King Johns Project

Update.

2011-05-19T03:41:00.000-07:00

I got the code to make the movies play on collision working and that was a major obstacle to overcome. Although I have to apply the MovieTexture to the object and at the moment it plays an the plane but it also plays on the object. The way I'm going to fix that is to scale down the object so as to render it invisible while increasing the colliders size to make it workable. Then place a non-interactive object beside it with no collider attached. There is also and opening door on the castle which works on collision also.
Getting into the audio section now and push for the line

Aidan

Scripting Progress

2011-04-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

I eventually got the 3rd person movement working by placing a script on the character, a smooth follow script on the camera and making the Watchman the target. It sounds easy and would have been for me if I hadn't got blinded with all the coding resources on tinternet. The script for 3rd person is huge (400+ lines) but I don't want to trim it until I place the animations and name them in the code. All the movement is controlled through the keys and not the track-pad so it should be easily controlled with an external joy-pad. The camera code is supplied by Unity but all in all it took an excruciating amount of placing and removing code before it did what was wanted. Its not nearly right but its getting there.

Minutes of meeting 06/04/11

2011-04-07T02:39:00.000-07:00

Chaired by Bide and JJ

Aidan absent.

With the putting to bed of the “dissertation” earlier in the week an easier atmosphere was enjoyed and appreciated. We have very little to get in the way of finishing of our project with a flourish.

Main points covered were:

Sean queried the look needed for the kitchen utensils, what to cover them with? Give them earthenware, stone or wood finish. This to be researched and passed on to Sean in time for next week.

The rest of the time was concerned mostly with add-ons. Should we have a lectern type stand inside the entrance door with an ancient book or manuscript on it? Also we have to look into the possibility of having an armory chest or rack festooned with period (fighting) pieces. Other ideas bandied around and seem worth exploring were things such as wall hangings, some type of Gaelic scrolls, pithy phrases from some of the old scholarly writings and maybe even a poem in Gaelic with English translations. All will be looked at and should yield some rewards.

JJ wants us to have a closer look at the religion of the time. Find out if there is a purely Celtic form of Christianity or was it associated with Rome either loosely or more closely bonded.

For next week we need:

Sean to have examples of the kitchen utensils with the appropriate cladding.

Aidan to have the collision avoidance up and running.

JC to have positive info on the church, more in depth coverage of the eating habits and much more on the every day habits of the time. This with a view to having a companion booklet or hand out of some sort availably with general information on the castle, the times and our involvement with the project.

Also will have to have some progress on the background/ambient music with a better handle on the possibility of a voice over on some selected areas/aspects of the tour.

Minutes of meeting 30/03/11

2011-04-01T04:16:00.001-07:00

Minutes of meeting Wed. 30/03/11

All present

Aidan took Bride and JJ up to speed on progress. As expected we were repremanded for stlll being behind. But were nearly there and hope to catch up as soon as we get the Dissertation out of the way, thats this comming week.

I had the script up on the blog and Sean had story boards to match.

Bride still needs lots more done on the St. Bridget clip. She seems OK on the idea of the rushes for the Crosses, less sure about the table setting idea for displaying them, maybe use them as wall hangings or some other sort of decoration. Work still to be done on that piece. Also we need to check out the Battle of Faughart and any connection that St. B may have had with it.

For Sean their looking for light of some sort—natural of course—maybe moonlight or sunlight beaming through the windows, with beams and rays and shadows, all that sort of thing. Sean say’s he can do it and likes the idea, I expect he is already there.

For the comming week we need progress on:

(1) Script; Eating habits, what the diet was like. Was there any balance between meats and veg’s and what herbs, if any, were in use. Daily chores of the peasents, a look at “a day in the life of”.

(2) Voice over for the videos and perhaps a look at providing a voice over for the entire piece as opposed to music. That would require a seperate script if we decide to go that way. I can’t think how it would work but will have a good look at it.

(3) We need to make a start at bringing the various strands together but I think it will be another week at least before we’re ready for that.

(4) I need to start looking at putting the music together, lots to be done there, and I need to make contact with Kieran’s mate from the music department. Ive got plenty of copywright free music but not the performers.

Enough there to be going on with for one week.

Next meeting 1000hrs 06/04/11

Ideas for the storyboards

2011-03-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

13^th Century Banqueting Scene

Scene 1

Video 1

The banquet has just finished in the dining area of the main hall and two servants are tidying up the table at the end of the meal.

They collect the earthenware dishes from the dining table and stack them at one end of the same table.

In the course of collecting the dishes they are careful to select out the best of the leftover food (mainly venison meat pieces) and place them on two dishes, one each.

When the table is cleared the stacks of dishes are taken to an outside area for scouring and storing safely.

With this chore completed the two servants return excitedly to the table and tuck into the left over’s with much merriment and glee, washing it down with the remains of the wine.

As this is a seldom, if ever, happening for lowly servants they forget their place and over indulge.

The scene closes with the two skivvies showing serious signs of over indulgence, over intoxication and much bawdiness.

Scene 2

Video 2

Some weeks later the same two servants can be seen leaving the main living hall and returning almost immediately with a bundle each of rushes from the outside area.

They squat on the floor just inside the side entrance and start working with the rushes.

Shortly one can begin to discern a design of sorts.

Very soon the form of St Bridget’s Cross begins to take shape.

They spend a number of hours plaiting and twisting away with the rushes and when all the material is used up they are left with a stack of crosses beside them on the floor.

Together they take all the crosses they have just made and lay them carefully around the table in preparation for the next feast.

St Bridget (c. 451–525) Brigit was born at Faughart near Dundalk,

Something that may help with the storyboards:

Minutes of meeting 22/03/11

2011-03-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

22/03/11

Minutes of today’s meeting.

Co-Chaired by Bride and JJ

Aidan Sean and JC present.

As expected we got something of a dressing down, firstly for missing the past two weeks meetings, accounted for by “Rag week” and then a misunderstanding re last week, partly due to the Dissertation deadline on Monday at 1500hrs. After that we got down to the real business of progress reporting.

We are deemed to be too far behind and have to play a serious game of catch-up starting as of now with lots of progress to show next week.

Areas to work on right away are:

Imbedded movie clips, we have only one ready so far and we need two more. We need to have the two other clips planned, storyboarded and scripted for the next meeting. We also need the voice over for the battle scene video plus progress on he other two. One idea for one of the videos was a “banqueting scene” maybe with the full food thing covered, a big ask, perhaps a drinking scene would be the better/easier option. All options have to be explored, food and in particular the variety of meats and veg’s in use at the time.

Sean has to have more models ready and a more complete idea of the artifacts to be used and their placing.

Aidan to get up to pace with the extra video clips and if possible get in touch with Sean Duffy re the Heritage Centre.

I have to get stuck into the research side of things with greater emphases on period customs, costumes, diet etc. with a look at the local library for anything that could bolster up the on-line info we have so far. I will need to have some progress on the background music too and start getting some sort of linear shape to it.

Plenty to do then:

Over all it was a very good meeting, lots of advice on offer and help too, but the “big stick” is out and with vengeance.

KJP-update

2011-03-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

With the Dissertation final draft handed in today its back to KJP in something of a hurry and with vengeance. I met Bride in Star-bucks this morning and she seemed surprised we had not been to any meetings with her and JJ for the past two weeks. I understood (wrongly) that there weren't any so we had better make sure to be there for this week. The time should be as before i.e. 1000hrs. Thats means getting back up to speed on everything before then.
Meeting in Star-bucks in the morning, 0900hrs with Aidan and Sean too if Aidan can get in touch with him. Im back this evening doing further research into various aspects of 13th century life and I'm hoping to get more bumph together on the music side.

Minutes of meeting 09/03/11

2011-03-11T05:40:00.000-08:00

Minutes of meeting 09/03/11

Bride & JJ seem quietly pleased with the last week’s progress. Although they left us in no doubt that we are only just about up to pace and no more.

They require much more by way of details on almost every aspect of the project. All the 3D objects to be covered in greater detail and more of them as well. More furniture items needed plus a wider collection of period brick-a-bract would tart up the scene no end. Bride also suggested that we create a list of the furniture of the time so that we can pick and choose with greater ease.

The Ghan chart needs to be beefed up and everything to be more detailed.

Bride was critical of the research to date, so far so good but again it needs to be broadened considerably. She thinks we could benefit from greater use of the library. An on-line bookish company, called Osprey Publishing was said to be a worthwhile place to look.

For the first time we had to look at the external aspect, what to do with the approach to the building, how we intend to handle this. A facility in Google was thought to be the way to go, develop a terrain that can be dressed up in the appropriate fashion. I think Sean has this in hand.

Overall a good enough meeting but the pressure is being applied with increasing increments. The work does have to be done and we do need to be kept up to pace.

Triggering events through collision in Unity 3D

2011-02-22T07:53:00.000-08:00

I found this very interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KKKS0O9laY

Dealing specifically with triggering an event (a movie in our case) by entering into a 'hit' area in the player. It is collision detection but it serves our needs as it allows for spawning a movie textured plane to on entering the 'hit' sphere and destroying on exit.

Meeting with JJ

2011-02-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

KJP Project progress Meeting in JJ’s office 1100hrs 18/02/11

Chaired by JJ

Bride was unable to be with us.

Aidan, Sean and myself were in attendance.

We had a very good business like meeting with lots of pressure from JJ to get all progress reported via the blog as we go with at least once a week postings.

Sean took JJ, and us, up to speed re developments in 3D MAX. More needs to be done with individual iconographic objects for use as wall hangings, although most, if not all, of this is already resourced we need to get it on the blog if only to help in keeping JJ’s apoplexy under raps. Sean and Aidan got good pointers on the way to further develop their work in Unity, the use of “Poser” as a way to assist with the movement aspect of the various models was dealt with in some detail. This bit of the project looks up to pace.

My concern was primarily with the audio side of things. In Kieran’s class two week ago his colleague Rory promised us some links to easier ways of developing 13^th century music to best suit our needs. Nothing forthcoming so far but JJ has noted this and promised to pursue it for us. No great urgency as yet with the audio side as the bulk of the work will come only after the project has reached the assembly stage. However I would hope to have plenty of stuff in the can before that time because the bringing of all the bits and pieces together will need lots of time.

Our next meeting with Bride and JJ is as today 1100hrs 25/02/11 in JJ’s office.

2011-02-10T09:07:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was the deadline our Project script. Overnight there seemed to be much still to be done. During the morning though all came together seamlessly and delivery was effected with almost an hour to spare. The script itself in its entirety looked very respectable and as a team we weren’t too far from gloating. Now is the time for the real work to begin. The team does feel up to it.

The last couple of weeks saw a number of lectures happily sacrificed on the high alter of the King John’s Project but with yesterday’s deadline put to bed we can again broaden out our academic horizons and cover the required basses more adequately.

In Kieran’s class on Tuesday we were introduced to a chap from the music department who was there to advise and help in any he could. Sean and I run a skeletal plan of our project past him and he came up with a couple of ideas that we are taking on board. The first was to do with the 13^th century music aspect. There’s plenty of period stuff around and all naturally out of copyright but not the performers or the performances. He indicated that he would have no difficulty in sourcing any amount of it for us, or rather giving us plenty of worthwhile links to pursue ourselves with advice and assistance from him when and if required. A couple of links that I got over the previous w/end, that have yet to be fully explored, were mentioned to him but he didn’t know much about them. I’ll be looking into them in greater detail this week and between the two areas we should be well suited.

Another aspect he suggested was that of “ambient sound”, a sort of wraparound sound that could be fed through left or right speakers as needed as the tour progressed and that could be fades in and out in harmony with the period music as various hot spots were reached. This looks like a nice touch if we could apply it to and in conjunction with the, proposed, imbedded video clips.

As we are now into the “end game” and all angles will be explored, with hast I hope, as time is our master.

First Person Controller in Unity 3D

2011-01-31T08:34:00.000-08:00

I followed the tutorial sent in the link from our supervisor JJ and had no problem creating a terrain and dropping in a first person controller and you know I'm liking Unity a lot but its early days. I'm gonna get me an xbox controller and get that working in the platform. There are tons of resources to aid in adapting java for what we need. Its still a daunting task but I feel confident that when it comes to what I need to do Ill be able to do it..

We were discussing placing movies on planes which will spawn when a user enters a hit area and for that we'll need to upgrade to the pro version as the standard Unity wont recognize a video file as a texture. 1100 dollar baby. mmmmmmm

Unity 3D

2011-01-28T04:42:00.000-08:00

We've decided to lose the text boxes and voice overs in the environment and place in movies to describe the particular scenarios. This can be done by creating a movie texture and applying it on a plane or an object created in ( in our case) 3ds Max in Unity. After doing this a script will be placed on the movie to play it when the user enters the "hit" area and another script will be placed to ' destroy ' the object after an allotted time has passed. The user too will be given an option of stopping the movie at any time by pressing the 'ctrl' key. We also intend to lower the opacity of the movie by altering the figures in the alpha channel but as of yet I havent figured out how to do this.....possibly in the code I can change its properties.

Anyway, as seven wise vertically challenged men once said

"I owe, I owe its off to work I go....".

Aidan

2011-01-27T08:03:00.000-08:00

26/01/11

At the meeting today with Bride and JJ and Aidan, Sean and myself in attendance we outlined our progress so far.

Both bride and JJ put pressure on us to keep pushing on with the work. We seem to be near enough on target but they’re not about to let us slack up in any way.

Aidan brought JJ up to pace with our position with the “Unity” platform and got lots of directional input from him on way’s to develop it further.

Sean detailed his position and got some ideas as to style of armor, headdress and the general attire of a warrior kings and men in 13^th century Europe.

Much was made of the need for research, indepth research on every aspect of the times. A look at Bunratty Castle was suggested to help us beef up on costume style and appearance. Wall dressings and tapestries along with a glossary of general iconography needs to be covered in greater detail.

One idea that gained favour was the suggestion of inputting some movie clips that could be activated by the viewer but could also be there only in the periphery, used as a sort of wall dressing and depicting domestic scenes either upstairs or downstairs, certainly worth pursuing.

For next week we need:

Story boarding----------- Sean

Clearer definition of the project’s aims ------Joint

Research; History, technology, dress and style to be firmed up on the details. ----------JC

We need more research into such things as case studies on King John and anything dealing with 13^th century Ireland that may be of interest or help.

Next meeting

Wed. 02/01/11 Time TBA

The closing stretch begins.

2011-01-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

We were designated our supervisors recently, JJ Quinlan and Bride Mallon. We're concentrating hard on the next stages of King Johns Project. Seans working furtively at the 3D assets, I'm getting to grips with Unity engine and the code and JCs researching the characters,decor and music. We've decided to add more a little more to the project but we're not saying what yet.

Ciao
Aidan

Ahh, normality returns..

2011-01-04T04:06:00.000-08:00

Thats it, another Christmas is over and the new years festivities have been recovered from so its shoulder down time. Sadly, due to the adverse weather before Christmas nobody from the team got up to the lecture in Carlingford by Dr Sean Duffy but the direction to research museum applications is underway. So ciao 4 now and there'll be another update soon.

Aidan

Holidays are comin', holidays are comin'...

2010-12-23T08:02:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks,

As you well know it's coming up to Christmas, and so I'd just like to take a minute to wish the group a very happy one. With the 7th of January looming in the near future, I think one might savour the holidays a bit more than usual.
Sean.

P.s. Modelling duties will resume as normal from the 27th of December. Presentation of the Creative self will tie in nicely with this project, so here's to hoping 2 birds go down with that stone.

Modelling so far:

2010-12-06T07:31:00.000-08:00

Monday 6th, Sean here.
Some more work has been done on the knight, and I put together a dining table as well. None of the models so far have been skinned, but they will be. I'm working on rewriting my parallax map code from last year, so that the illusion of more detail can be created later.

Tidying up the Final Presentation

2010-12-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

Just doing the final touches to the presentation due at 1.00pm on Tuesday 7th. Hopefully the snow will have cleared and the roads wont be akin to playing Russian roulette. The last week has been so disjointed and couldn't have come at a worse time with the semester rapidly closing and submission deadlines still there.

Aidan

Narrative 2nd draft

2010-12-05T03:54:00.000-08:00

Narrative 2^nd draft

The KJP is designed as a trip through the castle with a night watchman/footman as your guide.

The purpose of the guided tour is to show an emissary of KJ around the castle so that he can ascertain the state of readiness of the castle for the forthcoming visit of the King.

In the opening shot the castle will be seen as it is today, with an aerial shot (Google Earth perhaps) taking you down towards the main entrance door. The camera will then fade to a shot from inside the main door as the emissary makes his entrance into the castle of the 13^th century with the surroundings exactly mimicking the décor of the era.

The guide will be suitably attired in the style of the times.

The first views will be of the atrium/reception room where a voice over will outline, in detail, all the relevant aspects of the area before leading on through to the grand hall. Here again the detail of the room will be covered at length with references made to a number of chambers existing off the main hall including the Kings bed-chamber, then the watchman will show the emissary the bedroom and explain some details regarding the rooms before proceeding through to the main dining hall. Here the detail will be covered at some length before moving through to the second grand entrance towards the rear of the building, that leads through to the pier where the emissary’s boat awaits.

When this door is approached it will trigger the end of the tour at which point the night watchman will advise the emissary that his boat awaits but perhaps he [the emissary] may wish to take a solo tour to investigate the castle further.

Along the tour path through the castle there will be a number of touch stones/pads, some in the floor and some fitted into the walls, that when pressed reveal an interesting and noteworthy aspect of the castle that will be appropriately situated in time and place.

2010-11-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

Good Evening All.
Would you have a look at this with a view to improving it. Regards JC

KJP

Narrative first draft

11/26/2010

The KJP is designed as a trip through the castle with a night watchman/footman as your guide.

The purpose of the guided tour is to show an emissary of KJ around the castle so that he can ascertain the state of readiness of the castle for the forthcoming visit of the King John.

In the opening shot the castle will be seen as it is today, with an aerial shot (Google Earth) taking you down to the main entrance door. The camera will then fade out and fade in at the old oak front door which will be opened by the night-watchman who will beckon the emissary to come in. The guide will be suitably attired in the style of the times.

The first views will be of the atrium come reception room where a voice over will outline, in detail, all the relevant aspects of the area before leading on through to the grand hall. Here again the detail of the room will be covered at length with references made to a number of chambers existing off the main hall including the Kings bed-chamber then the watchman will show the emissary the bedroom and voice some details attached to thee room before proceeding through to the main dining hall. Once again the detail will be covered at some length before moving through to the second main entrance, this one leading through to the pier where the emissary’s boat awaits.

When this door is approached it will trigger of the end of the tour but the nightwatchman will advise the emissary that his boat awaits but should he wish [emissary] may take a solo tour to investigate the castle further.

Along their passage through the castle there will be a number of touch stones, some in the floor and some fitted into the walls, that when pressed will open up to reveal an interesting and noteworthy aspect of the castle that will be appropriately situated in time and place.

13th century Medieval Music: Ductia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE_6WS95mZs

"Dizzi Jig" Folk Medieval hammered dulcimer music by dizzi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxjpYHhfRyI&feature=fvw

Instrumental Music of the Trecento: Trotto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEE1P-ATjFA&feature=related

The Oldest Written Melody in History c.1400 BC!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viMbnj_Ei2A&feature=related

2010-11-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Just been trying to familiarise myself with the  engine code

{function OnCollisionEnter(hit : Collision)
{if(hit.nightwatchman.tag  ==  "Wall")  {
    Application.LoadLevel("level2"); 
 }
}function OnCollisionEnter(collision : Collision)
{if(collision.nightwatchman.tag == "Wall")
{
  print("collision occured");
}else
{
   print("no collision yet");
}
}}

Don't know if this works yet but we'll see...

Aidan

Ding! Ding! End of round one

2010-11-18T14:19:00.000-08:00

I can concur with JC, the pres went ok and no excuses but it might also be said that our vision is clear, our methodology is understood and when part two ( The Big One) arrives we'll be putting in every effort anyway I'm off for some light reading.....Ahh Noam Chomsky.........laters

.
Aidan

2010-11-18T13:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had the first presentation for our project. It was reasonable received. One problem we had was the non-appearance of Clodagh. She’s been off our radar screen for the past week or two but responded to Aiden’s texting with the assurance that she was on to of the research detail. However we now know that she has departed for the rest of this year and I suppose her research has gone with her. Be that as it may we didn’t get too bad a roasting but will have to perform much better next time (two weeks away). Next time we will pay more attention to the presentation aspect rather than the content. If Pressy one told us anything it’s that a slicker the presentation the lesser the content need be. Very much a case of, (never mind the shit look at the shine) attitude.

Today we got the feed back and the marks, somewhere around the middle of the bunch, so were pleased enough.

We had a one on two with Anya this morning where she delivered her critique on the presentation and laid out the guidelines for the next one. Plenty of good tips and suggestions but no escaping the work involved.

Sean joined us later and filled us in on the program he referred to at the presentation. It’s a games engine called “Unity” he will be using for some of the functionality, either with or instead of Flash. Lots of pre-programmed stuff in it that will lighten his load somewhat.

A change of PM was insisted on by Ayna for this week, the position to be rotated on a weekly basis from now on and nothing to do with the caliber of the PM so far. Probably more/all to do with “it’s not broken so lets fix it”.

For this coming week our target gets are—

Talk with the Heritage people some more re the castle; I’ve already been talking with MHB. He is arranging access to the castle with the OPW. He thinks this can be achieved OK and soon. I’ll be seeing him and some other members of the committee tomorrow evening (Fri) and should be able to further the process a little.

Sean is to continue with the 3D work, we won’t be needing to meet with him other than by text. This will free him up as he need lots of time.

Research to be speeded up if we are to make it for the next Pressy with the required progress. We don’t want another drubbing.

Probably nothing more to post till Monday

Have a good w/end.

Cheers

Tuesday 16th: Update

2010-11-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

With less than 24 hours to the major presentation, things are looking pretty good. I (Sean) modelled the bust of one of the suits of armour that will encase those who stand guard on each of the major entrances to the castle. Not skinned yet, won't be till the suit is finished. It should slot nicely into the presentation.

The pictures will be a great help, specifically the floor map and the close ups on the doors. I'll be able to mock up a proper floor plan in a few days. From there, I can start work on each of the rooms. I plan on modelling every element separately, so they can be moved around should the need arise.
Saying that, the next project is the lamp that the player will hold, along with the arm that will hold it.

Progress report

2010-11-15T05:48:00.000-08:00

Aidan and I met in Starbucks this morning as arranged. We were heading for the castle to take some pictures.
Neither Clodagh nor Sean made it.
We took plenty of shots of the castle from diferent angles. Aidan took them back to the lab to titilater.
Clodagh 'text' to call off on the sick. Hope she gets back soon , we do need her.
We had a run through the pics in the lab, there is plenty in there to work with.
I'll be looking at the text and tidying it up for the presentation on Wed.
I spoke with Michael Harris Bark (Heritage Centre) re access to the inards of the castle with a view to do some movie footage for Sean to work with. MHB refered me to the OPW who are the ones dealing with all aspects of the castle. There office is in Ardee and will email them this PM. Meeting again tomorrow. Aidan to Email with time later on to day.
JC

We're off!!!

2010-11-08T02:04:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks all members of the Creative Media Year 4 class have been engaging in discussions on an attempt to form into the various project groups. Well as you can see King Johns Project has been formed and it consists of Me, Aidan Carroll, John C. Smith, Clodagh McCrory and Sean Liggan. Together we bring our diverse talents to the group.
Both John, Clodagh and I have come through the Dundalk Institute of Technology Creative Media curriculum and Sean arrived here after receiving a BA(hons) in Games Development.

Our Idea

King Johns Project will immerse the user in a 3d reconstruction of King Johns Castle in Carlingford Co. Louth. The reconstruction will display the castle as it was in the mid 13th century and will bring the user on a 3d tour starting on the bridge over the main Newry/Carlingford road into the castle and into the history seeping from its old stone walls.

Aidan