System Shock News

On Citadel, no one can hear you scream...

As you work your way through Citadel and through SHODAN's creations, don't forget that you are in Saturn's orbit. Outside you will be able to view Saturn with real-time lighting within an unlit shader, so you will be able to see the Sun's rotation and the lighting changes.



Character Art

On the character art front, we have some more examples of low-poly models textured in the chunky, low-res style we demonstrated last month. Here’s a few shots of each in Substance Painter along with their UV layouts.



The upgraded male Humanoid Mutant in his natural state. Most Humanoids will be encountered wearing ruined crew uniforms, but there will be rare instances of naked specimens for added visual variety.



Here is the female Humanoid Mutant, who is apparently a bit more modest than her male counterpart.



The Invisomutant! Much of this creature’s look will be dependent on in-engine shaders and effects, but here is a glimpse of its raw textured state with some simple emissive and opacity maps applied.



Robb Waters’s concept work for the Invisomutant, who now combines elements of the original Invisomutant and the Zero-G mutant into one enemy type.



The Autobomb, now redesigned as a sleek and glossy delivery system of death.



Next, revised and tweaked version of the Cyborg Drone we showed a few months ago, with an improved UV layout that better supports our visual style.





Lastly, the Cyborg Surgeon, here to assist Citadel crewmembers on their SHODAN-mandated Transhumanist journey!

Concept Art

Ready for some sick jumps to impress SHODAN? Well here is a first look at the Turbo Boots and Jump Jets!



Maybe the X Games will make a BIG come back in the future.



Above we have Robb's concept on the Data Reader, while below we have it in action.



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Welcome to this September Update!

We will be going through some of the environments, art direction and how characters come together. Everyone has been working so hard, so please enjoy!

Environments
This month we have a variety of storage based environment pieces to show, starting with an in engine view of the cold storage.



Robb's concepts of containers and storage that are soon to come. Wait... what's that gorilla tiger doing up there?






System Shock’s Texture Aesthetic

Here’s a look into the approach we’re taking with textures of the game. With System Shock we want to create a quasi retro look that combines modern physically based rendering tech with a low-res, pixelated texture aesthetic that evokes the low resolution of the original game. To this end, the texel density of every object and character in the game is strictly limited to only 256 pixels per meter, to keep the level of pixelization consistent across all surfaces. Like some modern 2d games that combine old school aesthetics with modern framerates and effects, we hope to use some of the limitations of old graphical styles to give a unique feeling, evocative of how you might remember older games rather than how they actually looked.





A consequence of this low-res aesthetic is that UV need to be very meticulously laid out to keep details as clean and readable as possible while also minimizing ugly distortions that would be less noticeable at higher resolutions. UV edges need to be “squared off” when possible and lined up exactly along texel edges to try to ensure a clean, readable texture pattern. Literally every pixel counts, and from a character artist’s perspective this is possibly the most challenging aspect of production.

As an example, here’s the low-poly model of our new version of the male Humanoid Mutant on the right, next to his older prototype on the left Though very similar, we bulked him up slightly and humanized his face to make him appear a more mutant and less zombie.



A major change however is in their UVs - the original layout was made before we adopted this texturing style, and while this layout works fine at modern texture resolutions, it introduces warping and unnecessary seams at our low texel density. The new version’s UVs attempt to minimize seams and conform as much as possible to the texture grid.





Here’s some different angles of the Mutant low-poly model along with a couple wireframes:



And here’s some shots of him taken from Substance Painter.



Next month we’ll be able to showcase several more fully textured characters, but in the meantime here are some more low-poly models with their wireframes.











The Shockbot
On to hi-poly model progress, here’s Robb Waters’s extensive concepts and Chris Mansell’s detailed model for the Shockbot, arguably the most critical character model in the game.













Why is he so important? Since SHODAN is forced to repurpose existing technology aboard Citadel Station, the Shockbot is the foundation for a number of her minions. The Cyborg Elite and Cyborg Enforcer are composed largely of repurposed Shockbot parts, and the Flier-Bot is in fact the Shock-bot’s detachable, transforming torso unit! The Cyborg Warrior has been reconceptualized as an enhanced Shockbot with a human brain grotesquely grafted in place. Here’s a look at the Shockbot and Laborbot’s grim family tree.



Speaking of the Warrior, here’s Robb’s ortho design for the head and the enhanced laser weapon it will wield.





And here are some very early WIP renders of the hi-poly Warrior skull
and cable support system mounted onto a Shockbot body.




Puzzles
While on Citadel, you may run in to a few obstacles beyond an enemy attack. For example, a wire puzzle:



We will leave you on a final concept for the month, Edward Diego.




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Are you ready for this months update?

I am thinking that we should start off this update with a bathroom break.



Level Design

Last month we showed a concept from the maintenance level, and now here it is coming together.





Here is another concept from Robb Waters of the maintenance level.



Moving along to some things in progress...

Character Design

Here are some concept and work in progress models for the Protoborgs, yet-unprocessed Citadel crew members awaiting full cyberconversion. Whether a thrall of Shodan or a minion of Trioptimum, all cybernetic humans are marked by bio-mechanical circuitry running within the connective fascia tissue beneath their skin. Male and female protoborgs can be found in coma-like stasis around the Medical level, and their bodies are also the organic base for cyborg enemies such as the Drone, Enforcer, Elite and Assassin.









An update to the hood for the Cyborg Assassin. Robb decided that tucking the visor under the hood made its presence too subtle, so we’ve opted to install it over the hood to better evoke the iconic look of the original.

Then Robb's sleek redesign of the Autobomb.





Environment Props

Last month you may have noticed the proxy table in the operating theater, here it is complete!



Can you imagine the meetings that must have happened at this TriOp executive table?



GamePig

VMU is not liable for any accidents which may occur due to distraction from playing GamePigTM games in a heads-up display. Oink!

Robb Waters has really outdone himself in this awesome Space Minotaur poster.





Our programmer Matt K. has been hard at work to bring back the GamePig to Citadel Station, we hope you don't get too distracted!
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