by Rory Starks
This CAVE environment places the viewer in the middle of a large forest lit by a full moon. Just behind the starting location is a red brick tower covered in ivy. If one walks into this tower, he or she will find a ladder leading into a hole. This hole leads to a tunnel that runs underground for about 100 feet or so before resurfacing in the middle of the forest. South of the starting location is a rope bridge that leads to a network of tree houses.
The environment was inspired by computer games like Myst, The Elder Scrolls Series, and Gothic. These games put their players in seemingly expansive worlds using photo-realistic objects and textures. This type of immersion was important for Forest of Shadows because the idea was to make a believable world while adhering to the technical limitations of a scene rendered in real-time.
The models for the environment were made with very few polygons. Keeping the poly count low allowed for more of the tree models to be placed instead of the flat, billboard models that were used previously. One of the planar backdrops is still used in the outermost edge of the forest in order to visually (and physically) separate the trees from the skydome. The textures used in the environment were all generated from photo references. While every tree is essentially the same model, each one is a different size and shape and is given one of 12 different bark/leaf textures. Smaller objects like the torches were given as much detail as any other object for the sake of consistency.
This CAVE environment places the viewer in the middle of a large forest lit by a full moon. Just behind the starting location is a red brick tower covered in ivy. If one walks into this tower, he or she will find a ladder leading into a hole. This hole leads to a tunnel that runs underground for about 100 feet or so before resurfacing in the middle of the forest. South of the starting location is a rope bridge that leads to a network of tree houses.
The environment was inspired by computer games like Myst, The Elder Scrolls Series, and Gothic. These games put their players in seemingly expansive worlds using photo-realistic objects and textures. This type of immersion was important for Forest of Shadows because the idea was to make a believable world while adhering to the technical limitations of a scene rendered in real-time.
The models for the environment were made with very few polygons. Keeping the poly count low allowed for more of the tree models to be placed instead of the flat, billboard models that were used previously. One of the planar backdrops is still used in the outermost edge of the forest in order to visually (and physically) separate the trees from the skydome. The textures used in the environment were all generated from photo references. While every tree is essentially the same model, each one is a different size and shape and is given one of 12 different bark/leaf textures. Smaller objects like the torches were given as much detail as any other object for the sake of consistency.
