Water fun

well water plays a big part in my map..infact its probably about 70% of the above ground enviroment possibly more if i can use it better, so with this i decided to have a crack at following some tutorials to make my own water to see how it looks, after some huge tutorial and 96 instructions in the material editor later i came out with:



it looks pretty good, you use a reflection of the sky in material so it looks realistic however due to the sheer scale of my water area when i increased the scale beyond what i was happy with it still looked like it was just a material copied over and over, you could see where it ended and repeated again giving an ugly tile effect so unfortunatly i had to find something else, i scanned the assets provided in the unreal folder and found some liquid materials and a distorted lake gave something i think i could use as it doesnt give a repeated tile effect and the waters moving quite rapidly which would be realistic due to the floods in the area:



i think ill roll with this and see if i can get the terrain shape how i like it next so i have all the water in place

Back to Unreal!

Well for now i just wanted to get some building shapes blocked out as they would be in there final position and hopefully get the scale something like.

Im not sure if im going to use 3D for any of these buildings as your fairly limited with bsp shapes in unreal but i can at least have some sort of buildings and if they are not how i wanted them i will draw concept art showing how i would have liked them if i had the time to make some curvy futuristic looking structures.

So im still going on what i remember in Unreal 2 avoiding reading these books for aslong as possible so some progress shots:

So theres the dam structure and now im reusing some of my old bsps with some garage doors on simply so i can figure out the scale of things also using pavement meshes as a rough outline for the roads but theres progress!



Hard to get everything in 1 screenshot, but ive added more buildings are outlined a general grassy area for the park.



Now ive added some gates round the park and a rough path, ill probably make a better one using bsps but for now i just used the terrain editor to paint out a rough path so i could get used to the scale, also added some trees and a feature in the middle of the park, again its probably just a placeholder but i find it quite useful then i go back over it at a later date and replace things with final meshes.

Unfortunatly this was as far as i was able to get, i cant add the next island with more buildings on yet as i dont know how far away it will be as thats dependant on how far i can make the underground tunnels reach without feeling stupid. Until i have this island i cant lower all the other terrain and fill with water. However im having some issues with the underground as im used to unreal 2 where if you want to add a staircase under terrain you just subtract a cube but as this engine is different you need to add a cube and then subtract from it which is causing me a few issues so im going to have to consult these unreal books! however im fairly pleased with the rough outline ive done and i think the scale feels right which is probably the most important thing.

Yet more concept art!

Well i still wasnt entirely sure on my map layout i knew i wanted a built up area, a park area and then to use the underground to access another part of the map as perhaps the water has cut off other ways to get there which gives the enviroment another dimension.

I drew out another image trying to get some ideas together and came up with this:

I was trying to draw the map out in a different perspective and as i drew out the dam i thought, actually that could be a massive apartment block, its in the future population is increasing and they are running out of areas to build housing so why not have a massive complex that doubles up as a dam for the Thames the theme may change a little and ill probably add more art concerning this structure later as radio masts and other features will probably be roughly added to it as people are having to adapt to the flooding but with this in my head i had another go at an overhead view exactly how i would like my map to be for once:



And this is it, it has the built up area in front of the dam as in my previous image with a park area on the left, ive added some roads and the bridge on the left and the smaller island of buildings on the right is where the main goal of this enviroment will be. The idea is you have to take the underground entrance which will be somewhere near the dam and follow the abandoned and possibly half flooded tunnels and old train tracks through the underground as the water is stopping you reach it otherwise. But this is hopefully something like what i intend to create in unreal 3 depending how much i can do with the water on a large scale enviroment.

I also drew up some concept art of the underground showing how the water has reached here aswell:



However now i have a good idea of how i want my map to look i can open unreal again and pretty much change everything i had already made!

Some assets for the interface

I still havent got round to reading these weighty unreal books so i decided to work on some art which i intend to use in navigation which i should be creating in UIScene at some point!

The main title i made for the game i few months back ive expanded on slightly to accomodate areas to have easy to read buttons on so i went with some simple borders

Few buttons to be used in these borders also:





There are others but this should give a clear idea as im not entirely sure which ill use yet.

After some research and listening to others i realised i probably shouldnt restrict myself to the red colours im using as in the otherside of the world and due to the density of the ash other places would be freezing over in almost an ice age style enviroment so i created my tephra backing screen again and tried to give it an icey effect in photoshop

I think it turned out pretty well and it means i can use red/hot screens for certain areas and blue/cold screens for other enviroments but for the title i wanted to include both to show each extreme so i simply merged them together which will be my final main screen:

Main Character

Ive drawn out my main character, although i hvent really gave him a name or a proper bio i thought it would be worth uploading the image of him as it gives the game more of an identity now you know how the playable char looks

So the idea of this behind this is to be just your average typical guy, does his 9-5 job doesnt really enjoy it but needs the money to get by, mid-late 20's quite scruffy, just an ordinary guy not some big super hero type. Which i think is useful for letting the player empathise with the character more.

Concept for tutorial zones i may create

I decided to quickly draw out the tutorial zone, both indoor and outdoors. The base is set up in some old abandoned warehouse, the inside is where you would begin the game and learn the basic controls such as moving around, jumping, crouching climbing ladders etc. This is probably also where you use other features of the game which i will go into more details at a later game (upgrading guns and buying other equipment) as well as where you pick where to travel to next in the main story.

The outdoor area would have a target range set up and access to some basic weapons and would be where you are taught how to hold and fire a gun as its something you've never had to do before but need protection from the bandits you will encounter.

I intend to draw these out much better at a later date and include more detail as i work out what i want to have in these areas as i may make them in unreal if i have time later on in the year as they are fairly small enviroments.

Concept art for the other areas

So I've changed my main char from an ex military type figure to an average guy whos caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and is thrown into this post apocalyptic type game.

The idea is the volcanos thick dense ash has made all the satellites in the world pretty much useless so countrys are cut off from each other, thus they cannot work together to save the planet from mother nature herself. To get over this they need to reconnect and reuse all the old communication systems (internet lines, phone and radio towers etc) pretty much the technology we are still using today.

The main character you play is an engineer with an average 9-5 job who is approached and hired by the Mercury corporation who is a team of lead engineers who have all the blueprints and scans which pinpoint how the old technology exactly works and where the main systems are throughout the planet. Your task is to be sent around the planet and reestablish communcation via these methods despite you never having done anything like this before (Half Life style)

As i was going to create the London area in unreal i still wanted to develop concept art for the other enviroments you would visit throughout Tephra so i have made one quite detailed image which would be somewhere in North America close to where the volcano had erupted.

So this would explain the fires around, however this would also be from the bandits who are taking advantage of the situation and looting what they can.
This picture took me days so although i wanted to do at least one for each zone its going to be a while before i attempt another area.