Sometimes I have to remind myself to stop all the ripping and tearing, so I can take in the amazing world id Software made…
Quick Thoughts: Isolation in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
I’ve been replaying S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl recently, as it comes to its 9th birthday (and 30 years since the Chernobyl incident itself). It’s an incredibly unique game that feels like it wasn’t trying to be something else. The developers didn’t sit down and say “we need our game to be like game xyz because that’s successful “. It feels more like they were truly inspired by the past and used that to craft their own experience.
One of the experiences that still strikes me today is the feeling of isolation in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s world. This isolation comes in various forms too - isolation from humans, from a safe environment, from friends, from the rest of the world.
Now we will look at some of the ways S.T.A.L.K.E.R. creates this isolation:
1) The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
The name itself…”exclusion zone” tells us that we shouldn’t be here, yet we are. We don’t even get a glimpse of the outside world, the game starts straight away in the ‘Cordon’ area, at the bottom of the map. If the player tries to escape out, he is met by soldiers at the military checkpoint who open fire, as our player is already on the ‘wrong side’ of the checkpoint.
2) You’re a Loner
A quick glance at your PDA shows your ranking relative to other stalkers. Our stalker, ‘Marked One’ belongs to the group called ‘Loner’.
Yes, it sounds strange. There are other non-hostile factions, but you can never be a part of them, you can only help them out. You will always be a loner.
What’s interesting however is that The Zone is full of ‘Loners’. The majority of non-hostile stalkers you encounter will be Loners. The village that you start at is clearly an established community, but when you inspect the stalkers, they are all Loners.
3) The difficulty
Even on the easiest setting, the world doesn’t care if you live or die. Anomalies, mutants and bullets will still easily rip through you, just now you can take a few more hits and need to dish out a few less. However, it is the feeling that these mutants, anomalies and hostile stalkers are part of this living Zone that creates the isolation. In more linear games, these kinds of obstacles will be spawned into the level, ready to face the player when they either pass into sight, or reach a trigger point. In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. however, the mutants will react to your presence. Dogs might not attack you if they feel do not have enough numbers, or if you fire a shotgun you can scare them off. You can often find 2 rival groups of Stalkers shooting at each other, neither noticing your presence.
It’s this sense that you’re intruding into their space, rather than the mutants and stalkers are here for you to shoot, alongside the unforgiving difficulty that drives home the idea that this game and place doesn’t care if I succeed or not and creates a separation (isolation) between the player the games world.
In fact the game at one point during development featured a slightly different story/quest line. The objective would be a ‘race’ between all stalkers to reach the center (the power plant) and it would be possible for the AI stalkers to do this before you, thus you could ‘loose’.
4) Loading screens and the underground
The game asks you at various points to collect documents from underground laboratories. The labs are often described as being ‘locked up’, ‘undiscovered’, or shrouded in mystery from past events which can sometimes make you feel like you’re going on a bit of suicide mission. Life in the laboratories is only found in the weird and unique mutants or perhaps audio tapes and logs from a dead stalker.
As you begin to approach these labs you usually have to walk down a flight of stairs to a basement level, thus blocking out the sun (if it was daytime), and then approach the door to trigger a loading screen. Now, back when I played this in 2007, loading times could be anywhere around a minute. The levels in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. by area are quite large and the idea that this lab is its own separate level that requires a loading screen has an effect:
1. Having a loading screen with an image of the laboratory that players are about to enter will make them ponder about what it will hold.
2. Having to wait sometimes up to a minute to enter a level creates a sense of ‘the point of no return’. If there was no loading times, players could freely enter in and out of the lab instantly. Instead there is a feeling of commitment, that once I pass through this loading screen and into the lab, I’m not returning until I have finished and need to exit. This in turn helps create seclusion in this lab from the outside world.
3. Again, having to wait sometimes up to a minute to enter a level (triggered by opening a door) creates tension. It is almost like waiting for one of those slow, bank doors to open, or an airlock that takes a minute.
4. A big part of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s atmosphere comes from the audio. As the underground laboratories are separate levels, any ambient noise from the outside level, like wind, birds, humans/animals, is removed, again helping create seclusion.
5. As you progress through the laboratory, you have to pass through stairs. When first playing and reaching the end of the first set of the stairs, the floor you end up on is relatively dark and there’s a good amount of spooky monsters. A locked door halts progression and when this is unlocked, another set of stairs is found, leading to an even darker and weirder area. Linking progression with delving further underground cements the feeling of complete isolation, as the deeper levels get darker and stranger.
There’s a feeling of satisfaction and of real exploration when you emerge out of the darkness into mid-day sunlight, after witnessing the horrors of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s laboratories.
5) Radio messages
When you exit laboratory levels and return to ground, you always receive a radio message from a trader or friend, often happy to see that you’re alive and well. This immediate human contact helps the player reflect on the absence of contact and feelings of isolation they had. It offers respite to one of the most stressful parts of the game.
All these above and a few more such as some of the dialogue and bleak atmosphere all build up to the feeling of isolation found in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
A panorama of the New Safe Confinement - a massive structure (left) that is to fit exactly over the existing sarcophagus (middle), creating a seal to protect the outside.
The original sarcophagus has a certain appeal to it, architecturally. There’s a moment of awe as you approach it in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. Photos don’t really give a sense of the scale, but it feels grand and imposing. This video of a drone flying around the area shows the scale well.
It’s unique - nothing will be created like this again, even if the same accident happened again today.
It’s purpose also is interesting. The sarcophagus serves to contain perhaps the worst nuclear accident ever, but now it also needs to be serviced. It has become a threat in itself.
There’s definitely a strange allure to it, as we can see with people actually entering into the ‘Zone’ just like the in-game ‘S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s…
Been trying out various render and lights to get a similar looking, but fast (~40 seconds) setup. I like presenting my work using 3d mockups, simply having it on the floor and in 3d perspective often helps the eye get a feel for the size of the design.
I wonder if this is because the ‘edges’ of the medium (paper/a box/a business card) can be seen, as opposed to viewing an exported .jpg straight out of the design software.
Back to the renders, I’m quite please with the C4D output. The render time for a 1080p image is quick and it’s easily to reproduce: Sky object w/ Luminance material, 2 area lights and in the render settings, GI on with only Irradiance Cache and Discrete Sky Sampling. All other settings set to low for speed.
Learning Cinema4D, a popular 3d program for OS X.
Starting off with the basics - modelling, materials and UV mapping. Then onto rendering, cameras and animation.
Quick Thoughts: No Traces - MGSV
MGSV’s end-game content is mostly geared around the FOB, FOB events and grade 8+ items, but lets be honest - it’s an endless grind on the same 7 platforms, with very little variation.
There is however a hidden score bonus possible in the main missions called ‘No Traces’, and this has become my ‘end-game’ content.
There’s an endless amount of ways to approach anything you do in MGSV, but you’re generally inclined to incapacitate people and fulton them, which in itself is great fun. It does however make some areas and whole missions quite easy, especially if you go for any kind of ranged weapon. No Traces flips everything around. The idea of not using any weapon or item asks you to instead analyse the environment and props in a base - which are always crafted to look very natural - and forces you to use this as your weapon, rather than simply relying on a tranq pistol, or a buddy, or smoke grenade.
What I found was a huge appreciation for the world Kojima Productions crafted. Where before I ran through Da Smasei Fort with ease, No Traces made me look carefully for hidden passage ways, rock formations I could just squeeze behind and shadows I can wait in for someone to pass. At times I’m just metres away from soldiers, stalking them because I simply can’t dispatch them in my usual ways and it creates an incredible tension that you just don’t get normally.
If you’re a bit bored with FOB, or just want a challenge, try out ‘Episode 6: Where Do The Bees Sleep’ - I managed to get a score of 478675, I think around 150th best in the world on PC, but I know it could more with extra objectives and tactical takedowns (I chose not to hold anyone up). A full guide of what you can and can’t do is over here.
Today we look at the SF-16 H (SF = Scuderia Ferrari, 16 = 2016, H = Hybrid).
We can see Ferrari have included much more white this year than 2015′s car (2nd picture), mostly around the engine cover, seat and nose structure.
Looking at the engine cover, the Scuderia Ferrari logo is now more prominent set against white, however a drop shadow has been added (4th picture) which cuts into the black and red parts of the cover. This looks quite messy and I prefer 2015′s usage of the logo.
There’s a small tribute to Ferrari’s Italian heritage now added on the air-intake (above where the driver sits) by means of a green and red line, with white in the middle forming the flag of Italy. This works really well, and has been used before, as we can see in the 312T (5th picture). The 312T also features a livery quite similar to the SF-16 H, a lot of white around the engine cover.
Overall, I’m not a fan of having less red on a Ferrari - and it’s not even just that. Going from the bottom we have a strip of black, then red, black again, white and the finally a small strip of red. The second strip of black around the engine cover feels unnecessary and creates an awkward shape. Perhaps it’s because of Hublot’s white logo. If we compare this 2015′s car, we have black along the bottom, then red, with a small vertical green/white/red strip as the colours of Italy, before black around the exhausts.
It’s that time of year again when F1 begins to kick back into action, beginning with the official car launches. Yesterday the Red Bull RB12 (no surprises in the name) was launched.
The biggest change - which we knew was coming from last year with Infinti sponsorship ending - is the side-pod branding. Firstly, the Infinity logo and their corporate purple colour have been removed completely, which I really like. I understand that they had the position of title sponsor, but the size of the logo inc. background (see bottom picture) is just huge, whereas the ‘Red Bull’ text is squeezed further down the car at an angle. Secondly, the side-pod now features ‘Red Bull’ text without the white stroke (same applies to the bull on the engine cover). I’m also a big fan of this. At least in the pictures in this photo shoot, the Red Bull text colour has a nice contrast with the deep, dark blue. It doesn’t need a stroke to stand out.
Someone made a comparison over at Reddit of what is and what used to be (the animated gif) Now, the side-pod branding and side-pod feel as one. I was never a fan of how the Infiniti logo background shape felt like a separate piece of the side-pod.
The bull on the engine cover now carries the yellow from the air-intake for the stroke effect, rather than a white. Again, this helps bring the whole engine cover together as one piece as we go towards the back of the car.
Overall, I would say this years RB12 is an improvement over the RB11.
The DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit 2016 started yesterday.
I’m looking forward to the Thursday afternoon (will be night for UK) conversation between Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro and Geoff Keighley. All 3 have produced amazing works in their fields - MGS/Pans Labyrinth/VGA’s - and I hope they’ll touch on how they came to design these.
I’m also interested in Todd Howard’s talk. I’ve felt he has a very natural presentation style, one I’ve tried to learn and apply to myself. His E3 2015 Fallout 4 conference was one of my highlights, and after putting too many hours into the game, I hope he’ll share some of his thoughts on the design process of the massive game.
Usually Windows can’t show thumbnails for Adobe saved formats, like .psd and .ai, but with a small program called Sagethumbs you can:
A GPU I bought a while ago. Computer component box art has come a long way.
There’s a nice foil print of what I think is the Chinese word for ‘wind’. It’s quite fitting as one of Palit’s selling points is their cooling solution. If we take a look back at other box design over the years, we can see that the clean and polished aesthetic of Palit’s represents and helps bring computer components more in-line with how gaming itself has evolved to become social and ‘accepted’ over the years.
We start by taking a look at 1999′s Voodoo3 3000. Very serious. Very menacing. I guess those eyes would certainly stand out on the shelf…
There seems to be some trend throughout the years of featuring monsters and creatures. Palit had the frog which helped create an identity for what is essentially a circuit board and heatsink.
We can see even the nVidia 9 series (2008) featured creatures of sorts.
Then there is the Hercules ATi 9800 Pro (2003) which I have no words for. I remember this being ‘the card’ of the times for running games like Half Life 2, Far Cry and Doom 3, but I must of forced out any memories of that horrifying…thing.
Un-linked layer masks
Using un-linked layer masks are a great way to change the dimensions of a tileable element on the fly without altering the level of detail, simply using the transform controls. This is perfect for things like backgrounds that are to be used in a variety of sizes.
Just press the link button on your masked layer to unlink.
