Wall Textures

New sketches for wall textures from Aleks Hill http://alekshill.blogspot.com/ with whom I will collaborate to add some more finesse and blur the boundaries between the natural and the built.

Grounding

I began to take a step back and re-impose the current scene with the topography I made during the earlier stage so that I can work both simultaneous. Part of the interesting thing I am learning about the relationship between modeling with materials in reality and working through fictional circumstances in UDK is that I have complete control over the terrain itself which presents a unique opportunity to generate unified and seemingly contextually appropriate spatial immersion.

I am planning on extended the animated blocks, I will need to consult a video developer friend of mine to pull this off convincingly. (that will come at a later stage).





image taken of development on center of site

 image taken on lower grounds showing development of rock formations.







                                                          More will come soon!

developing the scene

I have been working and playing around with custom-made assets as if it were lego, trying to learn how to work with UDK alongside, 3Ds Max and Zbrush. Sketchup and photoshop are softwares I have been using too.

However the progression of this test level has been more than just a long tutorial for myself, but also I find myself getting closer to the alien-like landscape I intended on creating during my concept stage, the shady detailed rock formations alongside the strictly geometric forms that guide the player throughout the map.

Everything is still an experiment, and very likley to change, but I find myself reaching my goal closer as I create and recreate various assets which I can focus quiet easily as my level layout has been happily established.

Various anomalies with textures have to still be fixed, in any case I hope to find a way to create mist on the ground, I think it will add to the atmosphere of the hovering geometric analomies throughout the level space.

Boundaries

I need to limit myself in order to maintain a sense of realism in the design and in the designing itself.

An island is an obvious solution, where boundries are clearly marked by water or lava or some other element that the player cannot interact with.

Perhaps a tall cliff-like fortress sitaution where the player will die if he falls off.

Or blockades.

Or perhaps all of the above?

The boundry situation has been up in the air for a while now, but as is often in the design proccess, I am bouncing back and to from it as I am designing and clearing up my level space, seeing what connections seem most relevant and what I can develop while other ideas sits comfortably.

As soon as I built the island with the edgy cliffs as I showed in my previous post I felt an urge to go back and work on my level space or lay it out (vertical heights and distances would be a next).

The Question of Materiality following the Naturel/Human logic.

Due to the simplicity of the level geometry I wanted to geek quiet a bit on the materiality of the scene to amplify the sense of immersion into this alien-like yet familiar semi-human environment.

The building forms are something semi-naturel, growing out of the ground and detaching themselves they have no apparent human-like logic, yet there obscurity in the geometry is something that should seem potentially man-made.

I have found some inspiration for this in the natural volcanic formations of 'Giants Causeway' in Ireland. The strict geometric patterns create seem almost too planned to be naturel, too orderly not to be man-made.

This obscure sense of logic, this anonymity is something I am aspiring to create through the materiality as well.

In any case I have been experimenting queit a bit trying to get some nice textures for my walls. Below are some sketches.

A good friend (Aleks Hill)  creates amazingly convincing line drawing (seen on bottom) that have that sense of naturel or man-made obscurity about them, I am going to see how well thye turn out as an alpha channel on to my texture.

Otherwise programs such as crazy bump give me a bit of freedom in the detailing of image textures. 

Developing Design

So far I have been sketching and through trials of designs, I have been highly influenced by various counter strike maps such as CS_Italy and De_Dust for the creative implementation of funnel points and event spaces; the perfect timing of location points where CT's and T's meet.

In CS_Italy both the terrorists and counter terrorists have a select option paths to take (usually choosing between 2-3) and the funnel points are careful oriented to give both sides an equal advantage. 

De_Dust offers a similiar logic, something I want to use in my game, having spent thousands of hours playing both maps it seems like an appropriate starting point for a precedent for my level; in terms of using the option-path method rather than the open world method of level designing.

My level is at the moment facing a simple criteria based around panning out equal distant option paths for both teams and applying the split-block design idea that I had from early on regarding the 'place of contemplation' aesthetic I was going for.

Living Form

My goal is to create a very basic map for a 8x8 player match, and in order to do so I want to make the most out of every little space, creating numerous funnel points and events.

I had this idea of taking advantage of the level differentiation seen in my 'place of contemplation' as a sort of vehicle for intrigue within the game level. Utilizing the ups and downs of the form to create interesting spaces for confrontation between players.

 

Thees buildings could perhaps also move up and down continually creating a sense of a dynamic space, that changes and morphs, giving it perhaps an alien feel of a sort of living building where the slit divides it in half as it grows into the ground and up. 

I drew many sketches of possible island shapes to accompany the geometric form of the blocks themselves, trying to imagine natural forms that may accompany different spaces, in this concept the player would most likely remain mostly inside the block forms rather than experiencing them from the outside. 

Formulating Ideas

I am writing this level for practice as well as to elaborate on a project from my first year of architecture school that I sincerely enjoyed working on. Originally a place of contemplation based on the journey of the deceased as described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, will be applied uniquely to this practice game level I wish to work on using the Unreal Developement Kit (3).

I will use this blog as a sort of personal update/driver to establish my ideas through writing more formally than my sketch book in the hopes that by outlining my design process I can use this blog as a reference for future improvement.

I have always been interested in the relationships between spaces in games and those of reality, and I have thus selected my 'Place of Contemplation' for its poetic nature, allowing for an easy first step in utilizing a relatively contextually liberated idea.

Contextually; architecture involves itself with the reality we live in but games involve themselves with the reality we wish we could live in

It has been ages since I have posted anything, I suppose its going to be like this now for a while. I've just finished working in an architecture practice (as an intern) in Amsterdam, and am now dedicating some time to making a game level of my own. (I will post images and process later). I have never done this before, so its very exciting but I hope the blog will act as some sort of driving force behind me as it seems relevant. I've been getting into UDK and in retrospect, compared to the Hammer tool it offers more.

I also realize many of my posts have been very lengthy and hard to read, this is partly due to the fact that my brain talks faster then my hands and I'm really just trying to get ideas down. I will make an effort to make them concise and re-edit them as I am actually convinced the themes covered in this blog are very relevant and timely to where both professions of architecture and game development are heading, I also think we will see a lot of convergence in the future as our interactive media develops in relation to spaces we deal with in reality and I'm talking more then just the wii.

This is largely because the virtual realm fulfills spatial needs and desires reality cannot and should not. Fantastical structures and spatial environments that aren't sustainable and damage the conurbations and ecology of our earth should not be built. Yet as human beings, our minds kind of shoot of and detach from the contexts of our immediate environments creating visions of fantastical and wonderful spaces that only beer a small amount of relevance to real environments, in that they were thought of in real environments by us. Yet, today we realize we are often disregarding the well being of our environments and that this is becoming more and more of an apparent problem. 

Architecture has taken it upon itself, and rightfully so, trying to create a more sustainable means to inhabit the earth. Yet, we would be lying if we wouldn't be saying that at the same time, it is shutting down paths of creativity and potential spaces that although are in conflict with our environment offer amazing prospects in other ways.  Why else does our era have so much escapism that can be clearly seen in the amount of hours and money we spend in video game environments as a species. 

That is not to say, in trying to achieve Eco-friendly spaces, we are not opening doors to other creative paths.That is true as well, but at the same time we close creative opportunities that don't necessarily need to be closed...

The point is, in the virtual realm such compromises do not have to be made because in virtual realms, we deal with environments that have no ecological relevance to the physical ones. Yet, if there is some sort of way to converge both realities and create ubiquitous spaces, perhaps we can take the best of both worlds and discover even greater poetry in buildings. 

Currently we still perceive video game environments as video game environments and real spaces as buildings. What I experienced in practise is the poetry of our architecture being bogged down by the nature of real spaces, dealing with the municipality, trying to achieve Eco-friendly buildings is a great cause, but it angers me to see great ideas trashed or concepts translated into pieces of shit, why should we compromise if we can collaborate?

Ideas start of as concepts and have no tangibility or relevance to our environments, as soon as an architect thinks of occupancy that is when the idea becomes architectural and contexts begin to matter. Yet our feelings and emotions in relation to spaces are immaterial, it is only our bodies that need to be there in the physical spaces. 

                                                       image of the new google glasses

Let me make this very clear, I am not saying that in taking full consideration of a spaces impact on the environment you cannot achieve amazing poetry in buildings. I am just saying that as the profession develops we are adding rules, today, we see many rules pertaining to building laws that limit what architects can do on some aspects in consideration of offering environmentally friendly homes.

I don't think we are there yet, but sooner or later and as technology continues to develop, perhaps the virtual realm can take some of the heat and carry some of the design intent just as much as the physicality and mass of built spaces, that we begin to get some sort of hybrid buildings where multiple disciplines work together to create truly fantastical spaces that can achieve wonders.