Yes, plan was to get this set ready. In fact, it has been passed out for testing! In this version, I decided to include another placeholder (besides the one for the missing Tanis- and Cityhall-group): The Plaza…
If you follow my posts here, you might remember, that ACIDCHALK was able to convert some Maya-scenes ThriKreen had in his backup. I mentioned in post 14, that there were bits for Solace, but I didn’t post any screens from these, because they were very rough and at that time, I decided, that there is nothing really usable for the set.
One scene was called “Plaza” and it contained a very rough kind of sketch:
There was no texture reference nor any UV-map-data! The file dates to Jul. 18, 2005, so roughly the same date as the very rough Meggins, Mill and Trough-scenes (May/June 2005) (see post 03). The first HAK we have dates to Sep. 2003, the last HAK from Bannor to Nov. 2006. So the Plaza also seems to be one of the late/last (new) developments. So why wasn’t it finished? I couldn’t get any information on this. DLA seem to have tried to stick pretty close to the paper modules / atlas, and well, there is no such plaza (there is one in the atlas, but that is a ground market place) and thus it was abandoned. Or maybe it just fell into the time, when DLA switch to developing the Wyvern project.
Also I couldn’t get any information regarding the aim for this approach. So my decision back then was to not further fiddle with it, because I still had more important set-things to do.
Well, after passing out the set for testing, I got into the mood to do some QUICK basic texture tests for the “Plaza” to maybe still get an idea, what this should have looked like. The result was this:
Remark: I actually decided for a different work way and did all major developments for this group in Blender - just for fun. But the finalisation was/is done in Gmax again, because there I know all the DLA-specific model tweaks-techniques, and I’m missing some ways on how to do that in Blender.
This was not set-ready, but at this point, I decided to add a 5x5 placeholder for this group into the setfile, because it may be, that one day, I might try to do something with it:
(Toolset top down view with a scene screen as tile-texture.)
As you can see: I played a bit more with it. Since the surface of the tree-top-cut is not even, I assume, that a "log end texture" was the aim. This is a de-saturated TNO-log end texture. I also added the missing rope bridges.
After it was in the set, I my fire for this model grew bigger! So I added the rails from the Solace treehouses and took the Majere stairs as a base to get from the small lower platforms up to the major one:
Then I really wanted to see it IG and continued! I created a walkmesh and:
(Market stalls are placeables)
So far so good, but as written before: There is no clue on how the connection between the platforms and the tree-cut was meant to be and I couldn’t get any information on that either. So I started fooling around with some ways to place support beams, but tried to stay close to the design of the supportbeams of the other treehouses = there are some, but it does not have to be too realistic (static wise).
So, this is my final design so far:
It won’t stand static calculations, but I think, it works.
Since I was in a flow, I added the root leaves (which is a really painful part), too. After I got that done, it came to my mind, that it doesn't make sense, because the tree is cut und thus no leaves can fall upon the tree base... But it really looks strange, if I make no cover there... ATM, I’m thinking on turning the leaves into a kind of moss cover, but I have not tried that yet.
