The Trespasser Frontier (A Tres Blog)

[TheIdiot]

Funnily enough, I think the walkthrough mentions that the road is barely visible due to jungle-reclaiming since 1989. Maybe the dev said to himself, "oops", or maybe he was always planning to cover it up with things later.

That's true, maybe it was meant to be broken up eventually all along? Or had they had more time, the other roads would have been given a JR-esque texture. I bet the developers pictured the road completely overgrown, like this:

(Click on thumbnail for full size)

But obviously this sort of thing is unrealistic to achieve in a 1998 video game.

[Draconisaurus]

The next entry is Theory of the View Building. Here I discuss theories and images regarding the unreleased warehouse-looking structure from Trespasser pre-release imagery.

https://thetrespasserfrontier.tumblr.co ... w-building

[TheIdiot]

Huh. That View Building is still a total mystery to all of us, I think. What is it? What was its purpose? Looks like a warehouse to me. I personally don't have the slightest idea as to whether it really is intended for the Geo Plant but presumably it has something to do with at least early concepts of that area due to is presence in the same scene as the red machine.
Did you notice that what is presumably the Geo Plant moat is an actual 3D model in that render as well? Very strange. Additionally it looks like the ridge in the background of the bridge image is strangely fairly similar to the extended, very rough ridge that is present in the final versions of PV, which oddly shouldn't have been present in early development since it was clearly added later...

I'm curious, does the custom model in theeee Chaos Effect level of this building use any textures from the original that were found or used elsewhere in the game?

[wohoyefe]

When I saw the yellow pipe, my first thought was natural gas. I worked in construction and normally gas pipes are painted yellow in buildings. Having said that, the diameter is massive, even some of the biggest industrial projects I worked on didn't have gas pipes of such diameter. But then there's also the question where would the gas have come from, do they have storage tanks or do they source it on the island and if so where and how is it refined. There's probably too many arguments against it, but I'm just saying that normally yellow paint on a pipe indicates that it's natural gas.

[Hilwo]

I think it's a warehouse as well. The word 'view', couldn't that simply have meant that the devs had intended for players to get a great view from being near the building (close to the cliff, ridge, waterfall, whatever ) ? Or a nice view from inside the building, looking out the windows?

[Draconisaurus]

I'm curious, does the custom model in theeee Chaos Effect level of this building use any textures from the original that were found or used elsewhere in the game?

Hmm, I don't remember one in "Prime Chaos", but then I haven't fully explored that level in years. In fact I don't think I ever finished it. Should get around to that...
hppav did make a model for it, for PPV. I don't recall how he came up with the textures.

Yellow Pipes

Well the devs may have been aware of that, and may not. It may have been considered a nice color to give some liveliness, without being to disruptive.

View

I'm not really sure. We don't know who named that image; and I couldn't actually find one with "view" in the name, that detail is from memory of old posts.

[tatu]

I'm curious, does the custom model in theeee Chaos Effect level of this building use any textures from the original that were found or used elsewhere in the game?

I doubt it. They re-created them all. Here is the original files they used (including some research): https://www.mediafire.com/file/xzcse67d ... n.rar/file

[Hilwo]

I think TresSecrets kept the name of the images. Here's a link to the 'view building' image:

https://www.trescom.org/hosted/trespass ... s/view.jpg


Found it here, though you have to manually fix the url links to each image.
https://www.trescom.org/hosted/trespass ... iginal.htm

[Draconisaurus]

Huh, that is a Max scene that I can't open. Would anyone care to export a TPM? I can put it in a level and take screens.

Found it here, though you have to manually fix the url links to each image.
https://www.trescom.org/hosted/trespass ... iginal.htm

Sounds like a job for the Tatutinator...

[TheIdiot]

Huh, that is a Max scene that I can't open. Would anyone care to export a TPM? I can put it in a level and take screens.

I just actually found these models in a level called "pv.scn". I can't recall seeing this level before but you might check there, Draco.

[tatu]

Huh, that is a Max scene that I can't open. Would anyone care to export a TPM? I can put it in a level and take screens.

Found it here, though you have to manually fix the url links to each image.
https://www.trescom.org/hosted/trespass ... iginal.htm

Sounds like a job for the Tatutinator...

Look at the video that is in the same folder. It is what the MAX scene is. It was used for that video.

Hehe, I do wanna "fix" some of our hosted sites at some point.

[Draconisaurus]

New blog entry. "The Climbing Rocks". https://thetrespasserfrontier.tumblr.co ... bing-rocks

[masterchiefoo7]

Regarding the "view" building screenshot - is there any chance that this is related to the final trench/drawbridge area from the Shore/Pine valley? that location was always a bit simple looking. the '97 walkthrough doesn't really mention this. My main reasoning is because of the pylons. Don't forget that in Build 96 one pylon is covered by a mountain, so perhaps that area was originally flat.

[tatu]

Regarding the "view" building screenshot - is there any chance that this is related to the final trench/drawbridge area from the Shore/Pine valley? that location was always a bit simple looking. the '97 walkthrough doesn't really mention this. My main reasoning is because of the pylons. Don't forget that in Build 96 one pylon is covered by a mountain, so perhaps that area was originally flat.

The "View" building screenshot was probably never taken in Pine Valley. The source includes a RAW heightmap called "HeightFieldTest" which after machf converted to a terrain, fits pretty well with the images. The pylons from the GeoPlany to LAB don't exist in pre96 builds we have.
As for the one inside the mountain, we already knew this mountain used to be a flat area as one of the "TPVBaset2.bmp" on the TrnPlacement shows a road here. And I am unsure how much you know from the pre-96 builds we have but those doesn't have the mountain. It was added later, probably to "force" the player towards the GeoPlant

[masterchiefoo7]

And I am unsure how much you know from the pre-96 builds we have but those doesn't have the mountain. It was added later, probably to "force" the player towards the GeoPlant

I've been on this forum for 18 years ago and I still struggle with seeing and reading all the data that passes through. I am always frustrated with how much info I miss, and I wonder how much of this information isn't even recorded on the forums or is instead saved in private messages or chats somewhere.

I wish that there was an organized page with all information about each level. I know I miss things that are spread between all the subforums! It seems silly to make a post asking to start from square one on a topic!