Vertas Pass Upgrades

Hello everyone!

Lately we've seen some very exciting improvements to our game, notably the Unity 5 lighting, the standard shader, speedtrees, as well as an ever growing library of high fidelity art assets. I recently had some time to reiterate on one of our older scenes, Vertas Pass, to see what could be aesthetically possible after integrating all of these improvements. I've included a few before and after screenshots, as well as some sneak peek screenshots at the bottom.


The above screenshot was one of the first areas I revisited, beginning with the replacement of all of the old rocks. (A few devs told me they looked like meatballs) The desert rocks worked perfectly after a texture pass to make them appear arctic themed. I also integrated a retextured version of a rock pile asset I built for the Spectral Mines exterior, to improve the blending between the terrain and the natural walls.

Here is an example of some winter themed speedtrees, which look far more detailed than the previous palette, and are animated in a more realistic manner. Lighting contrast has been increased to make the environment appear colder.

More rocks are being used to line the cliff so it feels more natural and more detailed.

I covered the background hills in spruce trees to give a better sense of depth, and to evoke a feeling of being surrounded by a forest.


Dev+ Sneak Peek Screenshots






Hope you guys like the changes!

Abe

 

Looks awesome!

 

These upgrades continue to be fantastic. Keep up the wonderful work!

 

Great job. Really like the new tweaks.

 

Nice!!!

 

Looks great!

 

I love walking around in your art!

 

These are great! Thanks for posting them for us

 

Thank you as always for sharing. The scenes are totally awe inspiring, so gorgeous. Thank you for all the hard work you and the team are doing for the game.

 

This is a huge improvement over the current world. PBR is proving to be a great addition to the quality of the world visuals.

Count me as suitable impressed. I'm sure others will be when they see these in game, hopefully R17. Unless they appear in a newsletter before then.

 

And people say there is no magic in this world?
This is proof that some do wield it.

*Gives @Abe a congratulatory punch to the shoulder*

 

I just remember the talk from about 6 month ago, when some player said this game looks like 10years old. We always said, wait a little bit, it will improve over time. We always got the reply, nothing will happen, tha graphic is crappy and will stay it. Oh how I love it to be right and they were wrong. Good job Abe.

 

@Sindariya: Agreed! Although, I always liked the graphics before the upgrade. This is definitely a monumental improvement though!

 

Wow!!! What ever they are paying you.... IS WORTH IT!!!

 

What an understatement.

Excellent work Abe!

 

Looks absolutely fabulous!

 

Amazing!

 

I love it great work!

 

Abe you are a true artist!

 

I gotta agree with you. Portalarium seems to come through with great ideas and designs in the end. I liked the artwork before, but the changed scenes are something else.