RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT: INTRODUCTION TO THE FLOWGRAPH EDITOR

I had a very difficult time gaining a greater understanding of the Sandbox2 Flowgraph Editor between EXP1 & EXP2. I found that creating graphs required a certain mindset which was not helped by my lack of understanding of the Flowgraph Editor. Although a considerable amount of writing information exists on the Flowgraph Editor (including within official documentation) almost no visual tutorials explain the basics. Being a visual learner I found it very difficult to grasp what certain aspects within the Flowgraph Editor did and consequently spent a large portion of the time this semester figuring out what things did through trial and error. Small things like attaching Graphs to Entities instead of creating them separately took me a very long time to figure out. It is for this reason I chose to create a video tutorial that expanded on the basics & of course gave a visual presentation of the topic. Although Russel’s tutorial about Moving Entities does touch on some basics of the Flowgraph Editor I felt that more was necessary to give a better understanding for users to understand how to use the editor correctly. If this tutorial was available to me at the beginning of semester I would have been able to move along more quickly and produce more complex graphs earlier. I’ve included a number of links below which demonstrate the lack of video material on this topic. Using a variety of simple key words I search for tutorial and the flowgraph editor; my tutorial appears in all of them.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=introduction%20to%20flowgraphs%20sandbox%202&search=Search&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&spell=1

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=introduction+flowgraph&aq=f

http://www.youtube.com/results?

search_query=introduction%20crysis%20flowgraph&search=Search&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&spell=1

LINKS FOR BEGINNERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0-zhMaecxQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXcpobiKITQ
http://www.youtube.com/user/crymodportal#p/u
http://www.veoh.com/collection/officialSB2Tuts/watch/v6576568ReByyHfw
http://maxedgaming.com/tutorials/kb_categorie.php?id=10&sid=1595b26d0d9935f4772ba10fcfb1c36d

RECOMMENDED TUTORIALS
http://www.veoh.com/group/officialSB2Tuts
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/gaming/watch/v17308205SRsWdN2E
http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=012680904516827000516:u4rw893h9vc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ9u9NxSyBA

REFERENCES
http://doc.crymod.com/SandboxManual/
http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Creating_a_Flowgraph
http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Flowgraph_Guide
http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Flowgraph_Nodes
http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Flowgraph_Tips_and_Tricks
http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Sample_Flowgraph
http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?postid=507997#post507997

HOW TO MAKE A CUSTOM ARCHETYPE IN SANDBOX2

Yesterday I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out how to create a custom architype so I could spawn it using the SpawnArchitype node included in the flowgraph plugin system. As it turns out it is a ridiculously simple process and I've compiled this quick tutorial for anyone else who wants to do something similar.

Step 1: Open the Database View Pane by going View > Open View Pane > Database View OR you can click the Database View button (DB) straight from the main Sandbox2 window

Step 2: Once the Database View is up stay on the default Entity Library tab. Add a new library by clicking the Add Library button and then giving it a useful name like Custom_Archetypes OR My_Archetypes

Step 3: Now click the Add New Item button on the right-hand side of the drop down menu. The Select Entity Class window will appear, select BasicEntity by going Scripts > Entities > Physics > BasicEntity

Step 4: Give the new entity a useful name and group (although giving it a group is not necessary, this is more so to keep things organised). Click OK

 Step 5: Select the entity you have just created and click on the open new model in the class properties. Select the model you wish to use.

Step 6: You're done! Now use the BasicEntity name in the Entity:SpawnArchetype node- in this example this called Custom_Architypes.Boxes.Box01 (with Archetype spelt wrong)

http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Entity_Library_View

http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Archetype_Entity

http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Sandbox_ParticleEditor

WEEK4: FLOWGRAPH - ATTACH EMITTER & MATERIAL OPACITY

Following the flowgraph image and demonstration from the lecture create two flowgraphs of your own; one that attaches an entity to your avatar and one that alters the opacity of an entity in response to your avatar.

ATTACH EMITTER

http://www.filefront.com/17379010/Crysis_Sandbox2_SpawnParticelEffect_flowgraph.xml

MATERIAL OPACITY

http://www.filefront.com/17379004/Crysis_Sandbox2_EntityOpacity_flowgraph.xml


Both the above image from lecture, Exp2 Week4 (TRACE + REPRESENTATION) - http://www.russelllowe.com/benv2423_2010/experiment2/reference/Lecture09_TraceAndRepresentation2010.pdf 

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT: UNDERSTANDING THE FLOWGRAPH EDITOR

I am not a programmer, this is why I found the Sandbox2 Flowgraph editor a little hard to get my head around. The procedural programming thinking required to use the Flowgraph editor can be a little difficult to understand at first. Having to understand the Flowgraph editor itself at the same time didn't simplify the learning process for me. In fact, I'm still having trouble understanding the basics (like when is it best to assign a flowgraph to a entity or just create a general flowgraph!?). Something that has come to my attention is that no reasonable video tutorial exists to  cover the basics of the flowgraph editor. Although information regarding the topic is available on the internet, it is in various sources and not sometimes a bit difficult to follow.

Therefore for the Research Assignment I intend to cover the basics of the flowgraph editor, how to best configure the flowgraph editor, what it can be used for and explain some basic nodes and how to use them to create useful flowgraphs. I will then explain the best sources to learn more about the flowgraph editor.

Tutorial Topics:
a) Features of the Flowgraph editor
b) How to create a Flowgraph
c) Basic Nodes
d) Understanding the logic behind flowgraphs


Research Result
http://doc.crymod.com/SandboxManual/frames.html?frmname=topic&frmfile=index.html
http://doc.crymod.com/SandboxManual/frames.html?frmname=topic&frmfile=FlowgraphWindow.html
http://doc.crymod.com/SandboxManual/frames.html?frmname=topic&frmfile=FlowgraphNodeComposition.html

http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Flowgraph_Guide
http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Creating_a_Flowgraph
http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Flowgraph_Tips_and_Tricks
http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Sample_Flowgraph
http://wiki.crymod.com/index.php/Flowgraph_Nodes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m52WBBNwx9U

EXP 2: THE 3D PICTURE

As part of my developing brief I am considering making exp2 completely 3D. This would not be a meaningless exercise as my intent is to further comment on how peoples interactions are influenced by architecture. I want the viewer to be conscious that what I am commenting on directly relates to them. Using a 3D shader within Crysis to emulate a 3D environment will hopefully allow me separate certain elements from others and highlight element that are closer than others.

With help from Russel I have been able to successfully install Xzero's zStereoscopic 3D (Red & Cyan) Shader and I've quickly outlined how I did this below:

1. Download the Shader: First you need to download the type of Stereoscopic Shader you wish to use. You have a choice between Red/Cyan, Amber/Blue, and Green/Magenta; which one you choose really depends on which type of 3D glasses you have laying around the house, check out the wikipedia page here. Like I said I used the Red/Cyan shader which I've reuploaded unzipped to filefront as the original .pak file.

Jeremy's Red/Cyan Re-Upload: http://www.filefront.com/17325188/ZStereoscopic3D.pak

You can also download it and the other shaders from Xzero's original upload which I've provided direct links to below:

Xzero's Red/Cyan Original Upload: http://crymod.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=71889

Xzero's Amber/Blue Original Upload: http://crymod.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=71890

Xzero's Green/Magenta Original Upload: http://crymod.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=71891

2. After downloading your desired shader you need to get the .pak file (which you will need to unzip if you downloaded Xzero's oringinal upload) and place it in your Game directory (C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis Wars\Game).

3. Once the ZStereoscopic3D.pak shader is in the Game Folder you need to load up your level in the sandbox editor and create a  Flow Graph by clicking View > Open View Panel > Flow Graph. Once the Flow Graph Editor is open click File > New

4. Then create the following two nodes by right clicking on the gray space

a)  Misc > Start

b)  Image > FilterGrain

5. Change the FilterGrain settings to Enabled and set an Amount to 13 (although Xzero suggests that anything between 5 & 10 works well). Once you have done this create the following Flow Graph: 

6. Your done! All you need to do now is get into the game and check it out, don't forget to put on your glasses! I'll try to upload a video in the next few days but here are some still captures for now:

Source: http://crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=58566&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=0&page=18