...No, that's not it's name. I've been working on this project for about a year now... I thought I'd post some screenies here, so you people wouldn't think I was doling nothing related to JK. As for feedback, I'm really looking for suggestions on texturing... All I'm currently using are the LEC 8-bit textures, and I think they look awful here. I've also yet to apply lighting to any of this as well; don't tell me I need to add lighting, but suggestions on the best way to apply it would be nice.

As for the mission... I don't think I've finalized the plot yet, but it involves the story of a young padawan sent by the Jedi Academy to deal with a Remnant spy. This level is the first third of the mission, starting on the roof of a giant palatial tower. Built while the Old Republic was still strong, it was converted into an Imperial base during the height of the Empire, and now houses Remnant forces. The primary goal is to reach the bottom floor. Anyway, the screenshots:


A bit of a generic hallway. Lighting is obviously in dire need here, but I'm waiting until I can figure out what textures would be best here.


A workstation-type area. I'm still trying to think of what would be best for the screens shown in this shot.


Another hallway, but this one overlooks a crew workpit.


The outside of the tower. Two shuttle bays, needing work with both arcitecture and textures, and a door leading to a TIE fighter bay.


The entrance to the TIE fighter bay. I'm the most satisfied with this of all scenes, but there's still quite a ways from complete.


A flight control deck. I'm still thinking of what to fill the ceiling, as well as the outside (skybox), and the computer terminals.


Communications station. The "water" wall is a placeholder for a clear-glass map screen, like those seen in Echo Base in ESB (Imperials use them as well, wouldn't they?)

Anyway, now for the feedback.

That's pretty good. But indeed LEC's 8-bit textures aren't really that impressive, but it might be hard to find textures that make the level give a star wars-vibe.

The only suggestion I can think of, is change the texture for that light in the first shot. It looks like there's a giant energy beam shooting through the corridor. Unless that was the look you were going for, in which case.. tally ho

Hmm just an idea for that first shot which I think might look cool. Make the hallway fairly dark; only some dim lighting coming from the lights in the wall. Cleave up the ceiling light's surface in small parts if it isn't already and then make various ghostobject underneat it and have them move along the light through the hallway with frames and at the end jump back to frame one. Make them emmit some light and it'll look pretty cool.

That would be a good idea for a corridor, however, not that one. For that one (and another on the floor above, that looks just like it), I'm trying to go for a "sterile" feel, as it connects connects several computer terminal areas and other technical sections, such as the one shown in screen 7. Perhaps for a less used area (such as in the basement of the tower), but not there.

And I do agree, the ceiling light in screen 1 looks a bit like an energy beam when stuck in place. Perhaps I should increase the scaling of the texture above 0, to make it appear is if it's several sections of florescent lighting, not juse one single piece. I'm also probably going to add a slight ammount of flicker to it, and madify the textures (or colormap) for that room to give them a brighter, less color-saturated appearance, as I want the celing light there to be really bright.

The architecture is great. Only suggestions I have is to get some nice new 16-bit textures.

It all looks pretty standard. Just a mass of ribbed hallways with some good texturing. I think you need a bit extravigence or perhaps some more human non-rigidness in there. Maybe some chairs that aren't perfectly aligned? Some datapads strewn across the desk. A commanders hat thrown to the ground from a mission gone wrong, etc. Just make it more lived in.

I think the textures are just fine. With the right lighting, they'll fit in with the SW theme.

JediKirby

you're going to die soon

i love you too

2nd shot and shuttlebay are my two favorite shots.
Very nice.

I won't bug you with rants over the light thing in the first pic, tho
Maybe you could do that texture scaledown thing and have an occasional flickering section...

Just for reference, I plan on trying to have almost every surface have a texture scale of 4, and use 16-bit textures to get a cleaner appearance, and allow me to do a lot of the lighting with textures (since I don't have too many surfaces left to spare for the sake of lighting)

I still have yet to place any ammount of 3DOs (The pipes in the first shot, and the shuttle are the only ones in the screens). I'm not placing any yet because I'm still worrying about the ~512 3DO limit, and the level's already rather huge (a single level fills a great deal of a tower over 1000 feet tall). All of the rooms will have some objects placed, with furniture, objects placed on tables, and perhaps even discarded items in some spots. (One of the objectives I had thought of a few months ago would include finding a blank datadisk to dowload computer data on)

I heard that there's some sort of COG that temporarily removes a placed object, so that one can place more than 512 "things" in a level without a problem. Since the level already has two large indoor gardens (of which I'll post screenies of later), such a COG would be very helpful, but I don't seem to see it in the downloads section (I might have missed it).

That's GBK's cog. Go post in the cog forum.

Post it, and he will come.

Thanks, will do!:)

GBK still hasn't answered my plea... Should I bother him elsewhere on Massassi, or would such a move be too dangerous? (this is GBK we're talking about, of course...)

The attached zip contains three versions of his rvtcs cog

020 - standard create/destroy thing system
021 - same as 020 except creates things with a random yaw
030 - Does not create/destroy but, rather, sets geo mode to 0 or 4

btw, max thing limit is 640, but it's a good idea to stay down around 550-600, so you leave plenty of room for projectiles and such.

Thanks! I'll see what can be done with it... Perhasp more and better screenies later.

It's way too repetitive... each shot looks like you spent 10 minutes working on some somewhat decent architecture, and then just copied and pasted it. Try to add some variety into each copied and pasted section to make it different from the next one.

OMG TIS JK! HAPPY DAYS!! YAY

its looking perty good

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

That's why I say it's in bad need of textures... There isn't a lot of variety I could have used to make a detailed hallway, with arcitecture alone. I badly need textures that will actually give the feel I want to each hallway, making each seem quite different. Here's the feeling I need to achieve for the areas in each shot:

1. This area is high maintainence/high security. I want a "sterile" feel to pervade this section. To achieve this, I need to find textures that have a pristine, but lifeless appearance to them, and I'll add effects to the textures such as glare from the over-bright ceiling lights, and directionally-based lighting. The hallway's not even lit yet...
2. This area is supposed to be a bit claustraphobic. it's close and tight, as well as dimly-lit. Imperial technicians sit here 24/7 keeping the control systems running. It is dull, tedious work for them, but they cannot afford to screw up. The materials should appear new, but perhaps somewhat dirty; cleaning this area is inconvenient.
3. This is the lower level of a maintinence bay for TIE fighters. It should have more of a grimy, rusty appearance to the metal, with dripped oil (or whatever high-tech libricants or fluids are used for machinery in Star Wars), rusty metal, and other minor details visible. This area is so heavily used, cleaning is rather futile, so the Remnant doesn't care how messy it may appear.
4. This is simply the outside of the tower. This is the onyl part citizens in the city will see, assuming they're lucky. It should look imposing, and grand. The textures in the shuttle bay badly need replacing; I've been looking at RotJ, and I'm trying to re-construct the shuttle bay in the Death Star here.
5. This is the entrance to the TIE bay. While it may appear well-used, fairly little wear comes of the actual structure here, because it is so hard-to-reach. It is rarely maintained due to the same reason; particularly below the hallway that passes above the passage, the material should appear quite old, as it's something that was left in from the original building when the empire took control, and hasn't bothered to change since.
6. This area is still a little claustraphobic like shot #2, but this area is more high-maintainence, as it's very important. It is to be well lit, and Imperial technicians work hard here 24/7, but in more comfortable shifts. I'd imagine that the middle of the room would have well-maintained steel tables, laden with maps, Imperial regulation books, and hot, stimulating drinks (whatever SW has for coffee). This area would have perhaps the most human feel of all the areas pictured.
7. This comms center is more quiet than the previous shot, as the Imperials here are constantly busy. A high level of order is maintained, but it's more busy during the day than the night (when the mission takes place). As a result, the place will seem somewhat barren, with some trash neglected, and fewerpeople present than shuld be expected.

I hope that clears up what I'm trying for, at least a little...

Thanks! I like getting compliments for my work, instead of all the nit-picking criticism that's more common. I wonder how good their work actually is...

me too.. and I wonder the same thing... again.. nice work.

Or I wonder if they have eyes patruding from their head, and are able to assist you in showing you the fact that you're not at your full potential.

You don't need to be able to make a car to tell that it handles poorly. You don't need to be a painter to enjoy, or not enjoy a painting. Further-more, what you're saying, is that you have to be a SKILLED editor to make comments on your work? So you have to be a GOOD painter to be able to judge painting? Shut up, and ignore our posts if you don't want our honest opinion. Keep accepting the mindless bull**** that people spew forth.

That said:

OMG DOOD, KEWL!

JediKirby

A lot of the time it's that same 'mindless bull****' that motivates me to keep working. :/

It's not actually a serious problem for what shots I've posted... I was just a litle annoyed over the "very repetitive" comments, and anything that might have bee posted WITHOUT reading the text that accompanied the screenshots. Most good arcitecture IS repetive, even in rather different areas. Texturing makes one heck of a difference. As I stated at the beggining of the thread: I know how much better it will appear when better textures are applied to it. (a good example of the importance of good quality textures is Spiral's HaVen) Oddly enough, though, I have yet to recieve more than a single small suggestion on what textures to use instead (and that suggestion was one about the hallway ceiling light).

Actually, I specifically made note that the textures look great, it's just that the rest needs to be less normalized.

Just don't expect mindless grubble to your work; if you want it to be better, open yourself up to all forms of criticism. If you don't agree, just scroll past their post.

JediKirby