Discussion: The Intrepid Informer: Issue #3

Welcome to our 3rd issue of the Intrepid Informer!

As indicated in our last issue, Gilbert Martinez is back to tell us more about the floating fortress that some of you may have already seen on the North American Beta server or the European Training Room. Indeed, if you have participated in one of our Issue 20 Beta sessions, you would have been able to head over to Independence Port to talk to Admiral Sutter of the U.S. Navy in order to investigate an intriguing inter-dimensional rift signature originating off the coast of Paragon City in the Atlantic Ocean.

Before you launch yourselves into yet another mysterious investigation, make sure you delve further into how the flotilla came to existence to better appreciate this brand new environment from our amazing art team!


The Floating Fortress Art Process: Part 2
by Gilbert Martinez

Hi folks,


Last time I talked about how the Floating Fortress exterior art for Issue 20 translated from a 2D design idea into the final 3D location you see in the game. This week I'd like to focus on the phases the interior ship map went through to become final art.

The image below is a three-quarter, top-down view of Senior Environment Artist Ryan Roth's "greybox" layout for the two-level ship interior required by this mission. A greybox is like a 3D sketch, a fairly simple mockup of a gameplay space created in a 3D modeling package that allows artists to iterate quickly with the design team on the size of areas and placement of key components such as doorways , stairways, and hallways. They were able to run around in it in game and make sure the spaces were big enough, all the elements needed were represented, and navigation would make sense for players. Ryan gathered photo reference of military ship interiors to help guide the look and feel of these areas so that players will feel like they are running around inside a military ship. When the Art and Design teams felt like the greybox met the criteria for a fun and exciting mission space it was locked down so that Ryan could move onto the next step.

Ryan's next step was to replace the 3D greybox with more refined geometry and add all the details you would expect to find on a ship such as overhanging pipes, railings, doors, and support columns. The image below is the final geometry pass for the ship interior. You can also see that he placed lights in the game editor to create areas of light and shadow

After Ryan completed all of the modeling work his next step was to paint all of the textures and finalize the lighting. This is the part of 3D art that requires the most time and skill since this is when artists adds all of the detail work to the game assets. You can see the final results below. You'll note the subtle pattern on the ground which takes advantage of normal maps that make it look bumpy. You'll also notice the effects of our screen-based ambient occlusion technology that adds subtle darkening wherever two surfaces meet. It is especially noticeable on the ceiling. It adds that extra little bit of realism without artists having to paint it in by hand. A big shout-out goes to our talented rendering engineers for adding this feature to our game.

And that concludes part two of the Floating Fortress art process from our end of things. At this point, it's up to you as players to go in and provide the finishing step: Have fun! Thanks for reading.

Ran around this ship the last I20 sneak peak. Definitely one of the best game interiors yet.

I'm staying away from beta so I'm not burned out and don't have that "been there done that" feeling on launch day.

The floating fortress is still a head-scrather, but well, okay. At the very least that's an interesting peek at the development process.

WARNING: I bold names.

When I saw the final image, my first thought was, "How long are my 'bots going to be stuck on those railings?" And my second thought was, "Man, I hope I don't have to escort any hostages up those stairs!"

(Seriously, what is it with this game's pathfinding AI and stairs?)

So, instead of some fantastic space station, a spectacular alien city (not Rikti) or something else completely different....we get....a bunch of ships slapped together. Ugh.

I love these behind-the-secens features

It's a great new map - and I think it'll get quite a bit of use in the AE, as it could also be used for the inside of a submarine, or even a spaceship.

As unimpressed by the art as I am, I'm even less impressed by how the screenshot was taken without antialiasing or anistropic filtering.

im seeing all the teeth gnashing and cries of doooooom!!!! In regards to this new TF and those folks are forgetting that I20 isnt friggin live yet!


In regards to the space station comments....give the developers some time! Sheesh, I am certain they have the tools to make it happen, however I am sure they have a ton of other things that are on their plates that they are still working on. I never read anywhere that I20 was going to be the last update for this awesome game......Besides how many games do you know of that are still going strong after 7 years and still have awesome developers that truly care about this game and to be certain is a labor of love to some of (if not all) them!

I really like these "behind the scenes" glimpses. Keep up the good work .

That ship interior looks terrific!

Also, Jazman, Yuck You.

Personally, I love the map shown here!

As much as I know many have asked for space stations and alien cities (and I too would also appreciate seeing those), I must admit, this a unique step and a direction I didn't expect, but am thoroughly going to enjoy, especially when it's made available in AE.

With work being what it is of late, I haven't had much of a chance to dive into any of the beta testing; this is also coupled with the fact that I'm looking forward (as mention by another poster earlier) to not being burned out on the new stuff by Issue 20 launch day so I can enjoy it that much more after launch.

The Intrepid Informer issues are providing great insight into how and what the teams are doing to provide this incredible new material, and I for one, am glad that everyone who's reading these forums gets the opportunity to see the levels of effort it takes to get to this point; there is no 'slap in a wall here and there and toss an overlay across it' easy process here.

Being a retired Navy man, it does my heart good to see our side of the world get seen and represented in-game.

Major kudos, team!

Reminds me of the Ritki mission map with the one dam (can't remember which mish it is though)...

Hey, as long as we've now got a Navy admiral as a contact, we need an aircraft carrier in-game that routinely launches planes into the sky. Not just coz it would look cool (and the ULTIMATE in escort missions as you fight off hostile planes to lead a damaged plane back to safety), but because I'd be trying to time my hero outracing the plane off the catapult/runway.

*hero gives the thumbsup to the control tower* "ALL RIGHT, GO!"

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

No word on fancy artwork for villains. Hiss.