BURNT HOUSE 01

Hey up,

here's what is probably going to be the last WIP update before I go back to Blighty for 8 weeks and chill...

It's a burnt house structure, of which there'll be MANY variations. This one is mostly intact still, but bear in mind others will be just corner parts, supporting beams or even just the foundations left over etc... Variations again.

I wanted it to retani the look of a strcutre, and only "gut" it out to a certain extent- many others will be almost completely gutted and will offer no shelter or cover.

...No refuge from Blowouts...

Anyway, here's an exterior and an interior shot looking up:

I hope you like it.

Now, I'm going to probably do a concept piece to try to show the feeling/atmosphere I'm wanting to achieve with NOVA ZONA. Basically I've got 2 weeks before I've got no PC access for 2 months, so will just take my time with it, as there's no point starting another WIP at this stage...

Anyway, I look forwards to hearing any comments guys..!

METAL WAREHOUSE 01

Hi all, 

sorry it's been awhile, but this one is quite large and extensive. Add to that the way I'm building all these structures is sort of modular in so far as it'll allow my to easily chop and change for those ever important variations so it all adds up to the process length.

I've really tried to keep this as generic as possible looking, as I'm going to be using it (And various layouts of it) a lot across NOVA ZONA- some will have one floor, other will be really low with a slightly raised roof section etc to add variety.

Again, I'm trying to get across a really strong form with these building- the silhouette is mostly key to do that and with this one I wanted it to almost read as a "church" or place of worship with its outline (Like NOVA ZONA's God was "Industry" or something equally as cheesey lol...) , hence the really tall peak to it which is staggered up by three floors. 

Entrance is gained through a small wooden door at the front, or through two large double doors at the back for vehicle access when it was functioning.

The first two floors are accessible by creaky wooden stairs, and the third floor is only reached by a rusty ladder up to a precarious wooden platform where you can snipe and scope to your hearts content.

The round green units inside are meant to be in the same aesthetic as the Stalker games, so I've tried to keep them functional looking but slightly otherworldly at the same time- like something you wouldn't really see in the real world. 

So you're not entirely sure what they were... 

The whole building is meant to be a sort of "Fermenting House" for some sort of grain or crop (Or is it..?), and that is the translation on the front.

That's the main difficulty with doing this island- I want to try to cover all the bases like Laboratories/Factories/Admin/Houses?Stalker made Structures etc, but in doing so will have to create "average" approximations of each class- I can't get too specific otherwise the pattern will be too recognisable each time you see the same building. 

I think this is a problem for Island dev in general, just part of the challenge..! You have to be really selective about what you choose to put in.

Things like populating the buildings with smaller objects will come later and will hopefully break up the repetition... fingers crossed..!

Here's two interior shots too:

Anyway guys, thanks for reading this and also thanks for the PMs I get too- it's really kind and helps keep me going with this..!

HOUSE 05 INGAME

Hey up, here's a few in game shots of HOUSE_05 under different lighting situations.

This one is more in line with the kind of weather I'll be going for in NOVA ZONA. (Although I'll shift the .cfg's location to somewhere in Eastern Europe so it should be even more Stalkerish):

This one is a harsh bright day, so you can get an idea of the kind of texturing I'm going for, quite sharp and dirty- like it's been left in the desolation of the wilderness for years to start to decay and all the colours are getting bleached out of it:

And this last one is to show the brand spanking new lovely lighting effects in the engine and how the planks and holes etc can take advantage of them:

Bear in mind it'll only get that sunny VERY rarely, as it's mostly gonna be grim and grotty weather- so when the sun does come out, it'll be a welcome change... 

I hope you like it and please feel free to comment on anything you see- it's like Xmas morning when I see people are giving feedback and really helps with motivation too.

Take it easy.

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION 01

Hi all,

ok, another update here- this one was a bit quicker to do than the Petrol Station, as it's a much simpler design and layout.

There are some like this in the STALKER game itself, and again I took cues from them (To retain the feeling) and tried to make them a bit more gritty and realistic. I will be doing a fair few variations of this too, as it's fairly low poly and is easy to mix and match to create a lot of differing layouts, even multiple floors too.

So expect to see some desolate huddles made up of these kind of half constructed buildings scattered throughout NOVA ZONA- the idea being that before the "Incident" the island was starting to become fairly prosperous and was a burgeoning thriving community.

Then it all went to hell...

Anyway, here's a shot showing some damaged wall section also so expect to be able to shoot through the gaps etc. And also, now with ARMA 3's new and bloody lovely Volumetric Godrays it should enhance the immersion even more.

I hope you like it anyway..!

PETROL STATION 01

Back at last from RL..!!! 

Ok, this update is for a Petrol Station in the old NOVA ZONA rusted and ruined style, and is inspired by the excellent petrol station in Call Of Pripyat- there is something I love about that buildings shape and silhouette, it's really evocative of times gone by for me.

I've tried to update the design a bit to take it away from the source material, and done some research on Ukraine/Russian petrol stations and I noticed that there used to be quite a lot that had this chequered tile motif along the edges of their walls, so thought that looked pretty striking. I've continued that design inside the building aswell, which you probably can't see from these screenies but there's a two tone wall pattern inside with a chequered section to separate the tones.

Anyway, here's a few shots and you can also see there's some old battered shelving units inside too, to offer concealment and protection incase you get caught with your pants down:

I hope you like it guys, and I look forwards to any feedback. :)

WATER TOWER 01

here's that large Water Tower I was working on when my beloved PC took a nose dive.

It's inspired by the now iconic Water Tower at Vukovar in Croatia that sustained extensive damage during the siege:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar

I chose it as it has a distinctly Eastern European feel to it and it's a very interesting shape and has a strong silhouette. The eight huge concrete supports also lend themselves to some cat and mouse game play hopefully so I've tried to cut a few blocks out of them to break up the outline and allow for stray bullets and shells to go through.

To get to the top, the player will first ascend a spiral staircase, then climb two tall internal ladders. There's two external floors- the viewing or maintenance level (Complete with faded wavy water themed wall paper!) with eight connected rooms and the very top from were the player will get a 45 meter high 360 degrees view point of the surrounding Zone.

Anyway, hope you like it guys, it threw up a few problems along the way lol...

HOUSE 05

Hello again..! 

I've wanted to do a really bleaky creaky freaky looking cabin in true STALKER style for awhile now, but have waited until I found some good photo ref and then got all the pictures together and just took cues from the best bits of them all. 

I really like these type of metal plate roofs, which are also used in the STALKER games on some buildings I think, as they allow for a cheap way to do the collision LODs, as they're in effect made up of simple cube geometry- easy to translate to the LODs as I say. They also look really oppressive, and really spooky at night when picking your way through the Zone at night and your flash light glints off them.

I've also noticed on a lot of these kind of houses in Ukraine (Where I'm taking my cues from visually as a guide at least!) they sometimes have a little white metal plate on one of the top corners, I think for house number- so I've added that but put some Ukrainian with the house number, but also a "Sector 7" or other number, so as to give the island a feeling that all the inhabitants were under some sort of registration, militarily or experimentally even before the "Incident" / "інцидент"that created NOVA ZONA... 

I'm hoping to expand on that theme very subtly as this goes on, and hopefully it'll come together to create a feeling of oppression across the map as you start putting all these little visual clues together and you can form your own stories from it...

I added the little porch as it'll obviously add to game play, creating more angles etc and because I've always wanted a house in the woods with a porch where I can watch the sunset from, whilst supping from a bottle of Jack and puffing on a pipe. 

Trying to add to the decayed look of it, I've kept the wood texture the same on the inside as the outside with this one, as I really want to make it so there's so many holes and gaps (Many of which you just can't see with this shot) that no corner of this house feels totally safe from possible sniper fire or the weather of NOVA ZONA.