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New Romulus Creation Timelapse
tacofangs
Member Posts: 2,951 Cryptic Developer
I like me some timelapse photography, and it occurred to me while I was building New Romulus, that it might be fun to see the creation of a whole zone in a few seconds. So I started taking screenshots. 1 a day (or so, some anomolies), from the day the map files were first made back at the beginning of August, until today. 62 images in total, from 14 different positions.
And. . . here they are. Hope you enjoy seeing the process, warts and all.
Staging Area
Starting Platform
The Wall and Reman City
The Atlai looking toward the new bridges.
The Atlai looking toward the Mama Nanov.
Mama Nanov & Waterfalls
Vastam Peaks
The Atlai from the old Bridge
Paehhos Crater
Fallen Tree/Forest
Hwael Ruins
Epohh Fields
The Atlai from the New Bridges
Overall from the Ocean
Note that what's shown here is just the changes made within the game editor from day to day. You'll see that the first images already have a good amount of terrain sculpted, and some very rough textures applied. Those were all made outside the engine in the preceding days.
You'll also see some assets just pop in like they were nothing. Let me assure you that there was lots of work being done on them for days or weeks within 3D Studio Max, and were just updated later with more finished assets. (note, the Bridges, City Wall, Nanov for examples).
Lastly, you may notice some views (the Crater, and the Fallen Tree) start off with the camera underground. As you can see, there was a lot of terrain (and other) changes over the course of the map work. I didn't pick camera locations until most things were roughly in place, then I used some programmer magic to take my computer back in time, and get the shots from earlier in the project.
Anyway, it was fun working on this map, and I'm glad the timelapses turned out for the most part. Hope you like them too.
And. . . here they are. Hope you enjoy seeing the process, warts and all.
Staging Area
Starting Platform
The Wall and Reman City
The Atlai looking toward the new bridges.
The Atlai looking toward the Mama Nanov.
Mama Nanov & Waterfalls
Vastam Peaks
The Atlai from the old Bridge
Paehhos Crater
Fallen Tree/Forest
Hwael Ruins
Epohh Fields
The Atlai from the New Bridges
Overall from the Ocean
Note that what's shown here is just the changes made within the game editor from day to day. You'll see that the first images already have a good amount of terrain sculpted, and some very rough textures applied. Those were all made outside the engine in the preceding days.
You'll also see some assets just pop in like they were nothing. Let me assure you that there was lots of work being done on them for days or weeks within 3D Studio Max, and were just updated later with more finished assets. (note, the Bridges, City Wall, Nanov for examples).
Lastly, you may notice some views (the Crater, and the Fallen Tree) start off with the camera underground. As you can see, there was a lot of terrain (and other) changes over the course of the map work. I didn't pick camera locations until most things were roughly in place, then I used some programmer magic to take my computer back in time, and get the shots from earlier in the project.
Anyway, it was fun working on this map, and I'm glad the timelapses turned out for the most part. Hope you like them too.
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Post edited by tacofangs on
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Have you watched any minecraft time-lapse videos those are a lot of fun to watch too?
EDIT: Any possibility that any of these could be made into video format and add some music to them, those are always a lot of fun to watch and kill some time.
Just shows how much hard work went into it and for me it had the wow factor so job well done.
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I'd love to see timelapse's done for other asset creation, but it's a little harder to pull that off. It's easier to do in engine since we can set a point, and always take the same shot from the same position.
Foundry Mission Database
Check out my Foundry missions:
Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan
And I'm glad they did! Dang those are cool. Helps you appreciate it all the more.
On the forums September 2009
Join date 20 Sept 2008
Can you give some insight as to why the city background changed so dramatically, e.g. going from what would have been buildings behind the wall to nothing (visible). You probably changed tac considering its a 'new' colony etc, but maybe some of those original tall buildings could have remained as metalwork structures in development like some assets of the wall have? Perhaps you took them out completely since we don't have a great vantage point on the ground (for the most part) to even see that much behind the wall to notice any metalframe buildings in any case?
p.s. The one thing I'd add to the map myself, would be taking a leaf from the Salt Mine missions where you evacuate the miners, except in reverse. I'd like to see that amazing Romulan shuttle come in to land, some Romulan settler NPCs spawn from it, get greeted by one of D'tan's lackeys and then walk themselves up to and into the gates of the city. The shuttle takes off, and soon another arrives etc. It would give a greater feeling of activity to the area perhaps.
Seriously though, thats some great work. The New Romulus map is visually outstanding, especially the drop close to the staging area ramp that dives down to the Reman section. Cant wait to go down there and explore!
Thats how good maps are made, teasing the user with areas that cant be explored....yet....
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Why do you often make props smaller btw?
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Vornek@oberlerchner123 - Join Date: July 2008
The original "buildings" were just big whiteboxes, and were only there to represent the fact that that big circle was the city. It hadn't been decided what that whole thing was going to look like at that point, and it didn't matter for me to build the rest of the zone. Just had to be representational.
I agree, that would be super cool, but would require custom animations, and likely blocking off the whole landing pad to players.
Thanks, I just assembled them in Photoshop that we have here at work (CS4 or 5 I think?)
A day/night cycle could be nice, but it takes significantly more time to set up than people might think. And I didn't have that kind of time for NR.
Not sure. What props are you talking about?
This nickname made me laugh out loud. And not one of those phony "lols" you see online, either.
Internally, we didn't know exactly what that thing was going to look like until New Romulus was well on its way. We knew it'd be a large river-dwelling beast, so we took to calling it The River Pig internally.
But I think I like Derptopus a lot more.
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"Play smart!"
Now that New Romulus is out, what are the possibilities of going back to add in the day/night cycle?
I don't care how long you've been playing. I only care about how you play.
And remember to follow the rules.
Is the appellation "Derptopus" to be the lifeform's official name?
Yes, it's a "Galaxy's Child" reference...
Statues, tents, the big pink blob you call "nanov"... All these got smaller over the time!
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.