Another RAD Contest Proposal

[Grogyan]

What if the judging categories covered each of the various "features" that one could add to an age: sounds/music, animation, scripted interactions, texturing, modeling, story? That way, each person's speciality can be scored. If someone is talented in multiple areas and their age reflects that, then their scores will be higher.

I don't think we should require everyone to have one thing or another, e.g. every age must have music. Let the contestants choose what they want to showcase.

I agree that we should hold off on teams this go around. It would be difficult to weigh a team effort verses an individual effort, unless all entrants were on teams - and of the same size.

I also agree on the start date (1 Nov). That will give us plenty of time to hash out the details.

Should I start writing up the rules we have so far on the Wiki, Grogyan? It can serve as a communal rough draft that we can shape over the next couple weeks.

Sounds like a god idea, just sketching out the core ideas of what the upcoming contest will be

[mar]

A good idea to have a new RAD contest. I like to see new things. I have not enought time to participated in that period but I like to be a judge as this is allowed.

[Robert The Rebuilder]

I've sketched up the rules we have so far and placed them in a new Wiki topic: RAD November 2008 - please review and comment/modify.

Also, I gave the GoMe a short announcement to be placed into the upcoming October newsletter. The deadline for submissions is upon us, and I wanted to get something in before it went out in a few days. Once we firm up the details, we can send out a formal announcement to be distributed hither and yon.

[Lontahv]

I think that we should define "Tsogal size" so people don't say: "But I thought Tsogal was this big". Also can we just say: "no reusing models" 'cause I re-use textures and scripts all the time and this could be restricting to lots of people.

Looks good.

I'll work on getting some of the oddness generated by copying bits straight out of the "shells" contest out.

EDIT: Too many things to score on. This will result in tons of NA's which are a pain. I'd say, make an "overall visual quality", "interactive quality" and "storytelling" categories.

Oh, and can I be a judge in this one too? (the others were so much fun )

[Robert The Rebuilder]

Can someone with the ability to import MOUL ages let me know how big the walkable area of Eder Tsogal is? Then I'll put that in the Wiki.

Note: I don't care about the size of the sky dome - just the ground.

Taking your suggestion to reduce the number of scoring categories, I propose combining Modeling, Textures and Lighting into "Visuals", and combining Animation, Physical and Scripting into "Dynamics". This would bring the set down to just 5 scores:

• Story: How well the age provides background information and a plot, including gameplay and puzzles
• Visuals: 3-D modeling, texturing and lighting - going for photographic realism while keeping a decent frame rate
• Sounds: Appropriate use of ambient sounds, effects and music
• Dynamics: Use of animations, scripting, and physics to produce realistic interactions with the scene
• Overall: the impression of the age as a whole

Regarding the judges: Grogyan and I are discussing the best way to form a panel. Stay tuned!

[andylegate]

I would say off hand that Tsogal is roughly the size of a football or soccer field, about 100 yards long or so.

[diafero]

Can someone with the ability to import MOUL ages let me know how big the walkable area of Eder Tsogal is? Then I'll put that in the Wiki.

The distance of the most distant reachable points is about 220 Plasma units (the area has a size of about 215x45 units).

[Grogyan]

Can someone with the ability to import MOUL ages let me know how big the walkable area of Eder Tsogal is? Then I'll put that in the Wiki.

Note: I don't care about the size of the sky dome - just the ground.

Taking your suggestion to reduce the number of scoring categories, I propose combining Modeling, Textures and Lighting into "Visuals", and combining Animation, Physical and Scripting into "Dynamics". This would bring the set down to just 5 scores:

• Story: How well the age provides background information and a plot, including gameplay and puzzles
• Visuals: 3-D modeling, texturing and lighting - going for photographic realism while keeping a decent frame rate
• Sounds: Appropriate use of ambient sounds, effects and music
• Dynamics: Use of animations, scripting, and physics to produce realistic interactions with the scene
• Overall: the impression of the age as a whole

That breaks it down very well, though I would have kept the scoring for Dynamics as Functionality, that is just my personal opinion


As for size, how about just for reference Add -> Mesh -> Plane, and scale it to 100?

[Lontahv]

RTR: I like those categories. Grog: That functionality thing was kinda hard to figure out at first... Dynamics is a little better IMO.

Edit: I imported Tsogal and it looks like the explorable length of Tsogal is ~120 blender-units (feet). Let's use that cubed for the area. 20 feet isn't much but I can make a large difference. Yeah, I think there should be height-limits on the places you can explore. So how about Add>Mesh>Cube Scale 120?

[Robert The Rebuilder]

Note that a cube or plane starts out as 2x2 (or 2x2x2 for the cube). So, a cube scaled by 100 is actually a 200x200x200 foot cube.

Will that work for everyone?