Hey, An Update!

So, we’ve been getting ready for our very first release! Considering that this project hasn’t exactly been free to produce, my plan is to help raise some money to finish up the first episode with… a 3-map alpha! For something really cheap (probably $5 or so), you’ll get the first 3 levels of Last Bastion, as well as the level editor! So, not only will you finally be able to play Last Bastion, but you’ll be able to start creating your own custom content as well! More on this later :)

Lately, we’ve been focusing on the theme for the next two levels after what we showed at QuakeCon. In these two levels, you’re traveling through a waste disposal area, so it has a grungy industrial type of look with a lot of damaging nuclear waste. Here are some screenshots of the first area. Enjoy :)

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11 Responses to Hey, An Update!

  1. Scorphame says:

    O_O Looks really good, I can’t wait your alpha… or beta or whatever :D :D :D

  2. Jimmy says:

    This is looking unbelievably sexy. Cannot wait. :D

    (Also MAP EDITOR EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)

  3. Mechadon says:

    Looking really great there guys! The bloom on the lighting in the map and the glowy bits on the Hyperblade look delicious; it really helps keep everything from looking so flat. Now all you need are some manly explosions and fire!

    What are the sentries shooting, marbles? Heh, I think that’s the only odd looking thing I can spot in those shots :lol:

  4. Carnevil says:

    Hey, thanks guys! :D

    @Mechadon: They’re supposed to be little energy balls. They probably look cooler in motion than standing still… at least I hope so :)

  5. Xoalb says:

    Talking about alphas.. What kind of compression algorithm(s) do you plan to use on the data pack(s)?

    [/nosynosy]

    That looks pretty cool, by the way. The only thing that kind of bothers me is the (rather) flat looking liquid. (Nukage)

    Perhaps a very unclear (opaque stuff that nukage is) and distorted view of something below would look better. At least that should reduce the flat look of it.

    Though I can’t say if it looks that flat for sure, as it’s a still picture.

    Energy balls.. Heh, additive alpha seems a bit missing. :P

  6. Mechadon says:

    I didn’t see any nukage…is it supposed to be the green glowy bits? I guess if so, that makes sense…as opposed to being flat green lights or something (that’s what I thought it was, lol). If that’s the case, I agree with Xoalb.

    The texture on the energy balls look like they might warp or something. If so, then yea it would probably look a whole lot better in game (well, they probably look a whole lot better in game regardless).

  7. Carnevil says:

    @Xoalb: That’d be a cool effect to have. You’re talking about the one in Serious Sam HD when you look through the water, right? The engine doesn’t have any sort of effect like that, but maybe I can do something to make it a little more 3D looking. But liquid is supposed to be flat, isn’t it? :)

    @Mechadon: The energy balls spin. I think they look better when you actually see them in action. Maybe they don’t look so great in screenshots :(

  8. Xoalb says:

    I’m more thinking about refraction and ‘realtime’-displacement. :P

    But if that’s too hard to implent/code, and in general – it would probably still be for the better if most, if not all liquids were at least showing a hint of translucency. (As said, it would probably give it that extra ‘depth’ if there was something slightly visible down below it.)

    And the reason to why I asked about compression, is because MW2 used DEFLATE. (Just like most .PK3s)

    And if you plan on using that, I’d recommend using KZip and running DeflOpt afterwards.

    KZip usually compresses individual files about 1-5% better than ye-usual-good-DEFLATE-implementation, on files for something like skulltag it can be slightly worse at rare times.

    But for modern game files, it’s usually a bit better. So that little saved space can grow up to quite a lot, when we’re talking about perhaps 50+ DDS files. (And other compressible files)

    It’s kinda slow on lots of files though, but that shouldn’t be a problem for *Cough* commercial games. Another thing worthy of notice is that it tends to add the full path to the files specified to the archive. (Eg. It places a C folder in the .zip – this might be manually fixable though.)

    And DeflOpt, as the name suggests – optimises files that use DEFLATE. If it’s something big, you might be able to cut 30 kilobytes off. Usually more the bigger it is. It’s a quick tool, so there shouldn’t be any problems with it. (Be aware that it removes ‘garbage blocks’ from the archive though.)

    [/LONGandslightlyuneccessarycommentmagawd]

  9. Mechadon says:

    For the nukage, are you using some sort of texture and then having it “glow” with bloom? From the screenshots, it looks more like a green “void” or a solid green texture with bloom. If it’s using some sort of liquid texture, then I think it might be getting a little overpowered by the bloom or something. It is hard to tell with just screenshots though.

    If it were me, I think what I would do for the nukage is use a convincing liquid texture of some sort (if you aren’t already), make the face transparent, and then have the “under water” portion be made up of green fog or fade (or whatever it’s called). For nukage the glow would definitely make it feel more radioactive or something, and I imagine you would want to do something similar for liquids like lava or molten steel, etc. The bloom probably works really well for that as long as it doesn’t obscure the texture so much that it looks just like a blob of solid color. What may be a better option is to have the face project a color light instead of bloom…so have the face be fullbright and then have it “glow” with regular lights instead of soft bloom. If faces could project light like that, that is…I don’t think you’d want to use a bazillion light objects just for a fancy liquid effect :P

    I think you saw these already, but these liquid effects in Sauerbraten look really cool.

    http://mekworx.phenomer.net/mekastuff/pics/screenshots/hotdawgs/screenshot_370876.jpg
    http://mekworx.phenomer.net/mekastuff/pics/screenshots/hotdawgs/screenshot_265285.jpg

    Maybe a little too fancy for what you want, but I think they get the premise of my idea across.

    About the projectiles…yea I think I’d just have to see them in-game :lol:

  10. slyor64 says:

    me…want…

  11. slyor64 says:

    Just saying, this looks better than some games I see out there today. Can’t wait for a release/ new video.

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