Sp Dev. Diary #13 - Feb. 23-27, 2009

• Looked at sci-fi games that use the unreal engine to see how they do things.
• Did some more work on current layout. Not very happy with the way supports looks yet.
  
• Chris's idea about zero-g got me thinking. Remembered some of the unreal 3 levels have different gravity in them. Googled it, and found out it is possible to change gravity in the levels as a special builder brush. Issue with this is there is no way to move around in zero-g, as you can't push yourself off walls-only floors. it becomes too much about timing when you jump.
  
• Started playing around with other volumes, such as space and water. This might make movement easier and more interesting
  
• With zero-g working, decided to slightly alter the level. The previous layout was good, but now with the ability to do zero-g it might be interesting to do a vertical layout. The idea with computers is that we can do things we wouldn't in real life. I've always been against games looking too much like TV or movies, so I thinking make something more realistic - by using the 3rd dimension in space (Which is something movies and TV Shows can't do due to budget reasons.)
  
• Found a website called Atomic Rockets. This is about making realistic space-craft for sci-fi stories. Gives good ideas about layouts, and what rooms and decks a real space ship would have.
  

Critical Analysis Feb. 26

Commercial Area:

• Commercially, this would be a product for the games industry
• More specifically, it would be for an indie game. So relatively low budget, and without an engine as powerful as most mainstream games.

link to works

Other Practitioners:

• Stefan Morell: Excellent lighting, great geometry, excellent texture detail, great normal mpas, specular, etc. Some of the texures have tiling issues though. Using a very powerful engine.
• Pathologic: Unified color palette, nice fog and atmosphere. Tiling issue, very low poly geometry, very sparse environment.
• Stalker: Good level of geometry, great textures with lots of detail. Visually interesting scene, with a lot going on and good lighting and atmosphere. Some of the building details could use a few more polys and smoothing groups, building in the distance looks a bit low res.

Criteria for Success:

• Composition: Things are layed out in an interesting way, that feels "real"
• Lighting: The mood and atmosphere created by good lighting and other atmospheric effects.
• Technical: Good use of geometry and textures. Detailed geometry and textures as well.

My own work:

• Alright use of geometry. Still lacking in detail in some places.
  
• Textures are good, put could perhaps use more fine detail.
• Havn't tried lighting this piece yet. Previous one looked fine.
  

Sp Dev. Diary #12 - Feb. 14-20, 2009

• Decided to restart the project, this time doing the layout in unreal. A good idea, as it only took two days to get everything layed out.
• Did some more concept art, trying to find a new look which is easier to model.
• Found more reference images. This time of the International Space Station, and of other battleships and aircraft carriers. Very interesting stuff including onboard dentists, barbers, surgery rooms, laundry rooms, etc. Also looked at websites where people design space ship layouts for Star Wars pen and Paper RPG's. Some interesting layout out, and sci fi bits and bobs.
• Started collecting reference images for use in texturing. Found a good new website for textures, called environment-textures.com
  

Sp Dev. Diary #11 - Feb. 2-13, 2009

• Due to car crash, animex, and a football match have gotten very little done
• Decided to use Unreal Ed to build to interior layout. This will save time in the long run, especially since it will give less lighting issues, and will be easier to set up.
• All the details and bits and bobs will still be modeled in 3Ds Max, and then imported in and placed in Unreal.