A new year and a new Mapcore challenge thread! This time the challenge is to recreate a scene or a part from a Counter-Strike map in a futuristic style. The first thing that came to mind to reference was Another World... #gamedev

I feel that taking an iconic level like Dust 2 and doing a completely different take on it would be good fun. I don't want to spend too long on it though, so I've picked one specific area to work on; Site B tunnels/car. #gamedev

First thing is to refamiliarise myself with the reference material and grab some shots that speak to me. So I put together a small collage/ref sheet with some of the areas I'd like to riff off. #gamedev

I always find it's important to jump into 3D as soon as possible, but I always need to scribble some ideas down. So I make a quick rough blockout of the area of Dust 2 I want to create... #gamedev

To build the blockout I used Blender's "Import Image as Plane" and just went to town with loop cuts and extrudes. More about that here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/addons/import_export/images_as_planes.html In this shot you see how I used the Dust 2 mini map as a guide (the texture is wrapped around the blockout). #gamedev

I'm absolutely not an artist, so I need every bit of help I can get. So I use the basic blockout to provide a 3D canvas to sketch some ideas over the top in Photoshop. My first idea was to build the area up as an other-worldly eatery. Please don't laugh at my drawing #gamedev

That "concept" provides me a starting point for colour scheme and composition as well as what props I may need to make. I start by slapping some solid colours onto the blockout in #UE4. I'm thinking in this project I will stick with flat colours and detail via geometry. #gamedev

And now it's just iteration. I start by adding some of the medium sized details that help sell the purpose of the scene, so the roof trim, the eatery signage and the hovercar... this might be out of scope though! I also add a basic skylight in #UE4. #gamedev

I dotted around some #UE4 mannequins and quickly discovered that my scale was way out. So I rescaled the scene (hence the camera shift). I resurrected an old Mapcore challenge of mine to grab a Delorean for reference. #gamedev

You can see that in all it's glory in the following tweet https://twitter.com/SeanNoonan/status/1163939800669401094

I felt that I was going a little too boxy in places, so went back to the reference material for ideas as well as Another World's lesser-known sequel, "Heart of the Alien". So arch ways, decals and edge wear - I'll worry about the city vista later #gamedev

Jumped back and forth between #Blender and #UE4 to add an arch (need more!), some steps and a couple of trims (riffing on the prison sections in Another World). The vista buildings look too generic, but like I say, I'll worry about that later. #gamedev

I try to get a little more depth with a basic post process - it's too early for that, but I've been paranoid about the flat textures... I cut the window to the eatery and think about how I'm going to eventually light the scene. #gamedev

Too calm my fears that I'm not going to be able to pull off large flat textures, I let myself get distracted with normal decal. Not done this before, but thought it would be an easy way to get that scuff/decay detail from Another World without having to paint it in. #gamedev

A little more light work cleaning up some normals here and there and adding some bevel details (I have no idea what I am doing). I love control panels so I added one of those too. Weird that you'd have to lean over from steps to use it but this is ANOTHER WORLD, right? #gamedev

I am fully aware that the sign needs to be addressed as soon as possible, but in Heart of the Alien there are these weird spike poles everywhere, also the cable tool in #UE4 is easy, so lets add wires. Also bars on the windows. #gamedev

I rebalanced the scene a little - the booth looks a bit weird as it is so close to that lamp post... also that lamp post isn't looking right either... I must do something fun before I lose all confidence! #gamedev

I tweak the lighting a little to get a better view of the scene and start building more chip/scuffs with normal map decals. These are easy to setup but have a couple of limitations (that I don't fully understand). It seems that they're not great with baked lighting #gamedev

Adding a couple more details like trims, some signage detail (still need to work out what that's going to look like...) and some more normal decals. As I am approaching diminishing returns, I think it's time to do something fun/wild... #gamedev #ue4

...but first I'll try and explain how I'm trying to achieve this with no (or minimal) texture work. So far using normal map decals is faking the details seen in Another World. Not perfect, but they're quick to do in #UE4. #gamedev

It's super simple. I just throw in a greyscale texture (white is high, black is low) & let the engine do the rest. I'm not sure if you need Dbuffer decals on (but I do have them enabled). This maybe common knowledge but I've never done it before. Here's the #UE4 material #gamedev

And just to show how much I am abusing these normal mapped decals... #gamedev

So let's do something fun! Movement is one of the big things completely missing from the scene right now. This is something Another World was great at. I want to slot what I can into this scene (as well as the vista). Here's a clip from the the 25th Anniversary Edition #gamedev

The lightning/electricity in Another World really sticks out to me. Those sharp angles. That fullbright look. So I've used a pretty basic depth fade particle material and messed around with it on a beam emitter. Basic, but it's quite close to what I want already! #gamedev #ue4

I'll definitely need to rejig the composition a bit here, but I think it looks pretty nice in the scene. I'll make some kinda weird lighting rod to wrap it around. It'll be something in the foreground as well as the background. What next..? #gamedev

It's a new day, so lets carry on where we left off, some more VFX. The pistol-fired barriers were one of the most iconic elements of Another World. I'd like to get a ref to that in here on the main door. Here's a video reminder of how they look. Such unique combat! #gamedev

My first attempt is reasonably successful. I've got two emitters firing in the Z at a fixed distance with opposing velocity. You kinda get the idea but I feel like it falls short of the reference material. I might need to make some support geometry and maybe rotate it... #gamedev

Before improving these particle effects, lets take stock. Obviously the #UE4 mannequin isn't helping me here - I might need to address that soon! But there's definitely some work needing done to the angle of the shot, though I'll keep this for continuity in the thread. #gamedev

Back to the barrier, and I need to take some creative license. In Another World, the barrier is 2D. I'm not sure the barrier looks right when rotated. Perhaps if I focus on the interesting part, i.e. how unstable it is, it'll work better. What do you think? #gamedev

So I am pretty happy with that - might polish it up towards the end, but I feel okay with moving on now. Here's the #UE4 setup for this. It's a basic emissive gradient being applied to a particle and thrown about by the emitter #gamedev

Okay, so it's time to get serious! There's a certain something or someone missing from the scene. Things are about to get tough... #gamedev

Obligatory reminder that I am not an artist... I took a bunch of reference shots from both Another World and Heart of the Alien and used my Wacom to draw a T-pose and side profile of the alien soldier character. I have no idea how feet work... I'll sort it in 3D #gamedev

I start out with a cube then subdivide it so that I can cut it in half and use a mirror modifier. That way I only need to model one side of the dude. Then I just extrude and scale segments to align with the reference images. I probably used too many extrudes... #gamedev #blender

It's important to have a backup plan if you suddenly lose confidence (like I was here). I was struggling with the hands and feet so distracted myself by slapping some block colour on the model, directly sampling from my reference images. Crisis averted. #gamedev #blender

...that being said, if you don't keep clean unwraps you may get some unfortunate (amusing) results - espeically when you're working with symmetry #gamedev #blender

Sidenote, is anyone else getting Cloud vibes from Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation? #gamedev

Okay, let's get back on track. The bulk of the character is done (still need to do hands and feet). It's probably time to work on some proportions and tighten up the model a bit. I know a lot of my edge loops have started going a bit wonky around the legs... #gamedev #blender

Let's focus on what really matters; shaping some of that fine, alien rump #gamedev #blender

After working a little on the boots (I'm really looking forward to extruding the tops!) I realise, "yeah, I don't think that's how knees work" So there's still more work to do on the legs. I need to keep them relatively chunky. Simply loop cut and scale! #gamedev #blender

So I extrude the boot tops (strangely satisfying) and fix up that upper "T" this guy's got going on. How's my little pal looking? Yeah, he needs hands of some form (though I'm probably not going to tackle fingers - it's out of scope). #blender #gamedev

"I wonder how things are going if I hide the mirror modifier... oh, how awful"! It's always good to check out what's happening inside your wireframes. Some of those random verts can cause a lot of problems if you rely on a complex modifier stack (I don't) #gamedev #blender

Okay, so after adding some clumpy hands, we're done with the basic model. Time to shove some bones into this handsome chap! I just know this bucket head/no-neck is going to cause me no end of problems... I'll just have to hope that Auto-Rig Pro can clean this up #blender #gamedev

It's probably worth mentioning that this is only the second biped character model that I've ever made, and getting it to move wouldn't be possible without "Auto-Rig Pro" for Blender. I think it's about 40 bux. Worth every penny IMO #gamedev #blender https://blendermarket.com/products/auto-rig-pro

Also, I feel like this bucket head is going to need a face. I don't think pixel art will work, and I want to keep the poly count super low. So I'll maybe just paint something on. What does he look like again? Oh. #gamedev

Before we do that, lets see how things are looking. I'm quite happy! I think I've managed to get a pretty good likeness to the aliens from Another World. Perhaps the upper back and face are a little off, but this is just a bit of fun to help me learn this stuff. #gamedev #blender

So I decided to sketch a face and just slap it on those flat polys. If it's good enough for @BlendoGames it's good enough for me! When it comes to shading, I've got some engine-side plans. I feel like I'll use some kinda toon shading in #UE4. #gamedev #blender

A new day, so lets take stock. I added the new barrier to the doorway and popped another little lightning rod in the backdrop. Probably time to swap out the #UE4 mannequins with my alien dudes. Maybe it's time to start thinking about the vista... #gamedev

I need to work out the animation side of my characters, so I'll just leave the scene empty. For now I'll focus on touching up details. First up, I need to work on softening up some of that edge wear. In Photoshop I use a gradient from an inner glow. Quite effective! #gamedev

In fixing up the edge wear I started to fixate on the hard edge between the outside wall and the building... not sure how to resolve it neatly, so I covered it up with a cable #gamedev #ue4

Okay, so that's the cables in! I also felt the building on the left side was just getting lost in the shadow too much, and wwas visible wasn't well balanced (mostly the height of the window and the empty space above it). So I added some trim details and wear. #ue4 #gamedev