Stephanie Sorth

The SZS file

The models:

The track

Jumps

Speed boosts

Starting Line

Some info about the track:

Polygon 0 is the starting line
Polygon 100 is the track
Polygon 19 is the boosts
Polygon 32 is the jumps

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Here are the folders you'll need to play the game. I couldn't really understand how to use Pakrat, so you'll have to download each folder seperately. Sorry about that. I know you said you need Pakrat in order to distribute the game, so if you could let me know how you are suppose to work it, I'd really appreciate it. Also, if I did distribute it, what was the website you said to put it on?

Since I had some extra time I was able to do the decals folder, so I've included that. I have been playing the game, and so far I haven't come across anything that isn't covered in my textures. I'm going to continue to play the game until I finish it, just to make sure. So incase I come across something that's not covered in my textues, I will post the changes to these folders.

Put all of these folders in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\username\half-life 2\hl2\materials
If at any point a box comes up saying the folder/file already exists, and do you want to replace it, say yes (unless you have custom content in any of the folders, then you should move that out first)

Brick
Building_Template
cable
Composite
Concrete
console
CustomCubeMaps
Debug
Decals
Detail
Dev
Engine
Environment Maps
Glass
Halflife
Lights
matsys_regressiontest
Metal
Nature
Overlays
particle
Plaster
Props
scripted
skybox
Stone
Storefront_Template
sun
Tile
Vehicle
Wood

I had to break up the models folder because it was too big to upload as a whole. So you'll have to copy everything in these five folders into one folder, and name it "models" Then just put it into the materials folder like the rest of them.

Models1
Models2
Models3
Models4
Models5

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The Rocket Song Looped

Rocket Launh Speed Song

After completing this project and seeing the final result, I don't think it differed at all from my original proposal. My original proposal was to change all of the textures in the game with textures I had created myself. I wanted to experiment with idea on how the environment of a game can influence how you perceive it. This is why I chose the textures to be bright geometric square patterns- to contradict the game's dark and serious tone.

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One thing I learned while doing this project was all of the time and effort that must go into making a game as a whole. I must have gone through thousands of files, and there were times when I really didn't think I was going to finish. All of this work and all I was doing was changing the textures. It really made me appreciate what goes in to making a game, and how much more worth it it is when you finally accomplish what you set out to do.

I uploaded a video of me playing the game, which can be found here. I wanted to try and portray how the textures bring out a more fun, comical, and dream-like quality to the game. It was hard to make a video though, because I really think playing the game is the only way to really get a feel for how the textures affect the game play. Everywhere you go in the game is so different, and that made it difficult to have to choose certain scenes to include in my video. I also wish that I had been able to get farther in the game and get more of a variety of places to add to the video. For example, after I had completed the video I got to an area where there were a bunch of mutilated bodies all over the place. This would have been a perfect example of how an environment can affect a game, because I probably would have viewed this part of the game as a much more gruesome and dark place. I was however, able to get some screenshots:

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In the end I don't think it was as hard to alter the textures as I thought it was going to be. All I had to do was open the vtf files into photoshop, and make sure I had the folders in the right places. If I had more time I would have probably liked to have altered some of the decals. Also, as I was playing the game, I think I would have also liked to see what changing the effects would have done. But overall I think I was successful in the look I was going after.

Half-Life 2: Color Blind
"Your bright face obscures your darker mask."

Today I finished up adding all of my textures to the game. However, while playing the game there were some noticable things that didn't have my textures on them. I'm not sure if it's just that I may have missed the vtf file or if it was a photoshop problem that I was having. When I would go to open some of the files it said the file could not be opened because there wasn't enough memory(ram). So I ended up skipping over those files because at the time I didn't think it would matter. I was able to find two of them and fix them but I know there are more. Or it could be the fact that I didn't have time to do the decals folder, and some of the things could be in there. I'm not sure. But on the most part, after seeing the completed version, I decided a fitting title for this game would be Half Life 2: Color Blind. Just seeing all of the bright colors everywhere can be mesmerizing and overwhelming. So much so that at times I forgot I was playing a game and instead started exploring all of the different areas just to see the different textures. I do think I accomplished the look that I was going for. I planned on spending the first half of the day recording myself playing the game, and then making my movie during the second part. However, when it came time to actually make a movie using the video clips, I was having a lot of problems. So I decided I am just going to finish this project at home using a video screen capture program that I have there. I will upload the youtube video as soon as I can. But for now, here are some screenshots of what the game looks like:

I just spent the whole day continuing to change the textures. I am really starting to see a difference in the game now. It is very interesting the way the textures wrap around certain objects. It is also interesting to see where and how the textures look in the game, because it has all been random. I think this randomness adds to the idea I had in mind: to create a bright, colorful, yet chaotic world. It is already starting to look very different then what Half Life 2 was originally intended to be like.

Today I spent most of the time familiarizing myself with how to alter the vtf files in photoshop, and what folders to put them in. Now that I know it works, next week I hope to get more done, seeing as how when I play the game it looks like almost nothing is covered in my texture. I didn't realize how many materials are in the game, and so at this point I'm not exactly sure what my final product will look like. But I am going to try and alter as much as I possibly can. Maybe focus on the walls and floors first and then if I have time move on the the models. Here are a few screenshots of what is in the game so far. It isn't much, but I really only started to work on it during the second half of the class. So I think next time I will be able to accomplish much more.

View the faceposer on Youtube

My main focus of my final project is to change every texture within half life 2 into textures I have created myself. These textures are abstract patterns using bright colors. Being that half life 2 has a very dark and serious tone, I thought the textures I'd create would be something that you'd never see in a game like this. In order to make these textures I broke the area into small squares. I then used the same six colors, and repeated them over and over again in the same order. This resulted in the different patterns and visual elements that you see. The final product will be a video documentation of me playing the game with all of the different textures in it.

In order to accomplish this, I will have to use GCFScape. I also found a photoshop plugin that lets you open up vtf files, and then all you have to do is alter the picture and save it. I think this would make it alot easier and faster, which is one of the problems I am seeing in doing this project. There are a lot of textures and models in the game, and since we only have two classes left I am not sure I will be able to alter everything within the game. But I will try and do as much of it as I can, and I think the I can still get the effect I wanted, even if not everything in the game is covered in my textures.

Here are all of the textiles I am going to use. The ones titled "wall" are ones I am going to use on walls or flat surfaces, because I think these designs are better if you view them as a whole. The ones titled "models" are ones I am going to use on objects where the texture will wrap around them.
Wall 1
Wall 2
Wall 3
Wall 4
Wall 5
Wall 6
Wall 7
Wall 8
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
Model 5
Model 6
Model 7

I didn't want to give up on this, and I'm glad I didn't because I finally got it to work! Here are some pictures:

vmt file
vtf file
other files:
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Dead On Que's "Fake Science" which was made using the Spirit Of Half Life, won "Best Visual Design" at 2002's Machinima Film Festival. Despite its very simple style, Fake Science wasn't a small production. Buddy and Keglunek, the two-man crew behind Dead On Que, said that in one set piece alone, there are over 50 path corners, a dozen and a 1/2 env_renders, and more target/target names than then they can ever be bothered to recall. What surprised me even more was learning that this video was produced in less than a week. To think that this much work went into something that on the surface seems like a basic animation- it left me with a deeper appreciation and understanding of what goes into making machinima.

"Fake Science" explores the relationship of humanity to technology: scientists develop the all-powerful television, which ends up taking over the world, and yet in the end the spirit of man lives on. What makes this video interesting to me are the unique visual elements incorporated into the video. Visual elements such as the opening sequence of covering the city skyline with grid lines which turn into a building, and the conisistent color scheme, shapes and lines which support the industrial technology theme. I also liked the repetitive movement of zooming out from a central focal point, such as city skyline turning out to be a view from a window. Or the scientists working on the televison turning out to be an image on the television screen itself. My favorite scene would have to be the scene where the television is in the store window, and as the camera zooms out, the building windows become televisions themselves. It is visual elements such as these that make this an interesting piece not only for its use of computer game technology, but for it's ability to capture someone's interest regardless of whether they have played the game or not.

After watching this video, I wonder if it was the artist's intention to do a machinima piece on the way that techonolgy impacts the world. Just as the reading talks about how machinima can impact how we define art. "Perhaps we should stop worrying so much about this question. Rather, it may be worthwhile to shift attention to the technologies and practices emerging out of computer games as a medium, and how they might provide new avenues for cultural, artisitic, and social expression, including performance art. Perhaps we should not bother too long with the question 'are games art?' Instead, we should ask if high-performance play is capable of transforming our notions of how art is created." Just as this machinima implies- the spirit of man, whether it be science or art- will live on.

Click here to see "Fake Science"

My idea for an art mod is to change the textures of everything in the game with different textures that I have created on my own. Being that Half-Life 2 has a very dark and serious tone, I thought the textures I'd create would be something that you'd never see in a game like this. I have a couple examples of the textures here: (you have to stand farther away from the computer screen to see the design more clearly)
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One of the problems though I'm seeing with this idea is that so far I haven't been able to get anything I've made that has a texture on it to show up in the game. But I still thought I'd stick with this idea for now because changing the textures in this way would greatly impact how this game is received. The type of environment your playing in is very important when designing a game, and so it would be interesting to see how people would perceive the game when this environment is changed.

I based this on the game, Half Life 2. It's titled: "You Can't Go Home."

Here is the bsp file:

Download file

1. Defining the game's goal is different than defining the game's topic. However, the goal and topic are connected, for the topic is the means of expressing the goal.

2. Research everything you can on the topic you have chosen.

3. The I/O structure determines how the player interacts with the game, and how the game is initially recieved.

4. Identify the key element from your topic and build the game structure around this key element.

5. Ask yourself if the game design satisfies your design goals, and that there are no flaws in the game or shortcuts that might not allow players to experience what you want them to experience.

6. Playtesters must be selected and used with great care.

This machinima was made by Ross Scott, using the Source Engine Software Developer's Kit. This is just one of the episodes in his comedy series titled "Civil Protection." It's based off the policing force by the same name from the computer game Half-Life 2. In the game, Civil Protection is portrayed as an oppressive policing force in a dystopian society ruled by aliens. In this series, Civil Protection has good and bad cops, like many law enforcement agencies. Some of them are power-tripping zealots, others, like the main characters of the show, Mike and Dave, are much more laidback and act more like regular people. Even though I haven't played much of the game yet, I saw the Civil Protection Police as nothing more than just the guys you have to go around killing. I think this is what makes Ross Scott's machinima so effective, because it's giving you a different perspective on the game. The earth is still ruled by aliens, but it's not as depressing a situation as the game likes to suggest. You see things from the enemies point of view, and you can't help but laugh when you watch it.

When McLuhan argues that games resemble reality, provide a means of escaping the stresses of specialization, and that they are a form of "mass media" of communication and information, I was immediately reminded of a game I just recently heard about, called Second Life. It is if McLuhan is directly defining this game when he talks about games as a whole. This game is a reactionary representation of what we experience everyday. Second Life gives us that tribal/primitive satisfaction in mirroring our everyday competition in life, while only just being a simulation.

I find it interesting that Second Life is seen as a means to seek escape from the repetitiveness or specialization of reality, when in fact it is a game that models our reality. In this game you can do almost everything you can do in real life- get a job, shop, buy sell and rent land. You can even play games within the game, and even have game programmers themselves.

There are however, some differences in Second Life from real life, such as the ability to fly. But what it is really that makes people continue to come back and play? I think what makes people drawn to this game is not that fact that it resembles real life, but the fact that you are being given a chance to become someone you aren't in real life. In a way you are being given a "second chance" at life. I believe this game appeals to people because it has no ending and hence the actions of an individual in a game, has no consequences, allowing freedom of expression that is otherwise not possible or not allowed or would have undesired consequences in reality or society.

The Cat
The Lamp

The Sims is game that lets players assume godlike powers in a virtual community populated by characters they have created. You manage every aspect of these character's lives as they eat, sleep, go to work, make friends with the neighbors, fall in love, get married and have children.

But should this game be considered art? I believe it to be more of an art tool than a work of art itself. With the release of The Sims 2, players now have the option to capture screenshots and capture video from the game, which gives rise to an inspiring new direction for creating art in game worlds, and has the potential to unleash a new generation of artists. Artists such as Katherine Isbister and Rainy Straus, and their project called Simveillance. Simveillance creates a game environment that mirrors a "real life" public space: the Fairmont Plaza in downtown San Jose. The Simveillance game is inhabited by the people passing through the plaza who’ve been caught on the survaillence camera. The virtual population grows throughout the duration of the exhibition.

A photo of Simveillance

But all this aside, I don't think that you should entirely disregard The Sims as being an art form in itself. The ideas and creativity for The Sims had to start somewhere and had to be shaped by someone, which in my opinion, makes any game art. I just don't think that people anticipated how much of an impact this game would have on our creativity and imagination. I've heard it described as the "God of God Games." That says something right there.

Some Sims 2 Screen Shots:

When watching movies or reading books, you are just going along with the story and the characters. But in Half Life 2, you are the character. You feel more connected to what is going on, and it allows you to experience the story in an entirely different way. You aren't just watching a story unfold. You become part of the story, and are able to interact within the game's environment. When the game is over, you feel like you are the one who has accomplished a goal, and you are the one who has written an ending to the story. That it what makes playing Half Life 2 different than watching a movie or reading a book.