CryEngine3 'Cave' Level WIP

Xurrion

Hey peoples, I've been working on a small level in CryEngine3 for my portfolio and I thought it would be perfect to show it off in my first WIP post here. I'm not really aiming for this to be real-time game quality, it's really only for show so I'm more concerned about making it look as good as possible without getting into irresponsibly high poly counts.

Level description: Small cave in a mountain with a waterfall and a pond at the end which leads off into another system of caves, unseen in this level (for now). The cave will have some excavation equipment; scaffolding, small machines, tools, etc. although I have yet to decide whether I want to make these equipment older looking or more modern (wooden scaffolding vs metal...)

Tools I'll be using: 3ds max, zbrush, nDO, dDO, Photoshop, xNormal, CryEngine3 v3.5.8

Give me some critique/feed back/knowledge if you want, it is always appreciated, and check out my portfolio HERE if you have a minute or two

Some early block-out shots in the engine:







Early test of cave walls with crappy textures:



More walls, less crappy textures:



Latest progress, base walls done for now, some custom terrain textures and some H2O

silvershrimp

At the moment it's not interesting, try some small medium and large rock forms on the wall and try planning your lighting. At the moment it's too dark and that repetitive specularity isn't that interesting, good start though.

Xurrion

Well of course it's not very interesting in the early block-out stages :poly124: Those walls are only meant to be a base for the cave and there's gonna be lots of rocks and stalactites on the sides and hanging from the ceiling. If by repetitive specularity you mean the high glossiness, that's on purpose to make the walls look wet, which is what a cave like this would look like, it's not a dry cave. I'm also going to be paying more attention to the lighting later once I have a good amount of assets in the level, there's little sense in spending a lot of effort on it right now as I don't know how it's going to look with the finished assets.

silvershrimp

Why post asking for critique then argue with it?
Here's a block out that's less developed than yours and far more interesting; http://dannyquesada.weebly.com/uploads/5/5/1/0/5510136/9371460_orig.jpg

Xurrion

Sorry, I wasn't trying to argue with you I just wanted to clarify the things you touched on. The reason why my block out isn't as interesting is because I haven't blocked out the smaller details in my level, I wanted to get the spacing and the walls done first because of the nature of the bumpy walls. I will be blocking out more stuff now that that's out of the way.

silvershrimp

No worries. Try looking at something like this http://gamasutra.com/blogs/JeremyPrice/20110318/89198/Applying_the_Elements_of_Design_and_Principles_of_Design_in_Level_Art.php there's also some stuff by Bethesda on their cave design in a powerpoint you can find online, although that relies on modularity.
I'd try some traditional stuff on photographic composition as well. Best of luck with it anyway.

Xurrion

Blocking out some simple stalactites and scaffolding placement, also started working on the waterfall