Under the Sea
We’d like to share with you another object that we are currently developing – the village submarine, one of the most iconic elements in Riven. Because the textures for the object are not complete, we don’t have it set up in UDK quite yet – these are work-in-progress renders from Maya.
The interior of the sub highlights one of the more interesting challenges inherent in the project – what do the areas that are never seen in the original game, but will see in our game, look like? In this case, the area inside the submarine behind the seat has been imagined by a member our hard-working art team, as it is impossible to turn around in the original game. You can see his work in this cutaway shot:
March 20th, 2014 at 1:26 am
Looks awesome! I like the seat design, it fits in with everything else perfectly!
March 20th, 2014 at 5:27 am
Hey look, it’s the Submachine.
March 20th, 2014 at 9:54 am
Looks so good. Very impress.
March 20th, 2014 at 11:39 am
Got to ask – Are you guys upgrading to Unreal Engine 4? Features like PBR and reflection probes will make the game look that much closer to the original / real life.
March 20th, 2014 at 2:56 pm
Of course, there’s the irony that Unity 5 just released with support for Imagination’s ray tracing hardware for accurate lighting & shadows…
March 20th, 2014 at 6:56 pm
I don’t think Gehn would have like to seat in a hard metallic seat. I would make it padded, being the padding very old and worn. Also, I would expect the inside to be spheric as well. The extra inner wall that would make the inside look square would be unnecessary weight and an energy waste.
But overall, nice job guys (and girls?). Keep going.
March 20th, 2014 at 7:03 pm
While I agree that the hard metal seat seems out of character for Gehn, our artists (both male and female) base all of their work off of the original game, to whatever extent that is possible. In the case of the submarine, both the hard seat and square walls are true to the source material.
March 20th, 2014 at 7:05 pm
“In the case of the submarine, both the hard seat and square walls are true to the source material.”
How so? If it’s not visible in the original game, then are you basing it off of official concept art?
March 20th, 2014 at 7:10 pm
On the contrary, the seat is actually visible in the original game, you can see it when you are boarding the sub in its underwater state. The only area not seen in the original game is the area directly behind the seat.
March 23rd, 2014 at 11:26 am
I don’t think Gehn would have ever used it. If he wanted to watch the village, he only had to use his telescope or the throne that sits high above the gallows. I’d imagine the submarine would be for the villagers to a) access the schoolhouse and b) maintain the lower level of the gallows.
March 21st, 2014 at 6:13 pm
Did you guys hear about Epic Games’ policy changes to the new Unreal Engine? Does this affect you guys at all?