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[Role Playing Game] Memento Mori

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Lost in the Light - Memento Mori

185888-albums6426-picture75781.png

The project is currently undergoing a major overhaul and will be reintroduced in near future.
Thank you for your continued support, stay tuned !
 
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It is ENB series by Boris Vorontsov with adjusted settings (with some help from the creator himself) for wc3, it contains ambient occlusion and depth of field among other things.
The assets are made by me, shadows are made by the use of simple shadow maps overlaid on mesh with modulate blending.
Obviously, with ENB series alone you will only get the depth of field and ambient occlusion, shadows and other materials will be parts of the models themselves.
 
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Memento Mori is old latin for "Remember that you will die" it is symbolic of the inevitability of death and the superficiality of earthly riches.
It symbolizes that everything even things of rich value or people of high rank will once perish in the same manner as everything else.
It is a recurring theme of the mod, hence the name.

I'm currently working on the assets, which is a fairly time consuming process. I'll be documenting the development process for those who are interested. (while hiding it under "HIDDEN" tags for those who would not like to have it spoiled)
Depending on the development I may look for the help of a triggerer or an extra artist to speed it up.

Also can't wait, Toby.
 
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Well, made some progress today (finished wraps on some tools and weapons such as the Ruger in the OP) and just started modelling the convenience store. It is one of the first locations players will go to in the prologue.
It is a multi-storey building with living apartments above it, you will be able to see the upper floors through a huge hole in the ceiling that opened when the staircase from the upper floors came crashing down but you won't be able to get in there.
There will be a puddle from rainwater at where the falling rubble made a huge hole in the flooring and vegetation spreading from there stretching over the whole building.

Also I wondered if anybody had any ideas about combat. The camera makes it awkward to incorporate regular wc3 combat so I was thinking of something more scripted along the lines of V.A.T.S. from Fallout 3 except it would be real time and selecting body parts would not pause the game so that it would not clash with the survival aspect of the mod making it more effective to take your time "aiming" while concealed in shadows.
How about that ?

*also those weird black square thingys on the screens is glass, max does not support wc3 texture transparency obviously.*
convstore.jpg

convstore2.jpg
 
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I found out that your description and models are somewhat similar to Requiem.

Are a team member? :D
Models in requiem are made by industry veterans from Square Enix, GSC Game World (Vostok Games) and maybe other studios, I don't have that much experience with game art sadly.
And nope I'm not affiliated with Requiem or its Creator.

I'll see about releasing models in the future. If anything, separate doodads (or packs) may make it out at least for terraining purposes.
 
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Yeah I know what you mean, most of Requiem's models are imports from other games, they were made by professional studios not by the mod's creator.

Update:
Got around nearly finishing model of the convenience store, now only some detail work left (making holes and wear in the building, for trees and foliage to grow through and polish the interior) and then it can be fitted with the rest of the doodads and made into a playable area.
MementoMori1.jpg


MementoMori.jpg

Also I was wondering, would people prefer small periodic updates or irregular updates on a lot larger scale ?
 
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It's meant as in actual work on the models themselves, the ones that will be used for the terrain.
There won't be much of the actual "terraining" because of certain features I use that prefer big "chunk" models that come with all the doodads already arranged in them. (think, a whole building or a street being a single model)
Why is it like that and what advantages does it offer may be covered in the future in a dev diary video.
But if the need arises I will most certainly consider your offer ;)

To give a general idea of what kind of environment I'm aiming for is something like:
Except much more sinister and buildings a lot more decrepit. With lots of water running down the streets and from atop the buildings.
Not as many (if any) of the business skyscrapers but very tall real estate buildings will be present.
Although the scale will be majestic, the environment is not supposed to be a spectacle like the one on the drawing. The towering shadows are intended to strike fear and unease when you imagine what everything may be lurking in them.
(referenced pic is property of Andree Wallin)

Also, if there are any fans of the survival/horror (or just survival OR horror)/post apo genre, I'd gladly accept any recommendations you have of works that might be a good source of inspiration. (movies, games etc)
Likewise, your ideas and expectations of what would be cool in a survival game, what would you expect from it, what are the things that should be focused upon etc. is all welcome !
 
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It was such a horrible pain to animate the caustics, partially to blame NeoDex for not being able to export texture animation for some reason, or I did something wrong lol.

I'm still trying to get the most "liquid" look, but no matter what I do I cannot achieve that with planes.
After all water is a mass not a plane, so it looks weird without good looking volumetric transparency.
I was thinking of de-emphasizing the actual surface and replace it with layered "watery" particles such as glitters, highlights and foam maps topped with things such as lots of floating debris and foliage to give the impression that the surface is still there but it also has an apparent depth to it.

And by the way, do any of you folks live in big cities ? I was playing with the idea of recreating a real world city with the help of Google earth street view.
It would take away the burden of having to design architecture and maybe somebody, somewhere, sometime would go like "I KNOW THIS PLACE !".

EDITS
So, I have already decided to base the level design on Los Angeles. The architecture of the New Downtown and surrounding areas is very much like what I'm aiming for.
Naturally, it won't be a completely accurate replica (for obvious reasons such as the ridiculous amounts of time and effort it would require) and certain areas may be altered to enhance the level design, eg. large open areas such as parking lots, garages and parks may be replaced, either with entirely new buildings or enhanced by other features and aftermaths of the "apocalypse" such as unusually overgrown trees and vegetation or debris that somehow made its way there from the surrounding buildings or "craters" filled with water.
That being said, I'll be aiming to make every single place recognizable (despite the amounts of deterioration it will go through).
 
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About the water, I would make a square and volumetric particle effect (kind of like a volumetric cloud) with a transparent and slightly greenish color.
A brilliant idea sir.
I went and made a quick volumetric mesh here:
Volumetric_mesh.jpg


The jagged edges of "voxels" can be seen however, I'll try to make a mesh from billboarded particles but that may be even more taxing.

Also, the "reflection" will behave naturally and will be the most apparent in the appropriate angles and almost not visible when looking at water from top-down.
Like so:
Reflection_intensity.jpg


That being said, I'm currently occupied by making small doodads (dozens of varying foliage) I'll return to watery stuff later.
 
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Yeah, the description part is something I'm certainly looking into.
I didn't use the bb table thingy.. because it looks kinda messy to me, so does using more than two colors in a piece of text.
I'm planning on formatting the text better in PS and make some subtle frames that would fit the logotype more and separate each with pictures representing each of the points in the description.
That is also the reason why I didn't do so yet, because certain parts mentioned in the article (such as combat, inventory and things connected to that) aren't finalized yet.

If anything, very soon I'll probably add a bigger "splash screen" picture on the top to lay the logo onto so it does not just float there by itself.
That being said, it is not the main interest now. I'm currently going through a boring task of making tons of tiny doodads because I realized it is easier to plan where the doodads will go before putting big "chunk" models rather than doing it the opposite way.
 
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Finally another RPG not revolving around demons,dragons and pointy eared elves.
Alas as products have proven over the years a great terrain needs an even greater gameplay. Do mind that when considering the combat options. For example Paranoia had great terrain and models but the combat was boring and unappealing. (at least for me and the 3 people I forced into replaying it a few times)

If Goris's project takes so much time to do while she does use some premade models I can only imagine when can we expect a test version of MementoMori... with the fantastic work you are doing on the aesthetics. I hope blizzard won't develop warcraft 4 untill then hehe

+rep and I will nominate this for project of the month.


p.s. I was just about to open the editor and actually make something ...but seing how people handle it like that just discourages me lol
 
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I'll make sure to hire an army of QA testers (that is, if they will be willing to join) kind of like beta testers except they will essentially be a part of the development process.

Yeah the development time may be an issue, even thought I'd dare to say I can work on the assets part itself quite fast. (majority of the assets are very simple after all)
I do aim for quite the staggering amount and scale however, if things will go too slow I may cut on some things to make the goal and target date seem more realistic.
If anything, the most realistic development is that the project will be released with episodic content.
That being said, I would not expect anything playable (by public) before this summer.

Until then, I'm pretty sure following the development in this thread will turn out to be quite entertaining by itself.
Also, I couldn't work on the mod during this weekend much but...

DO YOU LIKE TEASERZ ? I DO LIKE TEASERZ ! CAN YOU FIX IT ? (I know you can, it's simple)
Teaser.jpg

Hint hint: Expect teaserzz and puzzelss, both in here and within the mod itself.
 
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that's the teaser? that's horrible
I'm guessing you didn't get it.
The image is twisted on purpose, in hope of somebody interested enough to fix it.
It's just testing the community interaction based on which I may decide to put more similar stuff out, to entertain those willing to partake in it while waiting for the mod to come out or integrate such stuff into the mod itself.
 
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Indeed you did !
The site is gonna be home of the official website for the mod in near future.
You won't miss any updates by just reading this thread, the site will however list all the media in neat and orderly manner so people who have just stumbled upon it won't have to read through pages of text to see pics, videos and similar stuff.
There may also be a certain level of interaction between the site and the game itself.

Oh and the solved teaser:
MM-teaser.jpg
 
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Sure thing you will be contacted as soon as the testing period starts, plus you gave away a little something I had on a mind for a while now.

I'll be holding similar events from time to time and those willing to participate may find a little surprise in their PMs once the mod makes it out, something they may potentially redeem while playing, maybe ?
Same goes for those who had offered valuable feedback or contributions throughout the development run.

If you aren't into that or you happen to miss out, don't worry there will be plenty of ... curious ... stuff in the game for you to find out.
 
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the development of the map is quite impressive, it reminds me of a few other projects i have seen floating around here. I'm guess this map's filesize will run well over 8mb?
 
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Yes, given it will be a campaign with rough target of 5~ maps. (plus 4 maps, but those will be nearly identical duplicates of story chapters)

I won't say any estimates because they will most likely turn out to be completely wrong but I do have models that exceed 20 mb of size. (with textures)
 
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Heh, it was a twirl distortion, when you apply twirl in the opposite direction with the exact same power it will get back to the source image (although it will be slightly smudged because it creates some artifacts, but it's perfectly visible)
You can do that in photoshop, gimp and probably other programs that offer such deformations but you may take longer to get the power and stuff right I guess and it may be slightly more messed up if the other filters are different.

I'll try to come up with things that will require no software to do, but may require other things ? *cough*hex,Base64,binary,morse*cough*HINT*cough* maybe ?

Similar things will be in the game, solving which may get you a concealed link that will lead to the official site of the mod and may give you a hint or a reward, unlockable or such.
Think of it like an easter egg or a hidden unlockable from other games, except these will expand outside the game itself.
Designed for those who like puzzle cracking, brainstorming or are generally observant of the surroundings.
 
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LoL, well I'm currently working on assets (surprise !) and misc stuff when I get too tired of it as it is easy work but quite tedious.

I've found a big collection of stuff on partners in rhyme, they have tons of amazing sounds and music I could use some of which are free.
The "Horror!" collection I'm currently looking at has a great combination of background music, "jumpscare" sounds, sfxs and ambient music and is for a modest price (compared to some other collections such as the "Horror and Suspense" which contains only 14 music tracks but is priced at 140$) it is likely what I'll end up using.

I have also been watching some footage of Silent Hill Downpour here and there, realizing I have been subconsciously making many similar assets.
Ideally, I would like Memento Mori to have similar look and atmosphere but towns in a bigger scale.
I'd love to also get close to Downpour's graphical fidelity, of course considering such limitations as the development time, my experience and the fact I'm working on the assets alone.
As such I have realized some assets I made aren't quite as good as what I expected so I'm slowly remaking them.

Also.. what are you afraid of ?
 
Are you asking us what we're afraid of?
This is obviously a trick question. I had a character in a video game ask me this once. You tell them you're afraid of health potions and they throw you in a room with lots of health potions.

I'm afraid of bulletproof vests, laser guns, 10 years supply of food, heavily armed mobile fortresses, and one million gallons of water.
 
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