I'm still not satisfied with the center but the art-direction is in the direction I want to go. I'm thinking of replacing those black zones with that complex orange LED texture.
Does anyone know if you can make moving geometry in the cinematic editor yet? One thing I want to do for the LHC / Mass Driver / Railgun is to have some large lights revolve around the inside of the structure.
Does anyone know if you can make moving geometry in the cinematic editor yet? One thing I want to do for the LHC / Mass Driver / Railgun is to have some large lights revolve around the inside of the structure.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's some nice details. I like the direction you're going with the detailing. Maybe if you had a deeper contrast on the colours.
You could make animated light props with spotlights spinning around. No geometry last time I checked.
Can you group light props together in the Cinematic Editor and manipulate as such? Ex. []-----x-----[] ([] being the lights, x being the rotation gizmo and ----- being open space.)
hookeyedJoin Date: 2007-08-26Member: 62011Members, Squad Five Blue
<!--quoteo(post=1920385:date=Mar 31 2012, 10:33 PM:name=Blasphemy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Blasphemy @ Mar 31 2012, 10:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1920385"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Can you group light props together in the Cinematic Editor and manipulate as such? Ex. []-----x-----[] ([] being the lights, x being the rotation gizmo and ----- being open space.)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Yeah I see what you mean. I can't see any new grouping features, that would definitely be something to suggest to the dev team if they don't already know. What I would do is make the animation for one light prop and one spotlight together, and use multiples of that in the same file. I might be wrong but I think when you copy an object within the cinematic editor you copy the key frames as well. The way you mentioned would've ensured everything to be evenly spaced along a circle, so to make up for that I would lay down the blue halo model and use that as a placement guide, with every 30 degrees of rotation being a key frame. But yeah.. grouping would save a pile of time on some of the bigger animations.
I suppose I'll just leave those lights until the end of development, as I really don't want to move/rotate 8 props and 4 spotlights individually. I've been starting to work on the playable area of Reactor. So far all I have is what you see in that dark room.
fmponeJoin Date: 2011-07-05Member: 108086Members, Squad Five Blue
<!--quoteo(post=1920380:date=Mar 31 2012, 08:49 PM:name=hookeyed)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (hookeyed @ Mar 31 2012, 08:49 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1920380"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->That's some nice details. I like the direction you're going with the detailing. Maybe if you had a deeper contrast on the colours.
You could make animated light props with spotlights spinning around. No geometry last time I checked.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I really like the composition in the first shot. Gets a little crazy, for my taste, in the second
Getting the Reactor room to be more proper for screenshots and Infestation lighting tests as seen in my other thread: Infestation and Lighting. <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=117722&st=0" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...117722&st=0</a>
Most recent progress is the Hive chamber (I think slow falling steam would do nicely there), and the Power node pit. Still need to do some more work on areas near the window before testing starts.
Some more progress. Trying to figure out if/how to make that upper area more accessable. I've been having fun going up there and crawling around as Gorges and Marines.
fmponeJoin Date: 2011-07-05Member: 108086Members, Squad Five Blue
<!--quoteo(post=1927544:date=Apr 20 2012, 02:00 AM:name=Blasphemy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Blasphemy @ Apr 20 2012, 02:00 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1927544"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Some more progress. Trying to figure out if/how to make that upper area more accessable. I've been having fun going up there and crawling around as Gorges and Marines.
This is exactly what I mean by the power of using limited color schemes. Everything immediately looks great, unified, and intentional like in these excellent shots. More!
Some crits: -The little tiny lights are interesting, but a bit distracting. Some bigger more substantial lights would also help. -Your texturing gets a bit chaotic. Don't be afraid of having "flat" surfaces, not that you don't, but your textures have a lot of detail, and there is a lot of tiling, creating a somewhat overwhelming look.
Making 4 entrances into storage doesn't seem like a very good idea. It will be to hard to hold and it will be avoided untill late/end game when one team (lets say marines for an example) are boxed into one room the other team have almost won (the aliens as an example) and to then build a hive and extractors there would then be pretty pointless as they will have came too late to affect the game end, even though they are gunna win anyway it wouldn't make a diffrence to the ending.
Having 2 entrances, lets say from obervation and maintinace Access would make it much easy to hold, which would make both teams intrested in taking it. That would create real intresting gameplay and comabt. As one team gets beat and loses that room they will then have to try take it back as it is got 2 resorce points or to then take the outskits or the map at there weaker sides as they will no doupt have a good defending force in storage to hold such a valuble room. there is a lot more value to the room with only 2 entrances and would make for some real intresting stratergies.
Thats my opinion anyway, what do you guys think. Would 2 be better or would you rather see 4 entrances and why would you rather see 2 or 4?
That is a curious position you have mentioned, ellnic.
I do believe my original plan was something along the lines of having 2 entrances open, 2 entrances locked and open weld capable. Of course we don't have that kind of capability just yet, and I am unsure as to whether it will make an appearance before the game goes 1.0, so maybe what I can do is make the west/east entrances closed temorarily, and make the room entrances to it unappealing and darkened off, and when support does arrive, then I can return to those areas and soup them up to proper capability.
It is a pretty good point about storage being difficult to hold, but I wonder whether that is a good thing or not. Having both two resource points and a tech point leaves it as a very valuable position, and if say the south entrance is locked down, then there is only one more area to enter from, and that would cause plenty of bottlenecks for the attacking team. That being said, if they were to already get in, then the center structure itself is very difficult to defend.
I suppose I should try to arrange a playtest to obtain sufficient information on certain defense zones in that room. I still need to do some occlusion geometry, but considering how incredibly frustrating it is for me to map with half of my props/faces disappearing when I look down the map in the editor, I may need to spend a day setting layers and applying basic optimizations.
Anyways, now for some screenshots! Changes are the pit the extractor is in, removed some of the smaller lights in Reactor and worked on the hallway stretching straight from Reactor to Observatory. And connecting room from Observatory to Storage. I'm planning to have a mini-room that is windowed off so players can't actually attack the center buildings until they go through the entrances to the structure, but visibility could still be useful for visual identification.
The atmosphere seems quite gloomy with the lights being very dim everywhere. It may look nice, but it might play bad. I think you'll get some comments about the map being too dark when you finally release it for testing of the masses. All just speculation, of course.
I like those micro-lights that line your map. It makes it feel like some sort of cargo ship, something not designed for raising a family in space (lol). It looks so synthetic, and so far from trying to fake "natural light" and "oh look I'm in space but there are still plants and sh*t." I am so far enjoying them. Those long hallways feel that much more removed from Earth. Keep it up.
Good luck!
[edit]
Looking back at some more of your screenshots, those rooms have such strange lighting. It makes me feel so removed from organisms and biological life. If that is what you are aiming for - you got it man.
ScardyBobScardyBobJoin Date: 2009-11-25Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
Please publish this map on steamworks so we can get it running on our servers. Instructions are here: <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=118717" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=118717</a>
(I published a build to steamworks. That build has some changes to Observatory, but not the changes below.)
More progress! I spent most of my time doing a lot of changes to Storage. Added lights along the sides of it, rounded the corners, added some catwalks and some protective glass around the south entrance. I still have more lighting to do, and I should probably add some occlusion geometry to the room to improve the framerate before I publish an update to steamworks. But I could always publish the update early if you guys want. Just gotta beware of possible problems with the map. (It definitely looks cooler ingame.)
Its looking pretty good up to now with the screen shots. Did you do a palytest to gather info on diffrent defendable positions or will you be doing that at a later date
I haven't done a real playtest yet. I was kind of hoping I would just find a server running it and I could just join, but I don't really think that would happen very well. I also haven't been doing too much work on the map this past couple of weeks here as I was on vacation and got fairly ill. But I'll probably try to fill all the holes and release an update on steamworks once I feel a bit better here.
Hey there. Love the look of the map so far. I'll host this up 24/7 now if that helps at all?
Update - I streamed my 7 minute explore of the map here: <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/smuon/b/324000117" target="_blank">http://www.twitch.tv/smuon/b/324000117</a>
Comments
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Une6k.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Une6kl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
I'm still not satisfied with the center but the art-direction is in the direction I want to go. I'm thinking of replacing those black zones with that complex orange LED texture.
I opened up the ceiling to Workshop. Still missing details on a couple walls but I like the general change.
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/ZeAHN.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ZeAHNl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/z66AA.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/z66AAl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
Does anyone know if you can make moving geometry in the cinematic editor yet? One thing I want to do for the LHC / Mass Driver / Railgun is to have some large lights revolve around the inside of the structure.
I opened up the ceiling to Workshop. Still missing details on a couple walls but I like the general change.
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/ZeAHN.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ZeAHNl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/z66AA.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/z66AAl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
Does anyone know if you can make moving geometry in the cinematic editor yet? One thing I want to do for the LHC / Mass Driver / Railgun is to have some large lights revolve around the inside of the structure.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's some nice details. I like the direction you're going with the detailing. Maybe if you had a deeper contrast on the colours.
You could make animated light props with spotlights spinning around. No geometry last time I checked.
Yeah I see what you mean. I can't see any new grouping features, that would definitely be something to suggest to the dev team if they don't already know. What I would do is make the animation for one light prop and one spotlight together, and use multiples of that in the same file. I might be wrong but I think when you copy an object within the cinematic editor you copy the key frames as well.
The way you mentioned would've ensured everything to be evenly spaced along a circle, so to make up for that I would lay down the blue halo model and use that as a placement guide, with every 30 degrees of rotation being a key frame.
But yeah.. grouping would save a pile of time on some of the bigger animations.
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/VEBTz.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/VEBTzl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/MP7Sx.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/MP7Sxl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
You could make animated light props with spotlights spinning around. No geometry last time I checked.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I really like the composition in the first shot. Gets a little crazy, for my taste, in the second
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/n0EkQ.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/n0EkQl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
Most recent progress is the Hive chamber (I think slow falling steam would do nicely there), and the Power node pit. Still need to do some more work on areas near the window before testing starts.
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Hho0a.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Hho0al.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/7A6Rp.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/7A6Rpl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/lipZ3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/lipZ3l.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/y2SuE.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/y2SuEl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/EDNtl.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/EDNtll.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
Those last screenshots look fantastic!
So much interesting geometry and godly light sources, I can't wait to see the room when infested/marine tech everywhere!
You've got something really good coming along, great work so far!
Looks awesome
Keep up the good work man
Good to see progress still being made too!
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/lipZ3.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/lipZ3l.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/y2SuE.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/y2SuEl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/EDNtl.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/EDNtll.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is exactly what I mean by the power of using limited color schemes. Everything immediately looks great, unified, and intentional like in these excellent shots. More!
Some crits:
-The little tiny lights are interesting, but a bit distracting. Some bigger more substantial lights would also help.
-Your texturing gets a bit chaotic. Don't be afraid of having "flat" surfaces, not that you don't, but your textures have a lot of detail, and there is a lot of tiling, creating a somewhat overwhelming look.
Having 2 entrances, lets say from obervation and maintinace Access would make it much easy to hold, which would make both teams intrested in taking it. That would create real intresting gameplay and comabt. As one team gets beat and loses that room they will then have to try take it back as it is got 2 resorce points or to then take the outskits or the map at there weaker sides as they will no doupt have a good defending force in storage to hold such a valuble room. there is a lot more value to the room with only 2 entrances and would make for some real intresting stratergies.
Thats my opinion anyway, what do you guys think. Would 2 be better or would you rather see 4 entrances and why would you rather see 2 or 4?
I do believe my original plan was something along the lines of having 2 entrances open, 2 entrances locked and open weld capable. Of course we don't have that kind of capability just yet, and I am unsure as to whether it will make an appearance before the game goes 1.0, so maybe what I can do is make the west/east entrances closed temorarily, and make the room entrances to it unappealing and darkened off, and when support does arrive, then I can return to those areas and soup them up to proper capability.
It is a pretty good point about storage being difficult to hold, but I wonder whether that is a good thing or not. Having both two resource points and a tech point leaves it as a very valuable position, and if say the south entrance is locked down, then there is only one more area to enter from, and that would cause plenty of bottlenecks for the attacking team. That being said, if they were to already get in, then the center structure itself is very difficult to defend.
I suppose I should try to arrange a playtest to obtain sufficient information on certain defense zones in that room. I still need to do some occlusion geometry, but considering how incredibly frustrating it is for me to map with half of my props/faces disappearing when I look down the map in the editor, I may need to spend a day setting layers and applying basic optimizations.
Anyways, now for some screenshots! Changes are the pit the extractor is in, removed some of the smaller lights in Reactor and worked on the hallway stretching straight from Reactor to Observatory. And connecting room from Observatory to Storage. I'm planning to have a mini-room that is windowed off so players can't actually attack the center buildings until they go through the entrances to the structure, but visibility could still be useful for visual identification.
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/7QlX8.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/7QlX8l.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/anmTC.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/anmTCl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/JtpSr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/JtpSrl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/AWyQk.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/AWyQkl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/SttuW.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/SttuWl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/Kn2cb.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Kn2cbl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
I think you'll get some comments about the map being too dark when you finally release it for testing of the masses.
All just speculation, of course.
i'm going to go with it looking genuinely amazing.
Good luck!
[edit]
Looking back at some more of your screenshots, those rooms have such strange lighting. It makes me feel so removed from organisms and biological life. If that is what you are aiming for - you got it man.
More progress! I spent most of my time doing a lot of changes to Storage. Added lights along the sides of it, rounded the corners, added some catwalks and some protective glass around the south entrance. I still have more lighting to do, and I should probably add some occlusion geometry to the room to improve the framerate before I publish an update to steamworks. But I could always publish the update early if you guys want. Just gotta beware of possible problems with the map. (It definitely looks cooler ingame.)
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/ZULBT.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ZULBTl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/bbrYD.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/bbrYDl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a> <a href="http://i.imgur.com/Mq2QC.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Mq2QCl.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
Update - I streamed my 7 minute explore of the map here: <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/smuon/b/324000117" target="_blank">http://www.twitch.tv/smuon/b/324000117</a>
Maybe if you guys want to try a playtest on Tuesday, I could see about getting the map ready for something like that?