E3 Pine Valley (SPOILERS!)

[hppav]

Looking at it in TresEd since for some reason it doesn't work in game for me. Idk why, but anyway...

First thing of note is that the terrain texture in front of the gates originally had arrows indicating the movement of the gates on them. That's pretty cool. This version of the road texture is a little flatter than the final version but does bring back some nostalgia of looking at the old pre-release screens trying to piece everything together. Also we see the level has the original base terrain texture too, which I prefer over the later version which is from the Lab level.

http://imgur.com/f2XYtr0

Next we head down the hill to the start of the power pylons. Of note is that there are no power lines just yet in this version. Also the power pylons are correctly numbered. The first one you see is labeled 13 and it continues on to the power plant where it ends in 1.

http://imgur.com/8Ikyb4P

We head over to the Mayan Ruins and see a lot more detail than we did in Beta 96. Matches the prerelease pictures of the raptor drinking. Also the Quake logo is hidden behind the panel as opposed to the Trespasser T

http://imgur.com/JclroEx

The Raptor Nest area is nonexistent, instead just more forest

http://imgur.com/4PjR74n

The ditches are missing their terrain textures

http://imgur.com/P5XoXOS

But did gain a wrecked Humvee!

http://imgur.com/0r5weWl

Heading to the power plant we notice that the massive hill isn't there and the stream is properly aligned with the one running along the road, just as we expected.

http://imgur.com/x5uvjtO

As we approach the plant we notice that it is missing the well by the side gate and the well out in the forest a ways. Also the moats are missing their gates and the moat is all the same level inside, no dip

http://imgur.com/HVBYl0X

No stairs in case you fall in the ditch.

http://imgur.com/9l9rQmy

Also this pipe heading to the heat exchanger isn't under the walkway, just as it appeared in the Vivo clip

http://imgur.com/eyN5nnK

The Turbine Shed has doors!

http://imgur.com/mDoiO3f

I notice that the cooling tower proportions match my "fixed" version (which I just relocated lol). The textures on this earlier version look a lot better though. Parts of the mesh are still, well, broken. Mainly those damn pipes. Probably gave them a headache

http://imgur.com/IGEKMKY

And the control room foyer as we know it was

http://imgur.com/5Ii1olA

The control room, whose indicator panel is much smaller than Beta 96

http://imgur.com/07iohWJ

The tranformers don't have those stupid fence sections around them

http://imgur.com/URIdKdB

There's no bridge here...

http://imgur.com/Wg1KL2W

However one of the power plant draw bridges is over the second stream here. The first stream has no draw bridge (likely because it's shallow enough to cross just up the road).

http://imgur.com/juvanjz

About where we expect the giant rock mesh to be we instead get this little island actually sculpted into the terrain with a lone pine tree on top.. We should come up with a name for it.

http://imgur.com/nsXuGI6

And the end is horribly unfished with the harbor gate and fence floating in the air and no end puzzle.

http://imgur.com/Ts5kdfa


VERY cool to see this older version. I'm loving it!

EDIT: Ok, it seems the stairs by the drawbridge as well as the other power plant draw bridge are present in the PC Gamer version. That first stream still does not have a drawbridge in that version, as it appears you are supposed to cross it via those little wooden bridges further back. Also it appears the harbor gate is at the correct height, the entire level is about 11 units lower than Beta 96/Demo so the height of the level end would not match up with the height of the Lab level beginning. This also makes the cliffs along the shoreline really shallow compared to the later version. It's also worth noting that there are no dinosaurs present in the level.

[Velociraptor Alfa]

About where we expect the giant rock mesh to be we instead get this little island actually sculpted into the terrain with a lone pine tree on top.. We should come up with a name for it.

Lone Pine Island?

[masterchiefoo7]

Lone Pine Island?

I thought the same thing!

Hppav this is great as always (althought I probably have not written that in 5 years )

will you eventually do comparison shots? I really want to see overhead comparisons of the power plant.

[Hilwo]

About where we expect the giant rock mesh to be we instead get this little island actually sculpted into the terrain with a lone pine tree on top.. We should come up with a name for it.

Lone Pine Island?

There can't possibly be a better name than that

Thanks for your analysis and screenshots hppav, great read!

[hppav]

Got some more content. My old comparison shots between the Vivo Clip and Beta 96 PV with new TresEd shots of E3 PV (Using the PC Gamer version as it is closer to the version on the Vivo clip). You might notice that there's even more differences between this version of PV and the Beta 96 version than I had noted previously in this thread. There's probably even more differences that haven't been found yet.

Here's the Vivo Clip for anyone who is new enough to have not heard of it yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlNLLb7tsfo




























And here's overhead comparisons of the E3 power plant and the one in Beta 96


E3


Beta 96

I also have a bunch of TresEd recreations of some of the more well known Pine Valley screenshots in my imgur album:
http://imgur.com/a/bHyDz

[machf]

Did you notice the stairs behind the cooling building or whatever it's called? The ones that would allow you to get to the roof and emove the plank or whatever was supposed to be blocking one ofthe fans...

[hppav]

Yeah, I just noticed them thanks to the overhead comparison shots...

E3
Beta 96

Wonder if they were going to redo all the stairs and walkways if they had more time?

Figure I may as well include shots comparing the front of the cooling tower between E3 and the screwed up Beta 96 version

E3
Beta 96

EDIT: Just noticed the walkway railings were changed between E3 and Beta 96. Pretty interesting.

[masterchiefoo7]

thanks again for the photos!

[Draconisaurus]

Had no idea there would be so many differences... Really digging the extra geometry for the Mayan altar... But - the stupid quake symbol?

[glitchhunter09]

Actually, there is one and I managed to get a screenshot of a dinosaur in PCgamer PV:

It's a single Triceratops near the Power Plant. There's a slight problem though and a Triceratops in JR suffers from this as well. Sometimes they may disappear before they properly render. The LOD sprite will be there but when you get close the dinosaur is nowhere to be found. I have dubbed this the "Phantom Triceratops" glitch.

Sometimes this Triceratops may spawn properly however and wander around. Unlike some of the other Triceratops, it didn't seem to interested in me but that could be because I never got that close. Generally in most other levels (in the PCgamer proto anyway) they'll come after you no matter the distance. This one however seemed to want to wander into the riverbed.

I imagine this bug is in the E3 versions as well. From what I've saw so far, the two are very close.

[Double_G]

what i found interesting is the fact that there was already almost finished version of the lab level within e3 PV heightmap but in build 96 they blurred it out. remnants of the shore level? only the harbor part wasn't finished. it's quite interesting to see the progression of this heightmap

PV e3


PV 96


Lab 96


Lab retail

[tatu]

I am not sure they ever even started the "Shore" level. It was basically just the GeoPlant and Harbour in the same level. I just think the terrains cover the same size (similar to AS1 and AS2), so the LAB part for whatever reason was included with PV.

[machf]

That's interesting, I had never looked at it...

[MinePass]

So in build 96 where the road would have broke off, the area there is pretty jaged, is it possible that they had planned on making that the swamp area from the walkthrough?

[TheIdiot]

So in build 96 where the road would have broke off, the area there is pretty jaged, is it possible that they had planned on making that the swamp area from the walkthrough?

Which road, the one that ended up blocked by the mountain in Build 96?

Either way, the swamp was meant to be in IJ, right after the lake - it actually exists in the PCGamer version, without water, in the area right after the T-rex lakebed. There's never been any indication that they intended to move the swamp to another level after it was removed in favour of the Raptor gorge.