References

“Crysis Physic - 5000 Car Explosion - Crysis video.” http://www.wegame.com/watch/Crysis_Physic_5000_Car_Explosion/ (Accessed August 19, 2008).

“explosion - Crysis video.” http://www.wegame.com/watch/explosion_5/ (Accessed August 19, 2008).

“nice big explosion - Crysis video.” http://www.wegame.com/watch/nice_big_explosion/ (Accessed August 19, 2008).

“Nuclear explosion scene - CoD4 video.” http://www.wegame.com/watch/Nuclear_explosion_scene/ (Accessed August 19, 2008).

“Project Reality (v0.75): Challenger 2 vs. Civilian - BF2 video.” http://www.wegame.com/watch/Project_Reality_v0_75_Challenger_2_vs_Civilians/ (Accessed August 19, 2008).

Custom Machinima

Found Machinima

Hypothesis

Based on the experiments I have conducted, and the machinima I have found, my arguement is that explosions can be triggered by a simple event, which can grow, aided by a catalyst, into something much larger and much more destructive. The relationship between solid mass and empty space plays a vital role in this reaction, as empty space will allow the reaction to occur unhindered, while mass will be effected by the explosion, however, is will also effect the explosion itself, slowing it down.

Energy can never be created or destroyed.

NVIDIA PhysX Particle Fluid Demo

Watch more Gaming Videos

Garry's Mod - A Guide

Updated again: Added links to the tools I mentioned.
Update: Join the Steam Group! Its now a public group so you do not need to be invited by me!
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ArchComp

The Basics
To get started, open Garry's Mod, and click on Single Player game, select a map and click Start game. Wait for the game to load.

Saving and Loading - Press escape and click save or load game if you want to save, or load a game. Please note, these games are saved locally, so if you save a game at Uni, you will not be able to access it at home, unless you find the copy the save game file to a USB (or alternative)

Movement - Use the W, A, S, and D keys to move fowards, left, right and backwards respectively. Jumping and Crouching are done with the space bar and control key. To change your speed from a walk to a run, press and hold shift.


Camera - Move the mouse to rotate the camera, and change where you are looking.

The Not-so-Basics
Making things (Spawning Objects) - The flexibility of Garry's Mod comes from the ability to play with the physics of the source engine, using various tools, interacting with various 'props' in order to achieve anything you want. To get started with this, hold down the 'Q' key. From this menu, the vast majority of your interaction will come. On the left hand side of the "Q" menu, you have the ability to "spawn" or create many different props (a generic name for any object that can be manipulated in the game), vehicles, NPC's (computer controlled characters), and more advanced things such as Scripted Entities and Scripted Weapons. In order to spawn an object, click on its button in the Q menu, and then the object will be spawned where your mouse was pointing. The objects are arranged into categories, however if you are still unable to find what you want, then there is a search box (located on the right hand side of the left panel, above the prop boxes). From what I have discovered, there are 2 options for explosions - the explosive barrel and a red fuel canister.

Interacting with objects - Now comes the fun part. In Garry's mod (as with most games on the source engine), your weapons can be accessed by pressing the number keys from 1 to 6. Each number has a general category of weapon associated with it, however the ones that you will be using the most are the "1" category and the "6" category. To get started, press the 1 key, until you get to the "Gravity Gun". This gun can be used for simple interactions with props. Right click to pull something towards you and left click to fire it away from you. Simple. Press "1" again, until you get to the "Physics Gun". This gun allows for more complex interactions with props. Using the gun, press and hold left click in order to be able to drag around what you are looking at. Hold down "E" (while holding left click) in order to rotate objects, and to snap these objects to 45 degree angles, hold shift while rotating. When you have the prop in a position you like, press right click to freeze it (please note that this is not always a good idea, as if an object is frozen, it will not be moved by other objects, whcih is an essential component of this assignment. To unfreeze an object, look at it and press "R" (reload), or left click with the Physics Gun.

More interacting with objects - Press Q to open the menu again. On the right hand side, you have all of your tools, for even more relationships between objects. This list is pretty vast, so I will leave you to explore them. Most importantly (in my opinion) is the "Weld - Easy" tool. What this does is connect two of your props using an invisible join, automatically aligning them. The other tabs on the right hand side of this menu allow for some interesting effects to be applied, just explore the tools and settings until you find things that you think work well.

Dynamite - This tool can also be accessed in the right panel of the Q menu. It will create a damaging explosion, which also has a force related to it. After clicking on the Dynamite tool, you are given options on the right hand side of the screen, with the ability to change the damage, delay, etc. of the Dynamite. Click somewhere in the world to spawn the dynamite. Now, if you hold down "C" while still having the "Tool Gun" in your hand, you are presented with the Context Menu for the tool (the same menu you saw before, except without any of the extra stuff, unrelated to the tool) You are given numpad options for how to set the dynamite off. I think the default is the "." key, so press that, and your dynamite will go off.

Extra's - There are a couple of extra tools I can suggest that you get your hands on (Links added)
Installation Instructions: Unzip the Files into your garrysmod/addons folder. (Usually this will be C://Program files/Steam/Steamapps/*username*/garrysmod/garrysmod/addons
The tools will then appear in your Q menu, alongside the rest of the tools.

• -Stacker - Neatly stacks objects, taking a lot of work out of arranging things.
• Unbreakable - Makes a prop Unbreakable
  
• -Breakable - Makes any prop breakable
• -Force Dynamite - Creates the force of an explosion without any damage
• Weight changer - Changes weights of objects
  
• -Advanced Duplicator - Allows for saving of objects if you are in Multiplayer (which is far more fun in my opinion) - This one is harder to set up so you will need to know what you are doing to get it working.
• I will try and add more as I think of them
  

Useful Links -

• The Garrys Mod Wiki page - http://wiki.garrysmod.com/wiki/?title=Main_Page
• The Garrys Mod forums - http://forums.facepunchstudios.com/forumdisplay.php?f=11
• Garrys Mod files - http://www.garrysmod.org/downloads/
• Steam Community for ARCHCOMP Students (Post your username as a comment on this post and I will invite you!) - http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ArchComp !!I plan on posting Assignment Due dates on here. This will also make it easier to organise collaborative games for people that want to play multiplayer.