Dear Esther | September 25, 2009 | Time for another update I think, been a while actually (or at least it feels like that!). So over the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on various bits and pieces for the environment, firstly making rock clusters which are scattered around the bay, such as the path from the lighthouse to the beach and the hermit’s cave. I’m still in two minds about using models for rocks like this however as I’m not a big fan of the vertex lighting, even with all the advances of the OB’s per-vertex lighting and self shadowing. I find that the lighting is often inconsistent with the lightmapped geometry, so I’m considering changing them over (or at least partially) to displacements and seeing how the performance compares.
Another thing I worked on, and something that had been bugging me since the project started, was the problem of creating a realistic ocean with Valves pond water. After unsuccessfully trying various complex solutions I finally decided to go back to basics and tried a simple scrolling TwoTexture, with some carefully crafted textures, applied on a brush 1 unit above the water. Initial results were very promising but one of the Read More…
Dear Esther | September 1, 2009 | Been another slow week this week; however I have managed to finish sculpting and painting the terrain for the first level and am now looking forward to getting some props made in the coming weeks to continue to flesh out the environment.
Here are some WIP screenshots of the section I have been working on this week, mainly the valley down to the Hermit’s cave and the route back up again:
Upper route down to the hermit’s cave
Hermit’s Cave
To make the walk back up the Valley to the next level a bit more visually interesting, I added a small brook which flows through the lower valley from a small underground cave.
I will be also adding the ruins of an old church here.
So basically as far as the terrain is concerned it’s pretty much done, however I will probably keep tweaking it here and there up until the end, but for now im happy with it. I’ve had a few comments about the bareness of the landscape in some areas, this Read More…
Dear Esther | August 21, 2009 | Hello again! So the past couple of weeks have been rather chaotic with various things going on taking trips out for reference photos, family visiting and advancing another year closer to old age, hence the lack of an update last week. However this means I now have a lot more progress to show off this time around!
Since my last update I have been focusing on getting three things done; firstly creating and applying basic textures for the terrain e.g. rock, sand grass etc, and lastly, painting and sculpting the terrain. In this pass my goal was to create the most convincing landscape possible without the use of any models or additional assets. This was mainly to push myself to make use of the crazy amount of displacements in the map and also to ensure the textures I was producing were of a good enough quality to stand on their own, the results of which can be seen below:
After a slow start, mainly just finding a style and palette which I was comfortable with, I’ve found progress has been pretty smooth and I’m almost complete with the terrain on the first level, Read More…
Dear Esther | August 2, 2009 | After a month of pure chaos I’m happy to say I’m now finally settled and sorted over here back in the UK and over the past week have been getting stuck into Dear Esther’s development once again.
Been a pretty slow week just finding my feet again and most of all finding a good place to start on the huge task ahead. I initially started doing some rough texture work for the terrain but quickly realised that it was more important to have a nicely sculpted landscape on which to base the artwork. The video below is a time-lapse video of just some of the sculpting that’s been going on this week. This has mainly been quite effortless due to the preparations I undertook early on and am hoping over the next week to have the first level fully sculpted out ready for a texture pass later on:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI9cVDVGBL8
Once the texture pass is complete I plan to start detailing the landscape with more models and working on some of the larger structures such as the lighthouse at the beginning of the map. Speaking of which Ben Andrews redesigned the lighthouse a little to help it Read More…
Dear Esther | June 3, 2009 | So my stay in the Land of Swede is nearly over and soon I’ll be departing back to my glorious hometown of Newton Abbot in the UK (-OH GOD!). This means that I may be inactive for a few weeks while I get myself sorted with an apartment, internets, time to chill out etc. I’m hoping for things to start picking up again around mid July so at which time I’ll be able to dedicate my full attention to the mod, and am really looking forward to it!
It’s been a real blast here in Sweden, I’ve made a lot of really good friends and Im really gonna miss everyone, and of course the amazingly beautiful women, especially when this is what awaits me back home…
Finally I’ll leave you on a positive note with some of the latest concepts made by Ben Andrews to hopefully spark your imagination of what’s to come:
Read More…
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