"The Zoo" ( Decadence) (Updated 1st nov)

[misterbister]

Hello everyone!

This "level" is made for the mod "Decadence" and is just a dummy level (we call it "The Zoo") for us to define how the style should look like in-game.

The world geometry, lighting aswell as a few models is made by myself, but this level is truly a team effort.

I would really like to have some feedback on the level though. My main consern is the brightness, all monitors are differently calibrated, do you think the level is too dark? Is there anything you think is missing in the level?

Is it original enough? Could other elements be added to enhance the unique setting even further?

Read more about the mod at:

http://www.decadencemod.com

*updated screenshots*

[Grinwhrl]

Looks very interesting, but whats with the neon toxic waste looking leaves?

[Meotwister]

yeah the trees are ... irradiated? The rest of the map looks good and not dark on my crt monitor.

[RA7]

Sweet and scary

[e-freak]

I find the leaves quite cool - make them a real lightsource

[misterbister]

The glowing trees have been affected by toxic water, thats why they are green.

We wanted this because theres so much you can do with mutated plants, such as letting them act as lightsources or contrast to the otherwise colourless environment. They can also act as natural cover and be an effective tool for blocking off roads.

We have problems with the glowing leaves getting too much attention, and it looks odd when only the trees in the park are glowing, and nothing else. We planned to add smaller plants and stuff glowing aswell, but we didn't make it to the deadline. However we will be adding them pretty soon.

e-freak:

The trees do have lightsources, but very vague. You can see it in the screenshots if you look closely.

[mjens]

more polies on trees would be good - the big one on buildings too. Leaves looks unnatural but I guess it have to be like that. Good and nice

[D3ads]

Looks really nice, I think the glowing trees are a nice touch, will look better once you've added other vegtation to the mix as well

[⌐■_■]

Looks really nice, I think the glowing trees are a nice touch, will look better once you've added other vegtation to the mix as well

+1

[Furyo]

I would argue that the idea they're irradiated isn't sold as well as it could. A cool glow around the leaves would be very nice, especially if that glow was animated on/off slowly.

At the moment, it just looks like someone's put the selfillum line in the vmt for no real reason....

[Skjalg]

I think the trees would look a lot better with grey spiderweb leaves instead...

You could have loads of small plants that give off light instead, having those big trees just look weird.

I'd also work on the color of the light emitting from your flame. looks good otherwise, its dark enough and bright enough

[TeddyBear]

Really good start! Congrats on keeping the deadline.

Crits:

Besides obviously glowing way too much I would say the trees/toxic water idea needs even more care. Try to get a better blend between the leaves and trunk. I think it would look more convincing if the bark sporadically glows around the areas where the leaves grow, as that would make for a smoother and more natural transition. Maybe a new shape for the leaves and another attempt with the trunk design? Nice job on getting translucency work on the leaves by the way.

One thing about the skybox (which, not to forget, looks very nice): with that kind of angle of lighting I really miss crisp normal map highlights as well as more defined shadows over all. It feels a bit too ambient at the moment.

Also, try adding some wallmark detail (leakage, cracks, dirt around transitions etc) to the buildings to spice them up a bit.

Good luck with the rest

[Minos]

Yeah looks good But please, stop using BASE02 cause that font was cool 3 years ago!

[misterbister]

Yeah looks good But please, stop using BASE02 cause that font was cool 3 years ago!

The font is custom made by our team member Claes "Nurb" Engdal.

If you take a closer look you will notice that there are actually trees growing out of the letters.

[misterbister]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, heres an update:

*updated screenshots*