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Thinking about how the DigiBahn game could eventually be used in a language classroom has led me back to thinking about language itself, specifically its “play-like” nature: We can “play” with meaning of words and even entire games focus on using language in playful contexts. Seen within a communicative framework in real-life settings, language and…
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I have been experimenting a bit more with Blender to get the animation for the street sign in the pedestrian zone just right. Although it still doesn’t look exactly the way I’d expect it to look in real life, the use of specular and bump maps has given the model a more realistic appearance than…
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For the last few days, in addition to getting a handle on the Blender Game Engine and Python scripting language, I have also been working on developing a workflow for creating 3D game models. Thinking that starting off small would probably be the best way to go, I decided to create a mesh texture for…
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I just love free programming resources, don’t you? Since the Blender game engine uses Python as its programming language of choice, I recently decided to dust off my coding skills (I went all the way up to C3, data structures and algorithms, while retooling as an unemployed, post-PhD graduate) and get more involved with Python.…
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It occured to me a few days ago that a game level map would not only help us visualize the direction in which we want to go, but would also help us in marking progress and keeping track of what meshes we need to create in order to complete the level. So, after a few…
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Did a quick run-though today of the DigiBahn game with the Blender game engine (BGE). I was able to find a script for mouse/camera control on the Web, although it is using Python 2.5 and many of the functions – its seems – have been deprecated for Python 2.6. Future development in Blender 2.49 and,…
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Well, it took me the better part of the evening to render ~ 13 seconds of video in Blender, but I finally got it knocked down. I didn’t take too much time for cleaning up or smoothing the meshes, so some areas are a bit rough. I just wanted to test out Blender’s animation capabilities…
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While rendering the first test images of Stuttgart Central in Blender a few days ago, I couldn’t help but notice that the handrails on the moving walkway were a bit “chunky,” for lack of a better word. This part of the mesh was actually the most difficult part to create as it required me to…
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There is so much literature out there about computer games, DGBL, and education, it is sometimes a bit overwhelming to find a good overview that can quickly provide an orientation point for future research. In the past I have suggested Richard Van Eck’s Digital Game-Based Learning as a starting point, but a few days ago…
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For the last few weeks we have been working on getting meshes created in Maya and Blender. Just to see what they look like together, I threw some together this morning for a quick render: In the next few days I will focus on getting the handrails on the escalator ironed out; the mesh here…
