Developing an online 3D racing game for Toyota
Posted October 19th, 2007 by bdawes
in
* Animation
toyota.jpg
The development of an on online racing game to showcase the new model 2007 TRD Corolla has provided a perfect case study of the repurposing of 3D design assets.
The 3D TRD Rally Experience lets you get behind the wheel of one of the latest vehicles created by Toyota Racing Development (TRD), the performance vehicle department of Toyota.
The project was initated by TRD Marketing Manager Steve Watt. He was inspired by the Toyota Auris Ice Challenge, an online 3D game built by Toyota France using Virtools software from Dassault Systèmes (http://www.toyota-auris.fr/). This online game launched in March 2007. Watt then approached Envizage, the local Virtools reseller, to explore creating something similar in Australia.In particular Watt wanted a game to support the Australian launch of a new Corolla rally car.
The game was developed in Virtools over three weeks by a small team that included just two people, Envizage’s Babak Sanayei using Maya & Photoshop and a graduate programmer utilising the Virtools schematic building block system (which requires no coding). The first two weeks of development were spent converting the CAD assets into game art and generating additional assets. The programming was done in parallel, and a further week spent testing the game and tweaking it to enhance the game’s playability.
The game went live on May 30.
To play the game you need to download the Virtools 3D Life Player. The game has been designed for cross-platform use in Firefox, Explorer and Safari, although do you need a video card with 32MB RAM. Toyota supplied the original CAD files as 5GB of IGES data exported from the CATIA mechanical CAD system from Dassault Systèmes.
Autodesk Showcase software was used to bring this down to a 20MB model. Showcase imports 3D models from CAD software and converts them to a format suitable for high-quality, interactive visualisation.
It can import 3D models from Autodesk AliasStudio or CAD software, and convert them to a format suitable for high-quality, interactive visualisation. Supported formats include Autodesk AliasStudio WIRE, STEP, IGES, SGI OPENInventor, STL, and CSB. Autodesk DirectConnect data translators are available for other CAD formats, including JT, UGS NX, and Catia V5, and must be purchased separately.
Envizage created a 12K polygon game model from the original data. The showcase geometery can be opened natively in Maya (both being autodesk products). The imported geometery was used as reference and a lightweight quad model was traced over it. All of the modelling and texturing for the online game was done in Maya.
Babak was supplied with the original Illustrator artwork created by Toyota for the kickers and bodypaint. This was then saved as a texture map in Photoshop.
Toyota wanted a distinctly Australian look and feel for the game, which is set in the countryside around Canberra. To create this look, Babak built the landscape from scratch in Maya using trees and a 3D sky bought online from Turbosquid and textures created in Photoshop.
“There are robust modules in Virtools that handle the construction of common tasks, e.g. building a car from building blocks,” said Sanayei.
“Plus there is a robust art pipeline.”
Virtools has an exporter for Maya and 3dsmax which exports animation, UV maps, textures etc in one file. Once imported into Virtools these assets can have scripts, attributes etc attached to them.
The assets can be updated in the 3D software and replaced in Virtools as they are developed without affecting any attributes attached to the assets or the scene hierarchy. This makes it very easy to quickly throw in some proxy objects whilst refining the artwork. It also offers a one-button function to import art assets to the games engine and a one-button export to a Web page or executable for off-line play.
TRD Marketing Manager Steve Watt said, “The game was very successful showed a significant click-through rate on the Web site.”
http://www.trd.com.au/TRD/#main/downloads
Posted October 19th, 2007 by bdawes
in
* Animation
toyota.jpg
The development of an on online racing game to showcase the new model 2007 TRD Corolla has provided a perfect case study of the repurposing of 3D design assets.
The 3D TRD Rally Experience lets you get behind the wheel of one of the latest vehicles created by Toyota Racing Development (TRD), the performance vehicle department of Toyota.
The project was initated by TRD Marketing Manager Steve Watt. He was inspired by the Toyota Auris Ice Challenge, an online 3D game built by Toyota France using Virtools software from Dassault Systèmes (http://www.toyota-auris.fr/). This online game launched in March 2007. Watt then approached Envizage, the local Virtools reseller, to explore creating something similar in Australia.In particular Watt wanted a game to support the Australian launch of a new Corolla rally car.
The game was developed in Virtools over three weeks by a small team that included just two people, Envizage’s Babak Sanayei using Maya & Photoshop and a graduate programmer utilising the Virtools schematic building block system (which requires no coding). The first two weeks of development were spent converting the CAD assets into game art and generating additional assets. The programming was done in parallel, and a further week spent testing the game and tweaking it to enhance the game’s playability.
The game went live on May 30.
To play the game you need to download the Virtools 3D Life Player. The game has been designed for cross-platform use in Firefox, Explorer and Safari, although do you need a video card with 32MB RAM. Toyota supplied the original CAD files as 5GB of IGES data exported from the CATIA mechanical CAD system from Dassault Systèmes.
Autodesk Showcase software was used to bring this down to a 20MB model. Showcase imports 3D models from CAD software and converts them to a format suitable for high-quality, interactive visualisation.
It can import 3D models from Autodesk AliasStudio or CAD software, and convert them to a format suitable for high-quality, interactive visualisation. Supported formats include Autodesk AliasStudio WIRE, STEP, IGES, SGI OPENInventor, STL, and CSB. Autodesk DirectConnect data translators are available for other CAD formats, including JT, UGS NX, and Catia V5, and must be purchased separately.
Envizage created a 12K polygon game model from the original data. The showcase geometery can be opened natively in Maya (both being autodesk products). The imported geometery was used as reference and a lightweight quad model was traced over it. All of the modelling and texturing for the online game was done in Maya.
Babak was supplied with the original Illustrator artwork created by Toyota for the kickers and bodypaint. This was then saved as a texture map in Photoshop.
Toyota wanted a distinctly Australian look and feel for the game, which is set in the countryside around Canberra. To create this look, Babak built the landscape from scratch in Maya using trees and a 3D sky bought online from Turbosquid and textures created in Photoshop.
“There are robust modules in Virtools that handle the construction of common tasks, e.g. building a car from building blocks,” said Sanayei.
“Plus there is a robust art pipeline.”
Virtools has an exporter for Maya and 3dsmax which exports animation, UV maps, textures etc in one file. Once imported into Virtools these assets can have scripts, attributes etc attached to them.
The assets can be updated in the 3D software and replaced in Virtools as they are developed without affecting any attributes attached to the assets or the scene hierarchy. This makes it very easy to quickly throw in some proxy objects whilst refining the artwork. It also offers a one-button function to import art assets to the games engine and a one-button export to a Web page or executable for off-line play.
TRD Marketing Manager Steve Watt said, “The game was very successful showed a significant click-through rate on the Web site.”
http://www.trd.com.au/TRD/#main/downloads
