Post-Mortem

So when we set out on this project, we wanted to do a multiplayer CTF map in UDK.  We had a really cool map design and, through playtesting, we discovered that our map layout works better as a deathmatch or team deathmatch.

What we accomplished:
A concept that is very close to realization
Learned a lot about the Maya to Unreal workflow
I am at a point where I feel completely comfortable managing packages
TOON SHADER!!!
A playable multiplayer map thats actually pretty fun

What we didn't accomplish:
A CTF map, but oh well
Needs a little more set dressing
Needs some more time put into lighting

Updated Lighting

So after 10 weeks we are done...I updated the lighting since the screenshots.  Hope you enjoy!

It is a multiplayer map, so I can make an .exe file and you can play it upon request.

And over the past 10 weeks I have pulled 8 all-nighters...FML

Done!

We are still messing around with lighting, i think we are going to lighten it up a bit.  Also these shots have no skylight, just a dominant directional and some point lights around the scene.

Credits

Andy Hernandez--Modeling and Texturing
Matt Williams-Modeling, UDK, and a little texturing

Outsources:
Gabriel Rosario--Asset Modeler
Nick Bullard-Bradley--Asset Modeler
Uzi Souza--Asset Moder

Quote of the Day

Psychos will always be psychos; they don’t need video games to help them.

SCOTT RAMSOOMAIR, GameCore interview, Mar. 7, 2005

Cannot Add Anymore Awesome...Stopping Development

It speaks for itself

Brief Moment of Genius

So Andy and I had a brief moment of genius in our sleep deprived state tonight.  This is now the result of our hard work(and with Gabe's bucket).

Bucket by Gabe Rosario, B!@#$es by Matt Williams





Update:

Buckets by Gabe Rosario, B!@#$ Model by Matt Williams, B!@#$ Textures by Andy Hernandez

I tried building the lighting, but I got the following message:  Your build has FAILED























So this is running at about 10 fps

Power Plant...Yeahhhhhhh Take It

Models and UDK work by Matt Williams, Textures by Andy Hernandez

Ok I don't have much time to talk about this, but this is the power plant in engine with the Toon Shader.
I'll talk more later once we have more models imported

Edit-  Oh and this is without any cast shadows

Toon Line is Working!!!!

Before

After

Design by Matt Williams, Shader Inspired by http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69086
and many other forum posts, Assets from UDK

OK so after weeks upon weeks of working on this toon line shader.  I finally found out that there is a little checkbox in on the "Screen_Pos" node in the material editor that says "Screen Align", all that I had to do was check that, plug my material into a post-process chain, and apply to world properties.  Anyways, I am tired of looking at this, so I'm gonna go get some sleep.  Woohoo!!!

PS-I now have about 5 working toon shaders after discovering this

Modular House!!!!!

 Model by Matt Williams

Model by Matt Williams

So the last 5 or 6 hours of my life has been dedicated to making different walls for a modular house. Woohoo!  But it works! Everything lines up and hooray.  There are a couple reasons for making modular houses(or anything for that matter) to put into a game engine.  The first reason is performance.  The less unique objects in your environment, the better your game will run.  The second reason is diversity.  With modular assets you can create a lot of unique buildings in a short span of time.  I'm going to add some modular details like pipes 'n such as well as modular balcony pieces (railings, plants, etc).  Andy is also making pillars and arches for a covered bottom level area.

Playtesting/Optimizing Models

So I've got the terrain working with a mix of an unreal terrain and static mesh for the underground.  Basically I used the terrain editor for the stuff above ground and then matched up the underground tunnel to the terrain.  So that was all of Wednesday night, and I mean all of it.  Then I started UVing the power plant, at some point I realized that I hadn't optimized my geometry yet...woohoo startover.  So that was all of Monday night...again, all of it.  I am optimizing the jail right now.

Model by Matt Williams

When triangulated manually, the models are much more efficient going into the engine.  The model on the left is a model of all quads that has been triangulated.  The reason I did this is because when you import the model into unreal, it triangulates it anyways.  So in the end, if I left it all quads in Maya, I would have a model in Unreal with 1020 tris, but when I triangulate it manually, I am left with 514 tris with no loss of detail.  In fact I added some windows on the left side, so it is half the polys with more detail.  Hoorayyyyyy.  While the one on the left may look neat and clean, its not efficient.  Optimization is to be done only after you are absolutely done modeling and before laying out UVs.  Its still a good idea to model in quads and then optimize.  Having some tris while you are modeling is alright, but I still try to avoid N-gons(faces with more than 4 faces) at all costs.

Although manually optimizing is time consuming, it is a necessary evil.

Power Plant

Model by Matt Williams

Its not complete yet.  I need to add some more details, clean up some edges, and add the power distribution station to the side, but its coming along nicely.  Its crunch time and we need to get these buildings textured.  But I'm going to keep modeling away and working in unreal until I'm satisfied with the progress.

UDK Exploding Boiler

Models and UDK by Matt Williams

Kismet Work by Matt Williams

So I got the boiler explosion working.  I have it set up with a remote trigger right now, but all I have to do is make it a "take damage" trigger and put it on top of the boiler.  Once I do that, you'll be able to shoot the boiler to make it explode.

Boiler #1/Destroyed Model

Model by Matt Williams

So I know, I know.  It needs more gauges and pipes and such, but for now its going to be the placeholder for setting up the destructible boiler mechanic in UDK.  Also I'm not going to actually have the rivets modeled for the final boiler, they will be part of a normal map.  Been working on this on and off for the past couple days.

  Model by Matt Williams

And here is the destroyed model.  Decided to go with banana peel style.  So I'm gonna bring it into UDK, make an explosion, then as the explosion is happening and the player camera is shaking, I will swap the models.  I will also have a couple of the separate pieces of the boiler(gauges, thermometers, pipes, etc) as hidden k-actors (physics object), then unhide the objects in the explosion and activate an impulse actor that will shoot the pieces in various directions  Its all fun and games :).  Any questions/comments?

 Andy's Blog

Jail and water wheel in blockout

Models by Matt Williams

I'm not sure if its just me, but this is giving me a much better of idea of how this is going to look overall.  I can just imagine all these buildings finished and the terrain textured with the wheel turning and boilers...boiling.  Ahhh but tis only a vision right now, not in a 5 1/2 weeks though!!!

 Models by Matt Williams

Which one do u like?  The one in front seems like it would be more functional. We want all of these objects to look like they can function. 


Andy's Blog

More Water Wheel

 Model by Matt Williams

Model by Matt Williams

Just some more Ambient Occlusion(AO) renders of the water wheel in the blocked out environment.

Andy's Blog

Water Wheel/Terrain

Model by Matt Williams

 Model by Matt Williams

Well, I haven't posted in a few days, but I've been busy.  I finished up the jail, modeled the water wheel for the power plant, started modeling the gallows and some boilers, finished the base mesh for the terrain, finalized the layout of the city, and I've been working on the post-process material.  The solution to my post-process problem still eludes me, but at least I've been messing around with it.  The water wheel will go through an "artificially" dug hole in the ground to the river below and through the surface of the terrain.  I will post my progress on the boilers in the next few days.  I'm making intact and destroyed models so that I can switch the two out when the boilers explode in game.  Anyways, its been a lot of work so far, but at least its fun.  If you have any questions or comments, please tell me.


Andy's Blog

Jail Model

So major modeling is finally finished on the jail.  Its not highly detailed because of the style we are going for.  We also plan to populate the area with a bunch of assets.  I had planned on having this done last week, but due to some work put into post-process shaders and other classwork, it took a little longer

Model by Matt Williams

Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  PLEASE COMMENT!

Andy's Blog

Post-Process Cel Shading

So I've been working on a post-processing shader to do the cel shading instead of a material on the individual objects.  This essentially is applied to the world properties instead of each object.  I haven't been able to get it working exactly right yet, which is why I haven't posted much lately.  I'll keep trying though.  I've also been modeling a little bit, but not a whole lot.  Thanks for reading!

Andy's Blog

Cel Shading Success...sorta

 Materials by Andy Hernandez and Matt Williams, Model/Texture from UDK

Ok so yeah...bird...random.  Yet this is one of the few things in the UDK library with a legitimate specular map, which was included in the tutorial, and I know you can sorta fake a spec map in the material editor.  Anyways, I worked on what I learned from Mastering Unreal Vol 2 and this TF2 shading tutorial to implement a texture onto a model using Andy's cel shading material.  So it needs some tweaking, but you can see the toon line on the legs and around the head.  This was the last 4 hours of my life.  Back to modeling.  I really want to know how they did it on borderlands, whether the toon line was post processed or done with the material.  Anyways if anybody knows, please share your knowledge.  Thanks.\

Andy's Blog

Chairs

So I just went back to mess around with the chairs a little bit more and realized a pretty big problem.  It works great for shooting the chairs, but they fall apart if you run into them too.  I want to be able to kick the chairs around, but if I shoot them, they fall apart/blow up.  So I'm trying to come up with a solution, I might do the same thing that I'm going to do for the boilers.  Have the destructible static mesh hidden and parented to an indestructible mesh, but when shot with a gun/rocket launcher, the meshes switch out and the destructible one falls apart.  I feel like I am just missing one simple checkbox that would solve all my problems.  Also the internet is pretty much useless for this topic for some reason.

Andy's Blog 

Jail in progress

Model by Matt Williams

Art by Wirt Salthouse


Been working on the jail tonight, just thought I'd send an update out with this and a link to Andy's awesome perseverance for getting cel shading/toon lines working in UDK.  He found a tutorial in Mastering Unreal Vol 2 and put it to good use.  Safe to say that we are going to use cel shading in our game.

The jail is based off of this concept art and the model is nowhere near finished, but I want try and post what I do every night.

Andy's Cel Shading Post

UDK Trap

All UDK by Matt Williams

As I said previously, I decided to set up a trap within UDK using Kismet, which is a sort of visual programming platform.  What happens is that the trigger on the left is not active, therefor going near it does nothing.  When you go over to the trigger on the right and hit the use key("E"), it activates an ambient sound by the left trigger, and activates a "touch trigger" node in Kismet for the left trigger.  Now if I go near the left trigger, I will get blown up.  As a result, I now have a trap.

Andy's Blog 

Traps

Currently I am working on the Kismet event for setting a proximity trap that will kill another player.  The way it will work is a player walks by a boiler(all over the place, steampunk) and activates a trap device.  Now whenever another player draws near the boiler they will hear a sound(basically the other player's only heads up, but it will be subtle so they have to be looking out for it).  If they get too close, the device detonates and blows up the player and the boiler.  I don't have a boiler yet, but I'm going to get the sequence working.  It should be done by Monday night.


Andy's Blog

Andy Hernandez

I have forgotten to post a link to my partner's blog for this project.  I will post it at the bottom of every post from now on

Andy's Blog

Pretty Chairs, All Blowing up in a Row

Modeling and UDK work by Matt Williams

Decided to bring my chair into unreal and make it destructible...hoorayyyyy.  Now I have to tackle the issue of making it so that the player can kick it around without it falling apart.  I think I'm going to have one combined static mesh(with "can become dynamic" enabled), so that it can be kicked around.  At the same time I will have a trigger that reacts to weapon fire, when it is hit, the combined static mesh is switched out with the modular static meshes and an impulse trigger is applied to make it fall apart. yayyyy

Previous Work Powerpoint

The following link is to my powerepoint presentation, showing some of my previous work and some of my other ideas for this project

https://www.box.net/shared/6en9hmfj8n

Chair Model

Model by Matthew Williams
Began Modeling a simple chair for a previous project over the summer and decided to finish it and include it in this project.  Still requires texturing.  I will be creating variations in the model and in the textures to create about 10 different chairs to use throughout the level, just so its not the same copy and paste chair.  Anyways, I am going for destructible assets and i'm excited to test it out.

Map Layout/Blocking

Sketch by Matt Williams
Sketch for the basic layout of the map

Blocking/Coloring by Matt Williams, Hand Drawn art by Andy Hernandez

This shows the basic layout of our map, rendered from Maya.  The map is intended to be a capture the flag map with the two green blocks as the opposing bases.  There will be an underground river running under the town, ankle high water and accessible to the players.  There will be access at the base of the waterfall and by the wall at the bottom.  The two red squares are staircases that lead down to the underground river.  The circle at the center of town is a well that the player can jump down.

 

Drawing by Andy Hernandez

This is a rough layout of the underground.  It has changed a little bit, but this is the basic layout.

Concept Art/Sketches

Sketch by Wirt Salthouse
Some concept sketches for the prison.

 Sketch by Wirt Salthouse
More finalized version of the prison

Art by Wirt Salthouse, Base model by Andy Hernandez
This is the general style of assets that we want, but the art style will be more realistic.