Unit 5 Research

I guess it's time to get my research up onto my blog for this unit. It's not due till Thursday, but I'd rather get it in sooner so that I can finish off my other projects.

Well, first off, the web page about optical camouflage and light emitting fibers which I showed in my presentation has disappeared, and the only trace to it which I could find is in Japanese, http://tachilab.org/modules/projects/rpt.html. That is the front page, which is in English, however, the link further down the page links to a Japanese page, which is a shame, because it was quite interesting, and made up a large part of my research. However, it does show some pictures of the technology being used. The technology basically worked by using very tiny sensors on the clothes the technology was used on, in this case, a trench coat, and they outputted the colours they were picking up on the opposite side of the coat, giving the illusion of being slightly invisible.

This technology was also used in Metal Gear Solid 1, and during parts of Metal Gear Solid 2.

"Metal Gear Solid/The Twin Snakes

In MGS and TTS, The stealth camouflage can be unlocked by giving into Revolver Ocelot's torture and clearing the game, where Otacon will give Solid Snake the stealth camouflage. This will allow the player to use the item the next time they play the game. However, if the player endures the torture, Meryl Silverburgh will give Snake the bandana.

Otacon uses the stealth camouflage though most of the game to avoid detection from the Genome Soldiers and mentions having made five of them. The other four are used by an unknown group of soldiers to keep an elevator in place during Snake's fight against Liquid Snake's Hind D and later ambush Snake in the style of the Four Horsemen in the same elevator. Grey Fox also appears to have a built-in version of the stealth camouflage in his exo-skeleton."

-Taken From the Metal Gear Wiki.

Other Technology I looked into was PAN technology. PAN is a technology which uses your body as a transmitter, and can be used to unlock certain things, or start cars, or do things which would usualy require your authorisation through other methods. It can be used in 2 forms, an implant, or a small device which is carried close to your body, like a card. When you go near a reciever near a door, or cash point you wish to pay at, or whatever, it will perform the neccesarry action.

Copy Pasta:

What is IntraBody Communication

The term Intra-Body-Communication or BodyNFC describes the data exchange between stationary or mobile devices using the human body as a conductor or capacitive area. Influencing the body with a separate modulated capacitive field, can provide an IntraBody detection or interaction.

The biological properties of the body is used to transfer very low currents or to change the capacitive body field.

Devices equiped with IntraBody or BodyNFC can exchange date bidirectional, by the use of the modulated currents or fields. They have to be conneted or to be carried on the body or operate close to it

Apllication fields are :

• Detection
• Identifikation
• Interaktion

Only the identification requires an active BodyNet or IntraBody Transceiver. The Detection and Interaction can work in a passive mode, there is no transceiver necessary.

There are different synonyms used for this wireless communication, based on capacitive fields. IntraBody Communication (IBC), Personal-Area-Network (PAN), Human-Area-Network (HAN), Body-Area-Network (BAN), Human-Interface (HI) oder Muman-Machine-Interface (HMI) are some of it.

The above was taken directly from smartNFC's website. The Metal Gear Series uses the same technology in the form of a card carried close to the body, to open doors.

I then looked into Rail Gun technology. Rail gun technology is much more simple than it seems. You have 2 metallic objects, a barrel(or rail), and the ammunition. You pass a current between them, and a magnetic field propells the object outwards at an incredible speed. Railguns have been available since WW2. In world war 2, they were typically much bigger than the ones in use today. They were rail mounted, and required 2 powerful rail engines to pull them. Todays ones vary in size, from huge cannons uses on battleships, to relatively small ones the size of cars. The technology has been advanced somewhat, and has produced working handheld deviced, although they use very slightly different methods of achiveing the same effect. These are called coilguns.

Rail Gun Link Here, I would've copy and pasta'd it like the rest of my research, but there's too much to put up here without it becoming a mess. In Metal Gear Solid 1, Metal Gear REX has a rail gun mounted on it, which was quite large. In Metal Gear Solid 2, a character called Fortune carries a Rail Gun, which despirt being quite large, was still a weapon which could be used by hand, and carried. This shows how technology moved on between the games, as it did in real life.and how instead of the media influencing society, society, and technology in general influences the media.

Stickam lol

Hi thar.

Last night I was working on my music video. I decided to scrap my original idea and start from scratch. I've divided it into 3 parts. The first part is Space invaders, but I'm animating it in flash, to the timings of the music, which I'm making as I go along, so that it fits perfectly with the video. The second half is Tetris, which I'll animate and render in 3DS Max, which will also have the bricks falling and moving in time to the music, and the third part will be live action.

I've had multiple ideas for the live action part. I think I'm either going to use the footage I already shot, of me and my friends playing a song in a garage, and overlay the Rock Band notes flying in as we play, or I could get me and a friend dressed up as Pac-man and a Ghost chasing each other though Churchill Square. I'd love to do the latter, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make a Pac-Man and Ghost suit. I'll try, and if I succeed, I'll do that, however, it might be better to play it safe and use my original footage and go with the Rock Band /Guitar Hero idea.

Whilst having a break last night, I also set up Stickam. It's basically Myspace, but instead of have a profile picture, or videos or stuff, you set up your web cam to stream live footage over the web. So, now you can watch me do boring things like work, or not be in the room, or stare at my monitor, or play something on the PS2. Oh what fun.

It's more an experiment to see if anyone will actually watch it, or if it'll get any attention at all. I already had one girl trying to flirt with me. However, I can't take online dating, or flirting online, or anything like that seriously, so I proceeded to the whole "I put on my robe and wizard hat" routine. She didn't appreciate it, and she probably didn't know that I'd be posting it on my blog. So hi Aural in California.

You can see what I'm doing right now by scrolling down to "Womble Vision" at the bottom of the page. It doesn't always default to the web feed, so click the button which kinda looks like a web cam. It's not obvious, but since the others are obvious what they are, it shouldn't be too hard to work out using the process of elimination.

Animal Movement

I've got to get some research done on animal movement. I wasn't really sure what to do, since you cant really get the idea by reading something about it. So I went out and found some videos. I thought that I'd focus on the way cats move, since I have a cat,and theres bound to be alot of videos of cats on the internet. Since I have to animate an animal moving, I thought I'd focus on a few common movements that a cat would make. I thought I'd go with Walking, Running, Jumping.

The first video I found on youtube, was very useful. It's a video of someones cat, which they put on a treadmill, and the camera just follows the cat while it slowly speeds up on the treadmill.



From a link onwards from that video, I found another video of a cat on a tread mill. Only this one is from the front, instead of the side, which shows how the cat moves from side to side as it walks.



I then moved onto Jumping. There weren't that many good videos showing cats jumping, mostly just videos of cats being dumb. However, after a while of searching, I found a video of a cat jumping after it's toy in slow motion. It shows how it's back legs push off into the air really well, since in full speed, it would be very hard to see.



I think at some point, I'll record my cat doing stuff too, since I'll be able to observe her better than someone's cat on youtube.

Elfen Lied

About 20 minutes ago, I finished watching the final episode of Elfen Lied. I'd say it's the greatest thing I've ever watched. Only 1 game I've ever played, Metal Gear Solid 1, has come close to comparison, but even then, still cant compare. I was going to play a game, but there's no point. Nothing can come close to Elfen lied. The story is so dark, the characters are so well thought, the first 7 minutes are so violent.

Elfen Lied is an Animé, which tells the story of a girl named Lucy. She is a genetic mutant, called a Diclonius (Not the dinosaur). The Diclonius have horns on their heads, which look like cat ears. They also have a set of invisible hands, called Vectors, which they can use to lift things, or, as the first 7 minutes show, horribly butcher people. Lucy was imprisoned in a research facility, for testing. She is released and fights, or more like slaughters, her way out of the facility, before being shot in the head, and falling into the sea. She is washed up on shore, and found by Khota and Yuka. Khota and Yuka are cousins, who start living together towards the beginning of the series. At this point, Lucy is found to have Amnesia (I think I'd be a bit forgetful after taking an anti tank round to the head...), and also posses' very little capability of speech. She is re-dubbed Nyu, because that is the only thing she says at the time, and is taken back to Khota and Yuka's house.

I leave it at that, since I don't really want to give anything major away. Just expect alot of violence, and one of the best storylines you'll ever witness.

Flashmob!!!

Well. After college, Craig, Bob, Patrick, and I got invited to a flashmob at Brighton station. We got there, and within about 10 minutes, about 200 people flooded into the station. A green balloon was released into the air to signal us to start clapping. So we randomly started to applaud people getting off of their trains. After about 1 minute, a red balloon went up to signal us to stop clapping, and leave. So within a minute, the whole station was left back to normal, at the dismay of the station workers.

I can't imagine what the workers must've thought, or the random people we were applauding. I think I'm going to arrange a flashmob at Churchill Square. However, mine will be more of a 4Chan Flash mob. That means dress code, a fitting mask for the occasion, and a strange internet meme. It's still floating around up the old noggin', but I'll post more details of it when I've spoken to a few people.

MANLY ADVERTISING!!! RAWR

Well, I have to find some manly adverts for various products. The first one which springs to mind is Power Thirst. Power Thirst is the manliest energy drink in the world. You'll have gratuitous amounts of energy, menergy if you will.



Next up is the Wonderbra advert. Stare closely. It's hard to see.


The manliest of them all www.smouch.net/lol

DOUBLE POST??!!!!111!!@@!!

During the Week I started working on a Mod for the Source Engine. Deus Ex: Source. I'm thinking of releasing it episodically. It's very early on obviously. Not much work needs to be done in terms of level planning, since it's all there, same for artwork. Basically, it's a big face lift. Deus Ex is 10 years old now, but it still holds up pretty well. I've started out mapping the Pier you start on, and I'm working my way through the level. I've not gone into detail texturing yet, I'm just orange mapping it with dev textures so I can work on getting the layout and game play done before I go into detail.

Apart from the basic level design, I'm putting in a few little extras, nothing game changing, just little areas here and there. Really open up the world. Something I noticed in Deus Ex is that theres alot of trickery going on. for instance, the level with the Bar in it, the outside of the Bar is smaller than the Inside, but it's really well masked, so unless like me, you're looking for things like this, you wouldn't notice it. Same thing with the SuperTanker. The Source engine is less limited for size, so I can really go into detail, and make everything the size it should be.

The place I fall down with this is Coding, Textures, and Modeling. I can model basic stuff, but I can't UV map it, I can't model organic stuff like characters either. I can make basic textures, but nothing too professional looking. As far as coding goes, I kind of understand the theory behind it, but I cant actually program anything. I need an Inventory System. Also, since Deus Ex was an RPG as well as an FPS, I also need a leveling and experience system. Plus, if I'm thinking of releasing episodically, I need a way of it keep the stats between chapters.

I'm sure I can find someone, so for now, how some screenshots.

Lol Video

Alot of stuffs happened this week. I've been down St. Anne's Wells Park most days, killing my self, and nearly killing others around me. In the process I managed to get 2 of the biggest blisters I've ever had, one on each end of my foot, so I can't put shoes on. On top of that, I randomly got into another Band. I'm yet to practice with the full band yet, but the Bassist and Singer helped me out with my Music Video Project, along with my friend Kai.

On the subject of Music Video, I got the main meat of it filmed. Which is hilarious. It doesn't sound nearly as good as it did while we we're practicing, and Kai, Jamie(Bassist) and me are just looking down at our instruments and bobbing up and down, while Lawrence(the singer) is going crazy right at the front. It starts off with us Playing the intro to the song, and Lawrence isn't there, then it gets into the first verse, and he randomly pops up from underneath the camera, and starts going crazy. Lulz are plenty. I'm tempted to Super impose the Cookie Monster popping out of his bin over the top of him.

W00T New Musac!!11!!@!

I really should update this more often.

Well, the last couple of nights, I got kinda bored, so I started playing around in my music package, and decided to make a little song which sounded kinda like a chip tune. It's called "Chip Child of Mine". Can anyone guess what it's based on? Basically, I took the main guitar loop of Sweet Child of Mine, which anyone who doesn't know it should be shot, and remade it using NES(as in Nintendo Entertainment System) synth. I then kinda built it up using another chip tune bass, then brought in a more trance-like bass line. I then added a drum and bass drum track which I made(which I later changed to a more electro sounding track, but havent uploaded yet, due to the shityness of the drum and bass drums). I then added in a few other little chip lines. They're not from Sweet Child of Mine, but I wanted to do this for fun, not to have an accurate chip tune translation of the song.

I'mma Post Some Blog

Well, I haven't updated in over a month, main reason, I forgot. 'Nuff said.

Alot has happened. I've finished two modual's at college, Flash animation, and Concept Art. I'm really happy with the Concept artwork I did. If you compare it to the work I was doing at the beginning of the modual, I've improved by leaps and bounds. I did most of the work in a very Manga looking style. I really like the whole Animé/Manga artwork style, and wanted to base my game style around it.

Anyway, enough work. I've started a "band". My friend Kai, Whyte, and Myself. I say band, but we're more of a group. When I think band, I think of a rock band, or a boy band, or a metal band. But I don't really want to limit us to a style. Basically, if we sit there and think, let's make a House track, then we're gonna make a house track. If we wanna make a rock song, we'll make a rock song. We listen to a wide range of music, so we have alot of influences. Recently, me and Kai were listening to Daft Punk's Alive 2007, and heard a part which is very brief, and isn't heard in any other song they've done that we're aware of, however, we want to hear more of it, so we sampled it, and got a drum beat, and played around with chopping the beats up, automating effects, and generally making it our own. After a day's work, we came out with this:



I really like it. It only uses two samples. The said Daft Punk sample which is the main meat of the piece, and the drum beat, which is from Don't Bring Me Down, by ELO. The drum beat was cut up quite alot from it's original 2 second loop, and I think we did a good job of it. I'm buying a load of recording and mixing gear at the end of march, and hopefully a huge P.A system at the end of May.

Also, check out our Myspace page:

www.myspace.com/insomniousband

New Year, New Graphics Card.

Well. The LAN party went smoothly, we played Crysis on LAN for 8 hours straight, then had some Counter Strike source fun. Ended our main gaming spree at 6 in the morning. Got about 3 hours sleep, then got up a cracked on with some more Crysis, followed by some Company of Heroes. It was good fun.

My graphics card didn't go as smoothly though...

It didn't come on Wednesday, as was planned, but arrived at the depot on Wednesday instead. They then put it up for 3Day delivery, to arrive on Friday. So, I was waiting on the Friday for it to arrive, at about 4 o'clock, I phoned up and asked them where it was, and they said that I should've been told that the card was out of stock. It was flagged for delivery on Friday, I was told it was coming on Friday, but it was actually going to come on Monday. I asked them if they could change it to another day, since I'd be at college until 5 on Monday, but they said, no, because I'd left it too late to change the date.

Sorry, what? They cocked it up, and then try to blame it on me when I ask them to change the delivery date. Christ, I could understand if I'd just rung them up and asked them out of the blue, but no, they were the ones which buggered it all up, by sending me a duff card in the first place, then wrongly telling me it was coming on Friday, and not telling me it was out of stock.

They tried to deliver it on Monday, but obviously no-one was there. So I phoned them, and asked them to deliver it on Wednesday. Which, to my surprise, they managed without fault. I then fitted the card in my machine, and found out that my motherboard wasn't going to play nice with the new one. Old card back in, online, for some unknown reason, I went back to eBuyer, despite them not being able to provide me with a decent service, and ordered an Asus P5N-E SLi Motherboard. Arrived next day with no trouble at all, replaced my old board, new card back in, and finally, it worked.

I think the original cock up was just a one off. So I'll keep going back there. They have very cheap prices, and free shipping on orders over £45. Which is good, since all my orders tend to be over £50 at least.

Anyway, with that over, I've been having some very good gaming sessions. I've been playing World in Conflict alot, which has some very impressive visuals. Also, I played through Portal again, and booted up Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Now I'd already played HL2 EP2, but I thought I'd whack it up to full, now I can. To everyone who says that graphics don't matter in games, they can shut the hell up, and go back to playing their point and click ASCII games or whatever it is they got that notion from. Playing through EP2 with the settings maxed really adds a whole new level to the game. The real-time shadows, the motion blur, the new particle system. All these new little extras, they really add to the experience, and the atmosphere. When your walking through a dark, area, which is a little spooky, and you turn on your flash light to illuminate the area, it illuminates some things, but it casts shadows on other things, so theres always going to be something hidden. It's not what you can see which is scary, it's what you can't. Which is why the new shadows are a nice little touch. The new particle system is very nice too. When you shoot an Antlion, and it explodes, rather than getting a very false looking 2d sprite, you get a nice big, gooey splat. Which although it's not much, the added realism really adds to the feeling that you're there, fighting that Antlion, rather than just telling some imaginary character what to do.