WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

[Marvin.Star]

We want mouse! We want mouse! That and taffy, we also want taffy.

[2d-chris]

yeah the mouse is a real winner

[sock]

I am getting close to finishing this scene (industrial crane above a large mine shaft) and I was wondering if anyone has any feedback for this? Too bright? Too dark? detail wrong? detail missing? anything you don't like about it? Nitpicks etc?

[GregBoffins]

It's looking really good man.

In regards to your question the other day, yes the fog density feels fine.

I am wondering though (at the moment the lighting along the walls on the top and bottom floor feel even) if I may suggest the lower floor have a slightly darker light setting, something like 10%?

Or be a bit more sunlight dominated? Let the sun hit the lower section diluting the yellowness of the lights down there? That is focused at the second screenshot more or less. The first one seems ok, probably just the angle?

Is there any way to have very very subtle light shafts coming down in to he scene high lighting dust in the air?

Nothing else to really say there, I like it a lot.

PS Quake 3 supports widescreen, or you need to come in to the future and get a 16:9 monitor ;P

[cincinnati]

i'd like to see the mine. and i hope it's really deep.

[knj]

sock, looks good man !

but my only crit is that you have lots of details above the shaft, but the shaft it self is very tiled and even, i think you should give it a lil more variations, maybe cos decails with mine logo or smth ?

[_gb]

Sock, that is awesome stuff. Respect man.

Like others said, the shaft is too bland and there could be a stronger light-from-above effect.

The handrails look a little bulky, too.

But dude, each time I think I'm getting somewhere with my level design, I see one of those screenshots of yours and I know I could be so much better.

[insta]

Awesome work, sock! Will this be just a scene, or will it be another singleplayer level, like that astronomy level you made a while back?

[mjens]

Still Q3. amazing job!

[sock]

@zombie, yeah I have been struggling trying to get the upper area to feel brighter, the sky light is very dull and overcast. I will try out the dust/god ray idea from the skylight and see how it looks. I do produce the screenshots in widescreen, I just re-size them because I assumed most people would want a 4:3 aspect. When I am finished I will produce wide screen versions especially for you!

@cincinnati, the mine shaft is not too deep at the moment, still lacking any detail. Need to fix that.

@knj, yeah I have been searching for good mine shaft detail, this is a modern day industrial vibe so no wood beam stuff. I might just do the usual thing and loads of pipes and metal 'I beams'. If you have any ideas of detail for the lower area I would be interested.

@_gb, The handrails are certainly not modern day round curvy things, I was going for a Russian industrial vibe like this : . I need to fix the mine shaft detail, very bland for sure.

@insta, this is just a scene, my venture into environmental art! I picked an industrial scene because a friend of mine asked for some metal textures and also it seems more people love industrial stuff nowadays.

@seir, yeah, I am still working with the clunky Lego brick engine!

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far, I will add the final stuff and call it finished then.

[_gb]

When you make something like this, what is your general process? Do you start with concept art?

[Minos]

I like that. Looks very game`ish, in a good way

[sock]

When you make something like this, what is your general process? Do you start with concept art?

I started with some photo's of a Russian Aluminum Processing Plant and loved the epic scale of the place. I like to call it communist scale, where everything is so crazy super sized that it could probably do more than it was designed for. I wanted to create a large space and I needed something to tie it all together. Personally I believe that all levels should have a strong focal point, a way to describe the area in a couple of words what it is visually. If you cannot describe the area to someone else in a small sentence and they cannot visualize what it is, then you might as well be creating a bland corridor with pipes.

The selling point of this space was to be a bridge crane. It was going to be a strong connection from left to right on the screen and look like it could lift a building. I saw a documentary about CERN and how they used a bridge crane to transport parts of the large hadron collider down a mine shaft and that is what I imagined this space would be for. I even thought that it would be cool as a set piece for a player to use the crane as a means of travel from one side of the room to the other with various small combat/things to do around it. I imagined the crane as a simple environmental puzzle to give the player a chance to take in the epic scale of the place while doing something interactive and changing the environment.

I looked at various photo's of bridge cranes and eventually mashed all of them together in my head and produced a rough brush concept. Then I built the rest of the room around it and started adding flavour and life to the rest of the space. One thing I did overlook is that large spaces need large amounts of detail and that was something I under estimated badly.

For me this is like a concept, a drawing, except I created it out of 3D lines and textures instead of painting it on a flat canvas.

[_gb]

I see, thanks. Interesting.

[Potkinrot]

Sock: Like it very much! What immediatly jumped my eye is the overall style: It reminds me somehow of Gears of War. It has a "bold" feeling, where big, solid, oversized elements are favoured over small and fragile things (not a bad thing, just caught my attention). An example could be the stairs on the second shot: With just 4 steps, the ceiling would be way too low, so that makes the stairs looking too big for their surrounding. Also the shearlift on the first shot looks way oversized, as if it could carry a house, like you said. All together an interesting piece, could fit right into the next GoW-title.