Alright, folks. Today we're back with the second set of v18 teasers that focus specifically on the massive beach parking area overhaul that I've been working on. I recently shared some of the logistics and screenshots behind this process but today we're actually going to see the real in-game shots.
For those that played the original story, this will only focus on the first section of the beach; which is split into two different environments: 1) a parking area for setup and prep and 2) the shoreline for the rest of the event.
So let's jump in and take a look at the upgrades, comparing 4 shots from the original game to the completely revamped beach area.
Pic 1: Ok, here's a shot from the original game using the beach parking area that was created by Lazy Jayke several years ago. To quickly recap: the goal here was to keep as much of his creation intact but upgrade the textures and fill it out more based on what I've learned over the past few years and to keep it in-line with some of the more crowded areas we've seen in more recent updates.
So the original beach environment was pretty simple: it had sand, a fence, sidewalk, sign, and some plants that helped break up the environment a bit. In this older shot, you can see the majority of those things but they're fairly smooth looking-- in particular the sand itself and the wooden fence. I wanted to lighten up the sand a bit because I think the lighter sand contrasts better with the skin tones of the characters-- particularly Mikhail's darker skin and even Zack's-- which is sorta medium-ish. However, I did like the poses here in this shot with each character sorta acting their own way in reaction to the arrival.
Pic 2: Here's our direct arrival replacement for the Revamp. Completely new lighting system with bloom (which is sort of one of the things I'm trying to work better with this update). I kept the poses from the original shot but switched them around between the characters. It made more sense, to me, to have Braden stretch since he's been driving while having Zack sorta staring and taking things in and Mikhail, who's been here before in a more relaxed position. The additional trees, shrubs, and plants are all in various sizes and help add more height and texture to the round dunes. We can also just expect tons of new pictures for this update during this first intro scene because there's quite a bit of dialogue during the prep phase so I wanted to show the prepping and changing while they talked.
Pic 3: Back to the original (see how empty it looks now? Lazy Jayke did a really good job creating this environment and i didn't want to keep the old textures and make it look older than the rest of the game-- it just felt like a disservice to his work). So this shot shows a lot of what we saw in this scene in the original. Lot of dialogue and a lot of dudes leaning on cars. The story and narrative sorta took center stage here and the visuals were just there and didn't do much.
Pic 4: Here's the direct replacement from the Revamp. In the Revamp, we'll be using more of the actual environment to supplement the dialogue. This allows more chances to show off the environment and make the area feel larger while also just mixing things up and giving us more to look at while they're talking. Since Mikhail and Zack are alone in this scene, it made sense for them to walk over and use that bench during their chat.
Pic 5: Back to the original and another shot of a dude leaning on a car. Even during the prep and changing phase of this scene, a lot of the original shots felt the same. Now part of that was because of my hardware limitations at the time. Cutting off part of the characters allowed me to not have to render the extra clothes plus it speeds up production-- so there were advantages to this and that's why some of these corners were original cut.
Pic 6: Here's what to expect in the Revamp. No corners cut, way more action and life in the characters and their movements and the pictures themselves either enhance the narrative or simply become their own narrative. The depth-of-field in this scene also does some really heavy lifting by making this area feel even larger than it is and I think that's a good thing considering we're outside and I wanted this world to feel lived in and bigger.
Pic 7: Back to the original. In this shot we get a quick glimpse of the full outfit changes but the walking is actually pretty boring and this was using very basic poses where they look like robots. In the original game, the three characters walk down the sidewalk a bit and then it fades to black and they magically end up on the shoreline. To me, it felt like something was missing.
Pic 8: Direct replacement. In the Revamp, the gear the guys pack into the car will actually be carried down to the shoreline. This shot also shows the progression and the descent as they walk down to the shoreline and the dialogue continues. This also allows for me to begin to manipulate this environment more (which you'll see in the finished update) to add or subtract plants or trees or rocks to show the landscape changing even though I'm still using the same environment. The result makes the world feel larger and it just feels more realistic about the walk down there and really helps highlight how private this secret cove is that Mikhail is showing them.
Ok, so that's it for today. Our first look at the 4 new beach pics and some brief discussion about all the changes. I hope you're excited for this update. It's looking crazy so far and while I haven't actually booted to see in in-game, the shots alone have an entirely new life to them.
In the next log, we'll be looking at the logistics of the fully revamped shoreline area and it is absolutely iNsAnE how different it looks.