Research Assignment

Tutorial - Visually Representing Dynamic Data

500 Words on Tutorial

This tutorial will provide the basic flowgraph knowledge linking AI behaviors to a set of live data which has been imported from an xml file. This flowgraph takes advantage of the engines ability to compute data quicker than the user, and dynamically responds to this data accordingly. With just one key press you can interpret a set of data in endless ways. This is an introduction to this concept, exploring just one visual means of representing raw data, acting as a gateway to more opportunities depending on the user's knowledge pool and creativity.

Continuing on from my Analytics Engine, I have developed this flowgraph where there are 2 boxes - two seperate locations. These will be destinations for the spawned AI depending on the data read from the XML document which measure the dB level in a given space. My intention of this idea was: If the area is noisy - due to environmental factors/ people chatting or whatever it may be - the box will be dimmed. If the area is quite, the box will be lit up to attract people to this area.

The body of knowledge discussed in the tutorial includes spawning AI from a designated position, using conditions to determine an appropriate response and extracting data from xml documents. The tutorial acts as an overview of the underlying concept and main elements of this flowgraph and is intended for anyone wishing to extend their knowledge in the Sandbox Editor and advanced users wanting to unleash the potential of flowgraphs. It requires a basic understanding of Sandbox Editor and flowgraphs. Any programming logic would be useful background knowledge also.

I resorted mainly to trial and error to figure this out, although it contains elements which have been illustrated before. The resources i found most helpful in designing this flowgraph were the Incrysis wiki and forum, Maxed Gaming tutorials, Crytek manuals along with Vinh Nguyen's tutorials. I have presented this tutorial in the way i find most effective: a demonstration of what is to be achieved, a description of what knowledge is required, dot points of what is to be covered, and a breakdown of each major element (eg section 1-3). It also includes a wrap-up of the ideas presented and a demonstration using the flowgraph created in the tutorial. I decided to use exclusively text to explain the steps in the tutorial. I find that most the tutorials i watch have poor sound quality which distracts from the learning experience, low volume so you cannot hear the steps described clearly, or boring monotone voices. The advantages of using text is that the user can scrub through the video to review the content and still see the text pop up whereas they cant hear what is being said. Text will be overlayed and title will remain at the top of the screen for these reasons.

References

http://incrysis.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
http://incrysis.com/forums/
http://maxedgaming.com/tutorials/kb_categorie.php?id=2
http://wn.com/Sandbox_2_Flowgraph_fun
http://incrysis.com/forums/viewforum.php?id=24&p=3
http://www.crytek.com/
http://maxedgaming.com/tutorials/kb_categorie.php?id=6&start=20
http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?p=816389
http://www.crydev.net/forum.php?sid=55a578b547a6d3628180f53dfdf63013
http://www.veoh.com/list/u/crymodportal
http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?f=325&t=71209
http://www.crydev.net/viewforum.php?f=319&sid=a454aea4702b383e047b83b50833f3bb
http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?f=319&t=75873 (texture in game)
http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?f=319&t=72827 (spawn iterator)

http://benv2423-2011vn.blogspot.com/

http://benv2423rui.blogspot.com/2011/11/make-loop-to-spawn-ai-automatically.html

http://www.crydev.net/wiki/index.php/Category:Flowgraph_Samples

manual **** http://doc.crydev.net/SandboxManual/frames.html?frmname=topicfrmfile=index.html

http://www.crydev.net/wiki/index.php/Flowgraph_Guide

The Tutorial