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We have a Gamer Camp Tumblr don’t you know? Here’s our latest ramblings from said blog.
My favourite Mods
Game modification or mods for short, come in all shapes and sizes. They can range from the simple which just change say, player stats, to the hugely complex that quite literally give you a new gaming experience. The modding community is generally both passionate and dedicated, and normally consists of the most hard-core of gaming fans. Â
In this article I'd like to talk about my two favourite mods, both of which took their initial basic game to new and dizzying heights of brilliance. It is a testament to each Mod team's talent and cleverness that these two games, although rather long in the tooth now, still rank as the ‘best ever' in my opinion.  Â
Silent Hunter 3 ‘The Grey Wolves'.
Silent Hunter 3 (SH3) hit the shelves in 2005, and it was greeted with excitement and immediate praise by the ‘Naval Simulation' community. (Yes, there really is a ‘Naval Sim' community, as any regular reader of Subsim.com will testify!) SH3 put the player into WWII as a commander of a German U-boat, and featured a fully dynamic campaign, and a completely immersive 3D world. The game was critically praised, receiving a score of 8.8 out of 10 from IGN, an 8.9 out of 10 from GameSpot, as well as a 5 out of 5 by GameSpy, and it was the highest-rated instalment of the Silent Hunter series. Amazing praise indeed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlyP-KQ_2wY
At the time I thought it was truly brilliant, and I considered the title the epitome of what a good simulation should be. They're never going to top that I thought! It's just too perfect! Eventually, after playing the game constantly for what seems now like months, it ultimately like all games, became just another title on my already heaving shelf. Only good for collecting dust and making the room look just that little bit messier.
Whilst I was away from the 3D rendered seas of WWII, the SH3 modding community got to work. Where I was busy with the mundane day to day of life, the forums buzzed, patches were created, code was tweaked, assets were created, and sound effects were collated. Through the combined efforts of some incredibly committed and talented individuals, SH3 was getting an extreme makeover. That makeover eventually became ‘The Grey Wolves' mod, and believe me when I say, it is probably the greatest game modification I have ever seen.
The Grey Wolves comprised a team of programmers, tweakers, 3D-modellers, artists, designers, testers, team managers and other contributors from the thriving international sub-simming community.
From the moment Silent Hunter Three launched in 2005, The Grey Wolves team fixed, improved or added new features to virtually every aspect of Silent Hunter 3: realism, gameplay, models, graphics, sound, historical accuracy, interface, music… Anything they could throw their collective talents at.
Timeline
- March 19, 2006: The first release, simply entitled ‘The Grey Wolves’, launched.
- December 16, 2006: GWX (“Grey Wolves eXpansion”) released.
- December 24, 2007: GWX2 released.
- April 17, 2008: GWX2.1 released.
- December 24, 2008: GWX3 GOLD released — the result of over 3 years of ground-breaking modding work in one single installation.
So what was so amazing about the Grey Wolves Mod? Well it took the initial game, forever now doomed to be called the ‘Vanilla' version, and improved upon it to such an extent, that it was hardly recognisable. Suddenly you had submarines that looked better, not only had they been entirely retextured, in some instances they had be entirely rebuilt. The ports had gone from being quiet ghost towns in the vanilla game, to busy, thriving centres of commerce. Featuring tug boats, trawlers, cargo ships and naval patrols.  The environments were vastly overhauled, with some of the most beautiful sky domes and weather effects in any game to date.
The sound effects had been improved, and now you even had the ability to listen to real news reports that corresponded to the actual day you were playing.  For pure immersion it was incredible. The physics had come under some close inspection, and now your boat rocked and rolled in heavy seas, really giving you a feel for the power of the ocean.
More importantly for a simulation fan and history buff such as myself, the GWX team had taken the time and effort to ensure the historical accuracy of the game. Whereas before you could sail only as far as your fuel allowed, now the game sported the ‘Milk Cows' of history. Converted cargo vessels, docked at secret locations to give you a refuel. Not only had these been included, they were even in the correct locations from history! Furthermore, the Allied convoys were now bigger, and more historically accurate, and events from the war occurred when they were supposed to. For instance, if you happened to be around the English Channel in June of 1944 in the original game, not a lot happened. In GWX, the D-Day invasions took place, meaning it was a rather dangerous place for a German U-boat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUpHIxcOi7s
Unfortunately the GWX team disbanded on the announcement of the Silent Hunter 5 game, as the game promised to fulfil everything the team were planning on trying to achieve with a Mod of Silent Hunter 4. Amazingly, Silent Hunter 5 ended up turing into a damp squib, and can't stand up to its much better predecessor. With some luck, the team will reform, and do something about the lacklustre experience that is Silent Hunter 5. Until then, Ill stick to my favourite version. The Grey Wolves Expansion of Silent Hunter 3.
I'll end with this comment from a fan of the GWX Mod, from the Subsim forums,
“Thank you, for everything you guys have done…You have left a lasting impression on what it means to play a game in the Silent Hunter franchise. You can’t go very far without seeing GWX on any forum or sub-forum in this community. Thank you for giving new life to Silent Hunter 3. Without GWX, SHIII would be nothing but a speck in my registry, a game I do not play.â€
Â
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AGZiAJ6r54
I couldn't have put it better.
Â
http://thegreywolves.com/
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Part two of My favourite Mods to come…
Over the Easter break two Gamer Camp artists, Emma Douglas and Isaac Barrett worked at Supermono studio delivering new levels for Forever Drive.
“I found the experience of being at Supermono to be very much like the experience on Gamer Camp and I was able to fit into the development team very quickly, I was used to daily scrum meeting and check in procedures and I was able to contribute confidently and effectively in team meeting, even on issues relating to marketing and production. I enjoyed having to work within the already existing art style, nailing art styles is something we've all really practiced hard at on Gamer Camp so it was great to have a chance to show that I was able to adapt to yet another art style. I realise now that before I came on Gamer Camp I was a good artist, now I feel I'm so much more, I know the language of games, the development culture and processes, I feel I can be a useful member of a game development team.â€
Isaac Barrett, MA Video Games Development 2011-12
Alex Darby our technical lead initially sent this to all of the programmers on the current Gamer Camp: Pro course. Â
It was so good that we thought those following our blog would be interested in what he has to say.
Hello all,
IÂ need to make sure that, as a group, we have a more level understanding of the graphics side of things.
Let’s start at the beginning (note this may not be 100% historically accurate, but I’ve explained it all incrementally).
Models in a “standard” real time 3D graphics engine are all built in Maya or 3DS Max or some other similar 3D modelling tool.
These models are fundamentally composed of vertices positioned in 3D, each with a position of the form [x, y, z].
Vertices can be rendered, but they don’t look very fancy :)
We covered the maths involved in rendering vertices (i.e. transforming them from the model’s space in 3D onto the 2D screen) in overview in module 3. Each vertex is transformed as follows:
- from “model space” (where it is defined) into “world space”
- from world space into “camera space” (the frame of reference of the camera)
- from camera space into “projection space” (also often called ”clip space”)
- from projection space into “screen space” (this converts the 3D [x, y, z] point into a 2D [x, y] point)
To make 3D graphics with high visual fidelity using just vertices is not simple. If you render them as single pixels, it requires a number of vertices large enough that there is at least one vertex in the model for each pixel on the screen when it is rendered at its maximum size.
The Death Star plans in the original star wars film were done as just vertices, as were computer graphics in Alien (they were done using vector graphics displays, which is a whole different thing to bitmap graphics though… google it if you’re interested)
Each vertex requires 3 values [x, y, z] to describe its 3D position (and a colour value if we wanted to do coloured graphics) and must be transformed from model space into screen space; so this is both memory AND processor intensive. This is basically the same as using “voxels” ( a voxel is a “volumetric pixel” - i.e. a 3D pixel look it up on google for more information).
In order to reduce the memory and computational expense, less 3D points must be used. People started research into using 3D surfaces to describe models since they can use only a few vertices to describe large areas of model surface. There are lots of different 3D surfaces that can be used, and lots of research has been done (and no doubt still is somewhere) into the various options.Â
The simplest 3D surface that can be described is a planar polygon, and the simplest planar polygon is a triangle, it is also one of the simplest to render in 2D so it was an obvious target for hardware acceleration and so eventually became the standard way to do 3D models.
When a model is made out of triangles, the vertices are grouped together into 3s.
The maths for rendering triangles is not that much more complex than for rendering vertices. The three vertices are transformed into screen space, and then all the pixels contained within the 2D triangle described by these points are rendered to render the triangle (determining the specific pixels that are within this 2D triangle is a process called “rasterisation”).
Assuming we were doing coloured graphics, the data for each triangle we wish to render must now include the 3 vertices and its colour.
Flat coloured triangles by themselves don’t look that great, and so someone invented the idea of “lighting” them.
The most simple way of lighting a triangle is to adjust the colour of the whole triangle based on the angle between some light source, the triangle, and the camera.
This calculation is done in 3D before converting the triangle into 2D (usually in camera space, or world space) and the colour stored in the triangle data is modified by the lighting clculation and stored so it can be used to fill the pixels of the 2D triangle.
It is often called “faceted lighting” because it makes 3D models look like cut gemstones. This produces graphics that look like Starfox on the SNES.
Obviously, a surface that was supposed to be smoothly curved (like a cylinder) doesn’t look very good when it’s made of faceted triangles. The next advance was in smoothing the lighting of surfaces to remove the “faceting” effect. To accomplish this, rather than lighting the whole triangle with the same light value as a flat surface, the lighting value must change across the surface of a triangle so that it appears not to be flat.
The simple “light the whole triangle” technique can use a single “surface normal” vector to describe the direction the face is pointing (or it can be calculated in real time using the cross product from 2 adjacent edges of the triangle).
To achieve smooth lighting across adjacent triangles, each vertex that is part of a “smooth” surface of adjacent triangles must store its own surface normal which lies between the actual face angles of the triangles it is part of. This averaged (or “smoothed”) normal gives the contacting edges of adjacent triangles the same lighting value amd so the boundaries between them become invisible.
Additionally, the 3D lighting calculation must now be done once per vertex rather than once per triangle, and the lighting value applied to each 2D pixel that lies within the triangle must be adjusted (interpolated) based on where in the triangle it is relative to each of the 3 vertices.
See below image “FacetedVsSmoothNormals.jpg” for a visual representation of how this works.
Â
So, we’re looking a lot better, for example this technique could be used to render a car pretty convincingly.Â
However, the limit of a single colour per triangle means that this doesn’t look great for anything organic (i.e. with high surface detail) unless each model is made up of so many triangles that each one is approx. the size of an onscreen pixel when it’s rendered.
This lead people to research ways to get better visual fidelity with less triangles, and the next advance was texture mapping - to put images (or “textures”) onto the triangles so that large triangles can have lots of visual detail.Â
With texture mapping, the data required to render a triangle includes a texture, and each vertex rendered requires an additional 2D coordinates that defines its position in the texture (rather than [x, y] texture coordinates are typically referred to as [u, v]).
When the triangle is rendered in 2D, the base colour of each pixel in it is now derived by calculating the [u, v] coordinate of that screen pixel within the texture based on the [u, v] coordinates of the triangle 3 vertices (modern “correct” texture mapping includes other factors too - check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texture_mapping).
See Below image “UvMapping.jpg” for a visual representation of how this works.
 
Ok, so now we’re more or less at the level of graphics as they were on the original PlayStation (but the PSX didn’t have perspective correct texturing…), so let’s review where we’re at.
A 3DÂ mesh for real time rendering at PSX standards contains the following data:
 1) a texture
the texture (or texture map) is used to render all triangles in the mesh
2) vertices
Each vertex has a position and a normal
Let’s assume they’re in an array and we can index them.
3) triangles
Each triangle has a colour, It also refers to three vertices by index and stores a corresponding U and V value for each vertex, specifying its position in the texture.
If you wanted to have more than one texture you’d end up with more than one mesh in your 3D model.
See Below image “PsxStyleSingleTextureMesh.jpg” for a visual representation of a 3D mesh with a single texture.
Since the PSXÂ the changes to the data needed for real-time rendering, and the pipeline iteself have largely been incremental improvments rather than fundamental changes.Â
Let’s leap ahead to modern graphics pipelines such as those in the PS3 or X360 GPUs (i.e. ignoring the relatively new concept of the “geometry shader”).
The first and most major difference relative to our simple, single texture model is that the vast majority of the computation work involved in rendering is now done on the graphics card either by “fixed function” hardware or by “programmable” parts of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) called “shaders”.
The model data is exported from the 3D package and then the exported mesh is loaded by the game into memory accessible by the GPU.
This mesh data contains references to all the data needed to render it - typically at least the same amount of data as would have been required for a PSX mesh - vertices, triangles, and a texture.
When the game side code wants to render the model it tells the GPU which mesh data to render, and supplies:
- a “model matrix” (model space to world space)
- a “view matrix” (world space to view space (view space == camera space))
- a projection matrix
The GPU then steps through each vertex in the model data and passes it to a program that runs on the GPU called a “vertex shader”.
Vertex shaders are entirely customiseable and can be used to do per vertex lighting calculations, generate extra data needed for rendering etc. In its simplest form, a vertex shader program processes the vertex data passed to it from model space into view space by multiplying its position by the model and view matrices.
Once the vertex has been processed by the vertex shader it is multiplied by a “projection matrix” (also supplied to the GPU by the code)Â which projects it from 3D into Projection (or “clip”) space. This is where perspective is applied to vertices, so vertices further from the screen (in their Z coordinate) have their X and Y coordinates scaled down so they look smaller.
 In projection space is where vertices outside the viewable area are discarded. Any triangle with one or more vertices outside the viewable area must be processed so that the part of it that is viewable is still rendered. This processing is done on the GPU, and involes creating extra vertices to replace the ones removed.
See below image “ProjectionSpaceClipping.jpg” for a visual representation of clipping a triangle (n.b. red dots are vertices, the clipped triangle has more vertices).
Once the vertex has been clipped it is converted to 2D “screen coordinates” (via “device coordinates” on PC where the view may be windowed). Once the vertices are in the correct 2D space the triangles can be rasterised to produce the final pixels output to the screen.
The GPU steps through each pixel within each 2D screen space triangle and passes it to a program called a “pixel shader” (also known as ”fragment shader” on the PS3). The pixel shader’s job is to calculate the output colour of the pixel that is passed to it.
Pixel shaders have special operations they can do to look up their colour in a texture and so forth. The real power of pixel shaders is that the textures they can use do not have to be images, they can also be clever things like normal maps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping), ambient occlusion maps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_occlusion), or specular maps(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specularity).
The colour value output from each pixel shader is then written into the screen buffer by the GPU.
So how does this change the data we need to render something from our previous simple PSX model earlier? The answer is, again, incrementally rather than fundamentally.
Now each mesh has:
1) a material
The concept of a material is that it represents a physical material like concrete, rusty metal, or brushed aluminium.
A material may have multiple texture maps, but it definitely has exactly one vertex shader, and one pixel shader.
The vertex shader is run once by the GPU for each vertex in the mesh the material applies to.
The pixel shader is run once by the GPU for each pixel in each triangle the material applies to.
2) vertices
Each vertex has a position.
Let’s assume they’re in an array and we can index them.
Each vertex may have other data associated with it as required by the vertex shader e.g.:
- a normal
- a tangent for normal mapping
- a specular power for specular lighting
3) triangles
Each triangle refers to three vertices by index.
Each triangle may also have other data associated with each vertex in it as required by the pixel shader; typically one or more pairs of [u, v] values, specifying the vertex’s position(s) in the various texture(s) used by the material.
Whew! That’s (broadly) how real time graphics works on PS3 and X360.
So, in general you should at least have a fairly good idea of what data is pushed about in the average real-time graphics pipeline, if not precisely how it’s pushed.
If you have any questions or want to know more, ask each other, google it, or ask me :)
An excellent place to get a more full understanding of the modern graphics pipeline is chapter 2 of Real-Time Rendering 3rd edition (with Sack-boy on the cover). They should have this in the library.
Whilst I cannot condone finding .pdf versions of this book on the internet you will probably find it a very cost effective way to read just the 2nd chapter (the rest of it is pretty maths heavy and full of squiggles and won’t be of much use to anyone not interested in GPU programming).
The best book is (I now I go on about it!) 3D math primer for graphics and game development. This explains all of it in a bit more of a beginner friendly way than the 1st book, and has more diagrams. Best. Book. Ever.
Alex Darby
Technical Course Lead @ Gamer Camp
Over the Easter break two Gamer Camp artists, Emma Douglas and Isaac Barrett worked at Supermono studios delivering new levels for Forever Drive .
“I found the experience of being at Supermono to be very much like the experience on Gamer Camp and I was able to fit into the development team very quickly, I was used to daily scrum meeting and check in procedures and I was able to contribute confidently and effectively in team meeting, even on issues relating to marketing and production. I enjoyed having to work within the already existing art style, nailing art styles is something we've all really practiced hard at on Gamer Camp so it was great to have a chance to show that I was able to adapt to yet another art style. I realise now that before I came on Gamer Camp I was a good artist, now I feel I'm so much more, I know the language of games, the development culture and processes, I feel I can be a useful member of a game development team.†Isaac Barrett, MA Video Games Development 2011-12
Daver Ferner from Supermono Studios has been a guest lecturer at Gamer Camp in the past, you can check out a Maya Tutorial he did showing his workflow for vehicle assets in the rather excellent game Mini Squadron, just head over to the Gamer Camp Vimeo Channel to watch the tutorial.
Gamer Camp at Birmingham City University Post Graduate Open Evening:
Gamer Camp is attending the Birmingham City University Post Graduate Open Evening at Millennium Point on Thursday 10th May 4pm to 7pm.
This open day differs from open days we have run in the past. The event gives applicants the chance to speak to someone from the course team to discuss the content , experience and suitability of Gamer Camp programmes. The event also give students the opportunity to find out more about the support services and facilities offered by Birmingham City University to all post graduate students. So if you've been on a Gamer Camp open day in the past, or even if you are coming in September you may find the event useful, we'd be delighted to see you. Please register at http://www.bcu.ac.uk/student-info/postgraduate/open-evening-registration
 Ragnvald dungeon in Skyrim.
I love this dungeon, I think it pulls on my dice RPG heart strings and reminds me that I used to roam around fantasy areas like this on my friends kitchen table with sharpened pencils, models and funny shaped dice. Having forced younger members of my family to play Hero Quest recently those memories had been pulled into sharp focus, play the Ragnvald dungeon in Skyrim had the same effect.
The initially the consistency of the area appealed, its a Draugr dungeon. But only when I’d worked out the set up and puzzle within the dungeon did i fully recognise its old school charm. (Spoiler alert) There’s an open area in the middle of the dungeon and in the centre is a tomb, to open the tomb you have to discover two skulls and place them to the skull shaped holes in the side of the tomb. Each skull can be found on a pedestal in another part of the dungeon, taking the skulls triggers a boss Draugr are some minor Draugrs to slay. Once you’ve added both skulls into the main tomb, yep you guessed it out pops and even badder Draugr boss, once dispatched you can gain access to a previously blocked area of the dungeon to learn a new shout.
So not only do you get to a trip down memory lane, plenty of boss level weapons and spells but a new shout to boot - top level in my opinion, worth a visit full details can be found at the Skyrim tourism officeÂ
Bethesda, the developer take a lot of care in developing these areas for us gamers to explore even going as far as physically making them before they are created in-game, this is a good article from a level design on Oblivion so if you’d like to know more check this out http://www.elderscrolls.com/community/darker-side-cyrodiil/ Â
Post by Oliver WilliamsÂ
…And the other Gamer Camp: Pro teams game walk through is now online.
This time, get a sneak peek behind iPad platfomer Agent 17.
(via Agent 17 - Technical Walkthrough with Gamer Camp: Pro Students on Vimeo)
West Midlands/Leamington Spa Meet-Up - Eventbrite:
Our friends at TIGA are hosting a games industry meet-up on 22nd February in Leamington Spa.
It's free for TIGA members, and £10 for non-members, and they'll be giving advice on setting up your own studio.
Gamer Camp: Pro students were given a brief to develop a 2D platform game for the iPad, for their winter project.
In this informal video, the students behind Revenge of the Ninja (downloadable for free from the App Store here: itunes.apple.com/gb/app/revenge-of-the-ninja/id494245052?mt=8) talk us the Gamer Camp tutors through the first stages of the game, and the technical challenges behind it.
(via Revenge of the Ninja - Technical Walkthrough with Gamer Camp: Pro Students on Vimeo)
Gamer Camp Open Day - Pro. game - Developer- Eventbrite:
Gamer Camp has a new open day on the horizon, this on eon 10th March!
TIGA Games Contest - Overview - Open Innovation:
TIGA led competition for indie developers with a £25k prize up for grabs. Deadline is quite soon though: 25th January.
(via Agent 17 for iPad on the iTunes App Store)
The winter iPad projects from our Gamer Camp: Pro students are now available for download on the App Store for free.
Here's Agent 17.
The 10 Best Schools for Serious Gamers | Best Colleges Online:
Well this was a nice surprise, Gamer Camp has cropped up in bestcollegesonline.com's list of top games courses. We're the only course outside the US too.
““Gamer Camp is a great idea because of the fact that it's post-graduate only and it teaches some real skills to be used in the industry.â€â€
- Jamie MacDonald, Codemasters, p.47, Develop Magazine Dec 11/Jan 12 issue
“This one is about the Stack, which is arguably the most important component of the underlying “engine†of C/C . If you only ever bother to learn about one aspect of the low level behaviour of C/C , then my advice is to make that one thing be the Stack.â€
- Our Gamer Camp programming tutor Alex Darby blogs about low level C/C++ coding with the Stack.
C / C Low Level Curriculum Part 3: The Stack « #AltDevBlogADay
Senior Environment Artist on acclaimed first-person shooter BRINK, Matt McDaid, recently guest lectured on Gamer Camp: Pro, and now shares his thoughts on creating the perfect environmental art, developing a portfolio and the reality of establishing a career in the games industry.
Can you begin by giving us a quick overview of the big games you’ve worked on, and your role on those projects?
Coming from a Military Simulations background, I was a bit of a latecomer to the games industry, but I was fortunate to have worked on the Star Wars: Battlefront franchise and more recently BRINK, the stylised first-person shooter developed by Splash Damage.Â
I'm a Senior Environment Artist so it is my responsibility to build the background art and ensure a high level of quality goes in to creating great, immersive vistas.
You recently gave a talk as a guest tutor on our Gamer Camp: Pro course, what topics did you cover?
I spoke about my path in to the Games industry and the various options I chose throughout my career, and why I chose them. Stemming right back from when I began out as a Graphic Designer through to becoming a Senior Artist in the games industry.
I think it was important to convey that now's the time for Gamer Camp students to discover which industry discipline they are passionate about; whether it be concept art, character art or environment art and just encourage them to hone their skills until they get hired. Even once they're hired, they should never to stop learning and perfecting new skills!Â
We also discussed various problem solving techniques and how they are applied in real studio scenarios. Iain, the course leader, also setup some mock interviews where I got to the opportunity to meet the students in a more formal manner and ask them typical questions that they may face when applying for a studio role.
The interviews gave me a good opportunity to view their portfolios and offer some advice on their work. They were a great bunch with masses of potential!
What did you think of the Gamer Camp course?
On first impressions I was really surprised by how well NTI Birmingham have replicated a professional studio environment. All the students were armed with the latest hardware and software, allowing them to produce the best results possible.Â
Secondly, I was really impressed with how much the students had learned and progressed with the tools, having only begun the course in September. Each of them talked me through their work in progress and it was great to see what they had done and hear their ideas for taking the project forward.Â
By letting the students create a game from scratch and take it right through to being published they gain a valuable insight into the facets involved in producing a fully-fledged game.
In your opinion, what are the most important principles for Environment Artists in the games industry to adhere to?
It's vital to have a good understanding of form, shape, structure and silhouette. Depending on how well you get these right will dictate how well your overall aesthetic will read.
Having a good eye for light, shade and colour is imperative if you are going bring a high level of cohesion to your work.Â
The ability to dissect architectural concept art and reference images into modular forms is critical to production and specifically asset creation. Study architectural styles;Â research architectural styles old and new and discover what makes a structure stand out among others.
Also, research global locations. There are many locations around the World that have inspired all the great games. From the Venetian Canals in Assassins Creed II to the large fort in Syria in Uncharted 3.Â
How did you first find a job in the games industry?
I initially started in 3D as a high poly modeler, so it was good timing when I began applying to games studios, as with the introduction of normal maps to game engines; high poly modeling was a relatively new requirement to the artists’ workflow. Luckily, Free Radical Design (now Crytek UK) identified my potential and employed me as an Environment Artist.
Why should talented graduates work in the games industry?
It is a very competitive industry and you will only get out of it what you put in.Â
Talented artists are sought after by every studio and you have to be on the top of your game. From a prospective employers view, the amount of talent you have will be governed by your portfolio, so it's incredibly important to make it the best it can possibly be. Remember, you want your work to stand out above the rest.Â
The more you put into it, the more likely your portfolio will catch the eye and land you the job you have always wanted.
UKIE sponsors student travel fund for Blitz Games Studios' 2012 Open Days | The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment:
Our latest friends, UKIE, are offering a student travel fund for successful student applicants to Blitz Games Studios' much vaunted 2012 Student Open Days.
Gamer Camp Pro: Agent 17 (by CallumBGood)
“A video I made for the audio guys over at FourEyedMusic to show them our progress on the game so far. Sorry about the poor quality and the audio sync issues - not used to the recording software on Macs yet!â€
New progress video from Gamer Camp: Pro student Callum.
“
Toying with applying for Gamer Camp: Pro or Nano, but unsure whether or not to take the plunge?
Well, why not try the demo out first before making that important investment in your future?
Pop along to the Gamer Camp Open Day and you'll get a feel for what Gamer Camp is all about with taster sessions, a free cuppa and all the useful information you'll need to know about accommodation, fees and loans.
â€
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Gamer Camp Open Day - Eventbrite
“On Monday 28 November UKIE announced the launch of the Next Gen Skills campaign to call for fundamental changes to the education system to drive hi-tech growth. On the eve of the Chancellor's Autumn statement, some of the biggest names from the digital, creative and hi-tech industries joined leading skills and educational bodies to launch a major new campaign to change the education system and ensure that the computer programming skills needed for the future growth of the UK's hi-tech economy are properly embedded in schools and classrooms.â€
- Next Gen Skills campaign launched | The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment
Essentially, UKIE are calling for Computer Science - in addition to ICT, to be taught as part of the National Curriculum.
It seems a logical way of addressing the shortage of programmers in the games industry and beyond. Although in the short-term, may need substantial Government investment to source, develop and train an army of programming teachers.
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