Sunset Down... huh?

I wasn't exactly sure where to post this, so I decided to put it in here...
I've seen a lot of mentions of an old A5/A6 project called "Sunset Down", that obviously was abonded... I've also seen some screenshots, great looking screenshots, and there have been two topics (probably fake) by a user called Questionmark, that showed nothing but one and a half screenshot, so now I'm quite curious... the search function doesnt return anything older than two years, so I guess I just have to ask, was there a topic in one of the two showcases, and if so, does someone have a link? I'd just be interested in all informations I can get, as I am currently researching all old and newer Acknex projects that are, or were, potentially great games in terms of graphics and gameplay...
Hope somebody can help me here.

Mr Google told me:

http://www.fun-byte.com/gallery/category/2-sunset-down

and look for posts from XeXeS

Most Screenshots ect will not be online anymore.

Alright, thank you. Seems to be vanished; too bad, those screenies look quite good.

I am wondering that people still know about this project....

You should know:
xexes made the plugin for better grafics.
there was only one level (testlevel), just one player model, one npc-model, some weapons, alpha animations, and "stolen" textures (reason for the abort)
So the only thing that realy do exist is the plugin for A6. i only have the player, npc, weapon models (somewhere on my hard-copy).
So the project was over before it has began.

But i still have some testvideos (ingame and testrenders) may i could upload it to youtube... or vimeo... if you want.

cheers
marcel

Cool, yes, that would be nice. I'm always interested in seeing good looking acknex projects.

Let down Sunset Down

It is not so impressive, when it was developped in the old years of A6, it had only some shadres/techniques that allowed it to be better than others 3DGS games, but the 3D art is not enought detailled or incredible, it was only in it's time , not today !
Today you'll would need detailled realistic textures, terrain, shaders like normal map, specular , full screen effect and something playable (try last Unity 3D Third person demo for exampel to have an idea) !

But there are great A7 games that have been made :


A7 Action RPG

Oblivion style game


Make a game instead of seeking just screenshots that don't proove anyhting !
Good looking A8 games are possible and it's only a matter of 3D art quality or style !
I think you should instead look at indie games Trine and others to be inspired ! Target little , but make it gorgeous !

All true, nevertheless, the meaning of this thread was neither about finding out how to achieve a good looking game nor if it's possible with A7/A8, the only intention was to find out about Sunset Down...

@ratchet

completely right. the detail in sunset-down was alpha-alhpa.
there are many other projects with more datials and better looking grafics.

at the moment i'am uploading a short video with some test-szenes, pictures, and (bad) animations....

http://vimeo.com/15876201

it will rake 2 or 3 ours befor you can watch it.....

the youtube version (is faster to upload)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia1_VccLikQ

Thank you.
Looks indeed very WIP, yet like it had much potential... too bad it was stopped.

Thanks for the video !

In fcat the video don't show any 3DGS programming skill.
(Even when walking there is no animation of arms or gun, it's like driving a car )

There is no ennemi AI, no LOD , no realtime Dynamic lights working with shaders, no explosions, only a little particle effect on water , no weapon change (no mini gun, no sniper rifle), and no special effects , no cinematic, no HUD .... Hummm

Well in fact the demo shows 3D skills in 3D art nothing exceptionnal !
It's only good vegetation, trees, sand texture, grass texture, good looking skybox, some simple platform with simple textures and 3D assets on top of it.
I even find all that lacks a lot shadows, and vegetation seems
too bright and simple sometimes : no shadows (baked) , no specular ...
It only shows they have managed to finish a litlle level with
terrain and vegetation, something complicated even today to make with A8 when you look at terrain and vegetation tools of Unity or Torque 3D for example !

But i agree it was great for the old days, and the team had good potential, i think they found making a detailled game asks
for LOT LOT LOT of time !

Just my opinion.

ratchet, why do you stay in the gamestudio forums only to tell us again and again what AX is bad at and how good Unity (or random engine) is? Additionally, now and then you throw some more or less wise stuff at us that you've found somewhere else. What's the purpose?

ratchet, read what i wrote before!

again:
"You should know:
xexes made the plugin for better grafics.
there was only one level (testlevel), just one player model, one npc-model, some weapons, alpha animations, and "stolen" textures (reason for the abort)
So the only thing that realy do exist is the plugin for A6. i only have the player, npc, weapon models (somewhere on my hard-copy).
So the project was over before it has began."

So accept it, that this was no real project!
I never said, that our team wrote an ai, or shooting-action-scripts with explosions effects or something else. We just did some art-work, with models, 2-d, 3-d work, sounds, music, and a plug-in. Nobody claims that it was a finished playable game!

And today i am gamestudio and unity user. You can make with a7 / a8 or unity 3d great games. THe big and only big problem i see with gamestuio: support, Compatibility.
Everyone with some professional skills in 3d-gafic knows that it is a problem to import and use professional made characters, animations, ect....
thats the only big + i see in unity.

Ok,

I should read myself before posting !
Well the team had good potential, if they have managed to make something as good in the old days , with today tools or engines,
they could do a very good FPS i think !

To import graphics, in A8 or Unity , from Blender it's easy to import a 3D animated model, i've already tested the two engines.
In A8, it's a bit more complicated caus you need to use MED before WEB and use FBX import ! In Unity it imports it directly, the internal use of FBX is not visible !

right, and thats the reason i like unity more. But for little games with fast scripting is a7 also a good tool.

reading about this game makes me feel old. Still looks great after many years!

At least next A8 beta can read .obj directly.

William, u r old...... just a joke

I am also a gamestudio user since a4... hard times with very bad grafix

today its been 10 years of using gamestudio for me... s**t, I AM horrible old!


Regards to Canada!

Thank you maslone1 for uploading that video...
yes it really was a long time ago, and i stil remember those day when i first saw sunset down.
I also remember, there were screenshot of some temple, which really looked professional.
Any luck you have vid or screens of that temple scenery aswell?

You are welcome chris_oat! Nice Project you have in development (downsideevil). Nice video, good leveldesign and nice player model. I wish you good luck with your project!

... so you are from austria too?

Ciao

Marcel

lol,.... found old vids with other alpha animations i made for sunset-down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnMFjHOT5HE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAPrmnwDb9M&feature=related

5 year old material.... 5 YEARS after 2005!!!!

Some old new stuff?

http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sdnshot26kfo3lx2qw.jpg

http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/shotwswgbr2p4xv.jpg

http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/screenshot0dwv4lseyn0.jpg

http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sdscreenshot9k8px0jnwmf.jpg

http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sdscreenshot0geto9r2aky.jpg

http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/shot128gomzdkqn.jpg
http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sdscshot20hbzdseq98.jpg


http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sdscreenshot0b5la6x0rme.jpg

The soundtrack: (Main theme) www.aliengames.de/downloads/03_-_Pacific_Island_-_Night.mp3

maybe we`ll get the wohle game together

I was so hyped when I first saw this game. It was one of the main reasons why I learned Gamestudio back then.

You guys should do it like Damocles with Wasteland and make a serious remake of Sunset Down. The game had potential.

man this is sad to me actually, i really wish this game made it ? why didnt they ? they had maps , weapons , couldnt they tie the code together ? what really happened ?

As far as I remember it was stopped because of ripped textures.

I remember they had communication problems and there was big trouble in team coordination. In the end half of the team was estranged. But their work looked great. http://www.vimeo.com/15876201

Does anybody know what Xexes, the man behind the shader engine, is doing today? Is there any team member from Sunset Down left here in the forums?

Yes...after years of absence i decided to join the forum again.

I´m the founder of Sunset Down; don´t know what XeXes doing today...there are many years gone. Man...it was 2005?! Years ago...in the age of 18 ;-) All what is left are a few screenshots, Videos, Music, Artworks...and...a lot of Gamestudio Stuff on old Cd´s. Shell i post my whole range of screens etc. to you?

P.S.: There were many communication problems in the teams; XeXeS was (is?) one of the best members i had, excellent programmer and much more experience in game development.

After a rejoining of the team and a rejoining of Sunset Down the game was cut off. And yes...it was me using third party textures.

EDIT: That´s not the final Main Theme of SD; i´ll post it to you;-)

so why didnt you just change the textures ?

Yes, the old screenshots and videos are interesting. Do you still have the artwork, textures and models? Why don`t you give them away for free or use them in a new project?

Have you got any plans to bring Sunset Down back to life? What have you done the last years after leaving Gamestudio Forums? Torque? Unity? Have you got some interesting projects in your portfolio from after Sunset Down?

Sorry for the question overkill. I was a big fan of the project back then.

Edit: Why don`t you post the screenshots in the Gamestudio Gallery? I think that would be an awesome addition. The screenshots look still very nice.

One of the main reasons (for me) stopping Sunset Down and all Gamestudio stuff was my Highschool/Collage Graduation (in Germany called "Abitur" - very very important for studies). After that i made a training (some kind of job start in Germany) as a Media businessman (?!) and now i´m studying Media Management. And, of course, one other big point stopping all this was this third party texture issue.

Perhaps i should do so; publish all the Sunset Down Stuff i can find to you guys. I´m pretty sure there´s a lot of stuff left on the CD´s...models, levels, textures...

i knew about this kind of "Sunset Down fan community" and it was fantastic, but in the end it was "just" a hobby-Project with some big team internal Problems.

PS: Sorry for my english ;-)

Sunset Down Main Theme

sdmix9.mp3 - 2.92MB

What was your grade point average in the end? Did you want to go to a university with a high NC? Because I don`t think that the average is that important for studying . They always tell you that it is. But in the end you can almost study what you want as long as you have any graduation. If you don`t want to be a journalist or a doctor, it`s no problem to have a 3,0 graduation instead of 1,5 . When you`re finally searching for a job it´s better to have a nice portfolio than being supersmart with a 1,x graduation, I think.

This is the work-container i found on one of the CD´s...hope you can use something of it; enjoy

http://www.filedropper.com/worksd

Any More, bigger Screenshots (or even video) of that temple Scenery?

Yes, i remember the temple/jungle Level very well...i collected a lot of photos of angkor wat to do this temple. I have a couple of screens on my disk of the temple...post it later on.

EDIT: This is screen is also from this level: http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/shot128gomzdkqn.jpg

How was your Nickname 2005? Something with silver ? Remember you... Joined the Team for one Month or so, wanted to make the Temple Interior ^^
My Nickname was Angel, do you remember me?

cYa Sebastian

Silver?...no =) My Nickname was "3d-master"

Perhaps you remember....

Why did you change your identity?

because i even don´t remember the mail adress i registered with ;-) A new registration is much easier than restoring passwords to mail adresses you don´t know bla bla...

Are you planning a new project? Why did you come back to Gamestudio instead of Unity, Torque or UDK?

Are you a scripter, level designer, modeller?

Oh, don´t get me wrong. I didn´t came back to GS...i just wanted to know what GS doing today; i´va spend a lot of time with GS ;-)

As i said: Sunset Down was a one man project at first (so...i was all of them a little bit;) ). After more and more member joined the team and SD was relaunched (the status most of you know) i was more an director an especially a leveldesigner. Responsible for story, style, "look and feel"...

EDIT: A new project?...i don´t know...on my old days ;P

This probably explains the bad quality of the stuff visible on the pictures you´ve shown here.
The models actually look pretty good, but the terrain looks like shit and most of the level design seems ugly and boring too.
Back then, I loved this project, but now I am pretty sure, that it is probably better that it wasn´t cancelled at a later time.

As i said...responsible for everything ;-)

i´ll post more screens of the temple-level later on...

Man, I love optimistic and helpful people with professional artwork in their portfolio.
Sunset Down looks still good today. Of course the terrain is 2005 quality, but the style is still unique in the world of 3DGS. The fact that most of the people still know Sunset Down shows that they made something right. I mean they were just few people making this for fun and managed to go in the quality direction of Far Cry 1.


Sunset Down.


Sunset Down.


Far Cry.

Interestingly, I nevertheless managed to impress the right people with it .

Edit: And if you really think that those two screenshots look close, you should probably think about another hobby...
Another Edit: Where are they? o.O
And the third: Hm, they are back now...

Reasons enough to nevertheless respect other people`s work.

The project was in the beginning. It was made by 18yo people in their free time. Of course they couln`t reach the quality of a game made by 100 professionals in years of full time job. But: It`s impressive what they nevertheless did. The artwork fits together and the game has a unique style and was an eye catcher in the hobby programmer world back then. I`m pretty sure that it would have had the potential to look even better if they continued working on it. Thinking about shaders, lighting and level design aspects.
You`re a shader programmer, I`m mainly a level and art designer + scripting. And from my perspective I say: It`s also a question of lighting, shadows and color adjustments to let something look good or bad. You can have the nicest level of the world. When you`re lighting it wrong, it will look bad. Then, in second case, there`re some special effects like Bloom, normal mapping, other shaders. Look at the second SD screen I just added in the post with the screenshots. It`s just the lighting.

I know shaders are your special case, that´s why your view is focussed on that aspect. And they only had basic ones from today´s perspective. But that´s quite natural. Back in 2005 the A6 engine itself and shader support was brand new. The fact, that they understood how to handle this as an unexperienced, young team back then, is respectable.

Okay guys, stop it ;-)

What he said wasn´t that wrong, but in an inadequate intonation.

http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sd1hgd0iztw7s.jpg

http://www.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sd2jbp173qwgh.jpg

And PLEASE: remember that the screens i´m posting are from an early stage of SD to more "final" ones. Too sad i haven´t ingame screens of the more "final" SD anymore :-(

Rondidon: Thank you for your reputation of SD

EDIT:

http://img4.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sd3xcajbh92k0.jpg

Indeed it was good for 2005 and a really small indie team !

And today a small team could do great like in the past :
One simple small level on terrain, only one ennemy type first , one weapon, only template gameplay fisrt , not lot of 3D model assets and textures, but ... each texture and model in top notch quality ONLY !

Well.. Who will make it's remake ??

http://img4.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sd4cfj08elawz.jpg

Yes...someone doing remake =) A few models and other stuff i posted yesterday

http://img4.fotos-hochladen.net/uploads/sd5q9zltv3e5m.jpg

My opinion has NOTHING to do with shaders.

I can hardly imagine a less creative and more obvious level restriction.

Again, look at that level border. And are those levels really THAT small? o.O
And well, lighting is a word that comes to my mind when looking at this screenshot, because there is none at all...

Their style wasn´t unique at all, as it was just a ripoff of the far cry style without the style in terms of lighting and level design and everything else.
If they had continued working on it, I am pretty sure that they would have cancelled it a bit later. The project had no chance to get finished.

I btw do respect the work, but it is by far not as great as some people here tend to praise it to be.

http://imageshack.us/m/220/7584/demoscene20110520064116.jpg

Don`t take it serious. I`m just kidding. .

You would have a point, if Nils argument was that he is better and everyone else sucks. Too bad its not.

I really like the fact that deBobvanRob has visited us and represents screenshots and files as a reminiscence to that days

@deBobvanRob: I downloaded your package. Can you please explain what resources are ripped and which are not? The custom made ones - can we use them in our own projects?

Best regards,
-Christian

Are you available as level designer or did you just come back to look a bit around?

There´s an ambitious project called "DR Multiplayer" by alibaba in the project forum. Maybe you could help him out with level design or some resources from Sunset Down.


Problem: He´s talking about a hobby project and not about a game made by professionals. That´s something different. Of course he`s maybe right compared to professional games made by Crytek or maybe Deck13, but those games are not made by 18yo people in their free time. That´s why I posted the picture of his Contest Entry. From the time when he was a hobbyist. Not to injure him, but to get him back to the ground

To be honest...i just come back to look a bit around. But i will take a look on this project!

And please feel free to use the stuff i´ve posted in your projects. After that time i cannot say which are ripped and which not...sorry. I even have no programms anymore to take an eye on the hole stuff. anyone know (probably free) programm to take a look at the models?

Gamestudio A8 is freely available as a basic version including WED, MED, GED, SED .
http://server.conitec.net/down/gstudio8_setup.exe
A list of Gamestudio tools and third party tools can be found in the Wiki. http://www.opserver.de/wiki/index.php

Are you working in the games or comuter industry nowdays or was Sunset Down and game design just an idea from the past?

I'm considering using the levels for Assault!

Ahhhh...forgot Basic Version of GS is for free, thanks. I´ll try to take a sight on the models and their status.

In my time as Trainee i worked in a publishing house. Today, during my studies, I´m still working there (sideline). My studies give me the possibilty to choose of a wide range of jobs in media afterwards...games are also an part of the studies, but of course (media management) it´s more economic than designing.

But, nevertheless, of course i´ve a affinity for game; especially when you look at SD you can imagine that this was not just a small hobbyproject for me without a lot of passion.

Was Sunset Down your only project in history? Or did you do some other games?

You could write an article about Sunset Down for the Wiki about raise and fall of the project. Regarding team management, hobby project size and Gamestudio. I think this could be interesting for beginners and some of the old guys

Edit: Link to the Wiki articles. Still very empty so far http://www.opserver.de/wiki/index.php/Game_Development

Also it would be awesome if you sort the avaiable and selfmade Sunset Down models and textures and publish them without the maps and scripts as model and texture pack for common use.

This is a fast test of the Palmbay level in A8 using HDR. As the WAD wasn't in the folder, I had to replace all level textures




Maybe HDR strength needs to be tuned down a bit

Looks good. I wanted to make the same thing

You should ask Hummel for his ocean shader from the Wavefield Demo http://www.opserver.de/coni_users/web_users/pirvu/au/demo/zips/wavefield.zip (video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwrMlQ6m7jQ). Add the lightrays from the demo, too.
Tune down the HDR and add some DOF (Shade-C). Add some grass from Loopix www.loopix-project.com and a detail map shader from the wiki. Add blurred realtime shadows or a lightmap.
It will maybe look just as good as Far Cry when you work on it a little bit. You could make a great technology demo out of this.

WOW...great seeing my ol project with this new stuff...super!

WAD?...ähm...(too far away): where so i normally find the WAD in the folder-structure?! Perhaps i can publish it too. Let me know if you need some more stuff to keep this thing working even better!...I would also recommend to tune down the HDR...and lightrays sounds good too ;-)

Hm, the original link to the resources seems dead - could anyone reupload it or maybe add it to the AUM resources?

you will be able to get a demo made by me using that map in AUM 100

Well, I know, but that doesn't include everything he uploaded does it? If so, then I'll wait for AUM100, but I think it would be a good idea to upload the original files to the AUM resources, too.

well there is also another small map that isn't included on my demo

Nice to see that old team-mates are still around here in this forum!

A remake of sunset-down..... no thanx,... but a NEW project maybe.
I learned a lot the last years, especial about modeling texturing and animation.
Also teamleading, management, organisation.

Today i would do many things differently.