Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Other Qualiiers
(e.g., location/looks at/color/size, etc.)
Resulting Name for
Your Inventory Object
Type of Object
Preix Used
Point light
PL
PL is on the ceiling and is pink.
PL-ceil-pink
Spot light
SP
SP points at talent on stage from right side.
SP-talent-SL (SL is stage left)
Direct light
Dir
Direct light acting like sunset on whole scene.
Dir-sunset
Projector light
Proj
Projected movie on northeastern wall of house.
Proj-movie-NE-wall
Camera
Cam
Camera from front of stage in television studio
set that looks like an ofice.
Cam-2-Ofice
Wall
Wall
Northeastern wall: 1 of 10.
Wall-NE-1
Door
Door
Northeastern door for bedroom.
Door-NE-bedroom
Window
Win
Northeastern window: 6 of 20.
Win-NE-6
Trees/plants/other
vegetation
Tree
3-meter tall oak tree in winter look.
Tree-Oak-3m-winter
Architecture/buildings
Bldg
Small guest cottage for estate.
Bldg-cottage
Special effects/particle
effect
SPFX
Roaring bonire for beach scene.
SPFX-bonire-large
Animations
AN
The lambada dance, male partner's
choreography for your party scene.
AN-Lambada-male
Clothing and skins:
upper/lower/head/
tattoo/alpha
Up/Low/Head/Tat/Alpha
Dragon tattoos for upper parts of male body.
Tat-Up-Male-Dragon
Sounds
Snd
Large waterfall.
Snd-waterfall-large
FIGURE 3.2
Table showing suggested abbreviations and nomenclature for lights and camera types, 3D model types,
scripted particle producing objects, animations, skin textures, and sounds used in virtual environments.
Let's develop this idea. When you also include the “OVS” in front of each texture you make, every mesh,
and so on, this organizes your content even more. There are even more ways to use proper naming to clarify
each item's identity and function. For instance, suppose you have made a new wall texture, a desk, and
you have built an inworld spotlight prim for your OVS project. A clear set of names would be as follows:
ovs-insidewall_schoolhouse.jpg, ovs_small_single_desk_schoolhouse.dae, and ovs-SP-wallwash-blue.
In each case, the name starts with the project keyword code “ovs” and then the name continues to deine
the item by what it is, such as “insidewall,” “small_single_desk,” and “SP-wallwash” (which means a spot-
light that lights the wall at a steep angle, creating a wash of light). The last bit of each name tells us more
speciic qualities of each texture, object, light, etc. The wall texture goes inside the schoolhouse, as does the
desk, and the spotlight is set to a blue color. The use of dashes or underscores is up to your discretion, you
may simply leave a space there if you desire.
Try to be as descriptive as you can without getting too wordy. Make up a list of abbreviations that the
whole group can utilize so everyone is on the same page. With a logical naming system, any member of your
team should be able to quickly ind a speciic object among the hundreds generated during the creation pro-
cess. And, they will know exactly what the object is without having to open the ile. Even a model or texture
that has not been used for years is still useful because it can be easily found with this system and repurposed
for a new build, saving you and the team time and money. Figure 3.2 is a table of suggested name abbrevia-
tions and a naming methodology that you can use with 3D models and virtual environments to indicate the
kind of object, light, texture, and so on in your scenes.
