Topic: (WIP) New Single-player level!

[Shroudeye]

Hello all! Its been a long time.

So, I've been offline for some days (say, a month?), and been in a long vacation (Which still continues!), I've decided to put my 3ds skills to a test, and started working on a  Descent 3 Single-Player&Co-op map.

Abstract:

The PTMC Secret force is assembled by Samuel Dravis, hand-picked from his most loyal Mercenaries. They are known to no-one except Dravis. You are one of them.

The Assasins.

You are being sent to a Top Secret Mining & Weapons Research Colony on Titan. Contact has been lost for a few hours, and Dravis suspects it has been compromised-or worse. Your primary mission is to assess the situation, secure research data, and if situation calls for it, purge the colony.
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Currently I'm midway thru basic massing. Here is the general layout so far:


Here you can see the mining shafts (Red/Orange & White), A small installation near surface (greenish) And a complex far lower (Yellow). A giant cavern (Transparent mass covering a portion of the lower level complex) is hosting a landing pad, and will also provide access to the reactor core, and a sewer system. The secret laboratory will be accessed thru the core area.

Any comments, so far?

[VANGUARD]

Is it just me or is that map upside down? I flipped it 180 degrees, and it looks nicer.

If I can get my Descent 3 going, I'd love to try it out.

[Shroudeye]

No, the orientation is correct...  Maybe different angles would help?

[Scyphi]

Interesting texture choices, but I'm presuming that's not final.

[Shroudeye]

Yea, I was trying to imitate Portal's grid-like look... Just kidding!

Joking aside, those textures are there to help scaling the masses and adjusting the UVW Maps. So when I convert them to *.ORF, I'll have less headache... I think.

Anyways, back to mining!

[Shroudeye]

Here is the latest progress:


The preliminary terrain, which is also an experiment: The terrain is raised with a rough heightmap, and got applied a black to white gradient texture (I've applied a %50 transparency to the terrain map, for construction purposes.), which applies the correct gray tone as I raise and lower the terrain. Plus, the terrain is scaled 1/1 to the Descent 3's terrain...

In theory, I'll be able to create a terrain&buildings in 3D, fine-tune all of them as much as I like, and transfer it correctly into D3Edit (via rendering the final heightmap from 3DsMax and formatting it to PCX). The preliminary tests I did were all successful!

[Kaiaatzl]

You want a soundtrack?
I have an idea...

[Shroudeye]

I'd be honored, Fox!

[Shroudeye]

Daily update: I've redone the terrain today, got it a little more simplified. Plus I've started texturing it, experimenting with colors and terrain light.

Can't tell much for now, because I've forgot to take pictures. I'll be able to upload them tomorrow, though (I got no connection in my summer house...).

[Shroudeye]

Oookay, little late, but better late than NEVER!

A bridge, with two alternate lighting variants.





The landing platform, Landmarking the player start location. Again, with two lighting variants.





Some horizon view I've shot...



So, this is my progress so far.

You probably noticed the flatness of the second alternatives. I'm planning to add a good "Saturn" sattelite, so there will be a second lightsource. Currently there is only one sat, the sun.

Regarding to satelittes, I'll need to make a custom texture for it, as there is no "Saturn" texture found in stock textures. I've found a good picture of Saturn. But I'd like to ask, is there any special thing that I must do for satellite textures? Or I simply put it in and, its "voila"?

[VANGUARD]

maybe it's just me; but I sort of like the darker texture more with lights added to them.

[Shroudeye]

Me too

[Scyphi]

I liked both of the darker, alternate, lighting pics, so I suggest lighting wise you work with those. The brighter versions are...well...too bright. 

Other than that, looking good.

[Shroudeye]

Thank you all!

By the way, I've also created a page for it at DescentiaPedia.

And, for working purposes, I'm calling the mission "Titan Mining Colony" for now.

[Shroudeye]

Uuuh... I'm having a small problem here:

There should be a big close up of Saturn there, NOT this white square!

Any ideas?