A Path Beyond Civilian Technology Centre

[NodGuy]

True, but seeing it on a Mammoth would be more awesome in my opinion. Heck, maybe they've tried things before and just worked up to the Mammoth?

[Ice]

It would be cool, yes, but that setup would probably be better suited (hypothetically) to the actual Soviet Tech Centre on a mission specifically taking place towards the end of the war, whereas this one could be used on maps taking place somewhat earlier when the research hasn't matured yet.

[Raap]

6 hours ago, CMDBob said:

I've worked something out for the Iron Curtain effect and it's test vehicle:

(it's just a Tesla tank without the Tesla dome. Perfect for filling full of scientific equipment for monitoring the Iron Curtain effect.)

 

Out of curiosity, care to apply that same effect to an inverted, upscaled-by-element mesh? I'd like to see how your bright red animated material would look as a vehicle outline rather than a "full body" effect.

Edited June 4, 2017 by Raap

[CMDBob]

Right, couple of things: Got the computer centre version of the building pretty much done. I still want to make the oscilliscope version of the tower computer, make a new chair for everything and retexture the sit down desk console that I have at the moment, but otherwise, it's pretty much done. The big dome now has this inside it:

A large supercomputer unit, in the middle of the room. The "atrium" room with the ladder to the roof now has a tonne of desks in:

Many people on the Discord have said that it looks like it's out of the Facility in Goldeneye. I'd... have to agree with them. (Plus, I wish APB had more posters and stuff in it, it's kinda hard to decorate rooms like this without them... Ah well.)

Oh, and one last thing, I did a new version of the Iron Curtain effect on the testbed.

It's now a simple two pass material, one with the base vehicle, and then the existing Iron Curtain effect I whipped up alpha blended on top of the vehicle, so you can more easily identify the thing, but it still glows with ominous, red, invulnerable, communistical energies.

 

[Raap]

That's a better curtain effect for sure. I don't think employing a 2nd pass for an affect can be triggered via in-game events though, but it's not like this is intended to be for an actual, functional, Iron Curtain. 

Just to be picky though (be sure to return that favor to me):

• You really should make a new, high resolution ceiling texture, and not an over-saturated, borderline neon colored Renegade texture, it diminishes the work you've done elsewhere.
• You should add a trimming around the platform and room edges to pace the color transition and smooth out vertex solving. I personally am a fan of warn-stripes in such locations.

Edited June 5, 2017 by Raap

[CMDBob]

I was going to change that texture, I noticed it looked like crap, and while it was the original texture, it's outlived it's original purpose. I've redone it with a much, MUCH nicer, higher res texture. I was also going to slap some trim down and make the edge look nicer and carved in, but forgot. 

EDIT: New trim. Much better.

Edited June 5, 2017 by CMDBob

[Ice]

Looking pretty sweet. That Iron Curtain effect looks amazing.

My only major suggestion for the computer room would be to add a couple rows of tape units along the walls. Computers back then needed a lot of them!  

I agree with you that a few more posters would be nice for APB. There's a ton of WWII ones that we could use.

 

Allies:

These two would be particularly well-suited to the War Factory or other industrial areas

Soviets:

A friendly reminder to watch out for spies

[CMDBob]

Since I've last shown stuff off, I've done a lot of work. Took Raap's advice in the mainframe room, and made the new supercomputer fit in better.

I also took some advice from Pushwall, and added 2 new exterior doors to the building. Plus, added a small little storage closet as well, makes it feel a bit bigger inside.

Then, I also went and made some new props, including some new shelving for the new storage room:

As well as a new console to replace the ugly one I ripped right from Renegade:

And a smaller miniconsole to replace the old Missile Silo computer box thing:

(oh, and some new chairs to replace the roughly 20 poly chairs that were there before, you can see them in the pictures above.)

Edited June 10, 2017 by CMDBob

[Ice]

Looking good so far. I'd still add a couple rows of tape units along the walls of the mainframe room though, and maybe a few to accompany the consoles as well. After all, computers back then typically needed a lot of these units in order to function at a useful capacity, and it makes sense for a research center to have a lot of them.

[ChopBam]

Shadows don't really look right. Check your smoothing groups and if necessary try adding more edgeloops into the floor.

[Raap]

On 2017-6-11 at 8:57 AM, ChopBam said:

Shadows don't really look right. Check your smoothing groups and if necessary try adding more edgeloops into the floor.

Was about to say that. I personally opt to usually hand-draw the shadows though. But in this case the light preset used is simply too large and bright, CMDBob should really create a new one that can be placed with more control. Another issue with using big light sources is light leaking into other spaces. Adding filler mesh between spaces eliminates a lot of that, but in-game characters will still receive light drawing regardless as long as they are in range... So say you're in a dark room, the next room is 0.5 meters away and is lit, if your character is close to the lit room while inside the dark room he'll light up as well. It's a W3D problem you won't be aware of existing unless you actively used light presets at one point.

Otherwise, nice progress, you've just completed 10% of a standard APB level! (Funny note: People often wonder why games take so long to produce these days compared to 15 years ago; The answer is artistic requirements, which only gets larger as people expect things to look better and better.)

Edited June 12, 2017 by Raap

[moonsense715]

On 2017. 06. 11. at 8:57 AM, ChopBam said:

Shadows don't really look right. Check your smoothing groups and if necessary try adding more edgeloops into the floor.

I'm blind, where do you see shadows?

[Jeod]

Looking at the concept art and renders from RA1, I really want to see a redone model of the Missile Silo now. Where are the interior windows or maintenance catwalks to show this area?

Anyway, back to the thread at hand, it's all coming along nicely Bob! You've done some great work here. While the iron curtain testing chamber is a nice thought to add, I think the ideas are moving too quickly. I like the pace you've set for yourself so far. Try not to work on too many things at once.

[Jeod]

I'll toss a pic into the 'computer references' pile. This is from a Red Alert scene, so you can see what kind of gizmos and gadgets they used in data centers. Looks like a newer model than those old black and white photos.

[neko soldier]

3 hours ago, Jeod said:

I'll toss a pic into the 'computer references' pile. This is from a Red Alert scene, so you can see what kind of gizmos and gadgets they used in data centers. Looks like a newer model than those old black and white photos.

That particular picture on the screen is from the end credits of Tiberian Dawn. That scene might have been leftover material from TD.

[ChopBam]

3 hours ago, Jeod said:

I'll toss a pic into the 'computer references' pile. This is from a Red Alert scene, so you can see what kind of gizmos and gadgets they used in data centers. Looks like a newer model than those old black and white photos.

We actually already have this console modeled and mostly textured.

[ChopBam]

10 hours ago, moonsense715 said:

I'm blind, where do you see shadows?

 

[Ice]

6 hours ago, neko soldier said:

That particular picture on the screen is from the end credits of Tiberian Dawn. That scene might have been leftover material from TD.

Not only that, but this particular scene is from the Soviet mission where you have to prevent a nuclear reactor from melting down, and the unit portrayed is being used as a monitoring station for monitoring the reactor's functions. This doesn't necessarily preclude it from being used for other computing functions, but it's also not shown in any other context so it could be a specialized piece of equipment specifically for that function; we have no way of knowing for sure. Plus, there's no conclusive proof of this being the entire computer; What we see in that room could very well be nothing more than a remote console for monitoring the reactor's functions, and for all we know the rest of the computer (possibly consisting of several dozen tape units and processing units!) could simply be in an adjacent room.

In addition, the only really 'advanced' computer tech shown in this scene is the monitors/screens, which as Neko Soldier pointed out, could just be a result of Tiberian Dawn assets being re-used for convenience; There's nothing outright suggesting that the actual data processing/storage units of the time were much more advanced than they were in our timeline, and even if the military had developed some more advanced technology, the older computers would still remain in common usage for many years, particularly with civilian institutions (such as this tech center) who don't have access to the military hardware, which is most likely top-secret and won't be declassified for many years to come.

 

6 hours ago, ChopBam said:

We actually already have this console modeled and mostly textured.

And it looks awesome!

[CMDBob]

Sorry I've not posted anything, I needed a bit of a break (plus work takes up a lot of the day, really...). At any rate, I've been working on the shadow issues with all the props, and I've worked out a nice, neat little solution.

I light mapped it. (The first shot is a little older, before I created a proper 3ds max transparent material for the railings. Now, it's not perfect, by any means (and I still need to relightmap the shelving, as that's why there's a really strong shadow, the ambient occlusion was a bit too high, it seems. It's tweakable though.), but it's way better than it was before, AND it'll take less polygons. I still want to get some sounds added, and the chairs won't be perfect, as they aren't lightmapped (but I have, in an effort to try and help fix the shadows on them, subdivided the seat and the backrest part. I might go back and redo that a little bit.)

The room lighting might still be a bit off, but it's a tradeoff, make the lights any smaller and they won't cast light properly, any larger and they'll swamp the room out. (besides, it doesn't look that much worse than the existing APB building lighting...)

[Ice]

The shadows definitely look better than before.  Looking good

I like seeing the two computer components along the wall in that last mainframe screenshot, but I'd still recommend adding at least two or three tape units to go along with them, and doing the same with any other sets which might be in the room as well, to really give it that old-school mainframe look. Plus seeing lots of tape units all spinning away looks really cool IMO.

Anyway good job so far!