[WIP] "Seaholm Power Plant" L4D2 Campaign

[ZapWizard]

I started this map about a year ago before making Fan Feast.

It will be a four (or more) map campaign based around the Seaholm Power Plant. A art-deco style building constructed in the 1950's.

This location also is no stranger to zombies.
It has played host to both a Micheal Jackson Thriller Dance Festival, and the Halloween Zombie Ball

As per my usual style, this map is a detailed 1:1 scale recreation of the power plant, pump station, nearby bridges and surround area. Here is the location on Google Maps:http://goo.gl/KMtm

The Seaholm Power Plant is scheduled to be converted to some nice urban multi-purpose center. For my map I will be reviving it back to its industrial and functional state.

I was even able to get my own photos and explorer the interior of the plower plant.
See my photos of the interior here: http://goo.gl/V5uL

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I started a project log on my local modding group forums last year, but never posted it here.
Click here for the full project archive.
There will also be updates on my website: http://www.zapwizard.com/

Here are some images of the project so far:

Real world photo:

Original image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timpatterson/2056189776/

First building import:


Power plant interior:


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The following will be a live project log of my current progress.

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Ok, the holidays are over, time to get back to work.

Last week I revived work on my Seaholm Power Plant project.
Up until now I had been modeling only the buildings, bridges and other static architecture for the power plant and surrounding areas and I had been putting off any actual work on terrain.

This week I have managed to build up a huge chunk of the terrain, which is the walking paths along the river and the pump station.

The following are some of the work-in-progress screenshots from this week. As always there are more on flickr.

Pump station:




Public outhouse:


Parking area:


Failed boat launch:


Outside pump station:


Fallen survivor easter egg:

[WarrenM]

This...



...is so bad ass, it hurts. I love the feel of that. Very concrete and solid and brutal. Not sure how it'll play being so wide open but it looks great!

[ZapWizard]

Wait until I redo some of the basement areas that I didn't have reference photos for earlier. It's not so open down there.

The following image is a photo from the real location (not a screenshot)

[Smog]

This...



...is so bad ass, it hurts. I love the feel of that. Very concrete and solid and brutal. Not sure how it'll play being so wide open but it looks great!

Exactly what I was thinking.

[Nexusdog]

This...



...is so bad ass, it hurts. :) I love the feel of that. Very concrete and solid and brutal. Not sure how it'll play being so wide open but it looks great!

Exactly what I was thinking.

Give it some interior dividing walls break it up, some machinery, walkways & gangways. Otherwise, I'm with the others, it's looking really nice. Can you give us an overhead pic?

[ZapWizard]

Give it some interior dividing walls break it up, some machinery, walkways & gangways. Otherwise, I'm with the others, it's looking really nice. Can you give us an overhead pic?

The catch here is that since I am trying to re-creating realty, I want to avoid any extra gangways or walls that were never actually there. There are some side rooms and gantry's not visible in the above images that will be good for the infected or as camping spots.
There more images on Flickr: http://goo.gl/02dz

As far as overhead, do you mean a overhead plan of the whole campaign, or just the power plant?
There is a basic campaign plan on Flickr, but as far as the power plant it would be hard to get a overhead shot as it is three overlapping levels.

The underground areas are almost nothing but machines and gangways and will be more of a maze. Half of the of the interior map will be the underground areas.

There are some cut-away images and historic images showing the machinery here: http://friendsofseaholm.com/Pages/building.html

Currently I am working on the outside areas and first map as shown in the second set of images. I will probably get back to re-working the interior of the power plant in a month or so. This weekend I am doing the interior of the three pumping station buildings, which are of similar construction.

[Fight]

Put some volumetric lighting in der

[ZapWizard]

L4D2 doesn't have volumetric lighting, valve fakes it by making cleverly textured models.

[Oilcake]

Hey, Zap! Great to see you doing further development on this project! Can't wait to see how it progresses!!! 8-)

[Fight]

L4D2 doesn't have volumetric lighting, valve fakes it by making cleverly textured models.

Do this then:

Make a brush as tall as the window and 1 unit thick and turn into a func_brush. Use the texture sprites/animglow02 for the brush. You'll need to stretch the texture a lot so you just have the outside glow of the texture. then in the settings:

Render FX: Slow Wide Pulse
Render Mode: World Space Glow
FX Color: (Pick your own)
Disable Receiving Shadows: Yes
Disable Shadows: Yes
Never Solid

Then throw some lights around the window that the light is coming through with a low brightness value (10-100) depending on how big the room is. You can add some dustmotes too.

Should get something looking like this:
http://<br /> <a href="http://dl.dro...harhar.jpg</a>

and an example in Hammer:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7033653/dfsdfds.JPG

Thank Briscoe for this, I just copied it from him.


btw I like what you have so far, I enjoy looking at industrial/abandoned themed maps

The catch here is that since I am trying to re-creating realty, I want to avoid any extra gangways or walls that were never actually there. There are some side rooms and gantry's not visible in the above images that will be good for the infected or as camping spots.

I don't think that it would be good if you tried to make an exact replica of this in-game, This place wasn't built in real life to have good gameplay. You can stick closely to the reference images but there will be spots where you have to use your imagination or make little changes to make gameplay better. You can still make it the Seaholm Power Plant and add some gameplay elements or your own twist to it as well.

I think you need to give yourself some lee-way in the design of it.

Ive tried making recreations a few times myself and I always find myself changing bits or adding a stairway here or hallway there because the recreation just doesn't seem to fit as well.

Just my thoughts though, not law

[Nexusdog]

It's nice looking, but it's way too big.

Why do you feel the need to create a 1.1 scale model, how is that going to affect gameplay - will it make it more fun, interesting or add variety to your project? Accuracy recreating a real life building only has a certain usefulness; getting familiar with scale and dimensions, architectural designs, basic layout.

Use no clip for some overhead pics; where do the other areas you've shown fit in context to your power station?

[ZapWizard]

Thanks for the guide Fight, I will look at that when I get back to working on the interior.

It's nice looking, but it's way too big.

Why do you feel the need to create a 1.1 scale model, how is that going to affect gameplay - will it make it more fun, interesting or add variety to your project? Accuracy recreating a real life building only has a certain usefulness; getting familiar with scale and dimensions, architectural designs, basic layout.

Use no clip for some overhead pics; where do the other areas you've shown fit in context to your power station?

In-game the map is not as big as the wide angle screenshots make it look. At least compared to valve made maps. The interior of the power plant takes about 25 seconds to walk the length and is small enough that it might be a scavenge event.

Making maps a 1:1 scale has sort of been my own thing since before I made L4D maps. I like finding real locations that work for a game sort of like finding a movie set. There are things I change for game flow, to help with zombie spawning and in general add to the apocalyptic nature of the game. Working from reality can be a challenge all to its own also, and not necessarily in a bad way, it helps add randomness that exists in the real world that others often overlook. It helps break up the constant "warehouse..alley..road..warehouse..alley..roa d" loop.

I think it also adds interest to a map, as the area your playing isn't a fictional location. Especially for anyone located near Austin, this place is a familiar landmark. Also the last two L4D maps I made were also both played by the public while on-location. Meaning people were virtually trying to survive in a building they were actually in.

This image shows what is basically the entire campaign area:

Or view on Google maps: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&t=k ... 08256&z=18

The game starts at the end of the peninsula near the river (bottom left of photo)
The first map is the players making their way to the pumping station (middle of image near river). Depending how fast they move though the map it should be about as short as the first Parish map.

The second map is longer and includes areas above the pump station, on and surrounding the power plant exterior. The players will end up behind the power plant at a small building north of the power plant.

The third map will be the interior of the power plant, starting deep underground and snaking their way though the underground areas until they reach the main floor of the plant, and some of the attached offices and side rooms.

The fourth map will be outdoors again, starting on the rail bridge and ending at the curved pedestrian bridge (far left of the image).

That's the plan at least, all of it is subject to change as the map develops.

[ZapWizard]

More progress and screenshots:

These are the highlights, but there are few more on my Flikr page (See first post)

I have the power plant exterior added to my master map. The city of Austin sign is all lit up.

Here is an night photo used for color reference:
http://www.seaholm.info/html/current.html

Wide angle image.


Custom flat-bed semi trailer:


Power line pole in pieces:


Front gate and guard house. The restricted access sign is taken directly from a location photo.


Main sign out front. Wooden, made from scratch using photo as reference.


Image showing custom power line tower.
The tower is only 332 polygons when further away, and is 2708 polygons up close.


Military checkpoint along the main road.

[Oilcake]

It's looking really good, man! I just love the sign lit up like that! The only thing that would worry me is the openness, but then I'm ultra paranoid of big open spaces. Doesn't at all mean that it's a bad thing, necessarily...

[ZapWizard]

The openness is a bi-product of the location. The area surrounding the power plant is mostly a running/walking park. The fences I added in the last screenshot, behind the "zombie ahead sign" were actually there in that position when I went to take reference photos. The lower trail was closed for improvement. This helped a lot to split this into two maps.

Just like on my Fan Feast map, an open area is going to make close zombie spawning a challenge. On Fan Feast I added sewers to aid with spawning, allowing zombies to come up out of the ground in various places. In this location there is actually man holes all over the place, but many people in Fan Feast didn't like the fact that they couldn't enter the sewers (even though they would be a death trap). I guess they imagined they would be like the ones in the L4D1 maps. If need be I can add them in, and this time allow access if the players really want to...they can just die and learn if they use them.

Otherwise there should be spawning areas behind the fences and bushes, along with inside the buildings.