Update

Over the last few weeks I have been creating extra assets for the level, these being another few extra floor pieces to give the levels aesthetics another little boost making different ones for the various positions that they were going to be in such editing them but generally keeping the same style of them so that I can keep and overall look and feel to the section.  Alongside creating these I have been working away on concept art for the level, sketching out both plans for the rest of the section and ideas for weapons and characters etc. I will be uploading these soon once I have scanned them onto the computer, after which I will be going into Photoshop and adding extra details to them there.

Floor pieces

I have created all of the floor pieces I will need to create basic corridors within the level, I may at a later stage decided to create specific sections if the need arises but for now the ones I have made will be used for the flooring. I have create a few floor pieces these being the straight section, a corner section, a cross section for joining with rooms and doorways or simply a cross section of corridors and I have also created a T-junction section for the same purpose. I have been working away on getting them texture, all with the same colour pallet and including small lights in them all to give it that sci-fi feel.

Straight Piece

Corner Piece

Cross section

Junction

Main wall

I have also textured the wall, I have encountered a problem with the wall when it has come to texturing it as the texture looks fine when it is inside 3DS Max and when it is rendered in there but once it is placed into UDK and the lighting is turned on there is a problem with shadows on the mesh, so I will be going back to look into this problem further in the near future.


This is what the corridor looks like when it is placed together. There are still some parts missing that i am currently on working on, but this is the basic look of what the corridor will look like.

Back to modeling

So with all of the basic game play, events and cameras for the cut-scenes and quick-time events set up inside of the cell blocks, i have decided to go back to modeling the rest of the assets for the cell blocks, thus making it so that i can finish them off and add lighting to the scene, as well add more minor events into the section to do with these and add these to some of the current cut-scenes where i have them planned.

Firstly on my to do list for modeling is the main bulk of the walls and floors for these sections just so that i can bulk it out a little and make it look a little more impressive than just standard blue and white squares that make up the BSP walls that are currently in place. So i created a list of what i needed to create to make up the corridors. That list being: The walls themselves, i will need to create two versions of these however as with the floor due to the sections were the cell block doors are. The floors, pillars to go with the walls, the roof, a door for entrance into the main corridor which leads to each of the cell blocks as well as a wall for this to fit into and the lights that will be placed onto the ceiling.

So far i have created  the mid section wall, the mid section floor piece and the pillar model and am beginning to texture the floor model first trying to keep to the same colour pallet, look and feel as the one that i had created for the cell block itself.

Main Floor

For the main floor of the corridor i decided to stick with the same sort of style as the flooring inside of the cell blocks themselves, only this time i have put some extra detail and decided to begin creating the high poly assets instead of just creating the simple low poly ones. This floor piece is bigger than the cell block one due to the extra room in the corridor giving me some extra room to play with. So with this being a high poly assets i decided that i would model a hole for grates to be created and placed into instead of just texturing them on, thus making it look better once inside of the engine, i also included lights into the floor to give it more of a sci-fi feel and to add to the aesthetics of the level inside it and especially inside the sections where the lights are flickering or totally out due to the sections without power that i have implemented into the level. The blueish parts on the model show below is where the lights are these will be emissive texture once i load all of the texture inside of the engine and add the textures inside of there.

(Below rendered image of the floor piece and below that is the asset inside of the software)

Pillars

I created the pillars so that the corridor had a bit of depth to them and so that they didn't just look plain, bland and desolate. The pillars were there for another source of light in the sections where there was no power to the lighting, with these lights being emissive textures again like the ones in the flooring. These lights will change colours inside of the level like the status bars on the cell block walls, when the power cuts out of an alarm is sounded these will change to red as a sort of visual warning for the player.

(Below rendered image of the Pillar and below that is the asset inside of the software)

Wall piece

With the walls there will be a number of different section/ asset pieces to make up the full piece due to the various parts of the room, such as a different wall piece will need to be created for both of the door types that are going to be within the corridor, one being those that lead into the cell blocks themselves and the other being the one that leads into the actual corridor. The section that i however have created to begin with is the piece that will tile to fit in-between the door way sections. Again with this model i ave included the light panels and also the missing grates/panels to be created separately  and added in later to make the model look just that little bit better.

(Below rendered image of the Wall section and below that is the asset inside of the software)

All of these models are currently un-textured but i am currently working away to create textures from them wanting to get the textures done for these and have them placed inside of the engine to form a base for the corridor before i move onto modelling any of the other assets to complete the section. I will shortly post the finished textured models up upon completion of them.

Change of Direction

So with my life being a little hectic over the last few weeks i haven't really had the time to sit down and focus on a specific part of the section that i would have liked to do. This was also hindered by the fact that i have been having trouble with my video capture software so i have been unable to record videos of what i have been doing to upload. So with all of these issues i decided that it was best if i worked on something that could be picked up and left at the drop of a hat so that i could spend the few free minutes that i had working on the little things. So with this as the plan i have been working away creating the basis for the quick-time events and cut-scenes as well as going in and adding triggers to the doors that needed opening for the game-play.


This is a screen shot of the what i have created inside of the level so far as you can notice that it isn't much but as my time has been scattered over the last few months i haven't really had time to work on this as much as i would have liked to. But what is shown is the build up of the three prison blocks on the ship, there is still alot of game-play to add and more cut-scenes and events to set up in this section which i will be getting straight onto now that i have a bit of free time coming up.

What comes next

Over the next few days i will be continuing working on the shutter mechanic, creating the assets to create the base version of this and getting the mechanic up and running and implementing all the variations of this that will be included in the level and placing these within as i go about making the rest of the section. I will also be planning the rest of the game play for the section for example what will be placed where and what other sorts of things will be placed in these cell blocks. I will be posting videos of the mechanic as i progress along with it just to show what the mechanic will look like. At the moment it is in its base stage, i have placed standard metal frames in the place of the shutters fir the time being just to show how it will work and so i could go about getting the timing and the look of the event right. I will be recording a video of this so far to upload.

The prison block so far

Here is a screen shot of what the level looks like inside of the game now, this is just the initial build-up of the cell blocks they will change when it comes to a point when I feel that I can come back and rebuild them, also I haven’t placed lighting into the scene yet I will be placing these into it at a later time. This is just meant to act as a template as to what the cells will look like, I will be creating assets and textures that will change the look of the cells as I will be making each of the cells unique, placing assets, textures and events in each of the cells to give the prison section a nice edge to it where nothing will be duplicated over or no one cell will look the same and each cell block will have different game play from the others. 

Screenshot from inside of the level at the moment

As you can see so far the computer panels outside of the cells are still to be textured with even a base texture, i will be working on this over the space of the next few days while i will be going about creating some more of the gameplay for the level and going about creating the next section and the game play to come after the player escapes the first cell-block. I will also be changing the emissive textures that can be seen on the walls in the screenshot above, i will be changing these to say 'Online' and 'Offline' instead of 'Active' and 'Deactivated'  i will also be creating the new emissive textures for both the online and offline modes. So that once the player uses the computers to open the cells or there is a power cut or fluctuation and the locks on the doors fail releasing the doors, that the emissive textures will then change from glowing green for online to glowing red for offline. 

Prison Block Assets : Doors,Wall and Floor sections

So after returning to the project I began to create the rest of the assets that I needed to finish off the cell block, going about creating the doors leading into the individual cell blocks as well as the floors trying to get the visuals of the cell blocks done to give some sort of idea as to what the level of at least the section would look like. All of the assets that I have created are base models that I will edit, re-texture or re-make at a later time when the level is at a more complete stage. 

Prison cell-block wall and doors ( This is the side of the door that leads into the individual cell blocks)

As i said before this texture will change and maybe the model as well when it comes around to it as the text at the top of the door will be getting put into a panel or a proper warning box of sorts. I'm thinking of editing the top panel so that there is a sort of plaque sticking out from it with the message engraved or sprayed onto it, the text that is there will also be subject to change. There is one thing that will be defiantly changing at a later point and that is the main circle in the middle of the doors, this will have a logo placed on the middle of it, weather that logo is going to be an emissive texture or just a standard one im not too sure yet but this will be replacing the standard green mask that is just there for speed at the moment. 

There door that are also seen here will be getting decals made for them and alternate textures due to the fact that i am going to try and make each prison cell look unique, i will be creating various alternate textures to place ontop of these such as  bloody hand prints, smashed glass, scratch marks etc just to give the level a more natural feel and not just like the prison cells have been cloned and that the player is just running through the same thing over and over again.

Prison cell-block floor (Perspective view)

(Top down view)

Again as with the floor as the same as the doors i will be creating decals and textures for these to switch between when i am placing these inside of the level. I have created these pieces to tile seamlessly within the engine to create the bottom of the cell-block giving the player something to walk over. I am also going to at some point create another high-poly asset of this due to trying to incorporate the wires into a quick time event inside of the level in which the player rips the wires out of the floor to cut the power to some of the cells rendering them powerless and thus allowing those inside to escape.

So returning back

So after a while away concentrating on some other more important issues i am back working on the project, and am looking forward to getting back into it, i have over the last few days been planning what to do next and what to focus on first. I have been re-editing a few textures to get them to fit a little better together as i got back into the hang of the things. Just really re familiarizing myself with the software and going over all of the files and finding my place again. Also just on a quick note if anyone would like to contact me feel free to contact me by dropping an email to pknowles352@gmail.com or on my website once i get that up and running as i will be working on both that and this project over the next few weeks.