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TheIdiot's new mod set on Isla Nublar

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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by TheIdiot »

Road Warrior
Wow. :|
That's pretty outstanding, I must say. It's perfect in every way, shape and form, plus it really fits the Jurassic Park style. Exceptional work, man. :) The only thing I would be worried about in the second one is framerate - I'm already pushing Tres and even getting crashes at the Visitor Center. Remember that Trespasser can't handle anything above (correct me if I'm wrong) 1024 polys per mesh, and it tends to have difficulty with a lot of high poly (and even medium-poly) meshes sometimes. But I'm sure that can be worked out in the future, for now, amazing work, I'm very happy with the designs. Can't wait to get that thing in game. :mrgreen:
Also, Road Warrior, you may want to chat with hppav to see how he optimized his Visitor Center meshes for Tres. He can probably help you out when it comes time to import.
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by Road Warrior »

Thanks allot!!

Went back to a smaller layout for now. (Just a test render as I'm off work today) http://i.imgur.com/9t72grd.jpg

Beginning work on the back.
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

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Road Warrior wrote:Thanks allot!!

Went back to a smaller layout for now. (Just a test render as I'm off work today) http://i.imgur.com/9t72grd.jpg

Beginning work on the back.
You're quite welcome as always. :)
Excellent work once again, I'm interested to see what you'll make the interior look like since the exterior already looks so good. I was thinking of perhaps putting the main structure that you're working on at the top of a hill with steps leading up to it and gardens surrounding it. What do you think? By the way, that rooftop is the perfect place to have a Raptor or two leap from and attack. :P Keep it up!

Also, today I came across the brochures and tour map for Jurassic World. It's fairly interesting, and certainly looks like it could be a real life theme park (especially with all the ads). The map is pretty close to how we know Isla Nublar, though the coast seems to have decayed a little over time. The mountain ridges running along the island even match up fairly closely to what I have done with RTJP, as well as the Jungle River being slightly smaller and further east. I can't help but cringe at the lack of Velociraptor on the map, though. :( For me, the Mosasaur exhibit should make up for the lack of Raptors.
Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but there will not be any Jurassic World content or influence in RTJP, simply because it would require much, much more work done on the map itself and I want to keep the focus on what Jurassic Park as seen in the first film would look like a decade later. There will be plenty of new locations - as shown by both my and Road Warrior's work on the Safari Lodge - to explore and keep things interesting anyhow.

Haven't done much work on the mod since the last screenshot post, just began working on the area around the Jungle River and Aviary. I replaced the lamps along the tour roads with hppav's superior model as well and did very basic terrain work on the southern part of the island where the Worker Village and Windmill Power Station will be located. Not much to show yet, but soon. :)
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by Rebel »

The render looks very cool, nice work. :)
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by TheIdiot »

I have another question for the Tres veterans: number one, is it possible to use a trigger to set an object to

Code: Select all

bool Unlit = true
if I have it set to false when the level loads? And if it isn't possible, can I replace an object's mesh with a second one that does have Unlit to true using a trigger and back again? I want to get the lights looking as good as possible. :)

If you've been keeping up with this thread, chances are you know the level has been having crashing issues. Well, by some strange feat, I've managed to solve most of these. Firstly, I made detail meshes for the fence pylons and made their animated lights seperate meshes in order to have the lights animated but the fences still be part of the texture cache. I also reduced the amount of clutter in the Gift Shop (it was REALLY causing issues, besides since there have been people on the island they've probably stolen most of it). Additionally I modified a ton of values and culling distances to get maximum performance, and now I get a minimum of 15 FPS everywhere. I only got one crash and I was deliberately turning my head everywhere near the Main Gate. :mrgreen: Of course, I don't know it it runs the same on every computer which is why when the level is done there will be PLENTY of testing.

In terms of progress, I haven't done too much. Did a bit more foliage and terrain work, added on to the roads here and there, added in a ton of new ambient sounds like the sound of scampering animals and distant dinosaur calls. Also took a few audio clips from the movie, filtered them and imported them into Tres to be used as flashbacks since I take it people will eventually tire of Hammond's stock narration. Diane will also have her own dialogue, though not much of it for now.

I also took a crack at the Visitor Center's Brachiosaur mural. I was going through my closet when I came across the Jurassic Park trading cards from way back when, so I looked through them and eventually found one with a shot of the VC showing the Brachiosaur mural. Thing is, I have no way to scan it and the image is incredibly small anyhow. Eventually, I resolved to using my webcam to take a picture of it (which I foolishly deleted) and eventually combining several images of the card as well as one shot from the movie into a Tres-friendly texture. Finally I flipped and overlayed the background element from hppav's Gallimimus mural. And the result is...
Image

...meh, okay I guess. Hppav's is probably better, I just feel that his has too much red in it (though I've never seen it up close, so who am I to judge? :P ) Here's the movie shot with the mural, not much to work with:
Image

Oh, and also this:
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Image
Not sure if I like the front part and I know I'm missing a few details, but you get the idea. That's about the limit of my modelling skills, which is why we have Road Warrior. :D Though I might take a crack at the Herrerasaur holding pen since I have its location planned and ready for it.
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by Road Warrior »

^ Now that is a pretty good representation!

Sadly, I will be unable to do any modeling for the next few days ( if not all week)due to work. I will get back to it as soon as I am able to.
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

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Road Warrior wrote:^ Now that is a pretty good representation!

Sadly, I will be unable to do any modeling for the next few days ( if not all week)due to work. I will get back to it as soon as I am able to.
Thanks. It still needs a bit of work though, might do it all over again from scratch though. I think I've got the shape nailed, just have to get the details. :P

No problem, I understand that everyone is busy. Take as much time as you need, I'm busy fiddling around with triggers and small details at the moment anyway. :) Got the Ford Explorers retextured and am still toying with them as well.

By the way, I got bored so I made a custom title page, check it out if you want on page 1. Nothing new aside from a post-processed (heavily edited) image, just wanted to spice things up a bit.
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

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Coming in with a bit of a quick progress update for everyone since the place feels rather inactive at the moment. :P
I've been working in small amounts on the mod. The helipad waterfall has been the main focus, trying to get it to feel right at this scale. Overall I think it's come out pretty good, I'll post another time with images. Other than that it's mostly been trigger work; I've created a test system for the sunglasses which allows for them to be dropped or broken when Diane is struck by a dinosaur, but the way I have it set up is taking a heavy toll on the engine to the point where I can no longer play the game in my TV's standard resolution of 1360x768 without a crash on level load. Optimization can be a huge pain in the ass...ugh. :sick:
I'm also working on getting a new beast of a computer since mine is really feeling dated - I've been playing Morrowind with the Rebirth and Overhaul mods and my FPS tanks to 3 or 4 when in Balmora which is absolutely absurd. So there may be a small break in progress while I work on that matter. The new computer will be optimized to play games with high-quality graphics and heavy CPU use, and will still be Windows 7 so I can run old games like Tres.
If I swing around again in the next little while, I'll post screenshots of the most recent work I've done.

Also, Road Warrior, how's progress coming on the Safari Lodge? I take it you've been on-and-off as well, no worries. :D

EDIT: Just realized I didn't post any new images last time. So for you patient people, here's a few more:

The helipad waterfall. There will be a second smaller one on the right, I just haven't worked on it yet. This area is near completion, but there are still quite a few details I'm missing.
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Here's my modified Explorer skin, it still has a bit of touching up to be had. There will be 10 Explorers in game (00-09) and most of them will contain useful items for the player to use elsewhere in the Park.
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Image
Finally, something brand new. The area running along the Jungle River, with the Tour Road leading away from the Aviary. I think I'm going to make this whole landscape muddy and melting away into the river since it probably rose quite a bit as a result of Hurricane Clarissa.
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Image
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by Draconisaurus »

(loses post after cat walks on keyboard, logging me out) Arrgghh!! Here we go again...

Anyways, finally got around to checking this thread. Excellent work!! It's good to see there is a healthy Nublar mod in the works. I see the creation of Isla Nublar as a sort of crown jewel to Trespasser (and Jurassic Park) attainment; you're doing a great thing here. It's also very nice to see Sam/hppav's work going to use; he spent many hours over the course of many years working on Isla Nublar materials. I suspect he has more attainment regarding all things Nublar than anyone else (aside from specific attainments of those who worked on the films, though I bet he is more familiar with Nublar overall than they would be today, or perhaps any one person back then); it's too bad that it seems he won't be completing JPO. (Btw, Sam, saw those levels linked back a few pages ago; AMAZING work, truly. My commendations to you. Only critique really is that most of it is a bit high poly for Tres.)

A few notes. When Sam and I discussed JPO, I remember it was decided that Isla Nublar should be split into multiple levels, despite the difficulties this would create for game flow. I learned all too well from JPDS and other mods the hazard of object overpopulation in Tres. JPDS1 had to be split up, as you've seen, and East Dock was too dense for some computers. One of my recommendations to you is actually to back up your level and make a version where everything is smothered in foliage at about the level you currently intend to have in the final version. Doesn't need to be the right height or anything. Then go ingame and test around, get an FPS check. If you have problems, especially in important areas, it could lend support to the objective of splitting up the level. Splitting may not be required if you don't go as all-out as Sam was going to go; I might suggest limiting the number of locations (keeping important film ones) in the mod if you keep it as a single level. Also, I just want to recommend against revealing too much of your work before the mod is released... I know all too well the thrill of posting new stuff and hoping for feedback, but even so I made sure to leave certain things unseen to the public so that they would have more reason to play my levels. Maintaining a level of mystery in your project can increase others' enthusiasm for the mod.

Finally, I have decided to offer my services to RTJP. Mods, especially big ones, are not entirely likely to be completed (here and elsewhere), and I fear this one may fall to that fate if more help is not available to it. I am experienced in virtually all areas of Trespasser modding other than programming, not least of all modeling. That VC is going to take a lot of work before it's ready for a released version of your mod - one of the vital components is occlusion polygons and I'm not sure you're ready for that. Let me know if you'll accept.
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by TheIdiot »

Draco
Hey Draco, good to see you here. :)
Thanks for the tips. I take it you've been through most of the topic by now, so you can kind of see what's going on so far. My Nublar is nowhere near the actual size as in the movie - in fact if you take a straight run without obstacles it's only about four minutes to the Visitor Center from the helipad and maybe twenty from the very south tip of the island to the north. The reasoning for this was that, A, I have no idea how to make a larger map without using a heightmap, and that adds in all the problems with terrain which occur once it's imported, and B, I knew such a large map would cause slowdown, lag, crashes and all that good stuff. What I've actually been doing is, as I cover the island in vegetation, for each little area I do I'll go in and do an FPS/crash test since I've had that problem before, especially in the areas of the VC and perimeter fence (which are, for the moment, resolved). I understand how beneficial it would be to split Isla Nublar into multiple levels (I've read up all around the JPO thread as well regarding this) - the problem I have here is that the level I'm making is designed to be more of a freeform map with a story unfolding over time, where locations change, and your acts, such as finding new weapons and, later, upgrading them, or wiping out the Velociraptors, will persist over time until you actually escape. Kind of complicated to explain, really. :sick: I'm sure if it did come down to that point where it needed to be split or risk dying a horrible, unplayable death, that could be looked into and incorporated. Good to hear the input, though. I'll try and hold back on previews as well. :)

As for your volunteering of services, welcome to our little team, thanks for your services. I take it you know what you're doing more than I in pretty much everything, so I might have to bug you here and there for help. :P I'll PM you more information, where do you want to begin working? The model department is slightly lacking at the moment, Road Warrior is working on the Safari Lodge still and I'm pretty meh at the whole thing, I'm more into the level design itself and scripting. I'll send you (Road Warrior as well) a .RAR of the level files at the moment and whatever other junk there might be, look it over and tell me what you think. Word of warning - right now the level is rather unstable, it has something to do with a few triggers I implemented recently (they're all hovering next to the gray box on the helipad if you want to check them out). I've been extremely busy so I haven't had time to work them out.

Also, you mentioned occlusion objects, right now I'm just using a bunch of big ones from the original levels and the ones hppav made for the Visitor Center. They're only temporary though, the terrain isn't anywhere near completed.
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by Draconisaurus »

Thanks for accepting my help. 8) With a little (or a lot) of luck, this mod will be completed.

Hmmm, your reasoning on not splitting up the level is sounding good to me. We just need to be as careful as we can be so the level remains playable. As I recall even just those fences were a doozy in East Dock (and should be optimized with the model from NedryLand if you have it; it's just the FencePerimWire objects). Also the gate you currently have is intended for perimeter fences only; I think Sam may have made the other version, which is less "armored" (say uh, Sam, don't suppose you have that around somewhere...?). We were also thinking that the exterior bars should be redone as opacity maps; kinda high-poly. I can handle that.
TheIdiot wrote:Also, you mentioned occlusion objects, right now I'm just using a bunch of big ones from the original levels and the ones hppav made for the Visitor Center. They're only temporary though, the terrain isn't anywhere near completed.
Aha, I didn't realize Sam made occlusions for his VC, that's good! Anyways good that you are using occlusions at this stage, should help get a better idea of how stable things are.

We'll continue this in PM. ;)
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by TheIdiot »

Hey everyone, once again!
Just coming in to say TheKritter71 has joined the team as a texture artist and model converter if need be. Welcome to the team, Kritter! Lots being done behind the scenes on the mod, hopefully we'll have updates at a later date. Got plenty of new ideas coming in from all of our members.
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by TheIdiot »

Haven't posted for a while, so for all you folks:
Image
Stegosaurus! Yay!
Just a reskin of the default Tres Stegosaur, nothing too special. :) Figured I'd give you guys something new and interesting to gawk at while we discuss all the technical crap behind the scenes.
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

Post by hppav »

Just popping in to say real quick, you're mural is higher quality than mine. There's a little tweaking you can still do on yours, but mine was from a screencap of a quick shot in a special on the DVD so the quality was.. well... kinda lacking. But it was still better than the painted version I had before, :lol:
Album 1 http://m.imgur.com/a/cRA26
Album 2 http://imgur.com/a/6tvKV
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom leaked and (few) official photos
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Re: Return to Jurassic Park

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hppav wrote:Just popping in to say real quick, you're mural is higher quality than mine. There's a little tweaking you can still do on yours, but mine was from a screencap of a quick shot in a special on the DVD so the quality was.. well... kinda lacking. But it was still better than the painted version I had before, :lol:
You're free to take mine and tweak it further if you want, and I'm fine if you use it in your VC level as well. I think I may have deleted the original 24-bit texture though, so you're kind of stuck with the lower-quality 256 color one. :(
Also, I sent you a PM a little while ago, but it's not showing up in my outbox or sent messages, so I'm wondering if you even received it?
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