Feasibility of Long-Term Project?

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
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WARNING. THIS IS A LONG POST :slight_smile:

So I had this neat idea recently for a great project that could be run in educational facilities.

So as an A-Level student (don’t ask me for international equivalents XD), I’ve noticed that the courses that I attend have absolutely jaw-dropping extra-curricular courses, all of which were set up by students of the school.

So I figure that I should set up a new one, and since we didn’t yet have a CAD/3D Modelling Course (I’m reluctant to start calling it a ‘club’) that we could try to set one up. So I had a few tutors on board, and had finished setting up the course itself, but then I noticed that the other courses all had a large, ridiculously ambitious, long-term goal to finish within a set number of years.

And then it hit me. I want to model the whole school.

Every classroom, desk, chair and whiteboard. I decided to start to set up a checklist of every object the school contains, so that we can assemble it at the end. I mean, how cool would a 3D replica of your educational years look?

But then it hit me again. Put it into an engine, and have a interactive school to explore! Why? 'Cause it’s possible.

So this is where feasibility becomes a problem.
I was thinking we (there’ll likely be 20-40 of us) could model the school and import/assemble in CryEngine 3 (I heard CryBlend was a thing, and since it’s non-commercial it’s also free).

Our school is not all that huge. The buildings are all extremely angular (no ridiculously high-poly buildings here). It seems like it MIGHT work. Processing power shouldn’t be a problem btw, we have some fairly solid tech up there.

So, in short, I guess I’m asking if it is AT ALL possible for this to even partially work, given the time?
If I get lots of ‘NO.’ answers, it won’t stop us at-least giving it a go.

Also for security reasons, we obviously won’t be posting WIPS XD.

It’s just a naive, overly ambitious idea at the moment, but it’d be absolutely awesome if it worked.

Cheers,
Schnell.

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This is a Blender Game Engine support forum, so I don’t know if your thread belongs here, because you seem to be focused on using CryEngine.

That said, whether or not this project is overly ambitious depends on the size of the school, the details you want to incorporate, and the people on your team.

If you’re not sure, just start, and work on it for a month. See how far you make it, and try to extrapolate into the future. If it calculates as a reasonable amount of time, you can just keep working, and if not, then you know where it stands.

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Cheers. Sound advice, it’ll certainly be an interesting project to work with :slight_smile:
Feature/detail-wise it’ll be a case of layering detail from bare-bones until we are happy/it becomes too much :smiley:

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And then it hit me. I want to model the whole school.

Every classroom, desk, chair and whiteboard. I decided to start to set up a checklist of every object the school contains, so that we can assemble it at the end. I mean, how cool would a 3D replica of your educational years look?

But then it hit me again. Put it into an engine, and have a interactive school to explore! Why? 'Cause it’s possible.

I’ve been there with the same idea. Only there were 2 of us with experience and we were planning it to be a Counter-Strike map. It was… 11 years ago I think. Well I rarely finished anything I started those times but still it was a poor idea and I’m happy we never forward with it.

As a task I don’t think its too ambitious but not perhaps the best.I know modeling the school is something really tangible and kind of first thing that pops into mind. But I bet the students would be more interested to model something that suits their own interests and not something trivial " 'Cause it’s possible. If you want your “extra-curricular course” to be popular you will want to teach everyone basic modeling stuff by doing some everyday objects and afterwards give them free hands to do what they like and help them. Are you good enough with Blender / BGE to be their tutor?

Also note that modeling props such as chairs and tables is much different than modeling a building. You use the same tool (Blender) but the workflow is different and might interest different people.

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I would advice you to use Blender Game Engine instead of Cryengine 3. Cryengine is better for outdoor environments than indoor architectural spaces.

No building is to big for neither BGE or Cryengine. So modeling a normal sized school or university faculty? It should not take you much time, nor do you need a team. I dare to say it would take me one intense weekend to model my whole faculty building.

Take a look at the links below in my signature.

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Thanks for the feedback.
I should mention that this ‘course’ does not just feature Blender, rather a whole host of programmes for students to try out.
One of the reasons I planned in using CryEngine and not BGE for the final product, is that I have a far greater experience with more product based, CAD programmes such as AutoDesk Inventor/Pro E, and the such-like; the kind of things that might be an alternative to those unfamiliar with Blender, and since I’m fairly unskilled in the BGE department, I have more exp. in CryEngine and it feels like a more intuitve (and probably better looking) step than all the hassle I’d face with BGE.

That said, if a student takes a liking to BGE, then it’s always an option, it’s early days yet.
I don’t think I’d face too many problems with modelling the objects themselves in Blender, I’d struggle though with the ‘game’ aspect in that regard.
This project is like a long-term feature to compliment the course :slight_smile: it mostly features them having free-reign over their creations.

But anyway, I’ll keep all of this in mind. It’s nice to see that with a lot of effort, time and many tutorials, it could actually happen :slight_smile:

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Security reasons prevent you from posting WIPs? When any Tom, Dick or Harry can go to the municipal building code office and, for a small fee, get a copy of the actual as built blueprints? What kind of school are you attending, anyway?

Modeling your whole school would not be ridiculously ambitious, it would be ridiculously tedious. Every chair, desk and whiteboard. Ok, that’s three models, endlessly repeated down that long hall of classrooms. You would get a bit of variety doing some of the special purpose classrooms, like the science lab, but for the most part schools are rows of rooms with rows of desks and a black or whiteboard on one wall. Some have screens and projectors.

Are you planning on duplicating the posters on the walls? The content of the bulletin boards? That’s really what makes a maths classroom different from a literature classroom. And those are just photographic textures. I’d seriously rethink your long term project. Are there no historical buildings in the neighborhood that could use a CG walkthrough?

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No security reasons ACTUALLY prevent me from posting them, it’s not like I go to a top-secret military base to learn XD, I just find it inappropriate to put up digital forms of a real and personal scene for all to see. But that’s just my opinion.

As is the tediousness of the project, it’s not exactly the most mind-blowing project out there, but I’d do it for the end product. I say “every desk, chair and whiteboard” as examples, I mean sure it’s not a spaceship, but this is a school course, I can hardly get pupils to start modelling thrusters and circuit boards! So simple things like chairs, benches and desks work well for beginners, it’s what I started with and I enjoyed it.

If it really gets to be too boring, at the very least it’s valuable experience for all those taking part :slight_smile:

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Why not make a game?

better yet adopt a ongoing project and make assets for it,

with 30+ animators a game could become a product fast be it open source or not, rather than vaporware.

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