3642QCA Generative and Experimental Design Connor Brown s5167218
Assessment 1 - Procedural Modeling
Project: Mt. Fuji 3D Render
To begin this project I started off my using the Real World Terrain Importer in Vue. After a quick Google search I located the coordinates of Mt. Fuji and brought it into my scene as a Height Terrain.
I changed the Object Material of the mountain to a Cold Mountain, and tweaked the settings to my liking. I had an initial cloud layer but didn't do much editing of it until later in the project.
I edited the Clouds to add a Turbulent Alto Stratus & Flat Cumulus. I then went about creating my lake. I went through several variations before settling on a small lake; my reasoning behind this was to limit the amount of EcoSystem entities to reduce my eventual render time. I then added the Summer Grass object material to the lake and drew the trees a packed formation around the edge. I also converted the mountain and lake into Procedural Terrains to limit polygon count.
Initially I wanted to include a reflection of Mt Fuji in the water, however I could not figure out the settings to make this happen after several hours of investigating. I made an initial render but was not content with the outcome, so I went on to create a second render which turned out much nicer.
Overall I am quite pleased with my final outcome. Things that I would improve if I had more time is a more gradual decline of the land into the water along with a gravel/sand gradient, reflective water, more objects and entities such as houses, boats, etc, and to render my scene out on Ultra settings instead of Final settings.
Task 1.1 - 4k Still Image
Task 1.2 - Monoscopic 360° Image
Task 1.3 - Critical & Contextual Research
Procedural Content Generation
Procedural Content Generation is the term coined to describe the use of complex algorithms to produce 3d art that would otherwise be made by hand. Typically, such 3d art is used in the creation of video games. Some examples of created video game assets are maps/levels, textures, weapons & armour, and special effects (Hendrikx et al., 2013). The way this content is created is through a range of different methods, such as rule-based systems and search-heavy processes (Smith et al., 2011). The motivations behind the use of Procedural Content Generation are not only to speed up the development of video games, but also to improve replayability, increase hardware efficiency, and allow for adaptive and personalized gameplay (Smith, 2014).
It is important for a Procedural Content Generation system to not be too overwhelming on hardware, while at the same time be of an acceptable quality. It must also adhere to the rules of the game it is used for and allow for an acceptable level of playability. Though it is a faster method of producing 3d assets, if it were to be detrimental to gameplay then it would not be a feasible for the gaming industry. This is exactly why advanced Procedural Content Generation systems are only recently coming into use, as modern hardware is now capable of utilizing it at an appropriate level.
Early computers not only lacked the level of hardware we have today, but often they could not network to other machines. On top of this, the interfaces for multiplayer games from a single keyboard were often crude and awkward. Early Procedural Content Generation mainly consisted of porting tabletop roleplaying systems to computers. To combat the multiplayer problems of the past, Procedural Content Generation would allow solo players to play games that would otherwise require a social environment with multiple other players, including a human that would manage the experience (Spann, 1983). While the Procedural Content Generation of the past would often attempt to purge humans from a game experience by offloading the creative work, todays system focuses more on augmenting it.
A huge benefit of Procedural Content Generation is the way the algorithms can adopt the aspect of randomness in order to improve 3d assets and gameplay. Some examples of this is tree placement in a forest, dice rolls in a gambling game, or waves in an ocean (Botermans, 2008). Often the algorithms for such actions are quite simple, but even so can create an undeniable impact on a player’s experience and gameplay replayability.
Procedural created content is the way of the future for video games, and we are only just beginning to delve into the possibilities it provides. Faster production, more efficient gameplay, enhanced functionality, the benefits are numerous. The 3d worlds that will be created shall boggle the mind, and the gameplay experiences that Procedural Content Generation provides will be unforgettable.
References
Hendrikx, M., Meijer, S., Van der Velden, J., and Iosup, A.
Procedural Content Generation for Games: A Survey. ACM
Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and
Applications, (2011).
Smith, A.M. and Mateas, M. Answer Set Programming for
Procedural Content Generation: A Design Space Approach.
Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, IEEE Transactions
on 3, 3 (2011), 187 –200.
Smith, G. Understanding Procedural Content Generation: A
Design-Centric Analysis of the Role of PCG in Games.
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM Conference on Computer-Human
Interaction, (2014).
Spann, J. What do you get when you cross a Dungeon Master
with a computer? Dragon VII, 1983, 42–48.
Botermans, J. The Book of Games: Strategy, Tactics &
History. Sterling Publishing, New York, 2008.
