R.M.S. Titanic - AngelModder

[scp_chaos1]

It is an excellent map

is better than the (Atlantica)

[AngelModder]

I shall amend the before statement with, pictures are coming soon. I'm working hard to give this thing a amazing overhaul. surprisingly I've added more detail yet lost brushes in the count. That's always good right ? Any ways right now I am battling to add specular mapping to what you see, environmental shine just fails, I mean it's good to have it accompanying a specular and for a overall shine, but it's not what I'm looking for. I know we can add it to our player models, so atm, I'm trying to figure out how to apply it to our maps correctly.

OK, to amen this even further, following a shader I got off sjc's coruscant for a specular shader was BAD.... He used the same one as from the base Vjun for the mask layer. Gah I know Darth G showed me / gave me a shader years and year's ago that was actual specular mapping for your maps. If only I could remember how it went. I still have the bloom lighting one but only by luck.

[AngelModder]

Well ladies and gents it's been a while since I posted up a picture so here ya go, there wip grand stair case as she sits at this moment. Allot has been going on this week, it's none stop research for this project, and constant updating textures, brush work, methods, allot of things really. I am constantly fine tuning every thing. Some of you may have seen my requests in the forums for thing's like the specular and the clock (the clock still isn't working right). So you can imagine how much effort is being put into this. I've been lucky here in the last few days to receive the aid of AshuraDx who has been kind enough to model me a proper dome and cherub to replace the JKA brush built restrictive one's as well he's been gracious enough to lower the poly count of some of the finer details like the pineapple fixtures adorning the posts of the gsc. Believe me not all the time this week has been just the interior, the exterior is going better then planned. Today I started on her new funnels and as soon as I have the hull texture like I want it I will be doing a massive reveal, hopefully about that time the dome and cherub will be complete. I have been going over the brush count, vis, and the full plan for the exterior interior and I think many of you will be pleased with the choices of area's I'll be including in this map. While a few room's are simple for the aesthetic lure of it many of the area's I chose to build are in the mind's of a capture the flag feel.

The plan is rather simple in truth  Starting at the bow team A can enter the interior or go over the boat deck via stairs or even the first class promenade on A deck. To get to the interior there will be 8 entrance points at the bow, two at forward end of the superstructure on B deck (the white part of the ships body or the upper most decks), as well as the A and Boat Deck entrance's to the grand staircase area, from the GSC or the forward B deck bedroom quarters you can make your way through Titanics long hallways on B and C Deck and access the Aft end via C deck as well.Although the enemy will be coming through there and the A deck level of the stern GSC, so watch out . If you feel like taking in the ships opulence or just getting a bite to eat or a stiff drink you can head on down to D Deck to the luxurious first class dining saloon, capable of seating 550 people at a time I'm sure you'll be able to find and empty seat! OR, if your tired and wanna relax you can head on down to F Deck via the via the beautiful GSc or elevators and go for a steam bath in the Turkish baths. After getting all steamed up you can head right over to the swimming pool and go for a dip. It's heated so it wont be too much of a shock jumping in. Or perhaps out of all this you're the scholarly sort? Well you can head on up to A deck and relax in the first class lounge and library and take in the beautiful sites of the ocean as the massive ship cruises through the waves!
Either way I am sure there will be some thing of interest for every passenger boarding Titanic...

[Futuza]

Do I have to kill people to get to the life boats?

[Merek]

Well ladies and gents it's been a while since I posted up a picture so here ya go, there wip grand stair case as she sits at this moment. Allot has been going on this week, it's none stop research for this project, and constant updating textures, brush work, methods, allot of things really. I am constantly fine tuning every thing. Some of you may have seen my requests in the forums for thing's like the specular and the clock (the clock still isn't working right). So you can imagine how much effort is being put into this. I've been lucky here in the last few days to receive the aid of AshuraDx who has been kind enough to model me a proper dome and cherub to replace the JKA brush built restrictive one's as well he's been gracious enough to lower the poly count of some of the finer details like the pineapple fixtures adorning the posts of the gsc. Believe me not all the time this week has been just the interior, the exterior is going better then planned. Today I started on her new funnels and as soon as I have the hull texture like I want it I will be doing a massive reveal, hopefully about that time the dome and cherub will be complete. I have been going over the brush count, vis, and the full plan for the exterior interior and I think many of you will be pleased with the choices of area's I'll be including in this map. While a few room's are simple for the aesthetic lure of it many of the area's I chose to build are in the mind's of a capture the flag feel.

 

The plan is rather simple in truth  Starting at the bow team A can enter the interior or go over the boat deck via stairs or even the first class promenade on A deck. To get to the interior there will be 8 entrance points at the bow, two at forward end of the superstructure on B deck (the white part of the ships body or the upper most decks), as well as the A and Boat Deck entrance's to the grand staircase area, from the GSC or the forward B deck bedroom quarters you can make your way through Titanics long hallways on B and C Deck and access the Aft end via C deck as well.Although the enemy will be coming through there and the A deck level of the stern GSC, so watch out . If you feel like taking in the ships opulence or just getting a bite to eat or a stiff drink you can head on down to D Deck to the luxurious first class dining saloon, capable of seating 550 people at a time I'm sure you'll be able to find and empty seat! OR, if your tired and wanna relax you can head on down to F Deck via the via the beautiful GSc or elevators and go for a steam bath in the Turkish baths. After getting all steamed up you can head right over to the swimming pool and go for a dip. It's heated so it wont be too much of a shock jumping in. Or perhaps out of all this you're the scholarly sort? Well you can head on up to A deck and relax in the first class lounge and library and take in the beautiful sites of the ocean as the massive ship cruises through the waves!

Either way I am sure there will be some thing of interest for every passenger boarding Titanic...

Incredible! BEST. MAP. EVER.

[Merek]

Do I have to kill people to get to the life boats?

My guess, probably.

[AngelModder]

HAHA well you can if you want, I would, it's your best bet.

[Futuza]

...I never understood why they just didn't turn around and try and park on the iceberg once they realized they were going down.  Could have gotten a couple thousand people floating on top of that thing.  ;(

[Archangel35757]

@@AngelModder -- you must write some mapping technique tutorials for this engine!

[AngelModder]

Well speaking of mapping techniques, I actually managed to add a crap load of work today and yet drop the brush count yet again! I started today at 4237 did a ton and ended with 3700. This includes this the hull , the general layout (made of blocks) of the accessible decks both forward and stern gsc's nearly complete, and the dinning saloon is also about 1/3rd of the way done. My goal is to build this for 10-12.5k brushes. A major tip I could give people would be texture brush condensing. for area's like the floor of the grand stair case rather then cutting the brush up to create the black trim separating the black and white tile's from the plain ones, I just made a big texture for the 92X50 ft area (as the maps split up as such to curve the ship up at the bow and stern) the texture which is a 4096 X 2048 HD texture houses all the details you need for the floor and or ceiling, walls etc that can be 2D. It's very time consuming but the amount of brushes it cut's out would astonish you. I did this today for both of the gsc's steps, rather than the brass trim being a separate brush I just made appropriate textures and cut the brushes for each section of the steps down by 1/3rd this not only speeds up compile time's but drops the tris a lot as well. Just look at your maps and see where you use a lot of brush to create 2D detail and condense it via a texture. Here is an example of this technique below. This would the the A deck grand stair case floor.

 

For those interested I've also included a photo of just ONE section of the ships new hull texture, this has a few more days of work to go, port holes, and all sorts of details. This texture (the full thing) is flipping huge!

 

 

 

And a look at the new texture work for the gsc.Believe me I will be showing you guy's more than just the gsc soon enough. Each room and thing take's not only a LOT of work, but a ton of research to insure accuracy.

 

 

 

Any ways I'm off to bed for the night. I should have picture's of her exterior my Wednesday! Once this hull texture is complete as well as a few others the process will speed up. Just these are the steps where one wrong move could ruin not only the accuracy but the maps game play. So far I am managing still perfect FPS all the way through. That may change though depending on the path I take with the environment (the water and such). to pull off a ocean is not exactly easy and in the beta I accidentally released it wit the wrong water/shaders and I nearly threw up when I realized you guys had the ugly one. Szico's water blending I'll say it now before any one throws this out, will not work. that water is clear/too clear for this to work and look realistic, plus it depends on glow to blend with the horizon. not only that, his water to horizon blend only works if you're down low. the boat deck is 60 feet above the water, and that's not even as tall as a player can find there way up to. So it sadly fails there.

P.S. Not dogging Szico's method, just it doesn't work fittingly for this application.

~AngelModder™

[AngelModder]

...I never understood why they just didn't turn around and try and park on the iceberg once they realized they were going down.  Could have gotten a couple thousand people floating on top of that thing.  ;(

 

I can answer this quiet simply. the ship had a 1/4 mile turning radius. that's a 90 degrees in 1/4th of a mile, and could stop in 2/3rds of a mile. This is actually good statistics for a ship of it's size.Even by today's standards. It was nearly 30-40 minutes after the collision before Thomas Andrews one of the men who designed her confirmed she was sinking. By then not only had they initially left the ice berg in the dark, but both the ship and the ice berg had probably been moved by current. It would be like tying to find a needle in a hay stack at that point. Another problem with this is, is tat it's incredibly dangerous to move a wounded and or sinking ship. Moving it forces water in through the openings faster and widens the separations in the damaged plates allowing even more in. It is now confirmed that around 11:50 that night they did try to move again, for what reason is unknown. But in that seven minutes they doubled there intake and when she stopped it only went slowed down by about a 1/3rd. The ship would have had enough time to get the passengers off, had she only not moved. Besides moving a ship with water in it is also a bad idea because it can capsize it, especially by the time Andrews confirmed she was doomed.

 

I hope that answer's your question @Futuza.

 

~AngelModder™

[AngelModder]

Well ladies and gentlemen I wanted to take a moment to thank two people for there hard work. First and foremost is AshuraDx and secondly LizFizz, together they have brought a very special touch to this project. LizFizz has acquired the postione of texture consultant on this project, and AshuraDx is my overall guidance and modeler. He has worked hard over the weekend between school work and life to put together a very special treat I'd like to share an early WIP shot of. The Titanics opulent first class forward grand staircase dome, he did allot of reserch to model it's shape and size correctly and to build it in such a way it would be easy for us to texture. While I piece together the texture Lizfizz fine tunes it, giving it life rather then flat colors and such. I've spent the last two hours piecing it together and while it's not done, I felt I couldn't wait any long to share there hard work on this project!

I give you a early WIP sneak peak our work, Titanic's Dome.

 

 

 

Thank you @@Lizfizz @@AshuraDX

 

[AngelModder]

Ok so here is the dome in place ! Now to move on to the rest of it finally! Having a slight issue wit some odd shadowing on it, I think it's an issue mesh wise because I've even thrown a no light-map line on it and still it's there. Different textures every thing, nothing gets rid of it.

[AshuraDX]

I'm pretty certain that it's not the mesh - as it shows up correctly in Noesis and 3ds max

[AngelModder]

Well it's not the textures or shaders :/... hmmm I dnk. Oh well.

LOL

[Merek]

Ok so here is the dome in place ! Now to move on to the rest of it finally! Having a slight issue wit some odd shadowing on it, I think it's an issue mesh wise because I've even thrown a no light-map line on it and still it's there. Different textures every thing, nothing gets rid of it.

I am not worthy of such greatness... 

[AngelModder]

Just so now thinks I've gotten lazy today. I've been redesigning my hull texture from top to bottom. Finally starting on the portholes! I still haven't decided on the method I'll use for the portholes in game. As theirs a day and night version of the map's it's hard to choose which way to go. the night will undoubtedly use a glow, but for the day it would look better as an alpha with a env behind it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Merek]

I am not worthy of such greatness... 

[AngelModder]

Well folks, i thought I'd take a break and give you all an update. It's been a pain in the A$$. As many of you know (Mappers), every step is a battle, especially when recreating a historical piece. On February 15th I will finally be giving another update, I am think possibly even a small video, it just depends on how much I have complete at that point. At this point an time I am working hard to catch the exterior up to the level of the interior. All of the interior area aside from one I may "Possibly" do have been fully laid out and many of the area's are already being fitted out wit there furnishings and fittings.
I am doing as much as possible to ensure each piece while true to it's sake is as FPS friendly as possible. Some how remarkably the map has yet to hit 4k brushes, this is a good sign at this point. Esspecially with the most detailed piece of the entire project (The Grand Staircase's) having already been placed and finished to a 95% mark. I'll say this much, the graphics I've displayed so far are a lie, the finish product will look even better then the shot's I have shown so far. It's a long road to April.
Tonight I am actually working on the exterior, having completed a new sky box for the main map. I've had to make a rather tough decision in the last two days that means the day time version unless we can come up with a better method will more than likely be replaced with a night time version. This come's down to the ammount of space the day time version requires in order to pull off the endless effect of an ocean, in basic it's to much for a VIS compile without getting the "max map visibility error". Tonight I am focusing on some rather important final touches before the real work begins. Plotting out the basic structures of A and Boat Deck, as well as placing all final doors for going in and out of the exterior. And hopefully before I get to tired I'll be able to finish up the funnel prefab. Mentioning the funnels I chose to cut out allot of the internal detail of them for the simple fact most folk's would have never even noticed the detail and therefore it was a waste of BSP and Tris. So I ask forgiveness of those who will go up above stuff and see down into them. In the name of Game Play it was a necessary loss.
A major step that will more than likely be taking place tomorrow is the final cutting of the decks, this means the forecastle, poop, as well as the forward and aft well decks will be fitted and shaped to the rest of the hull. cleaning up the last bit of constructive slop before the details start to roll in. The hull it's self will be receiving it's final illusion to ensure any far-plane leaks are hidden. See some thing I've noticed as many probably have about the quake 3 engine, is that over a distance it starts simplifying shapes especially patches. so some time's you end up with cracks at 200 feet away or so. Now on an 883.9 ft hull this can be quiet ugly at times. In order to ensure this is not seen I place a secondary layer of hull on the inside covered in black this allows any cracks that would appear due to Engine simplifying to be masked or blended in rather then letting you see through the ship and see some thing ugly.
Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, Titanic may have been the "ship of dreams", however it is a nightmare to build on any platform you choose.

Any ways I bid you all ado, I must return to the dry docks and continue my work.

AngelModder™

[IrocJeff]

I'm just curious as to what other interior places you have made or plan to make. The grand staircase is basically a no brainer to include since its iconic. However, what about engine rooms, dining halls, swimming pool ect...Any staterooms or similar that will be seen?

[AngelModder]

Well to fill you in @@IrocJeff_jeff, the plan is straight forward, the grand staircase of course, as well as the stern grand staircase. the b and C Deck hallways connecting those of course as well. The dinning Saloon, which is about 50% done I just refuse to show it yet as it's probably one of my finest works to date and want it held back till finished for a big reveal. The Turkish bath's as well as the swimming pool, with functional water tight bulk heads to show as an example of how they worked. For those of you who don't know the Titanic's layout, the swimming pool area took up the entire starboard side of the ship for the entire 55 foot long compartment on F Deck, the pool it's self measure 32 feet long by 14 feet wide, the pool was 8 feet deep with 6 feet of salt water (heated of course). These 2 area's will be shown in the first video walk through I'll be doing of the map shortly before beta testing begins in late march. You also will be able to explore the entire length of "Scotland Road" as well the 3rd class dinning saloon down on F Deck. The 3rd class dinning saloon is one of my favorites so far to work on, as it has a warm pub feel to it, a little less stuffy then the 1rst class, a little smaller and cozier. Theirs two really interesting things I've found about the 3rd class dinning saloon. Firstly it was separated down the middle by a water tight bulk head, with a water tight door on either side for passengers to go from one part of the room to the other, during the sinking these doors were of course shut (manually).
A common misunderstanding of Titanic is that not all the watertight doors shut automatically just the ones immediately below the water line. Most on F deck and up had to be shut manually. The second thing that's interesting about the 3rd class dinning saloon is the double staircase riding the watertight bulkhead running down the middle of it. these were place there so passengers on E Deck could easily access the chosen area of the 3rd class dinning saloon, no mater if they cam from the bow or stern. Another reason this was done was so the 3rd class single men (who's rooms were towards the bow) would be separated from the single women (who's rooms were stationed towards the stern) even during meal times, while families (who's rooms were along the middle of the ship) could choose the forward or aft section of the dinning saloon at there leisure.
What's so important about these sets of stairs is that around 1:25 AM water running along "Scotland Road" on E Deck made it's way to these stair cases, and began spilling down into boilers rooms 3 and 2, hastening the ship's decent. Boiler room 3 was caught of guard and quickly over ran with water as it had been trying to help boiler room 4 which was taking water from (to this day) mysterious source below as well as recently from above. It was the Death from above effect that killed the ship, her crew, and many passengers caught off guard trying to find there way to the boat deck.

Another area I have decided to add just recently due to it's small size and simplicity in many ways was the 1rst class smoke room aft of the aft grand staircase, this was a flip of a coin decision and also gave there more reasons to even have the aft GSC. At this time, I do not know if there will be other area's, I would like to do the Parlor Suites, Mr Andrews, Father browns, and my own great grandmothers bedrooms if time and space allow.

AngelModder™

[IrocJeff]

That sounds really great. Its pretty cool ( hope they survived it ) that you have a personal connection to the ship. I had a friend in my neighborhood growing up that a Titanic nut so my interest in the ship basically came from him. Also, I was old enough to remember when Ballard found it and we had the National Geographic of it. That was really cool to see those images and whatnot. 

 

Even though its not Star Wars your project is really cool and I'm glad your making it. 

 

By the way, since you seem to be even more obsessed than my old friend, do you have any recommendations on any good online Titanic websites or YouTube documentaries?

[AngelModder]

Oh man, I'll see if I can't gather up some good links for you over the next day or so. Honestly most of it is engrained in my memory from over 20 years of research, When JKA came out I was formely a UT modder, however neither UT 3k4 or 2k4 were really gonna be capable of what I wanted and needed to do. So I came the JKA community, starting off small, I had played JKO online and done some modding already for the Q3 engine but nothing to the level of a full scale map. I got lucky early on to meet very inspirational and helpful people, Darth G, @@Lazarus, Immenor, Ockniel, Mace, and many others over the years, through them I learned allot of technique.

This project is a symbol of trial and error, rip it apart and try it again. My worst enemies were max patch planes and max map visibility LOL. Now it's time for me to make the final cut. The previous attempt the "BETA" while it never was released with it's interior (although my version does have one) while it worked, for many reasons never lived up to my hopes and what I knew I could really pull off with just a little more fine tuning. Like the R.M.S. Olympic was the the Titanic, the 'BETA" was a huge learning curve for me and the test of just what could, and couldn't be done.
My personal story in this tragedy was not a good one, she lost her children husband sister and brother and law and all established family ties in a single event, so for me doing this project right, help's me understand just what that sort of moment would feel like. I've often played my sinking variant of the "BETA" I've stood in what was her bedroom, and watched it flood, knowing that at that moment her children were in the sleeping her husband and brother and law making there way down the GSC to retrieve the children, they who would be cut off by the quickly rising water, and the sister who slept in the room forward of the children would be lost as well. It honestly chilled me watching it happen.

Any ways enough rambeling from me, I'll send you some links shortly in the next day or so. http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-deckplans/c-deck.html This would be a good place to start however to understand the ships layout.
 

[AngelModder]

Not a big update but an important one. C Deck is nearly complete. It's probably one of my favorite areas honestly. I am unsure why I just always liked the feel of it. I'll post up some more pictures tonight after I finish up the last 2 spots on C Deck.

 

This is of course before the final detailing for the ceiling and floor comes in. As I've said before I do the floors and ceiling as big textures to avoid cutting my brushes a thousand different ways. It's more time consuming but looks better and saves me allot in the end. Also note this is missing signs etc. Tonight will show the final product of this area, kinda can't wait to show off my pursers office!
And yes each cabin will have the appropriate room number above it, via a decal. Having an issue with those atm where they are coming out too bright. But I'll get it fixed. Also sadly the port hole will have to just reflect the area your in, as It's impossible to get sky to work within an already sky boxed area even with area portal.

[scp_chaos1]

whoo