Our very own Jimmy "Tourke" Lane will be a guest on the 10/29/2020 Development Stream. He'll be discussing advancements in our art department pipeline, and how it's helping get Pantheon closer to release.
Got World Building and/or pipeline related questions for Mr. Lane? Post 'em here and I'll do my best to ask them during the latter portion of the show.
-Roe
I guess I'll ask the obvious first question: How have the updated tools as part of Project Faerthale impacted your workflow?
Additionally, how much creative license do you have going from Jared's concept art to implementing those environments in-game? I.e., have you had to change much translating canvas to 3D space, or do you always err on the side of making the in-engine environments as close to concept as possible?
I have a couple, not sure if they're fully related to Art and pipeline:
1.) Assuming that encounters, NPC placements & behaviors and environmental effects have completed or designed for a zone, how long does it typically take a zone to go from a Graybox environment to detail and art complete?
2.) Are day/night cycles implementation at a rudimentary level targeted for Pre-alpha 5 or what stage would this be targeted? Other there gonna be other nuances to the day/night cycle such as keeps turning off lights, flora/environment having different effects etc.
Jstsunami beat me to the gray box question, but that's one I'd like to hear as well. Here's some others:
1. Being a big fan of Kithicor and other scary zones, I'd like to know what's the creepiest zone you've worked on so far?
2. Is there a weather system and if so has it been implimented for Project Faerthal or is it still in the works? We saw some lightning effects on an earlier stream so are there any others like that you can talk about yet?
3. Pipeline question - Can you give us any sort of art roadmap? I know that's a tricky one and I'm not asking for dates but more of a we are here and this is what's ahead sort of thing.
4. Scattershot Question - How long does it take o make art for a grayboxed zone from gray box to completion assuming things go as planned?
5. Any new UI art updates that we haven't seen yet?
6. Little details make all the difference when it comes to making a living, breathing, world vs just a backdrop. Some examples I've enjoyed are hobbits farming and water wheels turning in LOTRO and Ghosts of Tsushima where the player can simply walk through a flower field and Jen Sakai will drag his hand over the flowers. Little attention to details like that make a lot of difference, so what, if any so far, are some of the little artistic things that are your favorite that help make the world feel alive?
7. Lastly, what's the most epic looking thing/zone that you've seen or worked on in-game so far?
I'll pump the breaks there. ;p
Roenick said:Our very own Jimmy "Tourke" Lane will be a guest on the 10/29/2020 Development Stream. He'll be discussing advancements in our art department piepipline, and how it's helping get Pantheon closer to release.
Got art and/or pipeline related questions for Mr. Lane? Post 'em here and I'll do my best to ask them during the latter portion of the show.
-Roe
It hasn't been in any of the streams lately. Is the grass lay-down system still in the game? What about the water system?
Will the aesthetics of the game be designed in such a way as to allow for secret passages such as the labyrinth wall illusion.
What can you tell us about the spell particle effects? Are updates for these also affected by the new pipelines? Can we expect to see more cool spell effects in the coming streams?
I am quite happy with the "not-over-the-top" effects I've seen so far. But quite a while ago Joppa talked about how he would like to see developing effects (simple at early levels, more complex the higher your level). Is something like this still being considered (or maybe even implemented)?
I know you dont want to give out spoilers, but when can we expect to see some pictures/vids of new completed areas, mobs and bosses?
I hate picking up a new weapon with better stats just to see that it looks exactly like my current weapon. How will you ensure that equipment is fresh and interesting to look at without overloading the art department and download size?
Are we going to get some way to cutomise our equipment, shaders, effects, guild emblems, etc.?
Will you be able to see an earing or necklace being put on?
Will mud splatter equipment when it rains?
Will you see footprints in the snow?
Q: Have you finalized which races, if any, will share combat/movement animations? Can you share the beans?
Q: Will all humanoid NPC's and MOBs in Pantheon have a dynamic art meaning their look will change based on equipment, or is it going to be hard coded?
chenzeme said:
I hate picking up a new weapon with better stats just to see that it looks exactly like my current weapon. How will you ensure that equipment is fresh and interesting to look at without overloading the art department and download size?
To piggy-back on this question. What checks and balances are in place to ensure the "art department" doesn't go heywire and crazy with the outfits and weapons? Is there a "This is our style and we're sticking with it for all time." or is this just a "hey, lets spin the bottle and see what our art sytle is this week" kinda thing?
Should have been more specific. Since Tourke is our Senior Environment Artist, let's keep to those types of questions please. Edited orginally post to reflect.
-Roe
What is the collaborative process like between the environmental art team and sound production?
How are these processes used to augment each other? For example, in EQ2 there are several zones that marry art and music in a way that gives the zone an ambiance which encompasses both the environment and its natural inhabitants (e.g. Clefts of Rujark, Splitpaw, etc.)
Does the environmental art draw inspiration from the music planned for a zone, does the music draw inspiration from the art, or are they produced without influence or consideration of one another?
Hey Tourke!
Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to appease the crazed masses!
I'm curious what type of hardware you use on your personal workstation while you're working? As well, besides Unity UI and Houdini, and without breaking proprietary VR secrets, are there any other softwares you use to help bring a vision to life?
Appreciate your responses! Love the new Avendyr's Pass. All the best to you and the VR Staff and keep up the great work- Techninja
I liked the 1-2 pagers that I have seen on the various races that that contained certain patterns or symbols unique to those races. Will the artistic team(s) be given free reign to incorporate or hide those symbols or general ideas into their designs? kinda like the mouse-ears snuck into Disney inspired designs or the "Nina"'s in the old Hirshfield entertainment charicatures.
How much freedom will the art people have for design? meaning, will one person be able to create a whole dungeon or zone, or will it be a team with one person creating the first area, another the second area, and the last the third area with a boss, all overseen by a director making sure the overall look remains consistent?
How flexible are the tools/libraries they have to use? Like, can they drop and drag parts of everything to make abominations? or do they have to painstakingly shade the gradient of moss from green to brown on one shadowed crevass of rock next to a wall, 30 feet away from anything else where no creature paths.
If the art people sneak in some easter eggs or clever designs (like "Nina"s as mentioned above )or whomever, an SO or child or representative something, somewhere, and it gets past quality control only to be discovered later by players will you leave it in? and not nerf it out?
Will the art devs be able to use likenesses of current Devs as special NPC's faces or corpses to break tension in hard areas? Like, struggling to defeat a boss and the boss throws a corpse at the group to egg them on and the corpse is named Roenick, for instance.
Q: There are many talented modders that are capable of creating high quality performant maps when provided with prefabs & textures (see most FPS , DOS2 , Skyrim etc.) assuming you had a way to verify only VR owned IP was used in a map , do you think it would be a good idea to use this talent pool? perhaps just to fill in blanks in greyscale areas?
1) Are you striving to create a world that looks mostly wild and untamed?
2) Do you strive to strike a ballance in terms of the ages/sizes of all the trees that are placed in a zone so that they don't look like they were all planted at the exact same time?
2b) If so, do you ever create small clusters of trees that use that formula (sapplings all the way up to old growth)?
3) Have you tried to create any scenes where warm dappled light comes through the thick underbrush at a forests edge?
4) Have you created any gullies with exposed roots running throughout them?
5) Do you intend to create loose leaves and other debris that are dynamically triggered by the partical system in order to simulate occasional random gusts of wind?
6) Will you create night that is pitch black when the moon is not currently above the horizon?
7) Will you create night that varies in degrees of darkness depending on how much cloud cover there is blocking the moon light?
8) Will you simulate lightening that precedes thunder?
9) Will you simulate thunder that varies in loudness based on how close the lightening strike was?
10) Will you simulate rain that varies in intensity from a light sprinkle to a torrential downpour?
11) Will you implement a system where the level of a players visibility correlates to the intensity of rain fall?
12) Will you implement a system where the level of a players visibility correlates to the density of fog?
13) Will zones have cloud layers that travel at different speeds from one another?
14) Will you implement a system where cloud speeds change dynamically?
15) Will you implement a day night cycle that makes a complete cycle in not less that 2 hours?
16) Will you implement dynamically triggered 3d/spacial nature sounds such as: crickets, grasshoppers, dragonfly's, passing light breeze, passing strong gust, birds, spooked bird flying away, sand/gravel/rock slide, snapping twig, bees, etc?
17) Will Terminus have any babbling brooks in it?
18) Will Terminus have Bee's nests?
19) Will certain zones have non-interactive predatory birds or other creatures scouting/circling overhead?
20) Will preplaced campfires or just fires in general have realistic crackling sounds?
21) Will fires emit smoke that travels up above the treeline?
22) Will you promise to never commit the sin of creating doors that cannot be opened because they are for decoration only?
23) Will you promise to always merge vertices?
24) Will you promise not to go overboard with specularity to avoid making everything look like the porcelain Duracell battery family from the 80's & 90's?
I've heard mention of the weather/climate becoming pretty extreme and impacting players.
- Are there any insights to whether or not these might turn into natural disaster type scenarios, such as floods, wild fires (from lightning), etc.?
- Will there be seasons in some regions? Or is the snow going to be static to a particular part of the world?
- Are there any plans for some aurora borealis type features? The sky in Skyrim always captivated me ;)