Abandoned WIP

Posted By: Nems

Abandoned WIP - 10/16/07 05:21

Its been a while since I posted here and after catching up on some time off and to get up to a basic working level in A7 I decided that now is the time to attempt a commercial title release.

Team members, co-collaborators or partners wanted, apply here.

Abandoned describes both the character and species and the artifact installations found the world over.

The following are development screenies for what is currently existing and being worked on.
This is initial concept sketching of the game world and its characters which will be filled out as development progresses

Player character


Symbiot construct stage 1 transition


Symbiot construct stage 1 transition - back view


Symbiot construct fully operant


After the long chimney climb


Just a few more steps


The mountain top observatory (cloaked within the peak)


Inside the observatory looking back to the outworld entrance


This is where the habitat complex will be built


The main outpost cavern


Transit station, disabled

Posted By: Matt_Coles

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/16/07 06:42

nice work nemesis, the cavern is looking exceptionally nice
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/16/07 08:40

Thanks Matt_Coles, its going to look a hundred times better in a month or 2 when materials and low end shaders are incorporated but mainly, when the proper time is given over to texturing and model tweaking.

Initial shots will look blocky for a while untill I get the LODs going which is where the biggest amount of work lies as every thing will have to have LOD stages from the path you walk to environmental assetts, textures (if I can manage it)etc.

Have a wee bit of time to go before I populate the mountain sides and caves
and add persistent effects like fungi glows, spore and insect clouds, anomolouse lights etc but I hope to get together a game release where A7 shines for what can be done with it, a bit ambitious but its got to be done sometime so why not now
Posted By: FBL

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/16/07 09:07

Get rid of C-babe. Pleeeaaase
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 10/16/07 09:42

oh all right then... but she is the babes.
I'll find something else or revert to first person camera shots.
Posted By: Captain_Kiyaku

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/16/07 09:43

Well right now i just see blocky, low textured terrains and empty caves :/

Nothign much to say about. But you already stated that it will look less blocky, low textured and so on in a while. Till then i can't say anything to the "scene".
Posted By: frazzle

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/16/07 10:53

I think I understand why you abandoned it
No serious, it's a WIP so there is room for improvements like the blocky structures and low res textures.
I'm sure you're able to make better Nems

Cheers

Frazzle
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/16/07 11:02

Website is being organised but will take some time to come online as its a major hosting plan and I need to think how to use it properly ( cheap hosting plans on nvisionsnz.com anyone? )

@ The Don, yes it is rudimentry and as this thread grows, so too will the details because I'll use this space to document progress from start to finish so showing the base sketch and then showing it developing into the actual finished form might help some who needs some direction on game building.

Documents will be available for each milestone. Milestones are workflow outlines which enable control over complex arrangments in order to finalise each work objective.

Milestone 1 - Sketch out concept base in full.
Milestone 2 - Section each area plan then sketch again.
Milestone 3 - Finalise full level.
Milestone 4 - Test.

For example, the full concept base incorporates 7 sub-levels, basically every room, which needs to be loaded into WED to get an idea on space occupied by the whole level and subsequently deleted for ent_create calls to be made, theoretically building the level as you play.

Well, thats the plan and hopefully, thats what will happen.

@ frazzel, LOL, time will tell surely

Cheers...

*Edit

Progress to date [Level_1a].

1. Multiplayer element is currently aiming for 'Populace'
intergration.

2. Camera is first/third person perspective within an
underground environment.

3. Story is set within contemporary times around a character
who has found the entrance of a rumoured cavern system used
by the 'Forerunners' who dissapeared around 500 years ago
and seeks to explore.

4. Cavern system is comprised of both artificial
and natural caverns and hosts many species of cave dwellers,
forerunner technology (Biotecture) and hybrid species.

5. Player finds an artifact which provides weapons
and protection but due to its biomech nature, must be fed.

6. Vehicles ATV Exoskeletals, Crawlers, Flyers with
all vehicles capable of wall/ceiling climbing.

7. Due to the environment, most weapons or machinery needs
to operate at silenced capacities

Character sketch comprises a 'normal' human and an 'enhanced'
symbiotic Biomech suited figure.

World sketches comprise Mountain entry model, access tunnel
model, forerunner Observatory and outpost station model
with wmbs, liftshaft and main station node model with attendant
access ways.

Level 1 will be comprised of
a. Outpost complex and transit system.
b. Disused Forerunner mine systems.
c. Laboratory complex.
d. Manufacturing and maintanance system.

Posted By: Captain_Kiyaku

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/16/07 13:45

I will follow this thread with interest
Posted By: frazzle

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/16/07 18:38

Quote:

I will follow this thread with interest



Comfirmed
Just looking at your enthusiasm, this can't fail

Cheers

Frazzle
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 10/17/07 21:28

As can be seen in the first post the level is blocky, empty and place-holder textured.
Beeing happy with the rough outline of the mountain, details now need to be planned and implemented.
The player needs to see actuall contoured cliff walls with butresses, outcrops and cracks in abundance, small rocks and pebbles lying around and plant life where appropriate.

This is my tecnique for aiding visualisations

The domes represent view range from the camera and placements are set to slightly overlap in order to sort out the show and fade calls as LOD steps


The blank level area (1) with back ground trees inserted.



Completing the visualisation with rocks, paths and boulders as well as fore ground trees


Composition is set to generate 'viewing arches' for the viewer to draw attention into the area immediatly in front of the player. The completed design set from position2,start_pos.view




The resultant new models to make and set for LOD calls (scene managment)

Posted By: JibbSmart

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 10/18/07 03:42

wow. this all seems very clever. i like the concept of 'viewing arches' -- it makes perfect sense, but i haven't heard the term before.

looks like you know what you're doing. and it looks very interesting.

julz
Posted By: oldschoolj

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/18/07 07:21

I wish all of you guys all of the best of luck with your project If you need a texture or something that I might be able to get done in about hour, I'd luv to contribute.

GL

Jesse
Posted By: sPlKe

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/18/07 10:56

you have a very complex workspace i see. but cleverly solved. great workaround of the acknex restrictions. i wish to see the stage in a final form, maybe a comparsion shot ofthe composition view (with lines and visible blockades)and the final view as it will appear in game...

your models need work, though...
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/18/07 19:16

Thanks for the kind words folks, there very much appreciated.

@ JulzMighty, Viewing arches, holes, angles etc are all Traditional Art related terms describing composition aspects and ratios to engender viewer manipulation.

@ oldschoolj, thanks, might chase you up on that one day

@ sPIKe, the shots will come later as what is shown above is just for one scene point at the actual start of the game.
The next LOD step view centre needs to go thru the same process as well as reverse views to ensure all angles have been covered.

Models have tons of work to do yet, tweaking, building, skinning, animating and base scripting.

At the moment we are setting up our remote work environment so things will pick up later on.

No demos will be offered for a very long time.
Posted By: BlueBeast

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/18/07 19:43

I think this technique is wonderful, and will surely implement it as I do my work! As long as a person does only very rough additions, just to get the idea if something will work right, or look good, this is a great way to set up the gameplay.

Once the ideas and levels are all in place, then it's time to create the good models and textures.

The domes are a great idea too, and i have done something similar to guage what the LOD should be in a particular level.

I don't nee to see the shaders now, i can already see with those basics how things could look

Great work!

- Jason
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/19/07 22:08

Yes, its a good technique for roughin out, glad you like it.
It saves heaps in imagining how any part is going to look and feel.

Shaders will be looked at the last stage and will be needed for underground lakes, and other low end effects.

Slin has translated a model mipmap script for me so thats going in asap.

Thanks for the positive response,
cheers...
Posted By: FBL

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/19/07 23:16

I really like your approach.
It shows that you have thought about the common problems which arise when creating levels.

Waiting for new screenshots
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/21/07 19:54

Thanks Firoball, my stuff gets too complicated for a graphics oriented person so I need to create images to see where I am going.



As can be determined, completed level sketch passes milestone_1 and here we can see all the elements that comprise the level.
Each sub-level is loaded up when the player pos triggers a call and the subsequent one gets deleted.

I am having a few probs with A7.07 as sectioned models seem to corrupt randomly and per engine call, still sorting this mess but it puts a hell of hold on progress for what I want to achieve. The only other way is to have the complet level model load as a single structure at this stage, not good.

Its now a breeze to reference each segment and build accordingly but still have scope for additions/subtractions and so forth and all LOD requirements can be easily determined.

Doc_1 here

If anyone can spare modeling time, we need an enormous amount of sub-models made up for the LOD stages per model.
Posted By: Pappenheimer

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/22/07 00:41

I expected that you are going to use the BSP-system, because it is especially usefull for tunnel and cave levels. It is not necessary to see any of the level blocks, for the BSP you use blocks just to divide the level into sections of visibility.
From your picture I can see several points where you could easely seperate parts of the level by walls of blocks.
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/22/07 02:55

Hi, thanks Pappenheimer,
Each colored segment gets loaded when needed so that more resources can go into the look of the environment.I havnt built with the block method for ages but yeah, if that approach was taken that would be the go.

The above shot just displays the extent and componants of the level and most componants past the observatory are full of back ground effects like insect swarms and bettles scurrying about plus dynamic light effects and possilble contact scenarios with the inhabitants.

When game starts, only the mountain face componant is loaded then when the player gets near the entrance to the sub terrainian worlds the entry componant is loaded and when the player enters the air lock, the mountain and entry componants are deleted while the access tunnel is loaded and so on.
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned WIP - 10/26/07 00:27

Team member developer forums now up, register here and I'll confirm then add you.

No non-team member registrations available at this time.
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/03/07 08:25

I finally had time to get a few scans in without interruption so here they are.
All preliminary concept sketches, they help to gel the idea into a very cohesive overview affording time to 'go with the flow' while conceptualising and pin down the qualities the first concept impression began.
We are very much on track with maintaining the overall theme and are refining as we gel to our remote work environment and active partners together.

TOP:A look at alcoves, light plants and beetles BOTTOM: Raptor based on the NZ Pukeko, a kind of purple chicken



The char doing the Spiderman walk, a Weasel in victims bone armour, the Rats and Bats crew concepts.



The secretive Whispers.



Some enviro visualisation sketches.





Raptor prototype1.

Posted By: Pappenheimer

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/03/07 08:52

Looks very promising! Thanks for the updates!
Posted By: Poison

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/03/07 10:38

Beautiful Ideas very AWESOME.

Cheers

Poison Byte
Posted By: frazzle

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/03/07 15:26

You know my thought about this Nems but I'll say it again:
You're quite the artist

Cheers

Frazzle
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/03/07 17:07

Thanks guys, appreciate your comments and interest.

As can be seen, even though this is only going to be a 'small' game, its easy to see that its just as complex as developing a 'large' game.

Currently preparing the Forerunner Dev forum up for public access but all team related forums will be closed and inaccessable to non team members.
Its a poweful amount of work just organising things but once that is over, we will be a lot more organised.

The teams focus is phenominal and very supportive, a dam fine team if anyone should ask
Posted By: aztec

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/03/07 18:52

Quote:


The teams focus is phenominal and very supportive, a dam fine team if anyone should ask



agreed still waiting for the skin
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/13/07 01:26

Update...well, we have been very busy with our work and have revisited Collanos, the remote workspace environment for teams but are having some probs there at the moment.
Yet, if we stick with it, we will get a good remote environment to work from.

Public forums now available but with little to show at http://nvisionsnz.com/phpBB3/index.php.

You may post as an annonymous user or register to access a bit more (not much more actually)

This diary will be maintained here and updated when possible.
Posted By: Wade_Adams

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/13/07 04:39

Quote:

Update...well, we have been very busy with our work and have revisited Collanos,



Collanos... no say it isn't so! That program makes me want to cry a little bit. It takes way to long to sink up and is in desparite need of a force a fast download button. Nice work so far.
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/13/07 19:06

There is a new version but that one had connection issues which have suppossed to be sorted by now but the old one works good now, you have to connect with empty folders to synch up faster then upload stuff.
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 11/17/07 20:49

After settling in with our remote dev environment we now begin LODding from start_pos1.

The approach taken here is to seek the means to have the engine 'cruise along' rather than 'lag a long' and despite the many advices regarding clip_far and visible/invisible, no test conducted by me have ever bested LOD loading.

Clipping and visiblity management for fustrum culling still holds on to resources better saved for other aspects of dev work and can lead to massive frame rate drops if ones approach to dev work is still centered around prototyping, when employing alphas in conjunction with default scene management measures.

LODding is a must for this engine in order to attain freedom to develop. Of course this means a larger file footprint (owing to the extra LOD models) but performance is exactly what can be expected, a much needed measuring tool.


Here we see the access to the mountain entry area and 'start_pos1' where 3 model segments have been removed in order to use as reference for the initial LOD modelling.


The segments


and here, all the sections of the removed segment have been modelled to stage2 LOD


The final LOD stage will be even more detailed.

The idea is that at any stage, only what the camera sees will ever be loaded up affording resources for effects and functions to run.












Posted By: Pappenheimer

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 12/24/07 00:51

Looks promising!
At the moment, you don't seem to care about the textures.
I prefer to include tiled textures from the beginning, at least placeholders, to see the tiling.
I use already textured model pieces and stitch them together to avoid seams, because I think it is less work with the uv-mapping.
But, it depends on the landscapes, maybe, your environment won't take profit from my method. I don't know.

Keep up the work!
Posted By: lostclimate

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 12/24/07 01:26

I wasnt aware this project was still going, if it was I could probably do some small work for it.
Posted By: jigalypuff

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 12/24/07 13:21

it is still going, expect new screenies soonish lol
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 12/27/07 09:34

yup, more screenies soonish and I'll ask the team to look at your offer lostclimate.

@papenheimer, yes, sorry about the texture mess right now but at that time it wasnt important, now that we are building lod stages for the views seen above we need to sort textures out to a more acceptable showcase standard.
Thanks for the tiling hint, hadnt thought about that at all

I was thinking that each sub-level area will have an individual detail and tiling map first before looking at shaders to finish the 'look', if any and use I use your texture system too .

I havnt attempted stiching yet but we have two good scripters who could handle any difficulty I may encounter I am thinking and would welcome any directions in the process.

At the moment, I am holding up the dev process as I havnt completed the lodding stages yet but will get onto it following the required xmass visits etc.
Hopefully a detailed progress post will follow shortly after that.
Posted By: jigalypuff

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 01/20/08 17:47

been working on this guy for a couple of days now, please bear in mind tis my third attempt at character modeling. my wife says the legs are crap so they need a bit more done to them, do you guys like the look of it so far?

Posted By: lostclimate

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 01/20/08 18:02

well the forearms and legs really lack definition, look up pictures of male muscle structure to get an ide of what to make them look like. otherwise, it looks good.
Posted By: molotov

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 01/20/08 18:34

Hey jigalypuff, you're wife is right but the rest is really nice.
Posted By: jigalypuff

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 01/25/08 11:31


looks a bit better now i reckon, what do ya think?
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 02/15/08 21:10

Update

Well. Its past my 6 months publish deadline but still the team is as keen as ever to see this project thru.

We lost 2 months initially due to both Xmass and explanatory marathons on some level design elements so now that time needs to be made up.
To aid forward momentum, I have discarded the entry level of the game development for now and will revisit it later as part of a look-back scenario.

Now player starts within the entrance of the cavern systems.



Wmb's are used here to get a deeper atmospheric mood than what models can deliver and to assist entity removal not possible with block geometry.

Our scene management is currently being refined and due to a lack of modellers, most of my time is currently centred on level design refinements.




Comprising both wmb and model formats, the cavern worlds the project is played within offers some design challenges like variety and rewards for tunnels and open caverns.


After some time navigating within claustrophobic cave systems, player needs to feel some relief by coming across caverns where open space permits a breather of sorts.



We are still along way from refining textures for low level shader and detail maps and quite a long way away from having characters yet but the target is to arrive there as soon as possible.

Scene management currently keeps FPS at a stable 60 and the overall progress is still at level1, some 30% only.
Posted By: Pappenheimer

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 02/15/08 21:53

I like the atmosphere and the colours!
The claustrophobic cave part is especially impressing!
How does the player move there? The 'stairs' are made for jumping or climbing?
I wish you good progress! Hope, you will find some modellers!

Just came to my mind: Don't forget to test movement, camera and gameplay in the levels quite often!
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 02/15/08 23:06

Thanks pappenhiemer

The 'claustrophobic' scene has sloped floors which can't be seen in the above screen. Its a natural rift formed by an earthquake that gives access to artificial cavern systems further below, deep in the Underworld.

There will be some climbing parts but the player is played with 3 chooices
1. Natural human mode in which case player has to climb.
2. Augmented suit mode where player can jump, climb or swing down
3. Augmented suit with flight module.
The modes are dependant upon the choices player makes in the room above with the suit cabinets.

Player scripts are still being worked on and c_move camera has a lot going for it by maintaining a distance from walls so as to not penetrate the walls etc automatically (doesn't always work )

Current gameplay camera mode is FPS.
Posted By: NabokovAlex

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 03/06/08 08:28

Well if you need a modeler I can help, Email me at alexnabokov@comcast.net

here is some of my work

http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x34/alexnabokov/Portfolio/
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 03/06/08 19:55

That would be awesome thanks NabokoAlex as we are need of modellers.
Payment only on publication deal though so If your wanting to follow this up, register at http://nvisionsnz.com/phpBB3//index.php and I'll activate you so you can check us out,
Cheers...
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 03/12/08 00:04

Just an update on some models.

Part skinned and animated at around 50% the models now make it possible to actually test collisions and gameplay.

All created in MED

Normal maps, materials to come yet but still subject to crits

Cleaner Beetles, keeps complexes clean from debri and foreign matter


Alarm lights (not yet implemented


At rest


Rehua




Upper Reaches heavies, speciess Rattus



Posted By: Pappenheimer

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 03/12/08 13:36

I like the cleaner beetle very much. Colour, shape and pose are wonderful!

The skin of the others are still an early sketch I suppose, because it is very flat. The flying model needs a sort of contrast on the skin, a second colour. Maybe, the next step could be adding small lined drawings or signs overall the skin, similar to the beetle, but with smaller lines.


What sticks out is the hand of the rat. It should be less straight in idle pose, and it doesn't grip the sword close. To solve the latter you could make the sword and its handle bigger.
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 03/12/08 23:24

Thanks Pappenheimer, can always rely on your crits and directions.
Oddly enough, after posting the flyer, I had started with the lines on the skin but mostly, its not really going to be seen, only briefly and rarely but it will cause significant grief, still, when its been killed it will be looked at then by players, just to see what it is.

Yes, Rattus needs work still on his grip but I'm not sure if I want to tighten the grip or scale the weapon up (based on the asagi I think its called)will play with it more.

In any event, all the weapons the species has need the same sized handle as thats where the prob actually lies since I use the same model for each different version (old rat, plump rat etc) so some use a club, others the long handled sword and others, crossbows aand knives.

Forgot to animate the idle hands movement so will get onto that too, thanks.
Posted By: A.Russell

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 04/04/08 17:47

THe 2d concept art is pretty cool.

You shouldn't stretch the terrains like that. If you must have high mountains, then use a model and map it so the sides look good. You can regiain some of the performance hit by crunching the models and using LOD. The character models are good for a hobby project.

The levels need better static lighting and use of detail blocks. If the textures were not so bland it would help, however good lighting would help to hide that.
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 04/04/08 19:23

Hi Ya A.Russel, long time no see mate.
Thanks for the pointers and will certainly be improving heaps shortly.

More screens of current refinements as level 1 gets its finalisation tweaks

Looking from the old 'Suit room' access into Start Pos. The transparency is a piped view of the outside
that provides real world sunlight for plant and animal health.



Start Pos, where player makes its entrance. The brighter area is where the teleport mechanisms reside








The AutoDoc and Computer access pods




Looking back out into the suit room and access hallway




Looking into Medi Center Pyramid

Posted By: Pappenheimer

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 04/04/08 20:37

Go, Nemesis, go!
It looks atmospheric and has a nice touch!
I would avoid any straight and modern looking 'carpets' or 'ways'.
Stay with the curvy stile, please! ;\)
Posted By: Poison

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 04/04/08 21:59

Looks really awesome now^^.
I agree with Pappenheimer stay with your style it looks so amazing!!!
Want to see more !!
Posted By: Nems

Re: Abandoned [WIP] - 04/05/08 18:59

\:\) Thanks for the great words, we all appreciate them.

Parts like above are few and far between but they are there so cant avoid some places with the cut architectural look but most everything else is pretty free form looking.

Still a long way away from prettying it up as the real textures and lighting havnt even been thought through yet.

Whats left for such shots is a misted type atmospheric effect, decorative indicators like gem type lights to indicate room purpose, egyptian type detail embossed highlights etc.

Our scene managment is coming on nicely so can afford to crowd rooms up and polysoup the model walls, floors to get better dynamic light effects without going back to level geometry blocks and then finish it off with shaders for glass fused walls with acid etched deterioration resulting from the plant life feeding of the walls over time.

The bettles have been blocked off from this area so they are unable to restore walls to pristine condition \:\)
© 2024 lite-C Forums