Absolute Zero level2

[Mess]

don't worry about super-realism. Major Banter will start complaining about your perpetually-burning torches next.

For the moss on the floor, I would definitely try having it as an alpha blend on one displacement, with a nice blendmodulate, rather than on a separate displacement. I think it will look alot better!

[Soul]

Hehe! Ya we discussed that amongst the team, mainly my lead tester pointing out things I know but appreciate hearing:

Applied textures to top of brush, looks like a carpet more than part of the geometry.
Displacement light errors.
Displacements need to blend when covered in moss/grass type textures.

We made the torches pulsate very gently, you shouldn't notice it unless you stand there and pay attention to it, which is a great little addition.

But about the torches, later on in the level they are burnt out with just smoke coming off. Yes.. I could make them burn out over time for realism, and then the players would be stuck in a perpetual darkness known as tunnel vision.. but I go for game play above everything else, thank you Mess, I will change that in the beta.
And.. will get a video up.. as soon as the collision is done (still waiting for it).

[nub]

Regarding the torches "pulsing", does the light entity itself pulse gently, or do the "hot embers" on the torch pulse? You can use the Sine parameter to make the selfillumination fade in and out, or flicker gently, which looks really cool. The strider brain in Episode 2 used it. You just need a suitable texture with an alpha channel that's made for selfillumination and you're good to go.

[Soul]

Regarding the torches "pulsing", does the light entity itself pulse gently, or do the "hot embers" on the torch pulse? You can use the Sine parameter to make the selfillumination fade in and out, or flicker gently, which looks really cool. The strider brain in Episode 2 used it. You just need a suitable texture with an alpha channel that's made for selfillumination and you're good to go.

The embers pulse very slowly as do the light sources for the torches. The pulse rate that was available was too easy to discern from the environment so I had to use an old Quake trick to make the pulsate rate very slow and very hard to see. But if you pay close attention, you can see it. Yea I never knew about the Sine parameter, I will take a look in to it, thanks mate.

Here we go, Alpha test screen shot of the stairwell. Lighting is not final and the roof will be a model in the end; the floor is not final. The collision models need adjusting a little, as you can notice the shadows on the floor? That's because it believes there is a wall there. We may have to cut the stairwell in to 6 models to make the lighting work properly due to the collision model restrictions.

[Soul]

It's been awhile and I'm glad to announce that levels 3 and 4 are done minus some tweaking we will be doing. Level1 is almost done but missing a lot of our assets (since we are 100% custom I have to use valves as place holders). Below are some photos of level1 in alpha without displacement on the snow as of yet. I left the guns in the photo though as well as the fps bar.

We split level1 in to 3 phases. The hangar phase for the runway and depos. The Complex phase (as seen in the photos). The interior phase which will include the second optional crescendo: the obstacle course and it's mines. Rebuilt from the ground up utilizing new textures and models and improved mapping skills.

Here you can do the optional gate crescendo or take the ladder to the roof and drop down past the crescendo. If you skip it, the gate becomes impassable to go backwards. Upon passing the crescendo the glows go away no matter what path you choose.

Alpha photos:






The base is apparently based off of Fort Ripley (Though I had no intention of this, it somehow has the same exact layout).

[Soul]

Here are some pictures from phase1 the hangar area: