System Shock News

Hello Hackers,

We have an update for the System Shock Alpha Demo. Here is what's included:

Version 1.22
===============

• Fixed certain effects running infinitely and causing gradual performance deterioration,
  
• First Person Ladder animations have been added,
  
• New ladders have been added,
  
• New inventory icons for the Assault Rifle,
  
• New atmospheric fog has been added,
  
• New ending elevator has been added,
  
• New hit reactions when enemies are shot or struck with the pipe,
  
• Berserk Patches now have their effects and side-effects implemented,
  
• Magpulse impact effects and muzzle flash added,
  
• MediPatch visual effect added,
  
• Blood effects improved,
  
• Toxin Barrel effects culled,
  
• Mutant Ragdoll performance update,
  
• Cyborg Assassins now drops their rifle on death,
  
• Blood Decal visuals improved,
  
• Artificial Intelligence improvements,
  
• Player breathing audio has been added,
  
• Explosives sound radius detection has been doubled,
  
• Fixed an issue with the Medical Healing Bed movement,
  
• The Hacker will now be detected by all the recharging Drones when killing one of them,
  
• The Hacker's arm shadows have been disabled,
  
• CPU Nodes health reduced,
  
• Fixed melee weapons being allowed to activate while equipment was disabled,
  
• Mutant drool now destroys itself rather than deactivates,
  
• Modified lift to be able to reverse direction if something blocks it,
  
• Removed navigation collision from Lift and Cyborg Assassin rifle,
  
• Detach and deactivate Niagara components when both bullet and explosion projectiles are about to be destroyed,
  
• Gas Grenade Effects have been added,
  
• The Hacker can no longer climb onto ladders while dying,
  
• Occulus Plugin disabled, VR headsets should no longer recognize the game,
  
• Other smaller general fixes and improvements.
  

Hop in and give it a try if you haven't already! If you want to pre-order physical editions of the game or some exclusive merch check out our Backerkit! https://system-shock.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Please feel free to leave feedback, we'd love to hear it and we hope you enjoy the demo!

Daniel,
Nightdive Studios

♡✧An update full of love✧♡

Well, these barrels aren't full of love, they will kill you.



Concept Art

The topic of concept art is buzzing a lot in the comment section, so let us explain. Yes, concept art is often a big part of the early stages of development, however, concept art is something constantly being created. Concept art can help sort out design, establish a mood, assist modelers with functionality as well as perspective. Needless to say, it is pretty important and we are very lucky to have Robb Waters on the team!

Here are a few things that help build the environment of Citadel Station.



Character Proxy Models

Proxies are autogenerated topology created from near-finished hi-poly models. Though rough and untextured, proxies represent the overall shape of the character well enough so that they can be handed off to our rigging and animation team; that way they don’t have to wait for the time-consuming low-poly, UV, and texture phases before they can get started. Proxies are also useful in that they can be seen in motion and potential issues with proportion or clipping can be looked for and adjusted in the hi-poly model before a character’s look is fully nailed down. Once the modeler is finished with the final textured models, the skeletal rigging of the proxy can be copied over, essentially swapping the proxy mesh out with the final.

Below are some animations made using proxy models of our more bizarre characters: the Cyber Mantis, a Cyber Assassin with the bladed arms of an Autosurgeon grafted on.



Read the full update to see the animation videos!



Then there is the bizarre Plant Mutant species that infests the Groves.



Read the full update to see the animation videos!



Proxies

Here are two more proxies just about to be handed off to the rigging and animation team, the Execbot and the Gorilla-Tiger.


The Gorilla-Tiger will get a coat of poly strand hair after the final low-poly mesh completed, but for rigging purposes, his basic underlying anatomy is all that’s needed.

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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See you next time!

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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See you next time!