MAP GRAPHICS
HARTMAN-TERVAN ROBOTICS is built on the Source Engine. That comes with a set of limitations that had to be worked around for the sake of graphical fidelity and the aesthetics. Most of the areas featured in the mod are as detailed as possible, with as good of a lighting setup as vanilla Source allows for.
There are two dynamic lights in this scene. Ouch.
Seeing as your view angle is mostly limited in the mod, i was able to trim the detail of areas not visible by the player. This allowed me to detail the visible areas more, creating a realistic, and pleasing environment. Cubemaps are a whole other world. Seemingly working as they want to, and not how i want them to.
Heavy use of env_projectedtexture entities allowed me to make the environment dynamic. For example a fan on the ceiling spins and casts a shadow onto the floor.
Volumetric lighting isn't natively supported by Source. I decided to use a work around.
From day one of working on this project, i knew i wanted to add fake volumetric lighting to it. I recalled seeing a video with a very clever solution. After implementing it, i was very happy with how it looked like.
This workaround allowed me to SIGNIFICANTLY increase the detail of many areas of the mod.
MODEL GRAPHICS
As you've probably noticed, the cover for this article features two very distinct and unrelated models. A bottle of STARLIGHT, which you may recognize from the prequel maps such as gm_mika, and the robot.
Both of them have been given PBR textures, implemented into the mod with the help of my friend MrBinka.
PBR (Physically Based Rendering) allows models to have metallic sheen, a specific roughness mask for reflectivity, and an ambient occlusion mask for faking shadows. This upgrade also allows the models to stand out more.
This bottle finally looks like a proper, glass bottle. Hurray to industrial glass making advancements!
But PBR isn't just all shine and pretty. It also allows the models to have a proper specular back shine, making them stand out more. This is particularly important in regards to the robot, which enjoys hiding in the cameras - often in plain sight.
He is not hiding.
All this allows the mod to acquire a much more realistic look, without a major performance hit (as it usually goes when it comes to things like that). All in all, i'm very happy with how it ended up.
That concludes this article.
INFORMATION
HARTMAN-TERVAN ROBOTICSis scheduled for release on Halloween. Until then, stay tuned for more information and articles like this, where i'll go over some of the things present in the mod.
Here are some of the places you can follow the mod in the meantime:
DISCORD
BLUESKY
Also play the prequel Garry's Mod maps:
MIKA - Set in the HBM Shipping Inc. Office
SURVEILLANCE - Set in a surveillance outpost.
VACANT JOB - Outdated, but kino prequel to everything.
