The history of Jurassic Park Oblivion as of Dec. 10, 2007

[hppav]

The history of Jurassic Park Oblivion

By hppav

Chapter 1: The beginning.

Jurassic Park Oblivion started as Jurassic Park: the Mod in mid 2002. The premise was that a tourist named Jill was on a cruise on the ship the Explorer which sank offshore after hitting some unknown underwater structure, assumed to be a coral reef or something similar. Her goal was to get off. Pretty much standard Tres with a boat. (Ironically, there is a real Explorer ship call MS Explorer which sank after hitting some unknown underwater structure assumed to be and iceberg).

Production started using Jungle Road as base. The plan was that Jill, the main character, would start out at the East Dock and work their way through the island and eventually to the helipad. Work started right after Andres released the first version of TresView with level saving capabilities (Yes. This project is THAT old! The first news post on it was Wednesday, November 13, 2002). This version of the mod quickly became corrupted (due to the experimental level save no doubt).

Chapter 2: The Second Iteration.

After spending a long amount of time researching as many details about JP as I could I decided to try again. This time I started with a blank level and created a new terrain and started making models for it.


No, this is not the same model from East Dock.


Old Rex Pen 1.


Old Rex Pen 2.


Old VC Door. Only the frame of the door has been carried over since then and has been seriously revamped.


One of the Computers from the Control Room.


Another computer from the Control Room.


Control Room Version 1. I'm on Version 3 now.


Control Room Version 1 with CM5s along the wall.


Control Room Version 1, switchboxes.


Version 1 of the gates.

Unfortunately, the level was filled with errors and eventually the level became corrupted due to an oopsie on my part. Most of the models from this version have been discarded.

Chapter 3: Latest version.

Here is where things start getting interesting again. I started making another version but this time planning on finishing most if not all the models before major level work would commence.


Latest version of the JP Gates.

http://imgcash3.imageshack.us/Himg233/s ... &ysize=480
Version of the VC from a few months ago (MUCH has changed since that update )

http://imgcash6.imageshack.us/Himg444/s ... &ysize=480
Render of an unfinished version of the fence that was used in East Dock.

http://imgcash6.imageshack.us/Himg477/s ... &ysize=480
Jurassic Park info Kiosk.

http://imgcash6.imageshack.us/Himg477/s ... &ysize=480
Jeep variations made for JPO. The one on the far right was used in East Dock.

Then came a nifty little project called East Dock that featured a decent amount of JPO models such as:

-Perimeter Fence
-Heavy Duty Fence Gate
-Jurassic Park Jeep with Soft Top.
-Motion Sensor Tracking Systems
-Nedry's Glasses
-Barbasol can
-Roadsigns
-Jurassic Park Shuttle Van

All of which were modeled by me and then textured (and in some occasions upped in detail) by Draco.

That brings us to now. I have a team of 5 individuals now (including myself).

-hppav, Project Lead
-Draconisaurus, Texturing and model prep
-Slugger, general help
-TheGuy, Story
-Second Illiteration, Story

If you would like to join to help me finish the project once and for all, feel free to reply to this or send me a PM.

[Nick3069]

Wow! You what to finish it soon? Good!
I dont know what I could do, but I would like to help!
Aslo, I don't realy have alot of time right now (exam week) and during the Christmas vacation I'm planning on working on my Christmas contest level...

About that Jurassic Park Shuttle Van... you should work on that, that thing looks horrible compared to the jeeps and all your other amazing models.

[hppav]

About that Jurassic Park Shuttle Van... you should work on that, that thing looks horrible compared to the jeeps and all your other amazing models.

I know. That model was rushed (and was the last model that had to be finished). Draco said that since it wasn't significant to ED that we shouldn't worry about it too much.

[T_Rex_Breeder]

*sigh* you lucky people and your knowledge on level creation. Awesome job so far.

[TheRaptorKiller]

i would love to help, what positions are open? PS: i'm good with TresEd and making levels.
Edit: Thanks Shadow Wolf for reccomending me

[Shadow Wolf]

i would love to help, what positions are open? PS: i'm good with TresEd and making levels.

I second that and can reccomend both Trent and TheGuy highly, hmmm seeing as the rest of the Tresproject members who frequent the forum are offering their services is there any way in which I can assist?

[hppav]

What I need mainly are the following:

Texture Artists (Who know Photoshop and the use of indexed color palettes.)
Modelers (for non-movie locations/plants/etc)
Foliagers (who know how to do realistic foliage)
Terrain Editors (who can make the terrain for the mod)
Scripters (to script objects that go in the mod)

[Shadow Wolf]

hmmmm meh I don't think I fit into any of those, I can only really do bitmaps and other 2D stuff

[TheRaptorKiller]

looks like you need people to create stuff and i'm not good at creating model, so i probably cant help you to bad i wanted to help.

[Shadow Wolf]

looks like you need people to create stuff and i'm not good at creating model, so i probably cant help you to bad i wanted to help.

I wouldn't say you're not good at it

[TheRaptorKiller]

if your talking about the thing i made, i just peiced that together like legos.

[Shadow Wolf]

still pretty good I thought though, reminds me I need to check on wether we're on schedule for the animation demo

[TheRaptorKiller]

Thanks, but he's looking for modelers who can make solid things like a building, and as much as i want to be a modeler (that came out wrong) i've tried but i cant seem to get the hang of it i suppose you have to go to school and learn it, hppav can you give me some tips? and what program do you use because i really would like to get to know how to do this.

[Shadow Wolf]

meh ok, maybe with more practice you could, who knows, but anyway the work you're doing for TresProject atm is great.

[hppav]

Thanks, but he's looking for modelers who can make solid things like a building, and as much as i want to be a modeler (that came out wrong) i've tried but i cant seem to get the hang of it i suppose you have to go to school and learn it, hppav can you give me some tips? and what program do you use because i really would like to get to know how to do this.

I use 3ds Max but it costs a lot so I recommend you download gMax from http://www.turbosquid.com/ which there is a .tpm model exporter for gMax on Andres' TresEd site. The downside is that it doesn't have all the tools and doesn't have a renderer.

Mostly what modeling is would be piecing things together out of primitives, using editable mesh modifiers to modify the primitives to the shape you want, and deleting any hidden faces to reduce poly count. Poly count reduction is more important for Tres and older games than it is newer ones, but models still work better if you get rid of unnecessary faces (which is something I didn't learn in my college course on it, but I did from Draco).

For cylinders in Tres, the logical limit would be 6-8 sides. The smaller the cylinder, the less sides you should use. If the cylinder you are making is to be huge (like a silo or something) then you could use 10-12 sides. There are also mesh optimizing modifiers that reduce verts and theoretically polycount but they are a bit hairy.

Also, to combine meshes, I typically use the Edit Mesh modifier, select Polygon, the go to Attach and it'll link the meshes together, thus you can move verts together and then select both of them and Weld them (turn two or more verts into one) to get rid of the hole in the mesh.

This should get you started. Don't be afraid to play around with other options but remember to save frequently.

EDIT: Wow, they made the site complicated... You can find gmax here:
http://www.turbosquid.com/GameTools