I have plans for a 'global lobby' where you'll be able to search for available servers, see who/how many players are online, message other players to setup matches, and handle all the user created gang stuff.
Anyways that's a different story. I'm also working on the game's website which is 90% done.
As a little warmup exercise I decided to use the rendering path used for basements / illegal businesses and create an alley scene which will be in the background @ all times when you're not actually playing a game. I was thinking I'll have civilians / cops / traffic cars driving by randomly. It should look pretty cool.
I've recorded a video and uploaded it here - VIDEO DOWNLOAD 18MB .MPG
Preview Image - Click to download video -
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/Main_Menu_Video_Preview.jpg)
Here is an image of the final setup...It'll probably be tweaked some, we'll see.
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene28.jpg)
Here are the steps of creating the alley scene over the last day or two...
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene1.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene2.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene3.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene4.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene5.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene9.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene10.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene12.jpg)
Lightmap test...
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene13.jpg)
Logo test...it's interesting I converted the logo created by Salsa into a 2-tone bitmap, then used a program called Font Creator to create a .ttf font containing the logo, this way I could use Milkshape3D's "Create geometry from font' plug-in to import the logo...it worked out pretty well.
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene15.jpg)
Then I started experimenting with different lighting setups...I was certain I was going to go with something w/ red in it...though it turned out that it didn't look that good [as you'll soon see].
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene16.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene17.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene18.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene19.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene20.jpg)
Inside 'Light Map Maker' a free program I use to generate the lightmaps.
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene21.jpg)
As you can see the red-light didn't look at that good [this is just ModelTexture*Lightmap, nothing else].
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene22.jpg)
Yea, hand painting the lightmaps for the trees was fun...
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene23.jpg)
Again you can see the red isn't working out as I'd hoped...
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene24.jpg)
I'm much happier with this look...
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene25.jpg)
And here are some 'spare' parts of the scene...
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene26.jpg)
![](http://www.radioactive-software.com/urbanempires/June01/AlleyScene29.jpg)
That's all for now hope you found that to be interesting [grin]. Any comments are welcome as usual. Download/Check out the video above!
- Danny