So I had decided to properly schedule time for my mapping to commit to it once again with the upcoming project. I figure the best way to go about it is dedicate 4hours a day to mapping. During this process I will focus on particular elements that I will once again grasp. Should be like riding a bike right? (forgive me if I dont make sense, I am rather tired.)
Firstly I figured I need to start at basics, do some mapping regarding additive and subtractive brushes. For this it has always been relatively simple to assume indoor levels are best done with subtractive brushes and outdoor more suited for additive. And with that, also use basic materials, then move on to meshes and fixing the lighting up a bit, adding particles and making some basic kismet sequences. Also familiarize myself with special brushes again for volume. and finish off with touch up and polishing.
The subject? Well I had figured redoing the first and second levels of Unreal, since the first level covers indoors, and the second covers outdoor. Should be interesting to see what I can put together. Also I wont have to spend time sketching the levels, for this I can simply just take a few screenshots as concepts and rework that. Oh and also I myself am curious to see what Unreal would look and feel like with UE3.
-------------------------------------- Started this project this evening at 8pm ----------------------------------------
So I had gotten busy, four hours later, theres a screenshot of my progress on the prisoner holding bay. It is not final, just 4 hours of speed mapping, covered only basic subtractive brushes, some static meshes, some basic static lighting with some spotlights, and material use... Oh and a postprocess volume...
bleh, my UT3 editor crashed after taking this pic, and now keeps crashing when I open the map... I am so bummed right now, cant show any more angles... and I am very tired, I will sort it out tomorrow. I will keep updating the gallery and blog as I progress.
Okay so I reinstalled UT3 and got the problem sorted out, so I uploaded more new pics, no comparisons to the old Unreal though... Think perhaps when I am fully done with the level I might add some comparisons.
So here are the updates to that level from a few angles. (ps: I was tempted to for a little added work, but it is still not complete)
This is just the lightmaps, I took this screen for the purpose of seeing a more lit and detailed view of the map since it is very dark over all.
Over all I havent tried to apply any of the actual damage to the ship since it supposedly just crashlanded, But I will do that in time... However the atmosphere currently should reflect that almost pretty obviously in the sense that the power is low, so the lights arent as bright as it should be, and also it has a very smokey (foggy) look to it, so there will be quite a few flames and harmless explosions particles to come from electronics abruptly exploding, and loose cargo and other objects laying around as if they were flung during the crash landing.. And also ultimately I want to see if I can rotate the entire map at a noticeble angle, but not too much that you would keep sliding down and have a hard time navigating, But I think that certainly would also give the right impression.
The map itself should be able to tell a story without the need of any cinematics. Although I want to play with matinee, I think I will use it outside once you get outside the ship, so instead of running around Neyal falls, it would transition to matinee as the classic fly cam that wil explore the bits of neyal falls.
Anyhow this is the end of update blog 1. Next time I post another will be covering the ducts and the room thereafter. I believe it may be the control room if I remember correctly?
Take care and thanks for reading. If you have any comments or constructive criticism to share, please do so in the comments section, I would like others perspective, might learn a good few things in this process =)
