Rob Voisey's Blog

Interactive 3D  This week I worked on some Terrain Generation; mainly loading from a height map. To begin with I need to generate the heights, for this I read a 1280x1280 ‘.raw’ file containing a 4byte value. I then  make a grid of vertices and load them into a single dimensional array, whilst I set up the vertices I pass in the corresponding height value. I can then calculate the indices and set up the index array, and one I have the indices I’m able to calculate the normal’s which will be used for lighting. Once I had a completed ‘TerrainNode’ I looked into forms of procedural generation. So far I have implemented ‘Perlin Noise’ ( http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/models/m_perlin.htm ) which interpolates a value from a Sin Wave. The results were pretty good. I can change up to 5 values to get more varied height; more mountains; smoother terrain etc. I also added a Sky Dome for additional effect. Mobile Development This week we were given samples ...

Though I should start updating what I do on a weekly basis, I’ll try to explain the assignments as we go through. Week 4 was actually last week; I’ve just come out of week 5, so I will get some updates ready for tomorrow. Team Software development The game our team has been working on is a Bullethell game; the idea is to get the mechanics of the typical space shooter down before we work on anything else, all we know is we want a Bullethell game with multiplayer support. My contribution to the project has been fairly disperse; I haven’t contributed fully to one aspect but I have had input on a number of different aspects. Nothing fancy yet, but we got some weapons working; paralax scrolling and enemy pathing; and I will also have a Boss entitiy ready to show off for next time. Console Development The final goal for this module is to create a billboard based particle system which will be used as a benchmarking tool on the PSP. So far we have only covered the ideas...