12 $ 30
LIGHTING: Bitspower 30Cm Blue Cold Cathode x2 $ 19
MOUSE MAT: Razer Goliathus Fragged Alpha $ 29
WRIST STRAP: Anti-Static Wrist Strap $ 6
CABLE TIES: 100 White Cable Ties $ 2
___________________________________________
Total: $2857
+ shipping
CPU: pccasegear.com.au
GPU: pccasegear.com.au
GPU: pccasegear.com.au
PSU: megaware.com.au
MOBO: techbuy.com.au
RAM: pcdiy.com.au
MONITOR: pccasegear.com.au
HDD: 9289.com.au
DVD: 9289.com.au
CASE: 9289.com.au
KEYBOARD: 9289.com.au
MOUSE: 9289.com.au
KEYBOARD/MOUSE: pccasegear.com.au
COOLER: pccasegear.com.au
NETWORK CARD: pccasegear.com.au
FANS: pccasegear.com.au
LIGHTING: pccasegear.com.au
MOUSE MAT: pccasegear.com.au
WRIST STRAP: pccasegear.com.au
CABLE TIES: pccasegear.com.au
I did lots of reasearch on how the different parts work and how each component affects performance in games. I then selected which parts I would buy that gave me the best price:performance ratio (I could get the best computer available but $18000 is a bit too much to spend). This computer achieves about 90% of the performance available with current computer technology. To get that extra 10% you have to spend thousands and thousands extra.
In terms of running Crysis, I looked at other computers that people had built (YouTube is really good for this). My computer is similar but not every part is the same, making it unique. For my processor I chose an Intel Core i7 930 which has four cores and a speed of 2.8GHz. This is a relatively common processor to play Crysis on.
For graphics I chose the very new GTX 460 from nVidia which had been branded by EVGA. This card had been out for less than two months when I bought it. It gave the best price:performance ratio of any card available in the mid-high performance area. It has won many awards from online review websites. These cards cost me $289 each, meaning that they are priced as mid-range cards even though they have high-end performance. I went and put two of these in, meaning I spent $578 on graphics cards. By using two cheaper cards instead of one expensive card, I can actually match the highest end cards on the market that cost $620-$800. Because these cards a relatively new, not many people have them yet and even less people have two of them.
My motherboard is one of the rarer components in my computer. It is made by Intel (the same as my processor) and it was the first motherboard to be released for the new i7 architecure back at the end of 2008. New motherboards were quickly released by other companies that offered more features. Not many people have this motherboard because it is older, I just got it because it was cheaper and it had all the features that I needed. I would be one of the only people in the world with this older motherboard and very new processor. Most people who have bought an i7 930 processor would buy a newer motherboard to go with it. The Intel DK58SO motherboard is very stable and causes less problems than other boards.
I have 6Gb of G.Skill DDR3 (double data rate version 3) that runs at 1333MHz. G.Skill is a relatively common brand but is most common in gaming computers.
I have a SilverStone 1000w power supply to power everything which is really good because it is modular. Most power supplies have all the cables coming out of it and are unremovable. This isn't ideal because you'll never end up using all the cables. A modular system lets you plug in or take out cables depending on what you need. This is important because it doesn't fill up your case with unused cables, which impacts airflow (not good for cooling).
There are other minor parts but the last major part is the case. I'm using an Antec 902 which is a very feature-rich well-built case. It is made from steel and small amounts of plastic so it's very strong. It also has lots of features such as dust filters on all the fan intakes to prevent dust build-up inside the case.
While this computer uses many common parts, some of them are not so common and it is highly unlikely that there would be many, if any, computers with its exact specifications anywhere else in the world. This is because there would be very few people with my new processor in my older motherboard with my exact two graphics cards in my case. Then you have my power supply, RAM, DVD drive and hard drive. It is very unlikely that all these parts would make their way into someone else's computer. Even if they did, it would be a very small number of computers.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
End of the Year
Well this is my last blog entry. Just finished my proposal but I might run over that again to refine it. Just doing concept mind map, etc now. I'm going to write up the powerpoint presentation to present to the judges panel at my assessment a couple of days before and use lots of photos and video to really show off my Crysis map. I'll hopefully be bringing my new custom-built computer to the presentaion so the judges can see it and I can briefly run through the build process. I'll also kind of need it to show the judges my Crysis map and the way it's meant to run (ie. at maximum settings with a decently high framerate). I've put most of my references (all the ones a took note of/recorded/remebered) into a recent blog post but it's been suggested to me by a teacher and other students to record those in Zotero so I'll be doing that at home today (doesn't work on my computer at school due to a login issue). Just did my last little twitter note aswell. Basically it's just tying together all the loose ends now. See you at my presentation!
James
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Documentation is the key
I'll be uploading a lot of photos soon. I'll have screenshots and video of my Crysis map. I also documented most of the build process of the computer with photos and video which I'll be putting on here soon. For convenience during the build process I used my iPhone to take the photos and movies so it's not the best quality but I guess it will do.
I'm not using Evernote to document my research sources because I never set it up so I'll just be including research sources and website links in blog posts. I'll be honest, all the research I needed for my map itself I got from a handful of websites so I guess a few web links is all I can provide for that. It was basically a few websites and trial and error. That solved all the problems that I've had time to solve and allowed me to get everything done on the map that I had time for.
Here are a heap of links to websites I used. I know it's a crude way of documenting my research but I just spent too much time on the map or researching the computer, etc. I never saved the exact pages for all the computer research, etc so these are just the main links. These links cover the research I did on the computer as well as all the tutorials for the map itself. I also had a brief look at the levels that other people are creating around the world.
Computer Research:
Crysis Map Research:
That doesn't even cover all the really technical computer sites. At the time I was researching that I didn't think about recording the links because I just thought the info would be too complicated for my blog. I kind of regret that now.
The Beast Computer
A long time ago (near the start of the year) I talked about how hard it is to run Crysis at or near maximum settings. The game was out for two or three years before a computer was available at a reasonable price that could play it at maximum settings. To run my project properly (and obviously for other reasons) I've custom built myself a $3000 computer. I spent tens of hours researching all the components that make up a computer, how they all work together and how they affect performance in applications and games. The parts that make up a computer are:
CPU: The Central Processing Unit handles all non-graphical calculations. It is like the brain of the computer.
Motherboard: It's a printed circuit board that all other parts plug into. It's like the nervous system, it connects all parts together so they can communicate with each other.
RAM: Random Access Memory stores temporary information (info being used by the current application or game). The memory is wiped blank every time the computer is shut down.
HDD: The Hard Disk Drive is where permanent information is stored such as the operating system, games, photos, etc. Unlike the memory, the info on the hard drive is permanent and will not be erased when the computer is restarted.
GPU: The Graphics Processing Unit is a processor with far more calculation power than the CPU but it specifically handles graphics calculations. This is the most important component for running my project.
Other: There are many other components such as the power supply (for supplying the computer with power obviously), DVD drive, monitor, etc. The items listed above are the main performance influencing components.
As far as my computer is concerned the parts are:
CPU: Intel Core i7 930 running at a speed of 2.8Ghz
GPU: I actually put two graphics cards in my computer. There are two EVGA GTX 460 Overclocked cards (overclocked means they run faster than normal but they cost more).
RAM: G.Skill 6Gb DDR3 (double data rate version 3) running at a speed of 1333Mhz.
Motherboard: Intel DX58SO supports SLi (dual GPUs) and Core i7 processors.
Power Supply: SilverStone 1000w
Monitor: Asus 27" LCD
Basically what all that tech means is that the two powerful graphics cards are able to calculate all the graphics calculations that make Crysis so hard to run at very quick speeds. Games work the same as movies, with individual still images being displayed at very fast speeds so that, to the human eye, the images look like one continuous motion. The graphics cards do their calculations and draw the new images many times per second to the monitor. My cards are powerful enough to draw an average of 60 of these pictures to my screen every second (called frames per second or fps). This gives perfectly smooth motion when playing Crysis or using the SandBox2 editor to make my SDI project. If a computer is not able to run a game with more than 30fps, it becomes jerky and the motion no longer looks smooth. This is because the images are not being drawn to the screen fast enough and the human eye starts to see individual still images. Once the frame rate drops below 15fps, the game becomes almost unplayable. On the computer I was using previously for my Crysis map, at maximum settings I would have been getting less than 1fps. That shows the level of improvement.
This has been a very long blog post but I'm trying my best to explain very technical information that directly affects the way I can run my SDI project. I have kept it very basic. I could talk for much longer and go far more in-depth (I had to research very in-depth to understand this computer). There are things called cores in the processor and the memory can't have more than 1.6v of power if it is to work with Core i7 processors and I needed about 80 amps on the 12 volt rail of my power supply. On top of that you have CUDA cores for PhysX calculations in the graphics cards and I used EVGA precision to mega overclock my graphics cards so the core speed is 880Mhz, the Shader speed is 1700Mhz and the memory clock is 4200Mhz. What am I trying to say by all this ridiculous tech jargon? Basically, it took me tens of hours to understand it all and the way the seperate components interact with each other but it is so incredibly complicated and vast that I could never simplify it all down to a point where you could understand it. Sorry.
Once I researched the computer, I used shopbot.com.au to find the cheapest deals. I then ordered the parts from several different websites. It took me many hours to build and set up the computer (yes I build it too, I put all the parts together and wired it all up) but at the end of it I spent $3000 to custom-build a computer that is at least twice as good as ones I've seen for sale in Harvey Norman for $8000.
End of the Project
Well I have to be honest. The end of the year has crept up on me. I thought I have until the November exam period to finish my project but found out this morning that the SDI presentations are only a few weeks away. I haven't finished my project but I'm not going to keep working on the level itself. From here on I'll be tying up all the loose ends. I've finally built the $3000 computer that can run my project the way it's meant to be so I'll be running through that in my next blog post.
As it stands the ice part of the level is complete and I've even put in a small anti-gravity area in the middle. I haven't fixed the road/vegetation problem so that will be left the way it is. The dense and coastal jungles are finished.
I won't be putting North Koreans into the level after all. I don't have time and the whole "ethics of shooting virtual people" topic was way too big to cover in the limited time I have left. (To be honest I thought it wasn't an issue, they're only pixels on screen after all).
One of the last things I need to do is document my level with screenshots and video. I've used the free version of Fraps (video recording limited to 30 second segments) to capture video of the level in the editor and also some footage from Crysis itself. The footage from Crysis is a showcase of the game itself to show where I got the ideas and inspiration.
Basically, as far as the level goes, the parts that will be left out because of lack of time are:
- North Koreans
- Roads
- Towns
- Villages
- Military Bases
- Most Vehicles (a few example vehicles are included)
It pretty much just the terrain and lighting with examples of some aliens and vehicles.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
I'm Back
I've just got back to school after being sick for three weeks. I missed all my exams but I'm giving my SDI presentation this morning. I made more progress on the map.
I managed to get the icy alien part of the island to look really good. There's snow and ice everywhere. I've placed a petrol station with vehicles and pumps, etc. All of that has been frozen over and looks really good.
I've started placing alien enemies into the map. There are various types that have different behaviour. The small aliens shoot ice shards and jump at the player to attack them. Larger ones fly in the air and shoot large ice shards. The largest alien war machine i a four-legged walker that shoots a large energy ball. It also has a freeze beam that freezes the player in ice. If the player gets too close the walker it can grab them with a tentacle and throw them through the air.
I've got a problem with vegetation and roads but I'll leave that until my next post.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
A problem of my own stupid making
Well, I have made a stupid error that's put me behind for a couple of weeks. I noticed my computer had reduced performance in games so I checked my hard drive capacity. It wasn't good, only a couple of free gigabytes left.
I decided to uninstall a heap of games to free up space and bring the performance level back up. Well, that wasn't such a great idea. Because I use the SandBox 2 editor which is packaged with Crysis, I wasn't thinking that if I uninstalled Crysis itself, it would uninstall the editor aswell. So I went ahead and uninstalled Crysis.
Just before the uninstall finished I realised what I had done and cancelled the process. Thankfully, I'd done it just in time to salvage my SDI map but I wasn't sure if it would still work, parts of it might have been deleted during the uninstall. I deleted all the extra files that had been left over from the uninstall and went about reinstalling the game and editor.
When I tried to run the map, it wasn't working as it should. Bits and pieces were missing and the map would crash (quit unexpectedly) a lot. After hours of tweaking files in the Crysis folder and remaking all the missing parts, the map is finally back to where it should be and I can continue working on it.
I'm really lucky that I didn't have to start the whole map from scratch and I don't think I'll be making that stupid mistake again.
I decided to uninstall a heap of games to free up space and bring the performance level back up. Well, that wasn't such a great idea. Because I use the SandBox 2 editor which is packaged with Crysis, I wasn't thinking that if I uninstalled Crysis itself, it would uninstall the editor aswell. So I went ahead and uninstalled Crysis.
Just before the uninstall finished I realised what I had done and cancelled the process. Thankfully, I'd done it just in time to salvage my SDI map but I wasn't sure if it would still work, parts of it might have been deleted during the uninstall. I deleted all the extra files that had been left over from the uninstall and went about reinstalling the game and editor.
When I tried to run the map, it wasn't working as it should. Bits and pieces were missing and the map would crash (quit unexpectedly) a lot. After hours of tweaking files in the Crysis folder and remaking all the missing parts, the map is finally back to where it should be and I can continue working on it.
I'm really lucky that I didn't have to start the whole map from scratch and I don't think I'll be making that stupid mistake again.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Problems not of my own
I'm having some problems but not with my project. Twitter was overloaded with users so I had to wait fo a while. The moodle page also appears to be offline, maybe it's just maintainence. I'll try again tomorrow. The map is coming along nicely, it is playable in-game now. I had a bit of a problem in the placement of the player spawn point being in a stupid place and I can't seem to fix it. It means the player spawns about 10m up in the air in the middle of the jungle. The player dies if invincibility isn't enabled. It's a stupid error that I may not be able to fix.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Steady as she goes
I'm taking it slowly at the moment and working through little problems and bugs I have with the editor. The AI is going into the level once I finish the roads and terrain editing. I'll post up a more extensive blog with screenshots soon.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Adding More Detail
Now that most of the vegetation is done I can start working on adding detail that will make the map interesting and fun to play. Roads will provide a welcome break from thick jungle and will allow the player to use vehicles to travel quickly. Vehicles will also provide interesting gameplay and I may even incorporate enemy AI that drives and fights in vehicles. adding vehicles AI will be a great challenge and possibly one that I may never accomplish, due to its difficulty. I have also added a large crashed alien spaceship in the middle of the island. Around the spaceship the trees have been destroyed and the area is frozen with pockets of anti-gravity. If the player enters an anti-gravity area they will float around, just like any object that enters the area. Around the spaceship there will be aliens of various types to fight. So far I have only places the spaceship and removed the trees. The rest comes later. Here are some photos of the roads and the alien spaceship. The photo of the roads in on the lowest settings and the alien spaceship has been bumped up to high.
For extra performance, the editor only loads the vegetation onto the screen when the camera gets close enough. At the altitude shown in the photo below, the camera is too far away from the ground so it appears that there is no vegetation, even though there is.
Progress
I've got 95% of the vegetation done now. There is really a lot of detail and I had to put thousands of trees and other plants over the whole map. I spent over five hours working on the map the other night. I managed to fix the major problem where vegetation wasn't being placed on a certain texture. I tried a few different things including painting over the old texture with a new one. That didn't work and I wasn't sure what to do. Eventually I decided to just paint over most of the island in one texture. This fixed the problem but it did reduce the vegetation diversity. This is a compromise I am comfortable with and people who never saw the map originally won't know the difference. Here are some pictures of the various jungle types. In these pictures the editor is set to the lowest quality settings so I have a smooth frame rate, is does look rubbish though. I will be posting screenshots on high (not very high) settings later.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Group Split
Just thought I'd let you know in detail what happened with the group split up.
Zack Adaszynski and myself had planned to do a game map in Valve's Source Engine SDK editor. Our friend Tom Chandler joined SDI and we decided to work together in a group on our initial project. Another guy in our class called Tom Oxley (who looks identical to the first Tom) had been doing a project with another guy called Reece who had left SDI. Tom Oxley needed a group and our's was the only one that he could really join.
After about a month of Zack trying to train the rest of the group in the Source SDK, we all decided that that project just wouldn't work with four people, two of which had never used the program before. We then came up with the idea of designing a website called "in a nutshell" which was like a mini Wikipedia. The idea was that people could write up an article on a topic that was short and to-the-point, no more than a paragraph or two. Basically, that topic "in a nutshell".
While we liked the idea and the name of the website, we now all realised that we had our own projects that we were interested in. We split the group up and did our own thing. Zack started modelling his house in the Source SDK, Tom Chandler started an architecture project, Tom Oxley started an art project and my Crysis project was born.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Jungle Types
I have now created vegetation over the whole island. This includes bushes, palms trees, banana trees, grass and dead leaves. I have light vegetation near the coasts. Valleys are very dense jungle with dead leaves and the higher/steeper areas are still thick jungle, but with a more open canopy and grass instead of dead leaves. I've just started adding roads and inland water.
Here are the first images from the engine itself. As you can see, I am creating the map in the shape of Tasmania. I did this by getting a photo of Tasmania and Tom Chandler converted it to a black and white image in Photoshop. I import this black and white 'heightmap' into the engine. The top photo shows all the textures applied. There are beaches, cliffs and jungle floors. Inland water bodies will be created later.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
What I am Planning
I would like to create a map with:
- Sea
- Beaches
- Thick jungle
- Roads
- Inland water
The gameplay will be focused on jungle combat against the North Korean army and aliens that have crash landed on the island. I would also like to have small anti-gravity areas in the jungle near the alien crash sites.
Vehicles will be placed, the most common of which will be military Humvees. I may or may not include tanks, helicopters and VTOL aircraft (Vertical Take-Off and Landing). The tanks would be hard to use in thick jungle and the aircraft would destroy my infantry-based combat gameplay. Boats may be included to access different parts of the island's coastline or for inland bodies of water if I create ones that are large enough.
Most of the scenery will be thick jungle on relatively flat ground. Vegetation will mostly be palm trees of various heights, banana trees (lots of these), leafy bushes and dead leaves on the ground. Closer to the beaches there will be grass.
Enemies will vary and so will their weapons. Koreans will come in different variations such as Regular Soldiers, Snipers, Shotgunners and Spec-Ops. Aliens will come in various forms, all of which are different sizes ranging from small to very large.
Some rare and special Koreans will be wearing Nanosuits, the special type of armour that features in Crysis and makes it different from any other game. The Nanosuit is worn by the player's character during the whole game and some Koreans wear then also. The Nanosuit is an exoskeletal suit that is worn over the whole body.
The Nanosuit has energy that can be channeled to different parts of the suit, giving the wearer different abilities. There are four modes: armour, speed, strength and cloak. Armour gives you extra protection from bullets and explosions. Speed allows you to run incredibly fast. Strength allows you to jump high, lift extremely heavy objects, punch through wooden buildings and hurl enemies into the air. Cloak allows you to turn invisible.
Different suit modes use different levels of energy. Armour mode only depletes energy when the player is damaged by bullets or explosions. Speed drains energy when the player sprints. Strength depletes energy when the user jumps, punches, or throws something. Cloak depletes energy at all times it is activated. The rate at which enegry depletes during cloak increases as the player increases their speed from standing, through walking, running and sprinting.
The nanosuit: http://www.incrysis.com/wiki/index.php/Nanosuit
In Crysis, the player is able to add modifications to their weapons on-the-fly. This means that attachments can be added to weapons such as:
- Silencer
- Flashlight
- Red Laser-Pointer
- Scopes
- Grenade Launcher
- Tranquilizer Dart
- Incediary Ammo
Weapons cannot have all attachments added to them. For example, a shotgun cannot shoot a tranquilizer dart.
Here is all the information on Crysis. It explains most of what I will be incorporating into my map. Please note that this information was written before Crysis was released. Most of it is accurate but some of it is not.
http://www.incrysis.com/wiki/index.php/Crysis_Weapons_and_Machinery
http://www.incrysis.com/wiki/index.php/Weapon_Customisation
http://www.incrysis.com/wiki/index.php/Alien_Weaponry_and_Vehicles
http://www.incrysis.com/wiki/index.php/Human_Vehicles
Crysis the Game
Crysis was released on November 14, 2007 by a German company called Crytek. Crytek's previous game FarCry (they like their Cry's) was realeased in 2004 to worldwide acclaim for its stunning graphics. Crysis was to be no different.
Even now, in 2010, Crysis is the second most realistic-looking game ever created. It comes second only to its expansion, Crysis Warhead.
Gamers generally say a computer can run a game at maximum settings when all the setting are set to the maximum (including Anti-Aliasing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_aliasing ), the monitor is set to its maximum resolution, and the game is running at above the refresh rate of the monitor (most are 60Hz, or 60fps).
No computer available to the general public was able to run Crysis at maximum settings until 2010, almost three years after its realease. Even now, a custom-built computer with a cost of well over $2000 must be used to do this. A shop-bought computer would have to cost much more (closer to $8000) to be able to run Crysis at maximum settings. This is due to two factors: Crysis' amazingly realistic graphics and Crytek's poor optimisation of the game. (Optimisation is how efficient the code is, similar to how a car's engine can be efficient to use less fuel, increase performance and reduce polution).
Even now, in 2010, Crysis is the second most realistic-looking game ever created. It comes second only to its expansion, Crysis Warhead.
Gamers generally say a computer can run a game at maximum settings when all the setting are set to the maximum (including Anti-Aliasing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_aliasing ), the monitor is set to its maximum resolution, and the game is running at above the refresh rate of the monitor (most are 60Hz, or 60fps).
No computer available to the general public was able to run Crysis at maximum settings until 2010, almost three years after its realease. Even now, a custom-built computer with a cost of well over $2000 must be used to do this. A shop-bought computer would have to cost much more (closer to $8000) to be able to run Crysis at maximum settings. This is due to two factors: Crysis' amazingly realistic graphics and Crytek's poor optimisation of the game. (Optimisation is how efficient the code is, similar to how a car's engine can be efficient to use less fuel, increase performance and reduce polution).
Here is the tutorial site I will be using to learn new skills in the engine. It was created by the developers of the engine and game:
http://doc.crymod.com/SandboxManual/frames.html?frmname=topic&frmfile=index.html
I am trying to create a map similar to the pre-release Crysis video that the developers produced in 2005. The video is is not the game itself, but is actually a computer-generated video to show people what they were trying to acheive. When Crysis was released in November 2007, it's level design was quite different to what they had been showing and I was a little disappointed. The reason I am creating this map is so I can play the game the way I had imagined it would be. Here is the YouTube like to the video. Please watch it on 480p for a higher quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmdnV1DS9Sk
http://doc.crymod.com/SandboxManual/frames.html?frmname=topic&frmfile=index.html
I am trying to create a map similar to the pre-release Crysis video that the developers produced in 2005. The video is is not the game itself, but is actually a computer-generated video to show people what they were trying to acheive. When Crysis was released in November 2007, it's level design was quite different to what they had been showing and I was a little disappointed. The reason I am creating this map is so I can play the game the way I had imagined it would be. Here is the YouTube like to the video. Please watch it on 480p for a higher quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmdnV1DS9Sk
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Getting Started
I am going to get started on the map tomorrow but I can't incorporate lots of detail/realism into the map until I finish building my new gaming computer which should be done before the start of term 2.
Here are some screenshots of Crysis in-game, just to show the realism that can be attained. Please note that none of these screenshots are my own work.
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