Philip Salas letter

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Philip Salas letter

Post by Slugger »

I sent him an email not 5 hours ago, and he promptly responded...and oh boy, this is a big one! 8)
Hello Stephen,

First off, thank you for your interest, and support. It is an honor to
know that that there are
game players out there that have come to appreciate all the hard work
that went into Trespasser,

...thank you Stephen.

I'll go on to say, that we had high hopes for Trespasser... allot of
hours went into trying to
make what we considered a great cutting edge gamming experience of the
time. It goes without saying
that our teem also put allot of man hours and dedication to fulfill
what we where trying to achieve
together, I learned allot about the meaning of team work which followed
me throughout my carrier.

Everyone gave it their all, to try and achieve what seemed very
ambitious at the time, without most
of the technical resources available today. For some of us, the
experience within the process of
what we where trying to achieve, compensated for the studio politics
and technical limitations of
the time.

I was honored to have inherited the project to it's completion as Art
Director, and among the levels I
was responsible in completing artistically personally, was
coincidentally "Pine Valley, je je...
(funny you should ask :) , so I am very familiar with the Level you
mention in your email...

We had allot of hopes for “Pine Valleyâ€￾ as well... it was
originally a "giant" area divided into
three major sections of complex game play, surrounded by beautiful
scenery of intertwining roads through
a lush Pine Valley forest (hence the name of the level). You later
progressed on to a section deeper in
the Valley, by a Raptor's den with some very aggressive Raptor's
protecting the grounds of some abandoned
Mayan ruins. You later proceeded on to the electrical plant section,
over seeing a vast cliff
side with a beach head below. The level finally ended after you
completed the puzzles within the electrical
plant, than taking a long drive or "walk" until reaching an abandoned
post, which was protected by some Raptors
and a very hungry T-REX. ( sorry to ramble on Stephen ...this all
brings back memory's.. jeje)

needless to say, it was a fun level to work on....

Even though Pine Valley was completed artistically, one of the chief
reasons we decided to cut it from
the game, were the technical difficulty’s within some of the game
play. The limited time allotted to correct these,
forced us to eventually split up this wonderful level(cutting most of
it), in hopes of trying to rescue all
the hard work. What partially survived of "Pine Valley", is what you
see it in the released version of the game.


It would of been a great level to play through. If "Pine Valley" were
re-built today, implementing and in
consideration of the currently available cutting edge graphic hardware
and development toolsets, it is
most likely possible that tasking on such a task, would of been more
successful, and "Pine Valley" could
of been built as it was originally intentioned.

I hope this helps you out some Stephen. Once again, thanks for keeping
the spirit of Trespasser alive,
If you need any further help with anything, feel free to let me know...
I'll see if I can dig up
some old images for you... CD or DVD burners were not very popular at
the time, so I have all Trespasser
work backed up on my trustee old "JAZZ" drives jeje..

Once again, thank you for your support and loyalty, and good luck to
you and all at "TresCom"

cheers,

Philip

Philip Salas
CEO. DIRECTOR
KALAFILMS
philipsalas@kalafilms.com
http://www.kalafilms.com
He seems to remember very much about PV. We can see what he still remembers about it, if he has any new information/modes/images, and then open it up to the public for an interview.
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Post by machf »

Oh man... that's great info!

I bet the Mayan ruins were either where Draco suggested or at those flat places to the sides of the road to the plant...

Let's open the questions thread then...
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Post by hppav »

Finally, something pointing to there being a fench structure type thing between the Lab and PV levels. I wonder of the View building was a part of that post?
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Post by machf »

Possibly... that also explains the green T-Rex and the lagoon, I guess.
Oh, and now we have a better guess of what "Forest Walk" meant...
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Post by Mickey »

This is awesome news :) Would it be possible he has a early version of the level? That would be awesome or even some maps or the terrain... 8)
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Post by hppav »

I wonder what he has on those JAZZ disks...
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Post by Mickey »

hppav wrote:I wonder what he has on those JAZZ disks...
ye that exactly what I am thinking and it making me all childish inside :P
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Post by Slugger »

Do you think we ought to see if he's interested in joining the forums, and giving him access to the PV member's-forum? He seems very interested and enthusiastic in seeing PV recreated. :)

(I got chills when he said that he was responsible for the direction of PV. :wink: )
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Post by hppav »

Yes, that would be awesome! I'd like to hear his crits on my View Building recreation, since he's the one that was in charge of PV.
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Post by General Kenobi »

We could definitely use his help, sounds like he knows exactly how PV should look.
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Heheh this is amazing... though let's not get too big for our britches just yet. ;) Do we know what his current occupation is? Not everyone has as much time as some of us, to wander around forums hours at a time.. of course if he CAN spend any desent amount of time here, that would be great. :D But let's take that slowly, don't want to make him feel like we want to drag him into a pit of quicksand, if you know what I mean. Let's first see how much more he remembers, and what things he has available for us to use. Any textures, and of course screenshots would be very helpful.. NOT TO MENTION any surviving models. Mickey I'm doubting any versions of the level survived... :? Of course if they did that would radically alter this entire project, making my files completely obsolete. :P I anxiously await finding out what he has on those JAZZ discs, we definately need to open a thread in the public PV section about questions for these two fine genetlemen... (we might as well bunch them into one, and either ask all the questions of each of them, or figure out a few which might only apply to one or the other of them).


That's neato about the Mayan ruins. Definately connected to the little spot I located, IMO. The land around there isn't flat by any means, I'm not sure how much more "ruinous" the location could have been... BTW I found that one pic of it I was trying to find before. Took long enough...
Image
While this doesn't show the primary terrain object I have set up, it does seem to show the trench located there, and as you can see, the raptors are drinking from some sort of object in the middle, roughly where the circular "blemish" in the Mayan floor texture goes. Also next to it, can see a gray stone that looks remarkably like one of the fragments of the Mayan pillars.
You later progressed on to a section deeper in the Valley, by a Raptor's den with some very aggressive Raptor's protecting the grounds of some abandoned Mayan ruins.
This image would seem to show the raptors which protected these grounds; perhaps they protected it as a dependable source of good-tasting water. The only questionable part is the "den" aspect of the location, though I would say this didn't have to refer to an interior setting. Still, a question to raise with him. We could even provide a link to this image within the question.. (as well as a link to a pic of my partially reconstructed location).
The level finally ended after you completed the puzzles within the electrical plant, than taking a long drive or "walk" until reaching an abandoned post, which was protected by some Raptors and a very hungry T-REX. ( sorry to ramble on Stephen ...this all brings back memory's.. jeje)
Heh first off I think we should mention in the next letter that in NO WAY can anything he says about PV be considered "rambling", we appreciate every word of it. As for this post.. good bet it's the View building. Though my first thought was the fabled "control" shack:
Image
I believe Leovenis was the first to suggest this was for a "second harbor" in PV, which after some consideration I came to agree that PV is the only place this really would have fit, since the main harbor has much better facilities for this and its terrain looks much different. Anyways.. something else to ask about. :)
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Post by machf »

Draconisaurus wrote:Heheh this is amazing... though let's not get too big for our britches just yet. ;) Do we know what his current occupation is? Not everyone has as much time as some of us, to wander around forums hours at a time.. of course if he CAN spend any desent amount of time here, that would be great. :D But let's take that slowly, don't want to make him feel like we want to drag him into a pit of quicksand, if you know what I mean. Let's first see how much more he remembers, and what things he has available for us to use. Any textures, and of course screenshots would be very helpful.. NOT TO MENTION any surviving models. Mickey I'm doubting any versions of the level survived... :? Of course if they did that would radically alter this entire project, making my files completely obsolete. :P I anxiously await finding out what he has on those JAZZ discs, we definately need to open a thread in the public PV section about questions for these two fine genetlemen... (we might as well bunch them into one, and either ask all the questions of each of them, or figure out a few which might only apply to one or the other of them).
That's neato about the Mayan ruins. Definately connected to the little spot I located, IMO. The land around there isn't flat by any means, I'm not sure how much more "ruinous" the location could have been... BTW I found that one pic of it I was trying to find before. Took long enough...
Image
Was that only on the PV site? Because I knew all the time which one was meant...
While this doesn't show the primary terrain object I have set up, it does seem to show the trench located there, and as you can see, the raptors are drinking from some sort of object in the middle,
Taking another look at it now, I think the wall/mountain lies behind the raptors...?
roughly where the circular "blemish" in the Mayan floor texture goes.
I positioned that texture a bit differently... I'll show you later.
Also next to it, can see a gray stone that looks remarkably like one of the fragments of the Mayan pillars.
Ah, I can see it more clearly now... (just zoomed in on the image)
That flat piece lying right next to the raptors' feet, right?
You later progressed on to a section deeper in the Valley, by a Raptor's den with some very aggressive Raptor's protecting the grounds of some abandoned Mayan ruins.
This image would seem to show the raptors which protected these grounds;
Yup, that was my thougth when I read it.
perhaps they protected it as a dependable source of good-tasting water. The only questionable part is the "den" aspect of the location, though I would say this didn't have to refer to an interior setting. Still, a question to raise with him. We could even provide a link to this image within the question.. (as well as a link to a pic of my partially reconstructed location).
The level finally ended after you completed the puzzles within the electrical plant, than taking a long drive or "walk" until reaching an abandoned post, which was protected by some Raptors and a very hungry T-REX. ( sorry to ramble on Stephen ...this all brings back memory's.. jeje)
Heh first off I think we should mention in the next letter that in NO WAY can anything he says about PV be considered "rambling", we appreciate every word of it.
Very true.
As for this post.. good bet it's the View building.
I guess it is, together with what's shown on the MPEG clip (which is what lies past the VIEW building, around the last ditch - remember the Trespasser loading screen and the others from that same place?)

And this other picture is also from around there:
Image
(it's apppropiately named "forest", BTW)
Though my first thought was the fabled "control" shack:
It crossed my mind too, as well as the "BLOCKHUT":

Image
given that we see the T-Rex near it...
But then I came to the conclusion that it should be the "VIEW" building...
I believe Leovenis was the first to suggest this was for a "second harbor" in PV, which after some consideration I came to agree that PV is the only place this really would have fit, since the main harbor has much better facilities for this and its terrain looks much different. Anyways.. something else to ask about. :)
My own guess is that it has to do with some airfield or helicopter landing platform...
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Alright then, here are my questions for Mr. Salas:
  1. You mentioned that there was an "abandoned post" which the player came to after the Geothermal Plant, which was guarded by Raptors and a T-Rex. We have a few ideas of what this could be. One of them is the famous "Rex Hut", shown in several promo videos and early released images:
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... age010.jpg
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... xhouse.jpg
    For some time now, many of us (though not all) have assumed, based on the quality of the renders and surrounding environment, that this hut was never actually put into Pine Valley, and was either an early concept only, or purely promotional in purpose. Could this be the post you mentioned? We also think it could have been a small building seen only in one image:
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... _tower.jpg
    This is the least likely location, however it's one of the most interesting. The image was called "control tower" when first discovered, and eventually we speculated it was meant as a radio tower to signal incoming ships to the Harbor. We're still not quite sure what it was for or where it was meant to go, and would appreciate anything you remember about it. Besides both of these, we think this post you're talking about is most likely what we've come to call the "view" building, seen in several early images:
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... d/bldg.jpg
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... age007.jpg
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... alkway.jpg
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... tres17.jpg
    All we can tell about it is that it seems to be a storage facility, and went somewhere in Pine Valley. (The red "pump" is seen in another image as well, and we wonder what its purpose was.) One of the most difficult things about the image is the presence of the vertical trench. Both of the trenches found in the Demo terrain, besides the one surrounding the Geothermal Plant, look very natural, and don't seem to fit well with any flat-lined objects. It's also confusing because access is granted to it by a model we've identified as "SWreckedBridge-00", in addition to some pieces we don't have. We don't understand how this worked if the road going throughout the level is meant for cars, which it obviously is. The building must not go beside any roads, but that only makes it more difficult to place on the map. We wish to know anything you remember about this place!
  2. The Geothermal Plant has been one of the hardest areas of the level to reconstruct. So much of it remains a mystery, and we only have a few models from it. We were able to obtain crucial images from a magazine, which miraculously happened to picture Pine Valley in an early 3ds Max environment:
    http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... erview.jpg
    http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... eframe.jpg
    They depict a version of the Plant where one of the walls was actually at a different angle; we decided it differed so much from what the Demo terrain showed because it would have been impractical/impossible to edit the terrain to match the path that the surrounding trench would have to take, so it was straightened and aligned with the terrain. We would of course appreciate any insight to this location - in an interview with another Tres dev, we were given a rough idea of the tasks that had to be performed inside, including removing something from a fan and filling some area with water. We also know that two drawbridges granted access to the Plant - we have absolutely no idea what they looked like, if they resembled existing models or were totally different, or which drawbridge the player was supposed to enter through, or if it mattered. All we know is that both drawbridges start as raised, and that the front one can be lowered by shooting out a block of wood located somewhere on it. Any information you could provide on that would be very helpful! There is also a matter that has plagued many members of late - the trench. The terrain suggests that the trench has angled walls, which would have been detailed by concrete terrain objects, we assume.
    http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8266 ... nchqw9.jpg
    Many of us however suggest that separate models were used to make the walls of the trench perfectly vertical. We really don't know which it was, but the idea of vertical walls came from images of the "view" building, or abandoned post, which show concrete walls coming straight up. We also don't know exactly what this trench was for, except that it would have had water in it, only we don't know how all the water was kept from immediately draining into the ocean! Besides its shape, we'd also like to know anything you can tell us about its purpose, or for example if it had actual water objects in it.
  3. There are three particularly interesting images that came out early in Trespasser's pre-release history, picturing various InGen supplies surrounding pools of what appears to be black tar:
    http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... ot4big.gif
    http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... 5b2%5d.jpg
    http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... age001.jpg
    We would really like to know what this place was, why it was there, and what it was for. The images were originally named "LAGOON", though I don't see how it could be a lagoon if it was filled with tar. There is a location on the map with rather damaged-looking terrain, as well as evidense of the PV "sand" terrain objects, so this is where we suppose it goes, but we really don't know that either. Some seriously doubt it lasted very long into production. Any info on this area would be great!
  4. Thanks to a texture from the Demo level known as "PVbaset2.bmp", we have a sort of map of the terrain objects from an early version of PV (earlier even than the terrain used to create Demo, it seems). Using this, one of the things we were able to do was pinpoint the location of the Plantation House, moved in the release to JungleRoad, on the map, from the shape of its "footprint" terrain objects. When placed here, however, it fits very unevenly with the terrain:
    http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/7193 ... usebw0.jpg
    This is one of many things that give evidence to the Demo terrain being slightly inaccurate. While some such inaccuracies can be blamed for the scope of area intended for the player to be restricted to in the Demo, this location is somewhat distant from the helicopter pads. You may not be able to say much about this, but is there any reason you can think of that the terrain would not accommodate the Plantation House? Is there anything else you can remember about it, such as what its surroundings looked like, or what sorts of objectives/dinosaurs were in the area?
  5. There is an unused music track in Trespasser called "MUSIC - HIDDEN VILLAGE". Some speculate that this was for the Mayan city in the Ascent1 level, even though it has its own music, while many others think it was written for an undeveloped location of an ancient colonial town that thrived many years before InGen came to the island, about the same time as the Plantation House, but was later abandoned. Some site this image of the old Church in a pine setting as evidence:
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... hot005.jpg
    It could simply be a promotional image, with various available models placed into one scene. But we notice that the windows originally had none of the planks nailed to them, like those in the town, and that the hole in the roof actually served as a spot where a pine or two could stick out. There is also a vast area of nothing but pines and rocks in the Ascent1 level, leading all the way to the ocean, with nothing else. It's been my opinion this is probably where the village could have gone. Can you tell us anything about such a village, if it ever existed?
  6. There are two locations early in Pine Valley where bridges must obviously be used to get across a good-sized ditch. One of them is seen in the loading image for PV, which was actually included in the retail release of Trespasser. The other one is seen only once, with very poor quality in the single ingame trailer we have for Trespasser (known as the "VIVO" clip), and we can't tell what the condition of the bridge was or how they were supposed to get across. In our recreation, it currently looks like this:
    http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8649/bridgescm5.jpg
    If you remember how this spot looked, we'd appreciate finding out.
  7. One of my favorite areas in Pine Valley to recreate is the illusive Mayan Ruins. Many speculated the solitary group of ruins in JungleRoad was meant for Pine Valley, and I more or less confirmed it by moving them into the level and showing exactly how they fit, after some fine-tuning with scaling. The location is still largely incomplete, though! You mentioned a group of Mayan ruins within a "Raptor den", being protected by some very aggressive Raptors. This must obviously be the same place, but many questions remain unanswered. For one, is the term "Raptor den" more figurative, or was it actually in any way enclosed? As for the structure of the ruins, these images show what I have managed to recreate:
    http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6320 ... s01ef1.jpg
    http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3804 ... s02jn3.jpg
    As you can see, we only have part of the puzzle, as it were. There is one more clue, however, seen in this early screenshot:
    http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... /tres3.jpg
    First off, we suppose these three Raptors here are the aggressive fellows to which you were referring. But more importantly is the interesting miniature stone canal, which the raptors appear to be drinking from. Perhaps this is why they guard the area so fiercely? At any rate, this was part of what allowed us to identify it as the same location, as there is a very similar indent, though very subtle, in the terrain at this spot, as I've captured in this composite image:
    http://img487.imageshack.us/img487/8896 ... s00my5.jpg
    We'd like to know anything you can tell us about this, including what the canal was for and what all seems to be missing from our recreation.
PS: Slugger I think you should note somewhere in the preliminary lines of the email that in NO WAY can anything he says about PV or Trespasser be considered "rambling", we appreciate every word of it. Also I'll leave final thanks in advance for answering the lengthy questions to your own conclusion of the email. ;)
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Post by machf »

Draconisaurus wrote:Alright then, here are my questions for Mr. Salas:
  1. You mentioned that there was an "abandoned post" which the player came to after the Geothermal Plant, which was guarded by Raptors and a T-Rex. We have a few ideas of what this could be. One of them is the famous "Rex Hut", shown in several promo videos and early released images:
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... age010.jpg
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... xhouse.jpg
    For some time now, many of us (though not all) have assumed, based on the quality of the renders and surrounding environment, that this hut was never actually put into Pine Valley, and was either an early concept only, or purely promotional in purpose. Could this be the post you mentioned? We also think it could have been a small building seen only in one image:
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... _tower.jpg
    This is the least likely location, however it's one of the most interesting. The image was called "control tower" when first discovered, and eventually we speculated it was meant as a radio tower to signal incoming ships to the Harbor. We're still not quite sure what it was for or where it was meant to go, and would appreciate anything you remember about it. Besides both of these, we think this post you're talking about is most likely what we've come to call the "view" building, seen in several early images:
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... d/bldg.jpg
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... age007.jpg
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... alkway.jpg
    http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... tres17.jpg
    All we can tell about it is that it seems to be a storage facility, and went somewhere in Pine Valley. (The red "pump" is seen in another image as well, and we wonder what its purpose was.) One of the most difficult things about the image is the presence of the vertical trench. Both of the trenches found in the Demo terrain, besides the one surrounding the Geothermal Plant, look very natural, and don't seem to fit well with any flat-lined objects. It's also confusing because access is granted to it by a model we've identified as "SWreckedBridge-00", in addition to some pieces we don't have. We don't understand how this worked if the road going throughout the level is meant for cars, which it obviously is. The building must not go beside any roads, but that only makes it more difficult to place on the map. We wish to know anything you remember about this place!
This is where I located it in those last shots I took:

Image
Image

Dirsregard the one on the top right corner, that's the earlier mockup building which I placed near the last ditch at first to see if it matched... in the current location, the roads match what can be noticed in those screenshots we have.
[*]The Geothermal Plant has been one of the hardest areas of the level to reconstruct. So much of it remains a mystery, and we only have a few models from it. We were able to obtain crucial images from a magazine, which miraculously happened to picture Pine Valley in an early 3ds Max environment:
http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... erview.jpg
http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... eframe.jpg
They depict a version of the Plant where one of the walls was actually at a different angle; we decided it differed so much from what the Demo terrain showed because it would have been impractical/impossible to edit the terrain to match the path that the surrounding trench would have to take, so it was straightened and aligned with the terrain. We would of course appreciate any insight to this location - in an interview with another Tres dev, we were given a rough idea of the tasks that had to be performed inside, including removing something from a fan and filling some area with water. We also know that two drawbridges granted access to the Plant - we have absolutely no idea what they looked like, if they resembled existing models or were totally different, or which drawbridge the player was supposed to enter through, or if it mattered. All we know is that both drawbridges start as raised, and that the front one can be lowered by shooting out a block of wood located somewhere on it. Any information you could provide on that would be very helpful! There is also a matter that has plagued many members of late - the trench. The terrain suggests that the trench has angled walls, which would have been detailed by concrete terrain objects, we assume.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8266 ... nchqw9.jpg
Many of us however suggest that separate models were used to make the walls of the trench perfectly vertical. We really don't know which it was, but the idea of vertical walls came from images of the "view" building, or abandoned post, which show concrete walls coming straight up. We also don't know exactly what this trench was for, except that it would have had water in it, only we don't know how all the water was kept from immediately draining into the ocean! Besides its shape, we'd also like to know anything you can tell us about its purpose, or for example if it had actual water objects in it.
[*]There are three particularly interesting images that came out early in Trespasser's pre-release history, picturing various InGen supplies surrounding pools of what appears to be black tar:
http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... ot4big.gif
http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... 5b2%5d.jpg
http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... age001.jpg
We would really like to know what this place was, why it was there, and what it was for. The images were originally named "LAGOON", though I don't see how it could be a lagoon if it was filled with tar. There is a location on the map with rather damaged-looking terrain, as well as evidense of the PV "sand" terrain objects, so this is where we suppose it goes, but we really don't know that either. Some seriously doubt it lasted very long into production. Any info on this area would be great!
Did you mention that the images appear to be reversed? (OTOH, it may be that just the textures applied to the boxes are reversed...)
And the boiler-thingy can be seen on the background of one of those images too...

[*]Thanks to a texture from the Demo level known as "PVbaset2.bmp", we have a sort of map of the terrain objects from an early version of PV (earlier even than the terrain used to create Demo, it seems). Using this, one of the things we were able to do was pinpoint the location of the Plantation House, moved in the release to JungleRoad, on the map, from the shape of its "footprint" terrain objects. When placed here, however, it fits very unevenly with the terrain:
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/7193 ... usebw0.jpg
Given the geography of the terrain, it may not be the Plantation House, but rather some stone steps or maybe more Mayan structures...
This is one of many things that give evidence to the Demo terrain being slightly inaccurate. While some such inaccuracies can be blamed for the scope of area intended for the player to be restricted to in the Demo, this location is somewhat distant from the helicopter pads. You may not be able to say much about this, but is there any reason you can think of that the terrain would not accommodate the Plantation House? Is there anything else you can remember about it, such as what its surroundings looked like, or what sorts of objectives/dinosaurs were in the area?
[*]There is an unused music track in Trespasser called "MUSIC - HIDDEN VILLAGE". Some speculate that this was for the Mayan city in the Ascent1 level, even though it has its own music, while many others think it was written for an undeveloped location of an ancient colonial town that thrived many years before InGen came to the island, about the same time as the Plantation House, but was later abandoned. Some site this image of the old Church in a pine setting as evidence:
http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... hot005.jpg
It could simply be a promotional image, with various available models placed into one scene. But we notice that the windows originally had none of the planks nailed to them, like those in the town, and that the hole in the roof actually served as a spot where a pine or two could stick out. There is also a vast area of nothing but pines and rocks in the Ascent1 level, leading all the way to the ocean, with nothing else. It's been my opinion this is probably where the village could have gone. Can you tell us anything about such a village, if it ever existed?
[*]There are two locations early in Pine Valley where bridges must obviously be used to get across a good-sized ditch. One of them is seen in the loading image for PV, which was actually included in the retail release of Trespasser. The other one is seen only once, with very poor quality in the single ingame trailer we have for Trespasser (known as the "VIVO" clip),
Actually, I believe the VIVO clip is showing the same ditch and we don't get to see the next one (check the surroundings)...
and we can't tell what the condition of the bridge was or how they were supposed to get across. In our recreation, it currently looks like this:
http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8649/bridgescm5.jpg
If you remember how this spot looked, we'd appreciate finding out.
[*]One of my favorite areas in Pine Valley to recreate is the illusive Mayan Ruins. Many speculated the solitary group of ruins in JungleRoad was meant for Pine Valley, and I more or less confirmed it by moving them into the level and showing exactly how they fit, after some fine-tuning with scaling. The location is still largely incomplete, though! You mentioned a group of Mayan ruins within a "Raptor den", being protected by some very aggressive Raptors. This must obviously be the same place, but many questions remain unanswered. For one, is the term "Raptor den" more figurative, or was it actually in any way enclosed? As for the structure of the ruins, these images show what I have managed to recreate:
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6320 ... s01ef1.jpg
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3804 ... s02jn3.jpg
Here's my version:
Image
Image
Image
Image
As you can see, we only have part of the puzzle, as it were. There is one more clue, however, seen in this early screenshot:
http://mulletman.t35.com/pinevalley/pin ... /tres3.jpg
First off, we suppose these three Raptors here are the aggressive fellows to which you were referring. But more importantly is the interesting miniature stone canal, which the raptors appear to be drinking from. Perhaps this is why they guard the area so fiercely? At any rate, this was part of what allowed us to identify it as the same location, as there is a very similar indent, though very subtle, in the terrain at this spot,
And here's that little ditch/canal/whatever

Image

as I've captured in this composite image:
http://img487.imageshack.us/img487/8896 ... s00my5.jpg
We'd like to know anything you can tell us about this, including what the canal was for and what all seems to be missing from our recreation.[/list]

PS: Slugger I think you should note somewhere in the preliminary lines of the email that in NO WAY can anything he says about PV or Trespasser be considered "rambling", we appreciate every word of it. Also I'll leave final thanks in advance for answering the lengthy questions to your own conclusion of the email. ;)
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