The Brief

Year 3 FMP Project Brief

The Bank

INTERNATIONAL

Group project by Tom Lawson (the interior) and Steve Jones (the exterior)


Initial Idea

The final outcome of this project will include a Street scene of a major city with the main focus being a Bank. The project is split into two parts. Tom Lawson will be creating the interior of the bank and myself creating the exterior and the surrounding environment.

Style

The style of the environment will be based on a metropolitan cities within Europe (including the UK). All major cities have a majority of Banks whether they were once banks and now have been referbished into restaurants or coffee shops etc. This makes no diffrence as its the exterior architecture that is of importance to me. Roamanesque Revivial, Medieval Gothic Revivial, Jacobethan, Neoclassical, Romantisism, Renesance Revival are all architectural influences that contributed to the look and feel of grand buildings within Europe's historical cities.

The Bank

The bank will be the main structural building of the environment. It will be grand in design remnant of the architectural style I will be researching. Elements to include will be huge pillars at the front of the building that sit in front of the main door ways into the bank. In front of the pillars will be a wide, stone staircase that leads up to the entrance of the bank. The walls of the building will be built from ornate fixtures and façades and tall windows. A dome structure will crown the top of the building. This will be visible from within the banks main lobby.

Plaza

In front of the bank will be the main playable area. This area is included to draw the players attention to the entrance of the bank and add interest the area. The plaza will include seating areas. Surrounded by plants, shrubs and small trees. The main focal point of this area will be a large fountain that will reflect the architecture of the building.

Surrounding Buildings

The boundaries of the environment will consist of modular built buildings that will reflect the financial district of a bustling city. This will immerse the player and add to the overall feel of the city environment as a whole.

Planning (gathering referance etc)

Initial planning will consist of using the internet and books from the library to gather information on influences and art movements in architectural design. Alongside that, first hand photographs will be taken from visits to cities for the chosen locations within Europe. Surrounding building will be designed from this research and planned out on paper and fitted together to create different layouts of possible environment designs.

Along with plans I will also create conceptual work to help visualise the atmosphere of the finished scene. A meticulous list of all assets and buildings will help keep my workload within the time frame of the project. Also a week by week work structure will keep me on track to achieving the finished project.



Game influences

In Left for Dead 2 although the game is set in a bleak zombie infested world some areas of the levels have a beautiful feel about them. During the start of the second level of the parish campaign you go through a park.
The time of day is set early morning and although the sun is out you get a sense of cold air about you. I would like to capture the atmosphere of this environment in my project.

Another recent game that came out had captured some of the architectural styles that captures what I have planned for the end result in my level.
Seine Crossing from battlefield 3 had some very interesting buildings from the French city of Seine.

Design

The game will be a First Person Acton Shooter. The premise of the level will be set after a well executed bank robbery. Specifications of the level will coincide with limitations for current gen consoles and PC but excluding Wii. All assets in the game will have along side the diffuse textures Specular and Normals maps and alpha masks were applicable. Texture maps will not exceed 1024 x 1024 in size and may share multiple assets to utilise texture space.

The layout of the level will be reflected by a realistic amount of work that is achievable within the time frame of the project. In order to prevent having a large city environment police blockades will be used to section off the streets that will lead away from the playable area. A road will be placed at the front of the bank just after the plaza with possible roads with blockades adjacent to it.

All street scenery will be present such a zebra crossings, traffic lights, bollards advertisements, mailboxes, etc. Ambient cars will be parked on the streets and police cars will be used for blockades.

Due to the fact that building will be of a modular design, the pieces that make make up the buildings will be instances. This will help keep Tri limit to a minimum. All assets will receive enough detail to easily identify them by silhouette and have enough detail in the textures to be of a realistic nature. but not exceed the limitations of the engine the game is intended to run on and not require a powerful machine to achieve a steady frame rate when in game.

Buildings will be designed in such a way that street level details will be higher than those at higher places were the player wont be able to reach. This will also be present with the ends of the streets that the player will only be able to see from a distance, but not actually be able to reach.

LOD or “level of detail” meshes will be added to all assets so improve performance when the player is either indoors or out as both projects will be added together at the end. We will also look into occlusion culling if possible, so that only the interior or exterior is rendered when the player is in one or the other.