Posts by Albatros

Hey,

thanks it's good to be around again!

We're trying to do a lot of stuff with Source, although I must admit that my jaw must still be lying around somewhere under my kitchen table after playing Dear Esther yesterday. It's the final proof that Source still does have the potential needed to create stunning visuals.

The Zeitgeist Ouverture is online now.

The wmv. video is on http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php ... 2423&saved and, still in mp3-format, available for download from zeitgeist-thegame.de / downloads.

I'm currently translating the prologue of the novel with the help of an expert; I can't tell exactly how fast I'll progress, but I'll try to make updates with two or three pages every two or three days via facebook and, eventually, as a whole on the ModDB.

Cheers,

Til

Hey,

some of you may remember me from a couple of DoD:S and RnL maps I made years ago. I'm afraid I went into inward emigration after noticing I was literally not working on the level I wanted to work on, so I took some time off to improve my modeling, texturing and level design techniques to hopefully become a somewhat more complete artist by working on a project I could be really enthusiastic about. So I scratched all my sketches and the rest of my money together, rented a server, started some levels, put them online and ended up with a 14-person-project single player total conversion called "Zeitgeist", set in the 1930s of an alternate reality where history took a couple of different turns. My current function is that of the lead level- and environmental artist, story author and project manager aka :monkey: .

The Story:

The story behind Zeitgeist takes place in the 1930s of a fictional time line. The 'Great War', as it is called, did not end in the autumn of 1918; with the Lusitania never having been sunk, the Russian Revolution failed and Italy having left the Entente due to an internal crisis, the war lasted until the summer of 1929 when most of the reserves were gone and the continent's economy finally collapsed. Now, in 1934, a league of nations is about to be founded in London: an end to war and a solution to all the national conflicts.

Then, a terrible attack crushes the hopes of the european people in a heartbeat. Peace now depends on Richard Czerny, a journalist who happens to bump into the terrorist right after he planted the bomb in the conference hotel. In a race against time, Czerny, wrongfully accused of being the terrorist himself, must defend himself against the police, a radical militia and an ancient secret organisation trying to keep the flames of war burning. The next and probably final episode of the 'Great War' seems inevitable as scientists in Copenhagen and Berlin make a discovery that could change the face of warfare forever.

The Setting:

Zeitgeist features several European cities such as London, Prague and Venice. The fictional 1930s allowed us to place intact old towns, baroque and renaissance buildings next to modern art deco, art nouveau and bauhaus-architecture. Neon signs and imperial insignia might appear in the same scene, just as horse-drawn carriages, steam trains, Zeppelins and highly modern streamlined vehicles. In order to keep the technical and historical background's credibility working, we spent years on recherche and employ, among others, a trained art historian, an engineer and a transportation designer.

The Images:

As by now the number of finished or almost-finished levels has increased over the years, I'll try not to show more pictures than necessary to give you a first impression of the visuals we're trying to create for Zeitgeist.

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(I'll keep spamming pictures in here every once in a while, and only savage criticism and personal insults can stop me, so you know what you've got to do ).

The Books:

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I'm currently working on three novels about Zeitgeist, right now on the second book. In the beginning, writing the books was only necessary for the creation of a plot and a cast for the game. Then it turned out to be more fun than I was hoping for, I developed a kind of workflow and now the first novel totalling 700 pages is mostly ready for printing. I am still looking for a publisher - in case I'll find a solution for that, I'll have the books translated into English by a professional. Naturally, there are lots of minor characters, locations and story twists that will not make it into the game because of their complexity and the enormous amount of time needed to include them, so reading the novels might be an option for those who'd like to know more about the story.

The Trailer:

Thanks to Stefan B., formerly RnL, for the Prussian P08.

Our Communities:

We are active in lots of different communities so we can maintain connections with other developers and creative artists all around the globe. We've also been featured in podcasts and several print media articles, but I want to spare you from having to read or listen to all that stuff, too. Zeitgeist has the following communities, accounts and pages:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/zeitgeist

If you want to know more about the history of Zeitgeist's development, our "news" section is our backlog with all the important updates between the beginnings and today.

http://www.facebook.com/zeitgeist1934

The Zeitgeist-Facebook page. Started only yesterday, going to be updated most regularly.

http://www.twitter.com/zeitgeist1934

My brain is not capable of using this twitter software program thing yet. Still, here it is!

http://www.zeitgeist-thegame.de

The official Zeitgeist website featuring print media articles, more images, information about the team & the Zeitgeist ouverture.

http://www.northcapestudios.com

Our showcase & studios website.

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We also have a Steam Community.

I'm sure that you (like anybody else with a life, a job and / or friends) have a dozen better things to do, but if you wish to support us by joining our groups or even our team, you're welcome! We're happy about any visitor and we'll try to answer any questions.

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Cheers,

Til / Albatros

P.S.:

My apologies if you've read parts of this posting in other places before. Descriptions and images don't change within days, and I think there is no benefit in rewriting a synopsis or a technical description if making it look different it is the only purpose of the rewrite.

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Oh well, 400 polies for each one of the three.

I'll make something truely medieval soon, hence I need to make some common

props like these.

Cheers.

I've been working on that scene for 5 months now it's a crazy amount of work.

hessi:

Sure thing, I've used that method for DoD_Nuernberg, too. Larger portions of big cities completely rebuilt 1 : 1 in source...

still a no go, I'm afraid. So yeah, reception and creativity are the tools I need to make this work :/.

I already exchanged the huge Quellenhof for Berlin's Kaiserhof (called "Hotel Kaiser" in RnL_Aachen), and the walking

distances shouldn't exceed 20% of the real distances. Makes the Tram take some unusually tight corners along it's way,

but once again the good old trade-off between playability, historical accuracy and technical practicability. In other words:

it what sucks.

@ Bic-B@ll:

Oh well.

Different colours for the same building's exterior are a common thing for buildings of that period:

http://www.schwarzaufweiss.de/belgien/i ... dstil9.jpg

http://www.acfbi.ch/images/Riga/Riga%20 ... il%201.JPG

http://www.designladen.com/metz/source/ ... l-4267.jpg

http://www.guenter-gusek.de/assets/imag ... ndstil.jpg

http://www.wokalamps.com/bilder/info/wagnerwienz3.jpg

http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/7949/trekbonnsnow12.jpg

http://www.imhof-multimedia-consulting. ... _ganz2.jpg

http://www.imhof-multimedia-consulting. ... hnitt4.jpg

http://www.rackmann.de/1996-Dateien/image008.jpg

http://cdn.fotocommunity.com/photos/16210292.jpg

http://www.baukunst-nuernberg.de/aeu_bayr_70.jpg

http://zeitungsviertel.de/img/aldo-ross ... mbnail.jpg

They're creating contrast, no constantly uniform colour schemes, which is intended, too, I believe.

Also, a building of that size has many different and independent structural components - I don't

think it's that odd to let the walls collapse while the pillars and columns still are intact.

Some of my references:

http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/ima ... 2665-p.jpg

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f? ... 1c965f227f

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c? ... cd_landing

http://gsb.download.bva.bund.de/BR/scha ... g/40-2.jpg

Cheers.

P.S.:

VoodooBenshee:

I'm trying to map an area around the Stadttheater and the Hotel Quellenhof.

I'd have loved to get the Dome or the main square into the setting, but that'd have

meant overkill both model- and vis-wise .

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No new compile yet, just another screener.

Quote

Those sections you have highlighted don't go against anything Narby said, he was emphasizing how the forces on a collapsing wall will depend on how it was taken down. Almost all the sections you have highlighted are where the wall has sheered away as a result of the weight from the other structural failures.While you could made a technical case for exacting scenarios that would result in the arrangements you have used, they would be extremely unlikely and to many people it will make what you have there look un-natural. In such a beautiful scene that has some extremely realistic shapes it is a shame to shock the player out of the illusion by presenting them with an artificial looking form.

Alright,

I guess keeping my position now would make me look rather stubborn

As I said before, I'll gladly fill up the most "likely to collapse" parts of those bricks and then give you guys an update & see what happens. I still fail to see the shocking dimension of this brickwork though, and I - honestly - wouldn't have noticed it myself.

The idea behind placing those bricks was to keep a line of them next to the concrete beams / pillars, so they wouldn't look all "naked" - an idea I got from my ruins picture collection, once again.

But yeah, I'll just add some supporting elements/additional brickwork around the most fragile spots and maybe the problem will be solved then.

Cheers

Hey again,

yeah, there have been pros and cons, and, frankly, I did show those shots around

on lots of communities and - as always -, opinions were very much divided.

I'll pass those first bricks a piece of supporting wall for the next compile so the gap

(which is what you refer to as the missing row of bricks, that kind of "floating" effect)

is closed and there's some downwards-curving in the bricks, but I don't think this'll

change that much. The missing row of bricks, that I can understand and it needs fixing;

but as for the normal collapsing wall of bricks that looks just like "cut off", I know it's

a thing that just simply exists, even though it may look odd at first.

Sentura:

I already answered that on the last page. I'm always glad about useful feedback, but

for this particular discussion, please check my last postings again and you'll find that I

did in fact give this problem a lot of thought and I've come to a conclusion over the past

six or seven years. If it's not the bricks, then it's something else that stirrs up the same

kind of discussion where people have a tendency to either like or dislike a feature/detail,

sometimes with good reasons on both sides. That's no arrogance of mine by refusing to

take advice, not at all , and I really don't want to be misunderstood there.

Cheers,

Til

Thanks Narby for pointing that out again.

As you said, you're marking some "typical" lines of collapsing walls there.

I also do get your point and I do know that the typical line has to be the

guideline in most of the places in a map. But I don't think it's that much

of a contradiction to use bricks the way I do, taking your images as

example...

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Seriously, I don't think this is leading anywhere.

P.S.: Basically, I can fix that one line, and it does need at least to have

that gap closed, that much I admit . But there's always a why, why *that*

particular set of bricks might have an additional support, and why *this*

wall-bit looks out of place... it's just a matter of spotting it, accepting it

as possible and leaving the rest to the author, as long as it's not totally

out of place. My opinion, but I'll stick with it for now.

Cheers,

Til

Hi Sentura,

I don't intend to place anything in the map that doesn't make sense from the logical

point of view.

Those bricks up there would doubtlessly be held together by mortar, and there is no reason

to believe such a structure would collapse immediately, since I've literally seen thousands of

pictures of similar ruins. Which is the point where I take the liberty of trusting my own judgement

more than that of others who - just an assumption of mine - haven't made the same effort.

Now, I could start a poll for any controversial detail on the maps, and I'm sure there would

pretty often be a 50/50 situation where people like a detail that others dislike, and in all

of those situations, I'd choose to keep that detail if I like it that way.

The problem is, between those bricks shown in the upper picture and, for example, these:

[Blocked Image: http://www.albatros44.de/aachen/aachen_0409_d01.jpg]

... there's hardly any difference. Yet, if I was consequent, I'd use neither and, if I continued

combing out my maps for any debatable thing I'd need to abandon tons of interesting minor

detail, which I'm not willing to do.

I've had this discussion many times over the years, and it's not getting any more interesting.

So, all I can say is: I don't think it doesn't look right.

Cheers,

Til

P.S.: still glad about any helpful feedback!

Hey guys ,

don't want to make this a fundamental thing, but Hessi is right there.

Theoretically, it's no problem. Physically, it's no problem. And practically, it's not a problem, either.

Just think about this one point. When I'm making a map, I need a considerable amount of

time for looking up references before I can even start . I've been making WW2-maps for almost 7 years

now, so I've seen thousands of pictures of ruined sceneries and still keep gathering tons of pictures for

every new project.

One of the lessons I've learned is: ruined cities always look different from what you'd normally expect.

Some odd, grotesque shapes are created by the detonations and firestorms, and more than once,

walls, decoration and details in otherwise completely devastated cities will appear to be totally intact.

http://www.belvue.be/_imgs/parcours/Fronttoerisme.jpg

http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/2 ... 1944ca.jpg

So... trust me when I say that everything you see in my maps has it's purpose, unless it's WIP, which those bricks aren't .

And, IMO, a map that consists only of things the observer expects can't be a map that stands out.

Cheers,

Albatros

Hot stuff tanuki .

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Changed the lighting, rescaled skybox props, added... stuff.

Getting there.

Thanks everybody for the feedback .

- Albatros

Organized and well structured - it'll play ace. On the other hand, it looks all warm and fuzzy due to the lighting, and the architecture + detail has a quality that makes me feel at home instantly.

Considering it's a Beta and considering it's for DoD... a whooping 5 outta 5 from my side .

Great work SE.

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Shhht! In the extremely-early-wip-part, actually .

Cheers.

Oh and neat stuff, I like it .

Long time no see - haven't really had anything to show in the past months, just been way too busy working on those four Mods I thought I could handle. Well, up to now I actually could, more or less.

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This is going to be a map for Resistance and Liberation when it's done. Right now, it's in early WIP stage and I'm about to complete the main objectives.

The city that is portraied is called Aachen, where the Germans and the US forces fought battles that were not decisive from a tactical, but from a strategical point of view since Aachen used to be the city in which the German emperors were crowned.

Anyways, cheers.

Til / Albatros

Same thing as with many folks around here - I'll either apply for a job in the GI (had some interesting offers already, but I'll finish studying first - heck, I'm only 23, and that's what most of us are, low to mid 20s), or go right into my own freelance company and get licenses for everything that's needed, so I can claim that the work I'm doing on my "Mod" isn't work I'm doing only for fun's sake.

I've already put aside some money for that purpose, even if that means I'm not living a very pleasant student's life right now.

Video Games volume of sales has reached that of Hollywood in 2006, and beaten it in 2007 and 2008, and I'm very determined to participate in that business since frankly, I feel like I've got the talent to do that and I damn sure spend my daily pensum of work (on some days up to 16 hours) on getting better at turning my ideas into actually playable video games. Adds up to a realistic chance to be successful. From my experience, there's really more than a handful of people capable of creating better stuff than the big companies (a fact that reflects itself not only, but also in the growing number of mods turning into standalone-games).

On the long run, a joint venture of really absolutely qualified and highly talented devs, all coming from the custom scene, forming an independent studio and creating all the content from the first sketch to the last brushstroke should be able to produce a game that sells. I've spent three years now working in many teams with a lot of people who work for big studios, making various modifications, so I did in fact get some insight into the processes that are behind the development of a video game. The only external thing that'll be necessary for this concept to work is the publisher, since making a game and publishing it are two entirely different pairs of shoes.

And yes, warby, this would in fact be the money generating machine. But what makes this different from a couch potatoe's wet daydream is the fact that it'd require at least one year of hard, mostly unpaid work and discipline. And although the hard-work-factor wouldn't change over the years, the benefit will be that those people working in that studio can really claim to do what they want to for a living.

Frankly, I'm also fond of traveling and I want to see the world and meet people while I'm young. But I'd rather spend another two years working hard and without anything to show for if that means I'll not be forced to spend my life working a 08/15 job until I'm allowed to retire and die with 67 years...

Thx ,

been working on it a lot since I have to wait for cloudy weather until I can continue on my Mod-maps - need a sweet dusky, cloudy custom sky for at least one of them, and Petrus is no friend of mine these days.

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Most of the work was brushwork-related, aka removing brushwork and replacing it with models.

First picture shows the old state with two rather flat brush-based buildings with blurry, bland texturing, the rest of the pics is

freshly from the last compile.

Let me know what you think when you find a moment.

Thanks guys

@GL:

Yeppers, working on that (after finally turning in that bl**dy laws paper tomorrow, been haunting me for four weeks now).

Furyo:

Muchas gracias. You were right on the stock model sticking out in that very spot - actually I took over the entire building from another map (Grafenstein), so I removed it and used my limited abilities to get some custom arches & pillars done for a new one.

I'm depicting the city almost like it really was, but I did in fact go for a more sci-fi like scenario, adding some futuristic stuff (architecture & equipment-wise). It'll just be too much for me to finish on my own, so I'm trying to get something presentable done to stir up some interest. Here's the new stuff:

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P.S.: the red glow stuff will be tweaked down in the next days.

Stood there in 1928, JeanPaul.

http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/uni-kurier/ ... /sl20a.gif

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... t-1930.jpg

It only has the rough shape laid out so far, but I'll do the insides as well.

That's one of the reasons I wanted to do this scenario - people usually underestimate the progress architecture and art made in the years between the wars.

New screenshots tomorrow - or so I hope .

Cheers,

Albatros

Hey again,

update on lighting and glow effects as well as a new skin and heavy model changes for one of the models. Can only imagine how the black 1938 Volkswagen I'm working on will fit in there . Thanks for the advice, Warby .

This is the best I could come up with yet and it needs a whole lot of improvement, no doubt, but the desaturated lighting and the glows make it much better already now.

I only implemented them for the SCHÖTTE, Lichtspielhaus and Paul Leicht letters and they need much tweaking, but yeah.. feels much cooler already.

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