FPS Environment Pack #1 Documentation

The demo contains 9maps:

Big Development map
Black Oak Hollow 01
Black Oak Hollow 02
Black Oak Hollow Fall Day
Black Oak Hollow Fall Foggy Day
Black Oak Hollow Foggy Night 01
Black Oak Hollow Summer Day 01
Black Oak Hollow Summer Day 02
Black Oak Hollow Summer Dusk

With the exception of the "Big Development Map", all of the maps are geographically identical. The maps use a combination of the "Western Rural" building set and the "Old World Rural" building set (Building Set01). The maps are set in a variety of seasonal themes and showcase various lighting schemes to create a particular mood or atmosphere.

The Western Rural (BuildingSet02) structures are intended to be use for anything from early turn of the century, to modern setting. Designed in particular to represent elements of mid western rural united states. Their construction is of brick, wood, and corrugated metal.

The "Old World Rural" building set (Building Set01).The Old World Rural structures are intended to be use for anything from Medieval to modern settings. They are constructed of wood, rough stone, and wood shingle roofing.

The Black Oak Hollow setting is the result of a number of influences. I wanted to develop a "Sleepy Hollow" environment with all that implies, the buildings, bridges, windmills, etc. But some where along the way I let that get mixed up in the rural farmland environment I wanted to develop as well. Then the Dock Town setting I was working on got involved, and the end result is Black Oak Hollow.

What I wanted to achieve most with this pack was to immerse the player in the setting. This was best achieved through the environmental sound work done by Jon Jorajuria, which really breathes life into the world.

I also utilized a strong compositional approach whenever I could, by arranging elements in such a way as to lead the eye through the environment as you traveled from one location to the next.

There is far more content in the pack than is actually used in the Black Oak Hollow demo maps, but they should provide sufficient examples of how the content was designed and intended to be utilized.

From a technical side, it should be noted that most of the objects in the content pack have two levels of detail (LOD). In order to really do LOD well, there should be at least 3 levels, but what is provided in the pack are good working examples that are fully functional and easily expandable to a wider range of detail levels.

I did not get a chance to develop new sun flare textures and effects, so this pack includes the corona textures from my RTS Environment Pack. But I have some ideas for creating a very believable "sun through the clouds" effect which I will have to explore further.

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