Steam Punk Racing Project
polycounter lvl 14
So the next big project that I am going to be working on in class will be a seam punk racing mod for unreal. My goal is to finish a single large level, 2 cars, and eventually a custom character as well. I plan to shoot for something like f-zero and wipe out but with a steam punk theme.
So here are some vehicle thumbs that I did to try and see where I want to go with the vehicles. As of now Im thinking of further refining #s 3 and 4. If you have any preferences or comments about them I would love to hear them.
Here are the parts I made for my rough proof of concept idea in my other class. I have ideas for more shapes and specialty pieces like conveyor sections that would act as boost strips and things. But if anyone has any thoughts on other interesting track sections let me know.
This was my test track, mainly used to find out if I could make the loops work.
By nrek at 2009-04-05
So here are some vehicle thumbs that I did to try and see where I want to go with the vehicles. As of now Im thinking of further refining #s 3 and 4. If you have any preferences or comments about them I would love to hear them.
Here are the parts I made for my rough proof of concept idea in my other class. I have ideas for more shapes and specialty pieces like conveyor sections that would act as boost strips and things. But if anyone has any thoughts on other interesting track sections let me know.
This was my test track, mainly used to find out if I could make the loops work.
By nrek at 2009-04-05
Replies
It's a nice concept, I can just imagine racing through a steampunk styled victorian city.
Look forward to hearing more
im imagining your going to go for track sections with a more iron gantry type feel, lots of brick work arches, smoky chimneys etc
@ Shepeiro - Yea man the track is pretty huge I will definately scale it back in the real thing. I will probably axe the big loop but maybe keep the little ones since they are more believable. And yea all kinds of iron work and wood planks for the track sections.
@ SnowGhost - Thanks Ghost, I do have some ideas I want to try with moving track sections so we will see what happens.
@ Vassago - Thanks Vassago. That track was just a quick test I did before I settled on doing a steam punk theme. So the new track will definitely have a better look to it. And as for the layout I kinda want to do something like a big wooden coaster but for cars, since to me crazy tracks like that are way more fun then just driving down city streets.
@ oobersli - I really like the idea of putting the track inside a big steam factory. If I can come up with a decent concept for something like that maybe I will go that route.
@ InProgress - Oh there will be shiny brass my friend.
@ VikingJim - Hmm tacos would make the concept phase more enjoyable, but idk how well they would do on the track.
@ turpedo - Thanks man, I really hope I can make this a fun little racing level but if nothing else at least come out of it with a few good looking models.
Ok so thanks again everyone, now for the small update. I got tired of sketching and moved onto putting together a few really rough pre-viz models. Please let me know what you do and dont like about these. I didnt really mess with the front ends as you can tell but it would be a simple axle setup and maybe a cow catcher.
Im kind of holding myself back from throwing tons of pistons and gears on the wheels and motors beacuse I dont really know how I would get them to all work properly in unreal at various speeds and stuff. So I kinda want to keep away from anything to complex like that. But if anyone does have a pretty good understanding of ut3 vehicle code please let me know.
I also have some sketches of booby trap ideas that can be placed on the track. One is a pop up wall and the other would be like a long smoke screen.
Thanks for stopping by.
-N
And if I could pull a lever and 'steam-out' the people behind me, that would be incredible
Mechadu- Thanks man, glad you like it
misterboogie- Thanks, watching steamboy a few times definately helped build up my enthusiams for this project
InProgress- Yep its going to be totally playable, if it turns out ok maybe I will toss it up here for you guys to try.
So back to this, I got most of my concept stuff done so I can focus on modeling finally. And I changed up my idea for the level, after doing some research I found out about a real building that was once in London called the Crystal Palace. Its pretty much the exact same as the exhibition building from the movie Steamboy. So I think I am going to make a huge building based off that design and have my racetrack running around in there, in multiple layers like a rollercoaster.
Here are a few of my concept sheets I had to make for my presentation. Im making a gun mainly for the purpose of learning how to get one working in unreal, other then that it has no real point being in the game.
Car concept.
Rough car blockout (used to help draw my concept sheet :poly124:)
Level design elements.
Reference of the Crystal Palace, and other things.
Gun design.
Start of the Highpoly gun
BTW, you've got some really nice ideas there. Keep em' coming, and keep it going, you've got potential for something awesome here.
Great update, dude.
nice concepting btw
Okt- Yea man thats definitely a good idea. Another one I had that I want to do is a big disc that sits in the middle and when activated a piston under the track starts spining it, so as ppl pass over it they get turned into walls, racers, wrong directions, etc.
rasmus- Glad you like them, they were pretty fun.
G3L- Thanks, ill try to keep the ideas flowing.
Frubes- Yea after my quick sketches I modeled all the main parts then worked on swaping them in and out to make more variants. Once I found one I liked, I pushed it a little further then printed it out and drew orthos around it with the extra details and stuff.
OBlastradiusO- Thanks dude!
Shepeiro- Good to hear Shep
InProgress- Lol Thanks man.
JostVice- Yea that first track was more of an experiment, and after realizing how much fun it was I decided to evolve the idea into what it is now. Glad you like it so far.
Thanks again you guys, your comments are very much appreciated. Here is a small update on the pistol HP, I wasted way to much time fiddling with different methods of doing the designs on the handle :poly122:.
There is a replica of the Crystal Palace in Dallas Texas called the Data Center. If you don't have enough reference for the original, there are quite a few pictures of the Dallas version online.
looks really awesome though - cheers!
mLichy- Thanks
portergraphic- Thanks for the tip about the Data Center, it was pretty cool seeing a new version of the crystal palace.
GOBEE- As a big Halo fan I will take that as a wonderful compliment
Pope Adam- Thanks dude! I went back in and tapered the handle more, it still might not be very noticeable but let me know what you think.
Ok so im calling the highpoly done and moving on, things are going too slow. I got the lowpoly pretty much done as well. Its sitting at 7,968 tris right now, and I feel horrible putting that many polys into a pistol. But I can't find too many more places to cut out tris without hurting some of the round shapes. Anywhere that I have a hole cut through something I tried to keep the cylinder 16 sided on the side that faces the player POV and then taper it to 8 sided on the opposite side, but if you guys dont think it makes that big of a difference I could just make them all 8 sided and save some tris. So let me know what you think about the low in general and maybe ideas on what should be hacked up even more. Thanks again
Short animation of the guns moving parts.
http://vimeo.com/4722610
but that's just cool. That car (and movie) is awesome!
geX- Thanks for the pic dude, wish I had seen it sooner so I could have taken mine in a different direction
Neox- The main reason im doing the gun is because this whole project is for my protoyping class at school, which is where we learn how to bring custom content like vehicles, weapons, and characters into the engine. And since my custom weapon presentation is coming up I need to get that finished first.
Great work so far!
Oh and upon completion its fair to say it would have to be played on one of these...
Soooo long time no update
http://vimeo.com/5247205
I make alot of drivable surfaces at work and i love playing with shapes to make them fun, try experimenting with more shapes then try and design those into the track
i was imagining more steam powered stuff aswell, animated pistons coming up through the track, massive iron wheels with holes to drive through, basically like an oversized steam powered factory.
im liking the style, colours etc and the gameplay you have so far looks solid, but it seams to be missing the meat of the design.
Other then that I have been working on things like adding more animated parts and updating the statue so it functions like it should. I also worked with a friend to get AI drivers that will race me around the track, so I am pretty happy with that.
Thanks for the ideas Shepeiro, I will definitely try adding in some more interesting curves and things once I know I have a good amount of the buildings textures and major meshes updated. Steam pipes coming soon.
also the cross braced texture could do with a little some parrelexing, how about a duel layer mesh with a low res back peice and an alpha'd overlay with the cross braces on
It started out looking just "kinda cool" and has evolved into "fucking badass"
I'm pretty excited to see how far you take this, I'd love to see it turn into a full game.