[UE4][WIP] Dark Forces II Scene (Feedback Welcome)

TH98

Hey everyone! I've recently started working on a small UE4 environment for my portfolio, basically the opening Nar Shaddaa bar from Dark Forces II.

LATEST:





Reference:




I have a lot of fond memories of playing DFII in the early 00s as a kid, reading Star Wars novels from the library, etc. So in the hopes of capturing that pre-prequels Star Wars EU feel I'm drawing as much as I can from the original trilogy for filling in the details. I really like the way the original level blends those classic Star Wars industrial grays with greens and browns and strange engravings that give it the feel of a Hutt-controlled area, so I want to (eventually) double down on that with lots of slime, smoke, etc. Looking a lot at Jabba's Palace for atmosphere.

I haven't done many environments before, so I'd love to get people's thoughts! I only have a few hours a week to work on this, but I'll do my best to take feedback onboard

FreneticPonies

OOoh 

TH98

Had to take a bit of a break from this but I'm back! I know I'm going to need to do a skybox when I get to the main bar area, so I did some tiling textures for buildings/ships:

HughieDM

Nice work so far.. I love DFII 

Ill be around to watch

TH98

Had some time to work on the little transition area between the booths and the main bar:





Bar area's next

kohg

damn this brings back memories.

My path to the dark side started right there

TH98

kohg said:

damn this brings back memories.

My path to the dark side started right there

I made my first mods for Jedi Knight, until then I didn't realize art for games was something you could do--definitely changed my life path

FreneticPonies

Very neat mix of original look with new techniques, like a "half HD remake!" Nice job.

armagon

Which tools did you use to do those tiling textures? NDO? Or did you model by hand?

RustySpannerz

Looks beautiful so far! I really like your materials. My only concern would be that it still has that old school video game feel, a lot of modern remasters transform the space so it looks more functional. Don't hesitate to push it further than the original and add your own flairs. But if you're going for the classic look then disregard me! 

TH98

armagon said:

Which tools did you use to do those tiling textures? NDO? Or did you model by hand?

The 3 panel-y ones I made really simple heightmaps in Photoshop and did the rest in Substance Designer. The more complex trim one I modeled in Maya then plugged the baked height/normal into the same Designer material

RustySpannerz said:
Looks beautiful so far! I really like your materials. My only concern would be that it still has that old school video game feel, a lot of modern remasters transform the space so it looks more functional. Don't hesitate to push it further than the original and add your own flairs. But if you're going for the classic look then disregard me! 

Thank you! I'm trying to kind of strike a balance where it still "feels" like the original space, but I definitely have a lot of complexity I still want to add--the main bar area especially is going to need a lot of dressing up, I think

Visum

Nice. The building/ship textures are something I'm trying to learn in substance. I can't wrap my head around it lol.
Hope you keep it up. Looks great.

HowardDay

Oh, hell, this is awesome! I'm a huge DF nut, and this is just lovely work. If I were to suggest anything, it's to dirty it up, try and hide the tiling nature of the textures, maybe add some variable dirt trims and grafitti - hanging wires, anything starwars-y that would fill in the space and make it look like the hive of scum and villainy it is. Pre-placed blaster holes, some poorly patched, piles of discarded deathsticks, a broken down Gonk... you get the idea! I'm very excited to see where this goes, especially in the larger areas! Especially your take on the big-ass BFF-1 that's hanging out docked.

TH98

HowardDay said:

Oh, hell, this is awesome! I'm a huge DF nut, and this is just lovely work. If I were to suggest anything, it's to dirty it up, try and hide the tiling nature of the textures, maybe add some variable dirt trims and grafitti - hanging wires, anything starwars-y that would fill in the space and make it look like the hive of scum and villainy it is. Pre-placed blaster holes, some poorly patched, piles of discarded deathsticks, a broken down Gonk... you get the idea! I'm very excited to see where this goes, especially in the larger areas! Especially your take on the big-ass BFF-1 that's hanging out docked.

Thanks so much! That DF project you were doing a while back was one of my main inspirations for starting this. I'm definitely planning on doing a pass with a bunch of junk and grime and cables.

Had to take a longish break for work and other reasons but I'm getting back on the horse! Getting started on the main bar area--not much here yet but I'm going to start taking some artistic liberties with it.



I also did a little experimental material for an original trilogy style hologram. Not sure what I'll use it for but it was fun to figure out:



Put some videos on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/bezzalel/status/1084254210080661504