May 17, 2009, 1:40 pm  4,817 views
 So, one of the biggest hurdles with making a mod like Dear Esther in Source is the rather clumsy displacement system which is used to create terrain and smooth surfaces. To have pixel-perfect seamless and smooth terrain in Source I had to build my maps in a very unique, complicated and time-consuming manner. Everything has to align with each other and be built from adjoining quad faced brushes, if that doesn’t make any sense then maybe this image will:
By building the map in this way (previously mentioned here) it will allow me to have one large smoothly subdivided displacement which ... More »
May 10, 2009, 2:33 pm 2,312 views
 So one of the first things I wanted to do before rebuilding Dear Esther’s levels from the ground-up was to first analyse the existing areas of the game which needed improvement the most and analysing how they could be improved upon.
I looked over a number of comments found on Dear Esther’s ModDB site and also from my personal experience playing the game and here are some brief bullet points that show a couple of the most common issues I found:
Design
A common issue I found with the original level design, and something I experienced myself, was that it was easy to get lost ... More »
May 3, 2009, 4:08 pm 1,426 views
 Well it’s been a while since I was here last, a lot has happened since and so before I talk about my upcoming plans I think it only right that I should give you an update on The Willows.
The Willows is certainly not dead! However, I have put it on hold for now mainly due to a lack of free time as well as feeling that the zombie genre is a little oversaturated at the moment and don’t feel the time is right for another zombie mod. My plans for it have also grown beyond my current capability (code-wise) but I’m hoping ... More »
April 24, 2009, 2:07 pm 861 views
 Please stand by…
This is a test…
October 27, 2008, 11:09 pm 1,328 views
 Over the past few weeks I’ve been concentrating on filling out the rest of the exterior of the retreat area with details such as an old garage, woodshed, barrels, foliage, chicken coops – you name it, it’s probably there! I’m pretty much satisfied with the work done on this area as a first pass and now researching reference imagery for the next area I’ll be working on; a small abandoned train depot.
It will be part of the old abandoned mining town on the north east of the map, which will offer a nice balance of urban exploration alongside the rural ... More »
October 4, 2008, 6:31 pm 1,415 views
 Progress has been going well; I’ve been working on a number of different things over the past couple of weeks, starting with some research into VTFs and light bounce. I remembered reading a while ago about how VRAD determines light bounce and colour based on a value in the VTF’s header info which is calculated when you save the VTF. As most of my level will only be illuminated by the sky light I realised I could potentially have a lot of very dark areas, which can be good in moderation, but at the same time I don’t want to ... More »
September 23, 2008, 10:48 pm 1,785 views
 Well it’s been a while since the last update, been so caught up in working on the mod it hadn’t dawned on me to post an update, so while my brain is engaged I think I should probably do so now to avoid an information overload.
More Zombie Customisation:
The first thing I did after the last update is sort a few minor annoyances with the zombies which, for me, were destroying a lot of the basic immersion in the game. I started by putting in a bunch of new (albeit temporary) sounds for each class of zombie which are now more ... More »
August 10, 2008, 10:58 pm 772 views
 So i’ve been fiddling around with a lot of stuff this week, firstly R_Yell got the first pass of Ironsights into the game which is awesome! He made a system where I can just position each weapon manually via the console and then when I have a it looking good, I simply enter the values in the weapon’s .txt file and the position will be remembered the next time the game loads.
We still have a few minor things to sort out such as having a cvar which controls the ironsight zoom (fov) for each weapon, and also which weapons to enable ... More »
August 3, 2008, 11:10 pm 732 views
 So with the code shaping up nicely and almost complete, I have been concentrating more on the gamplay side of things again and brainstorming objective ideas and finally got down to some level design. Here is what I have so far:
Game Objectives
Main Objective: Gather Supplies to repair your boat in order to escape.
The area surrounding the retreat is filled with zombies and is an extremely dangerous place. Escaping on foot is not an option, the limited ammo and supplies available would be exhausted within hours. Your best option is to take to the water using the boat you have been restoring on the side whilst writing ... More »
July 31, 2008, 12:31 pm 545 views
This is a quick video to better show off the features implemented in the mod thus far and showcase the optimisations made to the zombie NPCs. In this demo you will see the following:
Regenerative player health
Proper Regional Damage (headshots)
Incremental Zombie health (stronger the more are killed)
Damage affecting player speed (NEW – See below for details)
Zombie optimisation (over 500 zombies in the world running at 150fps max details!)
It also give an idea of draw distances and environment setting although the models shown here are only placeholder and do not represent the final art style.
*Click the video to go to youtube and see ... More »
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