A palace fit for a Queen of Hearts

Second week into the off the map project and there's still concepting going on along side some modelling. We've got a basic time line and work schedule sorted to be improved once the final asset list in complete.

Over with the level the whitebox is all set up and we're using it to keep our models to scale with each other, by exporting the place holders from the engine into max so the assets will be the correct sizing for their location. It's saving a lot of time and effort.

Whitebox screenshots

This week I also started modelling some assets, starting with the palace of the Queen of Hearts that would sit in the distance behind an inaccessible part of the gardens. Working from Anya's concept for the palace I modeled in the basic shapes in and planned to texture in most of the details. Since the player would never be able to get close it wasn't a concern of it not looking real close up. Since it was just a set piece it only needed faces that could be seen so it has no back faces at all the save the tris.

  
I also discovered modeling hearts is a huge pain but not as big a pain as the surrounding peers who did not miss a chance of mockery for sitting in a computer room the day before Valentines day making hearts.

As for the engine the others have started trying to sort out water shaders and starting on getting foliage into the engine. Last I checked there was a bit of trouble with the lighting on the grass and it wasn't reacting to the areas that are in shadows which is naturally a bit of a problem. The others seem to have found a workaround for now but hopefully there's a better solution somewhere.

https://anyadmuga.wordpress.com

There's also a feature going into the level based on my favorite of Anya's concepts. We have a mad hatter tea party set up across the river that is accessed via a rabbit hole which will move the player to a new level which is a darker, subverted version the party. I think the change in colour pallet will be a good change of pace from the bright colours of the rest of the level and a chance to alter the lighting and make something interesting.

Next week I plan to get the hedges finished up and get started on my next round of assets. The level itself is starting to get populated and other than a few engine problems things seem to be going alright to far, knock on wood of course.