Author Archives: Ryan Alexander

Customer Sample PC Build

Requirements:
Desktop computer tower required for university course requirements including 3D Modelling, Media Design and ability to play recent computer games smoothly and on high details levels at 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080).

Budget of £1000.

PC Build Date – April 12th 2011

 Component  ex VAT  inc VAT
Intel Core i5 2500K Processor £138.15 £165.78
MSI P67A-GD65 B3 Rev Motherboard £113.67 £136.40
Corsair Vengence 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory £69.12 £82.94
MSI GTX 570 1.28Gb Graphics Card £219.57 £263.48
Corsair HX750W Modular Power Supply £91.75 £110.10
Zalman Z9-Plus Black Mid Tower Case £39.97 £47.96
Samsung F3 500GB Hard Drive £25.25 £30.30
Samsung F3 1TB Hard Drive £32.98 £39.58
Corsair H50 CPU Water Cooler £37.99 £45.59
LG GH22NS50 22X SATA Optical Drive £12.29 £14.75
Next Day Delivery £0.00 £0.00
  Sub Total £780.74
  VAT £156.15
  Total £936.88

The 750W Power supply was purposely over-specified as the user stated that they wanted to have the option to SLI the graphics card in the future. To enable the operating system to be installed on a separate disk drive, two disk drives where included in the order opposed to partitioning one for data security reasons. The i5 2500K processor was chosen due to its overclocking potential and its proven performance abilities shown in benchmarks.

User already had their own Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers & Windows 7 License. Thermal paste wasn’t required due to pre-application on the CPU cooler.

Clifton Onslaught [Group Project]

Team 13 was formed to produce a group project for a university module from October 2009 – May 2010. Together we decided to make a custom map for ‘Left 4 Dead’ called Clifton Onslaught, we decided that a suitable area of interest would be the Clifton and University areas. Using the Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools by Valve Software, and 3D modelling/ image editing tools the group worked effectively to produce an eye-catching and interactive game level, and provided all members with valuable experience working within a team.

Group Members:
Damon Muncaster – Team Leader
Ryan Alexander – Level Designer / Website Admin
Joe Pinner – Level Designer
Jake Roden – Prop and Texture Designer
Damo Coaten – Prop and Texture Designer
Shaun Field – Sound Development

Realistic scales where used and satellite imagery allowed us to ensure that the game levels that we where creating where as real to life as possible.

Clifton Onslaught consists of two maps, the first ‘Street’ takes the player from central Clifton through a park area through the streets of Clifton, there are multiple routes that the player can follow to progress. The player ultimately ends up at the safe room on the outskirts of Clifton housing estate alongside the Nottingham Trent University Clifton Campus where the second map begins, ‘Campus’.

Clifton Onslaught Route

Green Line – Clifton Onslaught [Street]
Yellow Line – Clifton Onslaught [Campus]

The campus map was my particular focus point throughout the level design, my experience of the source SDK tools developed substantially as the project progressed. As the campus is well known, i felt implied to pay extra attention to detail to the universities key features, the prop designers where required to make a large number of the visuals from scratch as pre-made textures and models where unsuitable.

Group members where able to discuss matters using the forum system which i setup for optimised communication, I implemented privacy features to allow piers to discuss ‘Clifton Onslaught’ materials in private, and an attachment tool that allowed us to share work files within a secure online repository.

You can download Clifton Onslaught from the following URL: https://rapidshare.com/files/4272426938/cliftononslaught.rar

Antec 300 Case 3DS Max Model

One of the second year university modules required me to reproduce a real object with varying levels of detail, to demonstrate the ability to create detailed models but to consider game play optimisation. I decided to model my desktop computer case, an Antec 300. The model was created using Autodesk 3DS Max 2010 and the texture map was produced using samples from high resolution photographs and reproduced using Adobe Photoshop.

A total of 90 photographs where taken along different angles and orientations to act as a reference for the task.

Antec 300 Sample Photos

Antec 300 Sample Photos

The geometry of my Antec 300, was defined by real life actual measurements via the use of a scientific ruler and tape measure. Chamfer, extrude, smoothing, inset, and unwrap uvw techniques were used in order to achieve the required result.

The requirements were:
LOD 2 – a model with less than 100 triangles
LOD 1 – a model with less than 350 triangles
LOD 0 – a model with all necessary and appropriate detail, remembering that it must remain suitable for use in a game.

We were then required to export the model into the relevant formats suitable for a game engine. All 3 models were imported using unreal development kit (UDK) into a basic game level environment. For the purposes of the website, I produced the Antec 300 Flash Showreel.