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Titanic by Wild Card

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Map Info

Map Description

This is a complete recreation of the RMS Titanic.

This project will be broken into several phases:

Phase 1 (December 23 2011 to March 24 2012)
- Basic structure based on blueprints by Bruce Beveridge
- Texturing for clarity
- Basic modelling of staircases
- Basic level optimization

Phase 2a (March 24 2012 to April 24 2012)
- Level splitting per deck with transitions
- Phase 2a abandoned in favour of optimization to the architecture

Phase 2b (April 24 2012 to present)
- Level optimization
- Architecture optimization
- Completion of re-texturing
- Details to Boat Deck including modelling external fittings

Phase 3 (unknown to unknown)
- Addition of rooms (cabins, lavs, storage, etc)
- Basic proper texturing
- Review of ship's structure
- Advanced level optimization (full VVIS compile?)

Phase 4 (unknown to unknown)
- Basic roofing/ceiling detail
- Doorways and doors
- Windows
- Funnel structure

Phase 5 (unknown to unknown)
- Modelling of rails
- Modelling of posts and supports
- Modelling of bridge and wheelhouse telegraphs and wheels
- Modelling of funnel accessories
- Modelling of lifeboats

Phase 6 (unknown to unknown)
- Basic lighting
- Skymap

The following details have been deliberately modified from the blue prints due to game limitations:

- Crew spiral staircases at the bow from D Deck to the Tank top due to player collision hull. The staircase has been made bigger.

The following links are for Youtube videos of the progress:

Video 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXf0MZwGQds

Video 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Z9mdRj3Yo&context=C4091e83ADvjVQa1PpcFN85OhX63C1Ifzxjqyfg7ZqBrHgULYCdEs=

Video 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHMj6Py6JkU&context=C4bb6491ADvjVQa1PpcFN85OhX63C1IXdOvzRH_9nulYU5mkYJ9Lo=

Video 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maAJhYHY83g&context=C44160a7ADvjVQa1PpcFN85OhX63C1IaBPRceeZ6NaP7ksfc8Xn2I=

Discussion

Posted by Wild Card on Fri Apr 6th 2012 at 7:02pm
[Author]
I got C Deck finished.

But then I tried something. I opened up my original full Titanic map and did a select all -> apply nodraw texture. It still failed a test compile on error of too many func_detail touching world brushes (I think):

Too many t-junctions to fix up! (2972 prims, max 32768 :: 65547 indices, max 65536)

But it did go through. Wonder if thats an indication I could do something with that of if its not. Meh.

Its probably for the best to split in multi levels anyways.
Posted by Wild Card on Fri Apr 6th 2012 at 3:32am
[Author]
Got B Deck map completed at roughly 2665 brushes, next up will be C Deck.
Posted by Wild Card on Thu Apr 5th 2012 at 4:17am
[Author]
Haven't had a lot of time the last week to work on Titanic. Put in about a half hour tonight on the B Deck map.

Friday is a holiday and then its the weekend so Im hoping to have practically everything finished - in terms of splitting levels - over the weekend.
Posted by Wild Card on Sat Mar 31st 2012 at 3:55am
[Author]
Well I got the Boat Deck and A Deck levels pretty well done and I have one (albeit ugly) changelevel in between the two at the Fore Grand Staircase. Both maps compile quickly on FULL compile, which is really nice. And the changelevel works perfectly also.

I'll of course need to add changelevels for every area (all staircases) that go between levels, as well as noclip the areas I dont want the player to go (such as jumping over railings to areas that arent accessible in a particular map)

I'm noticing Im getting a lot of degenerate faces though. Log shows 3 on the Boat Deck map and 5 on the A Deck map. Previously, I had I think only about 5 or so in the entire ship. I did notice an artifact on the roof of the bridge on the A Deck map. Despite the brush being a simple rectangle, in game there was a triangle cut shape in the middle of it that I could see through.

Gonna figure that out.

Boat Deck, A Deck, and B Deck will be the more difficult maps to level transition as they all have exterior layout and can see a lot of each other's areas. The lower levels will be easier.

Once the ship is rebuilt in individual levels, I'll be able to continue actually working on the ship.

w00t!
Posted by haymaker on Fri Mar 30th 2012 at 11:12pm
"Orpheus" said:
You gotta turn cheats off to enter developmenter mode?
Oops duh sv_cheats 1 my bad
Posted by Orpheus on Fri Mar 30th 2012 at 10:34pm
You gotta turn cheats off to enter developmenter mode?
Posted by haymaker on Fri Mar 30th 2012 at 10:08pm
mat_wireframe 1,2,3 can only run under sv_cheats 0.

I was kind of thinking of portaling / sealing / visblocking / what have you by way of thin brushes inside the modelwork. This way you can probably divide each deck into quarter pieces and still have good framerates. If you're really on top of it you could aim for the 1024 auto-cut lines. Individual rooms need not be solids as you can propfade any small modelwork to fade out past the doors kind of thing. So you wouldn't end up with multiplayer-fast visleaves but they would certainly be manageable, and brush count would be reduced drastically.

Of course this is all in my head XD it's your time and sweat.

Don't forget your 3d skybox as you keep planning too
Posted by Wild Card on Fri Mar 30th 2012 at 9:25pm
[Author]
One of the problems with doing that is that models cannot seal the map. And practically all of my hallway brushes, especially once you get to the lower decks.. seal the map.

That slight size difference it also an annoyance.

I've got the Boat Deck map completed with the exception of putting in noclip brushes (to prevent the player from jumping to lower decks which arent in the level) and the changelevel entities. Im doing A Deck now, then I'll noclip and changelevel both levels and take them for a spin.

So far, the Boat Deck level has 2099 brushes and 12,990 faces. I've been able to do a full VVIS and VRAD compile, although there is no lighting yet.

I havent been able to get 'mat_wireframe 1' to work in game though. Am I missing something for that?
Posted by haymaker on Fri Mar 30th 2012 at 4:40pm
hmm it would take a fair amount of work but have you thought of converting whole sections into models? I don't think there is a major restriction on model size in Source ( there is an entire coastline model in the HL2 GCF )... you could maintain your runtime engine efficiency by planning where to begin and end these models, and use nodraw / areaportal / render trigger brushwork accordingly. You mentioned that there are fractional differences in sizes sfter conversion, but this is easily hidden by any number of workarounds, props don't necessarily need to sit exactly flush to brushwork etc.

The major downside is going to be compile times under -staticproplighting and -staticproppolys, but you are in for a loooong wait regardless I'd say. As for textures, I'm not 100% sure, but can you not edit your model textures and have the changes show up on game reload? I know you can for brushwork, just applying lazy logic is all.
Posted by Wild Card on Fri Mar 30th 2012 at 12:39am
[Author]
To keep the vertical feel, Im keeping some areas of other decks. For instance, on the Boat Deck map, fore and aft, I've retained all the external structure of A, B, and C Deck. At the Grand Staircase, I've kept the surrounding layout for all decks.