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Sep 19, 2014 | By Alec

The 16th of September was the release data for one of the most anticipated games of 2014: ArcheAge. Though already available in Korea for more than a year, a western version of the highly popular open-world/sandbox game is now also be available.

One the most interesting features is the game's supposedly excellent sandbox world. For non-game enthusiasts: that means you're allowed to do just about anything you'd like. Want to become a warrior, as you can in so many games out there? Sure, go right ahead! But the thing is, you don't have to be. You can become a trader, a farmer, a builder, a traveller, just about anything you can think of. As stated on their website:

In ArcheAge you can raise your own mount, fight your way through a dungeon, craft the best armor in the game, build your own open-world farms and houses, sail your ship on the high seas to trade with foreign ports, swoop in on airships and fight other players for plunder, claim a piece of land for your guild (then fight with them to defend your territory from rival guilds!) and lots of other fun things.

ArcheAge is thus a game with an incredible level of freedom, and that is likely why so many gamers have been anxiously waiting for it. One fan, software designer and 3D printing enthusiast Jenny Cheng, was so excited about it, she made a very cool 3D printed tribute to the game. Jenny has made some very cool looking 3D creations in the past, but this particular model involved some unusual techniques.

screenshot from ArcheAge

Her 3D creation is based on a Firran character from ArcheAge, that was very impressively designed using photogrammetry. As she explained in a blog post, Jenny got the idea while playing the game's Closed Beta 3: 'I was super lucky to be in the Closed Beta 3 and decided to use this gorgeous game to continue my experiment on 3D scanning virtual worlds. Instead of using the in-game models for 3D printing, I took a lot of screenshots and reconstructed a model using photogrammetry.'

3D scanned reconstruction

For those of you who've never heard of photogrammetry, that is a technique used to take measurements from photographs or screenshots to locate the exact positions of surface points and the distances between them. As Jenny explained in an earlier blog post, this technique is perfect for taking screenshots of a scene in a video game. 'it should be possible to extract a 3D model, without decoding the native files.'

Jenny realised this through Autodesk 123D Catch. 'My initial impression of 123D Catch it is very easy to use and gives you nice renderings. However, it's slow. There's also no point in using the desktop version since it requires you to sign in through the Internet, just like the web app.'

She also chose a sitting character to make it easier to capture the entire model in a 3D scan. But since she focussed on the Firran character, her reconstruction of the environment did not receive as much attention. 'Also, since I wasn't able to capture a complete 360° view, some parts are lacking details.'

The fruits of her labour are very impressive. As can be seen, the model itself look great and seems to be very detailed, making it a very cool tribute to the game. But more than that, it really proves that photogrammetry techniques are an excellent way of transforming purely digital shapes (so not just screenshots, but also photo's!) into actual objects.

 

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

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Orchestra wrote at 11/29/2014 1:55:09 PM:

Ooooh~

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