Below are some criteria of varying difficulties for my chosen specialisation:
Easy
Create custom minimap for the hydropolis environment which includes all vegetation, landscape, building geometry and items. (Completed)
Medium
Show multiple minimaps within the hydropolis map.
Show all vehicles and items as highlighted objects in map view (rectangular box around vehicles).
Show sea level differences in minimap which highlights contour lines.
Difficult
Show any characters in minimap as approaches or near the player.
Show hostel behavior indication in minimap which highlighted by arrows.
Show signs and indications on the ground and in the minimap which indicates specific directions for the player.Usually this is shown by one or multiple green flashing beacon.Possibly to change the color of the flashing beacon from green to red that indicates distance differences.
Show level plans in map view when the player enters buildings.
Automatically swap level plan in map view as the player enters different levels in buildings.
Make multiple targeted location to show in minimap for player to explore.
Sketchup models have been successfully imported into crysis with custom textures which I reckon is one hack of achievement as myself have tried and failed numerously for our design.“Less is more” maybe the key for their design focus.There was a sense of loneliness that I felt during team Digitalism’s presentation as they tried to explain this giant memorial within a busy city.Mentally, I think their building in crysis has captured the spirit of the original design.
Weakness
The building itself doesn’t have much interactivities going on.The lack of AI in their design could have pulled them back for the level of interactivity in their video as well as the highlighted images of their building.And the use of lighting was set to minimum which again could be improved in the future.
Team Orange
Strength
In terms of complexity, certainly team orange’s building will score a very high mark.Noting that not only complexity but also details have been presented throughout their design.As a architecture, their building has conveyed the aesthetics of the original nicely in crysis environment.Their building design was made in 3Dmax and export into crysis with custom textures which is again a great effort and achievement. Many things can be learnt by just looking at their design in terms 3Dmax modeling. Especially for night scene, the building itself speaks for itself which I think is the biggest selling point.Excellent lighting effect and very interesting crysis models.
Weakness
The merge between the crysis environment and the building seems disconnected.Maybe is because of too much interactivities outside the building which overpowers the focus the building itself.
Team-Evolve
Strength
Solving future sustainability issues has been taking into actions in their building proposal.I liked the idea of sustainability in their presentation which immediately captured everyone’s attention.Some fine detailed custom textures have been applied throughout their design which adds more depth to the building itself.The environment itself was nicely modeled combining with realism and interactivities.
Weakness
The challenge for their design comes from the building itself which is not a interesting architecture in terms of geometry, location and interactivity.Because their design is set in the middle of a desert, the sense of building and map scale could be improved in order to bring more into the inside of their building design.
Team Urbans
Strength
Very Detailed crysis environment which I personally think consumes a lot of time and effort.The environment is very nicely modeled using advanced techniques.It’s almost unnoticeable comparing with the crysis environment and the real.Good stuff.
Weakness
As the building is a memorial for Albert Einstein, to make it interactive and interesting just for general public will be quite difficult and so far not much going around and inside the building.
Team Omega
Strength
What else do I need to say?This team’s design got the blessing from the actual architect.Very accurate and detailed modeling in crysis.High level of interactivities combined with nice environment which merged very nicely together.
Weakness
Maybe to show more interactivities in side the buildings especially in the concert hall.
Final underwater lighting-flood light beam onto underwater rocks. Becuase the water is quite deep in crysis (40m in crysis), the underwater scenes have t0 be shown using lights.
AI walking on the main island, AI are following Pathes drew on the beach
Final modification of the Dubai Marina Beach with AI walking, Roads, Trees, Bushes
Final Hydroplis Island modification
Collaboration Terms Learning
Technology
“To do his work well a workman must first sharpen his tools.” – Chinese proverb
Before you can get the most out of tools like wikis and blogs, you need to understand what you are going to use them fore.Just as it is a waste of money and time to purchase and train your team members on a complex system that they do not really need, it is also a waste to have your team worjki9ng harder than necessary for the lack of the right tool.
What are you trying to accomplish?
Before you can choose a tool, you need to define the types of tasks you want to accomplish.One way to begin is to determine the types of output you need to create the team members who need input into each.And the team members who need to receive each output.
What are you current capabilities?
When setting up a virtual team, it is important to recognize and accommodate the conditions under which all team members’ function in their jobs.
Hardware/Software Issues
Internet Bandwidth
Does everyone on the team have access to high-speed connection to the internet?Are there time restrictions on access?Are alternatives, such as a secure wireless network, available?If mist people on a team have high-speed access, and one or two team members have dial-up access, communication and resource sharing can quickly break down.The team members with slower connections might not be able to handle large files in a timely manner, and might not be able to keep up with or participate in synchronous pace as other team members.
Disk space
As we all notice that more and more information is being transmitted and stored digitally,and our electronic storage needs are increasing.Particularly when team members tried to record/store videos, you need to consider the amount of hard drive/USB storage available to each of your team member.
Equipment
Does everyone have the equipment and software they need to do their jobs effectively?How old is each person’s equipment?Are there export restrictions for getting someone updated equipment?What operating systems are team members using?Does each team member have his or her own equipment, do people have to share?Do team members who travel frequently have laptop computers and cell phones, PDAs, or whatever tools are appropriate?Do you need to upgrade or buy extra hardware in order to accomplish you part of job?
Software
What versions of the application a are team members using ?while each team members has different needs depending on his or her function, the equipment and software needs to be compatible so everyone can work together more effectively, share files as needed, and so on.
File sharing server
More and more files are being uploading onto web server for all team members to work on their own remotely and effectively now days.Is the server capable of hosting the size of your file?Does the server support the form of file you are trying to upload?How long do you need to wait for it to be uploaded?
Security Protocols
What security protocols exist for each file sharing site?How do security protocols affect your team’s ability to communicate, share resources, and so on?Some team member might not have or downloaded the latest version of security protocol which they will have trouble accessing the files on a security protocol embedded server.
Communication
Before beginning any project, it is critical to establish a set of guidelines for team communications including what information to share, which method of communication to use for each, and specifically how you expect to communicate and how often.Then you can determine which tools are appropriate for the various types of interaction your team is likely to use.
Synchronous vs. Asynchronous interaction
If something is extremely urgent (say “fire alarm”), then you need to use a “synchronous” mechanism to ensure that the tem members get exactly the same information at the same time.Synchronous tools include conference calls, meeting software, chat room, VoIP, and instant messaging software.
Messages with less urgency can be sent with an “asynchronous” tool that team members can access at their convenience.Asynchronous tools let your team members access the content of messages repeatedly, and are good for reference information such as project plans, schedules or to-list.Asynchronous tools include email, message boards, wikis, intranets, and blogs.
One-to-One conversations
When all team members are collocated, a lot of communication occurs as casual conversations or one-top-one in person meetings.In a virtual team, however the one-to one communication requires a bit more planning.
If all of your team members are online most of the time, instant messaging software (like Yahoo Messenger, MSN messenger etc) can be a quick and easy way for team members to communicate with each other.VoIP can chat rooms can also be used for one-to-one meetings, depending on the relative cost and ease of access to the team members.
One-to Many Email
Most of us are fairly comfortable with email communication.It is easy to fire off a short message, and the message can be sent to numerous recipients at the same time.However, sometimes the ease of sending quick notes to many people can be one of the drawbacks of email.If you are not careful, responses intended for a specific person may get sent to the wrong recipients.Misunderstandings can easily occur, particularly if your team members come form different cultural backgrounds, whether or not they are using athe same language.
References
M.Katerine (kit) Brown, Brenda Huetture, and Char James-Tanny (2007), Managing Virtual Teams, Worldware Publishing, Plano.
Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, (2007), Emerging Informationo Resources Management and Technologies, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey
Axel Bruns, (2008), Blogs, Ekipedia, Second Life, and Beyond, Peter Publishing, New York.
Underwater scene viewed from play mode inside hotel (set at High). For underwater object to be visible, I changed the envionment setting for ocean-FogColour-FogColourMultiple-FogColourDensity in order to achieve the effect. And have to set the sandbox 2 to high or above to view the effect. Medium tends to render very roughly.
