Violation Entertainment

Finally some more map shots, this time of the psychedelic and disorientating training level in SH:-





Hopefully we'll have a video up soon of this in action, especially now that we can 'offline render' anything from within the engine. This showcases a couple of interesting features, with the main material cycling colours in a couple of different interesting ways and at different rates, so the overall colour of the environment is constantly changing. It also changes colour depending on the distance/perspective of the surface, to really give it an iridescent appearance as you move around in the level, done by simply shifting the hues down through the mipmap stages. Finally, there is a separate layer underneath all surfaces that renders directly to the skybox, no matter if there is a lot of geometry (that should be) visible through the seamingly semitransparent material, everything appears as an opaque surface. Especially with the skybox animating (rotating) it makes this environment particularly disorientating. Combined with the particle effects both in the world and attached to the player viewpoint, this will be some hallucinatory-like experience when navigating these virtual training exercises, which was originally the whole point to the concept.

LOL this is great! very cool idea! Way to go Chief!

I thought I'd talk a little bit more about this, since it's important for the entire project and will be picked up on again, because it's really something that needs to be fleshed out ASAP, so all other maps can be constructed correctly.

So basically, the map would be used as both an optional training level in the game, for players to learn and understand as much of the game mechanics they can expect to encounter throughout the game, but also internally for us to decide on the metrics and interactivity of those mechanics, on a micro level. The map is mostly just constructed of basic brushwork, and a lot of the visual elements and details are mostly automatic. This means we can quickly adjust lengths and heights and sizes without getting bogged down with needing to redo visual details. It's also very modular, so we can easily reorganise whole sections without effort.

To get a better idea of what to expect, Half-Life and Deus Ex had the same kind of training levels, also optional. The difference here is that it uses completely custom assets from the proper game and is supposed to be like a virtual simulation, so the player model, v-weps/hands, AI entities, physics objects and even the UI are all completely different from everything else in the game, and is supposed to be a psychedelic ghost-like experience and intentionally a little disorientating. There is a practical reason for that, not just that it might look funky.

Many of the visuals are driven by complex materials and effects, and not the geometry. This is important for reasons I just mentioned but also to stay true to the sterile virtual simulation aesthetic. It's still quite far from being at that point but I'd really like to tackle it soon, because from a development perspective, it really isn't going to be difficult or time-consuming to do, but is going to be very important for practical reasons.