Category: development

SISU Render 1.0 for VRay

Finally SISU render reached version 1.0! after some months of development in free time. I am proud to annunce that it is stable and fully compatible with Vray, Mental ray and iRay in 3ds Max 2013. SISU Render is my plugin for 3ds Max that amazingly speeds up the render speed improving and fine tuning your settings. For Vray you just need 2 mouse clicks to setup your scene, dramatically increasing quality and render speed. SISU Render automatically detects your scene settings and your hardware to better balance power and physical resources. In mental Ray you can define advanced settings simply tweaking 5 buttons. There is also the support for animation in iRay. I had an idea on a new feature for this animation support that will define automatically the best settings for the scene accordingly to the render passes, I will code this in the following releases. Be prepared to see SISU Render in action with LightView and CamRig, my next plugins actually in (slow) development.

Tags Development, Grafica

development graphics

Sisu Render v0.6 for 3dsMax 2013

Post author By playsys
Post date April 17, 2012

I just updated SisuRender to version 0.6. I removed some unuseful code, fixed some bug at startup and some UI improvement. The two new usefull features are

3dsMax 2013 full compatibility
MentalRay support

In fact now is possible to use it inside the latest release of Autodesk 3ds Max and also is possible to take advantage of all the built-in features of the “free” mentalRay render engine.

Tags Development, Grafica

development graphics various

Modeling and texturing 3D spaceship for Mobile Game

Post author By playsys
Post date April 12, 2012

After a year from its recording I’ve decided to release entirely for free my video tutorial about Modeling and Texturing of a 3D spaceship for Mobile Games. For this special purpose I’ve recorded some new chapters, explaining the difference between a standard DX9 and DX11 shader and a mobile shader.

The course is based on the spaceship I realized for SFEI in addition to the material I designed in UDK and explained at the View Conference (3D Again wrote an article about it).

At the moment I’m working as a university teacher in the 3 biggest design universities in Milano (Domus Academy – Scuola Politecnica di Design – NABA) and this videotraining is a proof of all the passion I put in the instruction.

Please note that the entire video training is without music and voice, first of all for your pleasure (no annoying soundtracks) and second because I don’t have time to dub it entirely. In fact I always dub all my videotraining materials (like I did for 3Digital Lab’s Autodesk 3ds Max course and Chaos Group VRay course) and this allows me to gain the maximum quality but in this case…well, it’s free and it’s up to 5 hours of free training 😉

Enjoy!

PS: please note our new YouTube channel. A big “thanks” goes to that f*#§*/g stupid that hacked our previous one. We spent years to construct and improve it and now it’s not accessible anymore . This is a good reason to improve us and manage a new channel that will be much better than the previous. Also “thanks” to Google support: “no support. Open a new one, it’s free”.

Tags Development, Grafica, Varie

development various

My new 3ds Max Tool::Sisu Render

Post author By playsys
Post date March 20, 2012
2 Comments on My new 3ds Max Tool::Sisu Render

I have almost finished my new script for Autodesk 3ds Max, its name is Sisu Render.
Sisu is a tool for tenacious people that have to fix a thousand parameters inside VRay everyday . Sisu render is the “one button” solution that improves your render quality, your speed, the balance of the hardawre resources and your productivity. I got the idea of this tool wile I was coming back home, after some amazing days spent with a special person in Jyvaskyla, Finland.
There, Sisu is a common word that expresses the moral will and the soul strength in everyday difficult actions…I thought the name, Sisu Render, was somehow perfect for this new tool 🙂 here are some screens of the tool in action, I still have to fix and refine some functionality but the biggest part of the work has been done. The image on the left has a crappy quality but it was obtained in just 8 seconds! The usage of the hardware resources was with Low optimization, a kind of “no mercy” mode.
The image on the right was obtained in 13 seconds, same quality as the one on the left but High optimization. Notice the difference on the Tree Nodes Faces and Leaves. You can imagine in heavy scenes rendered by a old hardare how the adaptiveness of the resource usage is important. The same system adaptiveness but with Medium quality. In this example the hardware optimization changes drastically the render time. The non optimized required 2 minutes, the one with high optimization required 6 minutes; 4 minutes more to protect the hardware usage! (mean 4 minutes less squeezing the hardware capabilities!). I also rendered an image using the Best configuration available in Sisu Render, as predictable the quality has no comparisons but the render time is much longer. Actually Sisu Render offers other optimizations in camera management and light management. I will post some example when the tool will be 101% stable. 3D scene provided by

development

New web site lucaderiu.com

After a long inactivity period i found some free time to upload a new version of my website. As always I use it just for my music creations and form it you can find 2 bonus tracks for my last two published albums: Nothing Inside and Musique Pour Iannis Xenakis. Enjoy!

Tags Development, Musica

development various

GamesLab – Setificio Carcano Como

Post author By playsys
Post date March 5, 2012
1 Comment on GamesLab – Setificio Carcano Como

La scorsa settimana abbiamo tenuto (Andrea Peduzzi, Filippo Zanoli ed io) un corso di sviluppo videogame presso l’I.S.I.S. Setificio Carcano. L’esperienza è stata particolarmente positiva e credo sia la prima volta che i videogiochi sono entrati all’interno di un istituto di formazione superiore…in maniera non vietata dai prof intendo 🙂 Le cose che mi hanno colpito maggiormente sono state:

L’approccio della direzione – interessata a fornire ai ragazzi le conoscenze basilari che si celano dietro alla realizzazione di videogames interattivi.
La partecipazione dei docenti – coinvolti e interessati quasi più degli studenti :). Durante i miei interventi vedevo professori prendere appunti e più di una volta mi è stato chiesto a che ora precisa avrei tenuto il successivo intervento, in modo tale da non perdere una virgola.
Il coinvolgimento degli studenti – dapprima di parlava di 120 ragazzi, poi il numero si è ridimensionato restando comunque sul centinaio.

Al di la dei 10 risultati finali, piacevoli e funzionanti, sviluppati da mini team, la cosa bella è stata trasmettere ai ragazzi che realizzare videogiochi non significa giocare (sempre e solo) con i videogiochi. Alcuni studenti sono rimasti spiazzati dalla quantità di logica e matematica che si nasconde dietro allo sviluppo di un prodotto videoludico, ma sono sicuro che da oggi la matematica, la geometria, l’informatica e l’inglese verranno visti in un’ottica differente. I software che abbiamo utilizzato sono stati Photoshop per quanto riguarda la creazione di sprite e tileset e Stencylworks per quanto concerne l’assemblaggio e la gestione dei componenti interattivi.
La programmazione a blocchi, basata su Scratch (progetto firmato MIT) mi ha aiutato ad introdurre la programmazione “ad oggetti” e il concetto di behavior. I miei interventi hanno avuto un taglio tecnico/pratico mentre quelli di Filippo e Andrea erano più basati sui tipi di gioco, la narrazione non lineare, le meccaniche di gioco, il game design, il level design e così via. Il primo giorno ho aperto il corso presentando ai ragazzi ciò che avremmo fatto assieme e ciò che avrebbero potuto usare in seguito, oltre a Stencylworks, per approfondire l’argomento: UnrealEngine e CryEngine. L’esperienza è stata sicuramente molto positiva per me, Peduzzi e Zanoli e per quanto mi riguarda è stata ben oltre le aspettative. Mi auguro che anche per il corpo docente, amministrativo e per gli studenti, l’avvicinamento all’argomento dello sviluppo di videogames sia stato interessate e possa rappresentare l’inizio di un nuovo processo formativo…rimpiango di non aver frequentato una scuola così quando avevo la loro età. Per info più dettagliate vi rimando al blog ufficiale, tenuto dagli studenti ed aggiornato durante il corso.

Tags Development, Varie

development graphics various

View Conference 2011 – UDK Shader

Post author By playsys
Post date November 14, 2011
4 Comments on View Conference 2011 – UDK Shader

Come anticipato in un precedente post, il 28 ottobre ho tenuto il mio workshop presso il Centro Congressi Torino Incontra di Torino. Durante l’incontro ho parlato approfonditamente delle possibilità offerte da render realtime per mezzo di Epic Games UDK.

Ho illustrato i vari step per la creazione di un materiale fotorealistico, la sua ottimizzazione e la possibilità di costruire shader istanziati per un semplice utilizzo e manipolazione.
Rimando al post di 3d Again per un riassunto completo del mio intervento.

Tags Development, Grafica, Varie

development graphics various

View Conference 2011–UDK materials

Post author By playsys
Post date October 5, 2011
2 Comments on View Conference 2011–UDK materials

The time has come for a new workshop at View Conference! After the success of the last one I did in October 2010, this time I’ll focus more on hi-quality and functional shader creation inside Autodesk 3ds Max and Epic Games UDK.
If you are professionally or personally interested in discovering more about it, you can’t miss my workshop. I wait for you as SFEI partner!

Remember that your feedback is very useful for me, so at the end of the conference.. stop to say “hello” and let’s take an espresso!

Here is my official program:
Create cool and strategic materials with UDK

Market is the best proof of Unreal Engine power, the engine developed by Epic Game, able to transform a videogame project into a commercial colossal.
UDK actually represents the state of the art and the best way to approach the videogame development business. Doesn’t matter if you are a professional or simply a curious passionate, you can find inside its features a knowledge key that helps you to better understand the real-time approach.

The aim of this workshop is to analyze how materials work inside UDK, by making some comparisons with what happens inside other 3D packages, not specifically developed for videogame purposes (as Autodesk 3ds Max). During the lecture we will give great importance to the forge of technically functional and aesthetically cool materials.
This workshop is suggested to all the artists who want to understand and discover more about the features and possibilities offered by realtime render technology. Creare materiali fotorealistici e funzionali con UDK

Il mercato è la migliore testimonianza di Unreal Engine, il motore sviluppato da Epic Game, in grado di trasformare un progetto videoludico in un vero e proprio colossal commerciale.
UDK rappresenta il miglior modo per approcciarsi allo sviluppo di videogames sia che si tratti di progetti ambiziosi e professionali, sia per quanto riguarda l’interesse personale nello scoprire cosa si nasconde dietro ad un videogame. Il workshop ha lo scopo di analizzare il funzionamento dei materiali all’interno di UDK, facendo paragoni con quanto avviene all’interno di package 3D non necessariamente rivolti allo sviluppo videoludico, come Autodesk 3ds Max. Durante l’intervento verrà data grande importanza alla generazione di materiali esteticamente funzionali e tecnicamente performanti.
Il workshop è rivolto agli artisti che desiderano saperne di più sul funzionamento e sulle possibilità del render realtime.

development various

iPhone iPad iOS Magazine Reader

Post author By playsys
Post date July 5, 2011
3 Comments on iPhone iPad iOS Magazine Reader

Finally we finished it!! our magazine reader is now available for your magazine and publication.

We worked a lot to provide you the state of the art magazine reader for iPhone and iPad devices, natively coded in XCode for performance issues.
Now you can distribute your publications in the App Store without having to give high royalities to big publishers! It’s amazing and now is true! We are using it for our magazine “My Muse”, see more below or at the following link.
Contact us right now for more information about it and start marking money from your publications today!

Tags Development, Varie

development various

Videogame development

Post author By playsys
Post date March 7, 2011

Anche 3DAgain parla di noi e del Corso Avanzato di Videogame Programming!