Session 3 Year 2023 Production Project

El Capitan, Yosemite

El Capitan, Yosemite” by rjshade is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

SUMMARY

Role

Level Design – SOLO

Intention (SMART Goal) for the Session

By Jan. 12, as the LEVEL DESIGNER for MYSELF I will learn how to generate terrain in Unity, by following Sebastian Lague’s Procedural Landmass Generation Tutorial for Session 3.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

This video reviews Elden Ring’s level design, and how they make places interesting to explore, and how to properly detail an open-world environment.

Notes

0:40 : De facto level design = on-the-rails paths with a definite boundary between gameplay encounters

0:53 : Not bad design, efficient, often crafted for immersion

1:02 : Many different genres and perspectives of game use this

1:09 : Level asks you to progress

1:42 : Games like Mario Galaxy, GTA, NFS, Far Cry design asks you to explore

1:52 : Goal in Elden Ring is sometimes deliberately obscured

2:02 : obscuring in a deliberate way, some spaces are meant to be experimented on, rather than progressed through or explored

2:35 : Some spaces have a point where its not obvious where to go

3:12 : Most levels are constructed like real spaces that would make sense to interact with as a human

3:28 Elden Ring’s experimental philosophy throws that idea out, as well as the idea that the spaces are even meant to make logical sense, feel real, or be lived in

3:39 Spaces designed to be interacted with purely as a space within a video game, hence the rules of normality don’t apply

Training Source(s)

Playlist on procedural generation using perlin noise layers

Notes

0:14 : will be generating terrain using perlin noise

0:18 : assigning terrain types to height ranges

0:33 : Regular noise = val of either 0 or 1

0:39 : Perlin noise = coherent, changes gradually

0:47 : Perlin noise cross section is a wave

0:55 : Amplitude Y and Frequency X axes

1:10 : layer multiple noise effects

1:18 : Noise maps referred to as octaves

1:38 : Each subsequent octave should add more detail than the last in a smaller overall area

1:42 : Lacunarity = controls increase in freq. of octaves

1:56 : Lacunarity of octave 1 is Frequency = Lacunarity^0, next octave Frequency = Lacunarity^2, next, Frequency = Lacunarity^3 and so on

Project Timeline

Pre-production Milestones

  • Thing 1
  • Thing 2
  • Cat in the Hat

Production Milestones

  • basic terrain
  • wasd movement + 1st person cam
  • detailed textures
  • nice skybox

Post-production

  • presentation
  • blog post

Proposed Budget

I dunno how this thing works but i think i got it.

Fixed some spelling errors too.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gvCrAbzeMRey_UixQQvIsSOPsaD-DfHuuzrq2KxOqNc/edit#gid=0

Evidence of Decisions

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

This is what I have so far — Perlin Noise I can generate in the Unity Editor. This will eventually morph into three dimensional terrain using negative and positive values in a heightmap.

Skills Commentary

Session 3 Pro Fortnite Slideshow

This is an overview of my work this session in conjunction with some other solo students in my class.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

I followed a short tutorial for adding an in-editor noise generate button, and had to rewrite some lines of the code because it would throw an error message when I tried to run it.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

I worked solo so I didn’t have any on-topic conversation with anyone around me for my own project.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I used YouTube, Google, the Unity forums, and Stack Exchange to help find solutions for problems I had, and to find ways to accomplish tasks I needed to do in my game.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I learned a lot about C# this session, and I definitely saw an increase in my focus so far, and I hope it sticks for the future.

Reactions to the Final Version

“I like the sound of noise but I don’t understand it” -Jay (paraphrased)

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

Overall, I’m proud of what I have, although I was originally expecting to have much more to show for my work at the beginning of the session. Once I started, however, I realized this was an unrealistic goal.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly Premium

Editor

Wynne

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