UGAC- Master Chamber- Rules

#1


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*Note: If you want an Printer Friendly Version of this post, look for the PDF below

“Master Chamber” -THEME:

Welcome back to the new Unofficial Game Art Competition. Back by popular demand is another level creation based challenge, this time around; you will be participating in the “Master Chamber” UGAC. In this challenge, you are tasked with creating a single interior space (may it be an room, dungeon, ect
) that will populate your game world. Picture if you will, the Dark and Suspenseful rooms and halls of the Resident Evil games, or the large open control rooms from the classic N64 game “007 GoldenEye”. They are all objects from gaming history that have had their status elevated from just another part of a games level to a symbol of the genre. It is now your task to redefine that gaming staple. However, recently, game developers have shifted away from thoughtful level design in their games, focusing instead on other details and in the process leave their potential players with long bland halls and rooms that not only don’t differ from the rest, but act only to get the play from point A to B. When going about designing your interior space, try to take these past failures into perspective and learn from their mistake. Let’s see what your “Master Chamber” beholds for the adventurous gamer!

“Master Chamber” -Guildelines:

YOUR MODEL MUST fit within “Master Chamber”s’ challenge mechanics:
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ONLY model the interior space. We do not want to see the rest of a large vehicle, house or environment that the interior space belongs to…This Challenge Is Only About An Specific (read: ONE) Interior Space. Sketches or a description of what, and how and what the interior space belongs to will be enough.
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TECHNICAL SPECS:
[ul]
[li]20,000 triangles LIMIT[/li][li]10 MBs of Texture Space[/li][/ul]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS IS A CHALLENGE - PLEASE FOLLOW THE TECH SPECS VERBATIM, if you have any questions that are not already asked in the FAQ below, feel free to post them here (in the rules thread) and they will be answered and added to the FAQ’s
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“Master Chamber” -POSTING GUIDELINES:

NAMING OF YOUR THREAD:
YOUR THREAD MUST begin with:
UGAC - Master Chamber -

So if I was creating a thread it would look like:
UGAC - Master Chamber - DevilHacker

** if you do not name your thread exactly as it is outlined above, it will be renamed for you!
:smiley:

“Master Chamber” -Submissions:

Posting guidelines will be in the submission thread. This thread will be up immediately this time around. So if you finish your project early, you can now post it before the final week of the competition. Finished models only, DO NOT post a WIP in the submission thread!

Please do not comment about other entries posted in the submissions thread (note: WIP’s outside of the submissions thread are ok) until all judging is complete and the “ok” is given

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Competition ends August 17th
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Good luck!
-Daren Loney

View this challenges PDF Rule Book:



#2

Q: Where is the Front Page Plug?A: It will be up in an few hours. We decided to wait an moment or so to get any basic questions answered before the masses of fellow CGTalkers’ flood the competition thread. Hopefully answering the majority of the questions before they are asked. [Edit: Its up now. Thanks Equinoxx]
Q: That Poly Count seems really low
Why was such an number chosen, it doesn’t seem to be very “Next-Gen”?A: The specs it looks like we are shooting at are high end current gen, mid-end next gen (xbox 360, PS3). If you stop to think about it, 20,000 is really the sweet spot; while it is low enough to not be daunting; it is high enough to get impressive results; while at the same time being not ultra-time consuming (IE: More people theoretically finish). I understand the questions about the polys. But, those are around normal with PC games such as Battlefield 2, Half Life2, and Doom3… Remember, this is ONE area. If you think it is low, make the room smaller… It is all up to you

Check it out…[Link]

Q: How is voting done?[color=white]A: Voting is preformed by designated judges. Each Judge is given six (6) points to distribute among the contestants who have finished their projects. (Note: For your entry to be judged, it must be posted in the “submissions” thread) Each judge will critique each entry and then award 1st-3rd place. First place will receive three (3) points, second place will receive two (2) points, and third place will receive one (1) point. This process will be preformed an minimum of three times by different judges, and then be tallied, with the places announced soon after. [/color]

Q: What do I win if I get 1st place?A: 1st place winner will be able to choose the topic of the next challenge. They will also get their worked “plugged” on the front page. Q: Do I need to model an interior or not?A: 100% yes.[left][size=2]Q: What type of texture types are allowed?[/left]
A: We allow all types of textures to let people focus on overall design and lighting. But, please remember, that what textures you use will be considered when judging entries. So; just because one entry uses the latest and greatest in HDRI rendering, while another uses only bump mapping, the more advance entry will not win automatically. The whole entry is judged.

[left][size=2]Q: Are we talking about uncompressed texture space, or DX5 compressed textures?[/left]
A: Uncompressed.

[/size][/size]-More to come soon-
:thumbsup:

#3

Can we clarify what type of compression is okay? Are we talking about uncompressed texture space, or DX5 compressed textures? DX5 compression works on a graphics card, whereas other types do not, to my knowledge. DDS tools for loading/saving and viewing in 3dsmax can be found at http://developer.nvidia.com/page/tools.html , I’m sure there are similar plugins for lightwave, maya, etc.

#4

if anyone is interested in linking Master Chambers after the end of the challenge in either Quake 4 or UT2004 for a deathmatch level, I might be interested so let me know.

I am excited for this one!

#5

Let’s get this on the front page already :smiley:

#6

wow I think I am in this comp :slight_smile: That is if I can make time from my currenty highpoly project.

Cool stuff. Looks fun. This time Ill normal map everything hehe :smiley:

Edit: Specs seem fine for one room btw

#7

Sounds like a great idea, and I really hope to find time for this one. Downside being, this is exactly what I’m doing at work! GAH!

#8

Ow I have a interesting idea. Hope I get time for it too.

Best of luck to everyone

#9

so here’s a few questions regarding this challenge:

i hate to be a pain and ask for a little more clarification regarding “uncompressed” textures, but does that mean uncompressed in tga format, or tiff, or jpg, or, just any format that does not utilize hardware compression? the difference between tga and jpg in terms of size can be substatial.

how are effects considered in terms of the technical limitations? will particle effects, light projections, etc, be counted in the polygon count?

#10

I need some enviro art. Im in!

#11

Done.
Everyone thank Equinoxx when you see him around the forums. He is the one responsible for plugging the thread and helping cleaning up the old challenge.

Thanks Equinoxx. [size=1](AKA: The supermod!)[/size]
:thumbsup:

#12

Are noobs to this forum allowed? I tried starting a submission thread and it didnt appear.

#13

is it possible to use all the 20k polys for only one shot, so the whole scene isn’t really a closed room!?

because i don’t like to waste polys for things that aren’t seen in the final shot. or do we have to post multible shots of the interior?

#14

NM, I just read the FAQ… uh, if an admin sees this please help me out! Thanks.

#15

I think the idea is to have a full enviro designed rather than just a mockup, so I’d imagine you’d need multiple shots to show it all off.

#16

Does the 20,000 include instancing?

#17

cool challenge,the texture specs look good too,nice to see a mb limit instead of dimension limits

:thumbsup: good luck to everyone!

#18

Yes.

Here’s a hint: tga, jpg, and tiff all have compression!

Save as a bmp if you want to figure out the uncompressed size, or use this handy dandy cheat sheet:

512x512 RGBA = 1 meg
1024x1024 RGBA = 4 megs
256x256 RGBA = 256 KB

Basically, for every channel, you take the area as the number of bytes in the channel, and then multiply that by the number of channels.

But it’s really much easier just to save them as .bmps because those are uncompressed. tiff can use LZW compression, tgas use LZW and I think other stuff, jpg uses jpeg compression, etc. Avoid those and save as bmp.

#19

i was wondering with what we need to do are we able to fill the room with stuff? i mean possibly computers, machines etc. also are they included in the poly limit? and is there any genre we need to try to stick to? scifi or medievil etc?

still not sure which way i will go with this so thats why i am asking for clarification

eagle4

#20

I’m sure it is ok to populate the room with objects. 20,000 polys for a few walls, a ceiling and a floor would be a pretty boring game.

Any genre is ok.

As for instancing, of course it’s 20,000 including instancing. If it was before instancing then technically there would be no poly limit which would cause the game to crash.