Analytics Engine: Photonic Impulsion

Here is my final Analytics Engine.

The sandbox mod files are here.

Here are some parts of the flowgraph:

The part which forces the blocks:

 The part which controls the xml and time-of-day:

An overview of the entire flowgraph:

Research Assignment

Tutorial:



Tutorial Information:
The typical user of Sandbox 2, assuming Sketchup as the modelling software, will probably have heard of UV mapping, and may have experimented with placing multiple textures on a single image and position them, but this process can be quite time consuming, and many other 3d programs, such as 3ds Max or Blender, have ways of creating images which contain all the faces which you can simply paint onto. My tutorial subject is aimed at demonstrating how a variety of plugins and pieces of software can be used to achieve a similar result in Sketchup, as well as demonstrating the process used to get the model from Sketchup to Sandbox 2. This means that the video will give the user a basic production line to generating assets for their environment, with the exception of the modelling component, which is well and truly covered in many other places.

There are a few tutorials already on the web which demonstrate how to do UV Mapping in Sketchup, however, they are usually very technical pieces and use much more complex methods to achieve similar results, though perhaps better suited for high complexity models.
My tutorial is aimed at people who know about Sketchup and Sandbox 2, but haven't heard of or haven't really looked into UV mapping to any great extent. Sketchup is not the ideal environment for this kind of operation, but using 3ds or Blender for this can be quite overwhelming, while this technique produces results relatively quickly and easily.

This tutorial is targeted mainly at people doing this subject, as it describes the work flow from having a model in Sketchup, to placing it, textured, in Sandbox 2, using PlayUp. It assumes that the user has knowledge of how to use Sketchup, PlayUp and Sandbox 2, as well as basic image editing skills. I made sure I used all free software, except for Sandbox 2, which you may need Crysis or Crysis Wars for. While most people may prefer to use Photoshop, the DDS plugin is somewhat circumstantial and has had numerous problems in the past, where as Paint.Net is free, easy-to-use, and compatible with the majority of systems. It also supports the DDS format natively, minimising the level of complexity for the user.

The material conversion step may not be necessary if the user it not using the Flowgraph Plugin System (FGPS), however I included it as the target audience (This subject) will most likely be using the FGPS and the conversion step will not adversely affect the outcome if the FGPS is not being used.