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Vaaish

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this last pic shows the glass cover plates over the cells. I guess this will be accomplished by alpha in game.
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The facilities are looking good Vaaish. For the alien containment, 2 of the walls seem to have their doors blocked by the internal walls. Perhaps it would work better to have the alien chambers in a circular formation in the center of the room, radiating off of a central hub? I think you could hold 10 aliens in the game, so there would be 10 sections. A glass door and ceiling for each chamber is good, with maybe a solid wall between chambers so the enemy can't conspire. ^_^ All of that would leave a walkway around the perimeter of the room, and maybe 1 or 2 small podiums which would have the door locking controls could be positioned in the corners of the facility.
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Hey -

I really liked the "Alien Containment" center used by the movie "Independance Day" with Will Smith. Those huge locking doors, the glass walls, etc. Perhaps we could do something like that?

I also like Deimos suggestion of a large circular glass holding pen in the middle. And then spiraling stair cases around the pen? And the room? With lots of mechanical arm doo-hickeys for manipulating the aliens.

Gold
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[quote name='Breunor' date='Jun 23 2003, 08:37 AM']The facilities are looking good Vaaish. For the alien containment, 2 of the walls seem to have their doors blocked by the internal walls. Perhaps it would work better to have the alien chambers in a circular formation in the center of the room, radiating off of a central hub? I think you could hold 10 aliens in the game, so there would be 10 sections. A glass door and ceiling for each chamber is good, with maybe a solid wall between chambers so the enemy can't conspire. ^_^  All of that would leave a walkway around the perimeter of the room, and maybe 1 or 2 small podiums which would have the door locking controls could be positioned in the corners of the facility.[/quote]
the center containment cell door slides into the floor, the two outer cells have the door slide hoizontally into the wall or can slide vertically.

My original idea called for something similar to a central column containing the cells but it was impossible to correctly pull it off given the space contraints. I ended up with problems having the cells large enough to contain anything larger than a sectoid, couldn't have a proper width catwalk around the outsie edge and around the cells, couldn't fit 10 cells in (still cant) and multyi story left no real place for the lift to get between levels. I could probably do it if the containment facility was upped to 49x49 but I'm not sure if we want to do that.

to get the style of alien containment with a nice central hum is going to require alot larger space to work with. the same for fitting 10 cells large enough to believably hold an alien.

I have never been a fan of periodically spaced door controls. seems like poor security if there is a breach. Right now all cell controls are in the overlooking control area, each cell has a glas roof that leaves no place to hide, and in the event of a breakout the lift is raised trapping them in the lower section where they are easy targets. (cept for flying critters)

as for manipulating arms and such, I'm going to leave them under props.


@gold: I could do something like that but we would end up with one or two large cells. that style isn't too feisable for a cell block needing to house 10 aliens. Even my current one is a little cramped for 10 but thre really isn't anyplace for them to conspire with the built in bench, bare walls, and glass ceiling to physically see whats going on plus video cameras.


basically alot of the central pillar style holding areas take alot of space to fit together if we want to up the size to 49 by 49 I'll be able to get it idone that way, if we keep it this size there just isn't room to fit it all w/o looking cramped.
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Guest Jim69
Am I right in saying that the base units are gonna be a lot bigger than in UFO, as it appears the power armour looks very small in the pics. Whats the zoom gonna look like, and is the larger scale gonna effect base battles?
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[quote]that style isn't too feisable for a cell block needing to house 10 aliens. Even my current one is a little cramped for 10 but thre really isn't anyplace for them to conspire with the built in bench, bare walls, and glass ceiling to physically see whats going on plus video cameras.[/quote]

Hey -

Just had a thought... In the text entry, we could add something to the effect that "only the aliens currently being researched are held in the central observation area. All others are cyrogenically stored in cyro-tubes, until research is started". Or something to that effect.

Then, you could use the central hub idea. And all you would have to do is put some cyro looking tubes around the parimeter of the room. I would suggest doing an observation balcany all around the room's second level, for looking into the observation hub. Then around the balcony, around the walls, would be the cyro tubes.

Would this make the space issue easier to work with?
Gold
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[quote name='Jim69' date='Jun 23 2003, 04:42 PM']Am I right in saying that the base units are gonna be a lot bigger than in UFO, as it appears the power armour looks very small in the pics. Whats the zoom gonna look like, and is the larger scale gonna effect base battles?[/quote]
As the base units are, they are scaled in proportion to all the other items in the game. This means that the base items can and will be reused for x-net, baseview and battlescape. Rember that in ufo the base items weren't in scale. The baseview pictures were just representative art to show what they look like.

As for scale every item now has one so why would it affect base battles? They're going to be the same scale as every other battle. We had a big discussion about scale which you might want to go and check out.

Not sure what you mean about zoom.
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[quote name='GreatGold' date='Jun 23 2003, 11:47 AM']Hey -

Just had a thought...  In the text entry, we could add something to the effect that "only the aliens currently being researched are held in the central observation area.  All others are cyrogenically stored in cyro-tubes, until research is started".  Or something to that effect.

Then, you could use the central hub idea.  And all you would have to do is put some cyro looking tubes around the parimeter of the room.  I would suggest doing an observation balcany all around the room's second level, for looking into the observation hub.  Then around the balcony, around the walls, would be the cyro tubes.

Would this make the space issue easier to work with?
Gold[/quote]
OK I already have the cryo tubes done for the lab section so it shouldn;t be too hard to pull them in. in fact I think I can put several along the wall overlooking the balcony and remove the center holding cell and replace that with the central column containing the remaining cryo tubes.

and yes the cryo idea will GREATLY help with the feisability.

in other words the final will be a combination of the existing module and the central hub idea.

would be kind of freaky going through there with the lights out and seeing all these ghastly outlines of the aliens contained in the tubes, (of course that probably won't be seen in the game, though we could texture the frosted glass with a slight outline in there and put a glomap on it. :)
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Guest Jim69
[quote name='Deimos' date='Jun 23 2003, 03:43 PM'][quote name='Jim69' date='Jun 23 2003, 04:42 PM'] Am I right in saying that the base units are gonna be a lot bigger than in UFO, as it appears the power armour looks very small in the pics. Whats the zoom gonna look like, and is the larger scale gonna effect base battles?[/quote]
As the base units are, they are scaled in proportion to all the other items in the game. This means that the base items can and will be reused for x-net, baseview and battlescape. Rember that in ufo the base items weren't in scale. The baseview pictures were just representative art to show what they look like.

As for scale every item now has one so why would it affect base battles? They're going to be the same scale as every other battle. We had a big discussion about scale which you might want to go and check out.

Not sure what you mean about zoom. [/quote]
Well, go and play a base mission in UFO, u will see that ur men are a lot bigger in the living quaters than in those pics. Why would it effect it? Bigger area, less clostrophobic walls around. more units in one room, I can see quite a few things. Reason I mentioned is coz I thought that the bases should be scaled bigger, but prehaps they did this for balance? And we could be just upsetting this balance? I recon it needs to be tested b4 u set on the scale of these models.
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There shouldn't be any effect. yes in general the rooms are about 2x as large but that was done so that they could realistically support the operations that are supposed to go on (and make sure that the properly scaled avenger [largest craft] fit in the hanger bay. however if you look at the barracks labs, radar facilities there really isn't room to cram 10 soldiers in one little area to pummel an alien to death. usually they accommodate 2 or 3 soldiers wide. sometimes less. Take for example the storage facility. that is going to be a tactical nightmare getting good los and watching for alliens on the second story.

In general I have made some areas claustraphobic as is fitting their design and made others more open, eg you don't want a lab so crowded that turning around causes that important experiment to get pushed off the table, in the same vein an area that is ment to conatain aliens shouldn't have lots of hiding places or cover. If something gets out you want it out in the open to take it down fast. but in a storage area you want to cram in as much stuff as possible so it is going to get claustraphobic. Barracks are a hotunk setup so you try to keep the corridor wide enough to comfortable get 2 ppl through but conserve enough space to have a good number of bunks in there. to balance the slamm corridors we have the kitchenette area that has a fair amount of open space.

Yes the base facilities are going to be different but I'm trying to make the so they all present a tactical challenge. our characters may be smaller than in UFO but they ARE properly scaled to the environments they exist in.
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Sorry do not have too much time to read all this (in a public terminal now)... Did you think about using something like suspended animation in water tubes for the alien containement??? It would look cool and give lots of place to do battle inside... (Anyone played Unreal 2, there is a place like that in one of the last missions)...

Just my 2 cents...

Greetings
Red Knight
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cryo tubes were just mentioned a few posts ago as a solution for te space problem. I'm planning on implementing them in a few minutes. the model could be a cryo or suspended animation water tube depends on texture.
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[quote name='Jim69' date='Jun 23 2003, 09:08 PM']Well, go and play a base mission in UFO, u will see that ur men are a lot bigger in the living quaters than in those pics. Why would it effect it? Bigger area, less clostrophobic walls around. more units in one room, I can see quite a few things. Reason I mentioned is coz I thought that the bases should be scaled bigger, but prehaps they did this for balance? And we could be just upsetting this balance? I recon it needs to be tested b4 u set on the scale of these models.[/quote]
The soldiers in the original xcom and the base items were set up using the hardware constraints of the day, they went for what looked best with the limitations in hardware they had. Trust me when I say the bases will fel very claustraphobic when you're playing in them. At is stands you're making all of your conclusions from the bones, wait till you get to see the skin and muscles before you decide whether its human or not. :)

What do you suggest we do regarding scale? If we don't have a set scale to work to the models we get from modellers will be either way too big or too small for the other elements in the game. It'd look daft to have a soldier bigger than say the Skyranger but if we don't have a set scale to work to that will happen, then we have the problem of telling the modellers to go back and remodel their model that they've just spent x amount of hours on.

Rest assured Jim we will be extensively testing every facet of the game, when we reach that stage of the game. I think you're worrying about problems that are way off in the future and aren't even on our milestone list yet. To put your mind to rest we have discussed the scale issue at great length. Edited by Deimos
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Hey -

OK, pleeease don't pummel me to death for this suggestion.

Would it be useful to use a LOD system for the Baseview (not battlescape baseviews, mind you). This way, say your looking at your base, and you zoom into look at a finer detail. Then, as you get closer, the next layer LOD takes effect, and you COULD in effect see aliens floating in water with a glow!

I figure that the majority of items will have a VERY detailed model for the X-Net, so that would be the highest LOD. Then, for the next, just get rid of some polys, and so on and so forth.

This way, from afar and at an angle, you'd see the basic base. Which is really all that is needed most of the time. But lets say you want to look at the Alien Containment facility in detail. So you zoom in and rotate. And you get to see the deatils because the next layer LOD pops into effect. Not too much extra work, because like I said, the finer models already exist for X-Net. And it won't kill your machine, because when you zoom in, your not seeing so much else...

This would also be nice for the facility X-Net entries. Is this possible, or just overkill?

Gold
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Its something we'd discussed before, I can't remember where exactly but basically the view would zoom in either on mouse click to view an individual base items or in response to clicking on research or manufacturing. Not only would you see the base item in close view but you'd get stats and stuff included in with it. So yeah its a feasable idea, just depends on how much it needs to impliment it. If not in the first release, it'd be a +v1.0 thing :)
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I would love to have a LOD system for props. For the actual base architecture there isn't too much since the basic structure for each module minus props is between 300 and 500 polys if I remember right.

anyway here is teh edited alien containment. I can only get 7 tubes in bacause of the poly count with them jumps to 1900 from about 500.
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LOL deimos... why is the one place where live aliens that could cause much havoc in the base the place where we have the erie half light :D
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no there isn't going to be glass around the containment cylinders. basically just how it is now except the two cells on the lower level will have glass over the top.

the central hub is that set of 4 cylinders on the top level
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Guest drewid
Just to let you all know I am still working for the texturing for these. I haven't drifted off into a coma.

I'll have the access lift done shortly. I'm just doing the last bit, the door.

LOD would be great and could either be done on camera distance (best).
or by a scripted list. which would work OK(ish) for baseview but not in-game.

When we are zoomed any of the modules our of frustum wouldn't be drawn, so we could upLOD the remaining modules.

The system we use at work grabs the maya LOD nodes, which are really easy to set up and tweak.

once the first couple of bits are done it should speed up more because of texture re-use and adaption. I'm considering building a second PC for home so I don't have to arm-wrestle my kids for time :)
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Oh well, I did some sketches using the old "rooms around a hub" design and could fit 10 chambers 15 feet square each into the 2 story facility. It still allowed for defensive design, etc. To fit 10 tubes into your current design, why not go back to that radial layout? You have 5 tubes on each level, suspended from a central shaft. They are all held within a thick plexigalss chamber that only allows access from 1 door on each level. A control room allows you to rotate the chambers and control door access. You could either use a lift or a ramp for access to the upper level. A lift right in front of the lower door could elevate to the upper door.
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Hey -

I like Breunor's idea here. I think the room should be designed around a central holding chamber, which is just a cage with glass. Inside of this glass central hub would be the alien of interest. Then, around the parmemter of the room would be the cyro-tubes. Its a simple design, but I think it would look really great.

The one you have now, just doesnt seem like a lab/research area. I've worked in labs since I was old enough not to get killed and maimed, so I sorta have a good sense of this.

I've attached a basic pic of what I mean. Luckily, almost all the components are already made for the current version, so it would't be too hard to move em around, would it?

Gold

ps - please take this as constructive critism. I think you've got some really great stuff going...
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This was what I was thinking of for the center area. For extra security, another clear tube could surround all of this, to prevent a forklift or something from bumbing into it. The entire structure could rotate, and you have a platform lift that could elevate to either level. Rotate to the tube you want, and load it onto the forklift to take to the lab for research. Each tube could have a life support panel on it. Each tube could be 3-4 meters across to fit any alien type.
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Hehe -

You should get a bumber sticker that reads "My sketch kicked your sketch's donkey!"

I actually like your idea for the center hub a great deal. If that was put in, and then something similar to the balcony idea was used, I think it would really work well.

Thanks,
Gold
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There could be a walkway around the second story for guard stations, with a spiral stairway in a corner to reach them. Then a secured room in the corner with a large window, where the controls for the lift and tube rotation would be controlled. You could have the glow come from the base of each tube, shining up into the fluid containing the alien. If the lift platform isn't liked, you could just have a forklift that extends up and can remove a tube directly (after the locking clamps are opened from the control room).

Sorry GG, I started the post and had to go away for a while, I think you posted while I was away. I can see the researchers coming to alien containment to do their research, but I thought of alien containment more of a holding area. Since it takes lab space to research them, I figured the alien is moved to the lab when needed.
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[quote name='Breunor' date='Jun 24 2003, 09:42 AM']Oh well, I did some sketches using the old "rooms around a hub" design and could fit 10 chambers 15 feet square each into the 2 story facility. It still allowed for defensive design, etc. To fit 10 tubes into your current design, why not go back to that radial layout? You have 5 tubes on each level, suspended from a central shaft. They are all held within a thick plexigalss chamber that only allows access from 1 door on each level. A control room allows you to rotate the chambers and control door access. You could either use a lift or a ramp for access to the upper level. A lift right in front of the lower door could elevate to the upper door.[/quote]
Brunor the issue atm isn't fitting the crto tubes in, it is ply count. I'm not fond of bumping over 2000 polys and with 7 tubes and 2 holding chambers I'm at 1900 polys. I pulled out the last tube just preserve the poly count. I also will not put in a spiral staircase due to poly count. lift platforms are easier to secure and take fewer polys.

as it stands now the central hub is the rack of 4 tubes on the top floor spaced around that column if an alien needs to be observed or interigated there are 2 holding cells available on the lower level only accessible by a lift plate. there are another 4 tubes on the lower level.


my personal feelings are that the only time an alien is removed from the containment room and taken to another location in the base is when it is dead. Too much of a security risk having a live alien in a lab full of experimental equiptment, alien weapons, and other easily reached items that could be used as weapons.

If you have an area specially designed to hold the live ones and those in stasis tht is under heavy guard at all times if one does break out they have to get up to the second floor alive to get near a weapon.

the last thing you want in a lab is a bunch of troopers babysitting the alien, takes up too much space and who knows what they might mess around with in there. (remember halflife?)
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Hey -

Yeah, I'm with Vaaish on this one, thats how I always thought of Aliens. I've worked with pathogenic mice lines before, and once you have the mouse in its ventilated reverse-pressure cage, thats it. You never take him out till he's... well... sushi (ok, i have a perverse sence of lab humor sometimes... :devillaugh: ).

But, this is why I brought up the LOD issue. If we implement it, then wouldn't the poly issue really not matter so much?

Gold
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A good example of what I picture the cryo tubes being is the prop used in the Hulk movie. He was strapped into the tube, all kinds of life support and probes connected to him. That entire tube/chamber could be mounted into the center structure, and taken down for individual study in the lab or wherever. Only the reaper would have a chance of damaging something like that without being strapped in, but the straps prevent the alien from removing the various probes too. Hehe, we get to probe the aliens! Yay! Then there's the outer shell, in case a holding chamber broke they're still inside it. 1' thick plexiglass or the equivalent should hold just fine, eh? And there could be stun/knockout gas to release if an alien broke free. Hit the panic button, the doors lock down, and everybody's knocked out, soldiers and all. Then somebody outside the room comes in and seperates them. Just as we don't have to have every detail in each facility match reality to perfection, do we really need to study the design and say there's a chance an alien could escape if given the right circumstances? I'd rather there be 10 holding cells for the 10 aliens. Having 1 big cell is quite the security risk as well IMO. Having an odd number doesn't make sense either.

I can understand the poly count issue, but why do the tubes have to be perfect cylinders? Attached is a pic of the generic design. You've got the center shaft, 10 holding chambers, outer security shell, and generic box for a door. Obviously there are details missing, but all this costs a crude 275 polys. I think it would be easy enough to flesh out and refine it and stay under 2000. It's just my 2 cents, I think it would look really cool, but if everybody else doesn't care neither do I. Edited by Breunor
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I've not seen HULK so I can't picture what the cryo stuff there looks like.


I think we have a different idea of how these tubes work, I picture them as in the style of TFTD water tubes or ESB bacta tank. I think more of a single umbilical attached to the alien to monitor vitals etc and not a mass of probes. I think that these tubes are simply there to hold an alien in stasis and that the holding cells contain the alien for observation. (think aliens 4) if an alien needs tests run on it they do it right in the cell to reduce the chance of escape. to examine the internals of an alien they use a dead one and just autopsy it.

I'm not fond of a knockout gass that takes everyone in the module down and then have someone come in to sort it out. seems like a bad tactical situation, how can they be sure that the aliens will be affected by the gas or how long they will be affected by it?

from a security perspective the best way to go is have the least room for error. If the critter is going from the cryo tube to the holding cell 10 meters away with only one way to get out there isn;t too much chance to get away and if it does the guards up top can lock the lift and neutralize the alien. w/o having to rely on fancy ventalation systems or special gas.

remember simple is better, the simpler a plan is the less that can go wrong.

I can try to pull the polys down for the cryo tubes but right now they are only 170 polys each If I get them down to 100 each that will still be 1000 polys right there plus a good 30 to 50 for the column that only leaves about 450 polys for the rest of the room.

I'll see what I an do,
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[quote name='Vaaish' date='Jun 24 2003, 03:27 AM']LOL deimos... why is the one place where live aliens that could cause much havoc in the base the place where we have the erie half light :D[/quote]
Heh, it happens in all the best movies so why not :D
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ok I'm reworking that center column, it is a little offset but right now here is what I have. I haven't quite decided on if there will be some kind of external machinery to get the cryo tubes off the column. the idea I was thinking about was a clamp like stucture holding the cylinders on the top rack that would extend to hold them over the walkways and just have a dolly to take them to the cells.

that or maybe a little arm structure built into tracks in the ceiling. if we use that then it will probably be a prop later. I am running about 1900 polys still so no more tubes. I might go back and try reducing the tubes and see ig I can fit one more in later.
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ok this is final. even slicing of 70 polys from each cryo chamber but having to add the clamps and the poly count is still 1840.
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Guest drewid
I really like the cryo tube idea, and the tubes look great but I've got a couple of questions.

How do they accomodate dfifferent sized/shaped aliens? would we need a few wider versions for the big fellas?

Sorry to be overly practical but why stack the tubes up? Wouldn't it be easier to have them round the walls in that central well? and conveyors on the floor or a gantry crane overhead?
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I think the tubes could be scaled to about 3 meters in diameter without changing anything else. They'd be closer together, but should still fit. That would hold anything then.
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[quote]Sorry to be overly practical but why stack the tubes up? Wouldn't it be easier to have them round the walls in that central well? and conveyors on the floor or a gantry crane overhead?[/quote]

I second this motion.

Gold
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If all the tubes are on the same level, would that allow for the facility to have 2 floors that are seperate from each other? You could have a storage area on one floor, and each chamber could be moved to the other floor for detailed analysis. Allows for more security, etc. Of course it comes back to poly count.
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@Drewid space constraints. having them stacked allows more room on the upper catwalks for the guards and having them isolated from the upper level helps ensure that if something does do wrong and they get out they are more likly to end up stuck where they are at or on the lower level

The general I deas is that it is a one size fits all tube. bigger alines have less room in the tube. we aren't thinking too much in terms of comfort (tey ARE frozen) I am thinking of having the tubes rotate around that center pylon and the have a platform gantry that swings in to place followed by the holding clamp moving the tube onto the olatform where it is locked and swung down.

however having an overhead crage does mean that we need a ceiling and I'm not positive quite yet how we plan on doing teh ceilings or if we are.



@brunor two separate floors doesn't exactally allow for more security or tactics. they just mean that if aliens get loose on the second story yu have to send troops in to deal with the aliens on their terms. the whole ideal of the open top is that if an alien get out he doesn't have anywhere to hide and can easily be taken out.

to kepp the situation interesting that central colum provides a little cover on the top and of course they could duck back in the holding cell if required on the bottom.
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Guest drewid
what you could do is have an arrangement like a nuclear reactor. the tubes are in a grid on the ground floor with a crane on rails on the top floor.

No security problem, if the power fails the aliens wake up and still can't get out.

I'll do a sketch
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Yes that is even more secure and might save on polys if the tubes never have to come out but what does that do to the tactical situation. I personally like it better with the central column because it spices up the tactics a bit more than who has the longest range w/o sacrificing the overall security. if we have to I can easily slap the glass around each level do that when you need a cylinder it just slides down and you have access.
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