Still on maps

[Shrykull]

Well, it has been one year since I mapped the entire Nosgoth from Soul Reaver 1, based on the actual areas extracted with ModelEx. It turn out an excellent work and it served to have a notion of how all the different areas come together.

Then I made a sketch map of Soul Reaver 2 hand-drawed in papper, and it also revealed very interesting to see where certain areas really are.

The same thing I did with Defiance and some levels of Blood Omen 2.

Since then, I've always been very keen on doing these maps, especially of Blood Omen 2. The thing is I would like to make these maps in Photoshop, as I did for Soul Reaver 1, and for that I would need the program to read those bigfiles. =P

So how about it Vampmaster? Any news? =)

[Linikratyo]

You have to download the Soul Spiral utility to open the .big file
http://www.thelostworlds.net/Software/Soul_Spiral.html

[Vampmaster]

The newest version of ModelEx will have support for the spectral realm areas and the alternate skins for each model. There's no animations yet and still no support for SR2 or Defiance. I really want to attempt those, but I need to get the file saves working on first. I had a ModelEx last year that was almost ready for release, but I couldn't decide on a good enough way to do the saves and ended up restarting after I'd discovered this new stuff. I'm in the middle of moving house, but I'm planning on finishing off ModelEx once I'm done with moving in. I have two weeks off over christmas, so I should be able to get lot done over then.

[Omega]

The day you and/or blinc get models extracted out of Defiance will be the day I cry.

I only wish I knew how to do that sort of thing, so I could offer my help!

[Vampmaster]

Well, one thing you can do is if you can find an objects name while the game is running using winhack, then scroll down a bit and start typing junk values. Just change a few lines here and there, switch to the game and see if the object has deformed of discoloured or anything. Then just let me know and then I can figure out how the game processes the data. This will crash the game eventually though.

[Shrykull]

I started drawing the levels of Blood Omen 2. So far I have The Slums and The Den. What's difficult is how to connect the levels afterwards...

[blincoln]

There's an image in the manual that shows an overview of the whole section of Nosgoth that Blood Omen 2 takes place in. It's easy to miss, because it's behind some other text.

[Linikratyo]

Originally Posted by blincoln

There's an image in the manual that shows an overview of the whole section of Nosgoth that Blood Omen 2 takes place in. It's easy to miss, because it's behind some other text.

I CAN'T FIND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ardeth Silvereni]

I think the image only appears in some manuals, for example, I'm in the UK and it's not in my PS2 or PC manuals. I believe the picture being referred to is this.

The most interesting thing for me is seeing the Eternal Prison (I think that's it, top right), allowing us to officially discount the Beast's direction far to the North as incorrect. The Device was below Meridian (a southern city), and the Eternal Prison is nearby, reachable through a tunnel.

[Linikratyo]

Originally Posted by Ardeth Silvereni

The most interesting thing for me is seeing the Eternal Prison (I think that's it, top right), allowing us to officially discount the Beast's direction far to the North as incorrect. The Device was below Meridian (a southern city), and the Eternal Prison is nearby, reachable through a tunnel.

I didn't make sense at all right??

[blincoln]

Originally Posted by Ardeth Silvereni

I think the image only appears in some manuals, for example, I'm in the UK and it's not in my PS2 or PC manuals. I believe the picture being referred to is this.

That's the one. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Ardeth Silvereni

The most interesting thing for me is seeing the Eternal Prison (I think that's it, top right), allowing us to officially discount the Beast's direction far to the North as incorrect. The Device was below Meridian (a southern city), and the Eternal Prison is nearby, reachable through a tunnel.

Yeah, I remember thinking along those lines when I saw it, that everything was a lot closer together than was implied by the cinematics and dialogue. I'm pretty sure my walk into work is longer than the distance from one end of the game-world to the other (minus the Hylden City, although given the other distances it's probably just offshore ).

[Shrykull]

Wow! I had no ideia that picture existed! It's going to be interesting when I get the drawings done and then compare them with that image. I still have to analyse it better...didn't have the time yet...

[Shrykull]

Well suposedly the orientation of that map isn't like the up is North, etc... I say this according to the map shown in the intro movie. However, in the first level, Umah says to Kain to go East to the bridge that leads to the Cabal in the lower city. I've oriented my drawing that way, and if the image was oriented "correctedly" then the Slums would be the western segment of that overview. I'm having some trouble matching the areas to that map. Haven't drawn more levels yet...

[Shrykull]

If anyone's interested, here's a quick drawing of one of my favourite buildings, Vorador's Mansion:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9...mansionsu0.jpg

I know, this one is a bit confusing because of the diferent floor levels which were drawn on the same page =P but still, it is easy to figure out the main areas.

[Raina Audron]

Originally Posted by Shrykull

If anyone's interested, here's a quick drawing of one of my favourite buildings, Vorador's Mansion:

http://img155.imageshack....41/voradorsmansionsu0.jpg

I know, this one is a bit confusing because of the diferent floor levels which were drawn on the same page =P but still, it is easy to figure out the main areas.

are sure the link works, Shrykull? cause it didn´t for me

[Shrykull]

Fixed the link.

And here are the maps from BO2. These are the more interesting up to The Canyons. The others were buildings and got very confusing. And I appolegize in advance for the things on the other side of the sheet.

So here we have:

The Slums: http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8273/m001ri8.jpg

The Den: http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/4415/m002dj1.jpg
(see how the moon switches places between the beginning and the end =P)

The Lower City: http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/4589/m003wz9.jpg

The Upper City: http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8342/m004lt2.jpg
(notice the entering to The Device)

And according to the Meridian map from some posts above, we should have something like this: http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5...dianmapwz0.jpg

[Shrykull]

So...any comments? I was trying to build Meridian, however I find it a bit difficult to merge all the levels together, especially The Den. Did you notice the level design, how the end points to the the beggining, into the sea? I found it strange...

[Shrykull]

Some 50 views and not a single opinion....

[blincoln]

Nice work .

[Raina Audron]

Originally Posted by Shrykull

Some 50 views and not a single opinion....

I like them the only problem is that I don´t exactly remember the layouts of the levels (haven´t played it in more than year)..