UDK Environment - Air Filtration Cave

[Shadow3035]

Hello everyone,

I realize that I'm just popping up out of nowhere, but I've been operating under the radar and working on unrelated works for the past few years. I recently started up a personal project for my portfolio of an underground cave scene. The entire concept of this is heavily inspired by URU. The cave scene is a small section of an underground cavern network (not D'ni, not on earth); the cave section is a small room with a shaft leading up to the surface. The room has a fan that cycles the air through the shaft, and distributes it through ventilation shafts throughout the rest of the cavern.

This project is very much Work in Progress, but I am actively working on blocking everything out with at least simple meshes for the time being. Any art assets in the level are in first iteration passes (except the tarps, I'm pretty happy with them right now).

Now for the technical talk.. If you really care to know all the specifics; assets are being created using 3D Studio Max, Zbrush, Photoshop, and XNormal. The engine that I'm using for this project is the Unreal Development Kit. And as such, this will not be playable in URU (unless go through the steps to convert it, which I may). If not, I can cook the map as a standalone .exe file for use by anyone with a decent computer.

This map is just a simple environmental scene; there are no puzzles or secret areas (sorry).

I felt that it would be appropriate to share this experience with you all because of what Myst/URU and Cyan Worlds means to me. I'd like to think of this not only as a portfolio piece, but as a tribute to a community that I have cherished for so many years.


All talk aside, here's some WIP screenshots. I have a bit of updated progress; but I'm dealing with a ton of stress at the moment, so next time I open up UDK I'll get those for you all when I get a chance.

Feedback and comments are more than welcome, I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say.


Here's a direct link to the picture album since I'm having too much trouble with the IMG tags

https://picasaweb.google.com/1071669269 ... directlink

[N. Sigismund]

Good work so far!

The best suggestion I can give you is to add a whole lot more detail to the cave walls. Clutter the place up a little.

[Shadow3035]

Absolutely! I appreciate the feedback. I plan to add a few more blocking/first iteration pieces after I finish texturing my current model for another project.

I'll be adding:
Pipes and machinery around the giant fan and around that wall.
Ventilation fan duct units around the cave walls
More lighting units
control panel for the fan - possibly
RRC equipment (crates, tents, etc.)
Anything else I forgot to mention.


As for the texturing on the cave walls; I recently found out how to do vertex painting with 4 different textures, I've updated the photo album with the currently results.

[Sirius]

Nice place ! The latest images seems a lot better, more natural.

I'm having too much trouble with the IMG tags

I think uploading attachment (near the "option" tab) should be working for images. But it will be loaded from your computer, not from picasa.

[bnewton81]

Beautiful work. I too considered using UDK or Unity for an age, but figured if I can do it with blender and PyPRP then i can do it with anything I don't think I'm anywhere near qualified to instruct anyone on 3d design, but I do think that the success of any video game hinges on its ability to immerse the player in its reality. Detail is key. And hiding anything that reminds the player that they are playing a game is very important as well, i.e. edges, unrealistic texture repetition, sloppy collision, and of course laggy game play.

Honestly I should be taking lessons from you. Your pics were amazing. Far better than I have accomplished... Yet Keep us posted on your progress and I for one love to see a new poster in forum.

Myst was so successful for one main reason in my opinion. It was the first "game" to ever really transcend the barrier between games and other more accepted mediums of expression (film, music, art, literature). Myst was no Tale of Two Cities, but it did spark our imaginations and give us a glimpse of what this media medium is capable of.