Print out your base!

In The Riftbreaker you arrive with next to nothing. Then, a couple of days later, you find yourself in the middle of a massive base. How is that possible?

Ashley’s mission on Galatea 37 is to establish a two-way portal back to Earth and enable the colonization of the planet. Such an undertaking requires a lot of power, so it is necessary for her to build up a base. In order to achieve the required energy level, Ashley must set up a network of mines, refineries, power plants, and many other useful facilities. How is that possible when the only thing at the Riftbreaker’s disposal is the Mecha-Suit?

This is what the building process looks like from start to finish. The building speed is not final and it will vary depending on the size of the building.

3D printing is the answer. Centuries of development allowed to reduce the size and necessary materials required by this technology. That pushed humanity to an entirely different level of progress. Each building is a marvel of science and engineering. Thanks to the use of Nano-Paint it is possible to print buildings quickly and efficiently, with no user action required. Mr. Riggs is equipped with building cube launcher. The cubes are an all-in-one printing solution. Once Ashley chooses the blueprint and starts the building process, the cubes autonomously fly to the destination and deploying a structure similar to a scaffolding, which serves as railing for the printer itself.

This is what the ghost of the building looks loke. If you try to place a building, but do not have sufficient resources, it will flash red.

Here's the complete version of the building above. Our printing process essentially 'reverse dissolves' it, so that it looks as if it is printed on top of the ghost version.

Let’s take a look at how this all happens, Schmetterling-wise. ;) The building process is a variant of a dissolve, technically speaking. We print buildings from the ground up. By looking at how much of the structure has been completed, the player can assess the overall progress of the building process. Each vertex of the building model has its own position in the local coordinate system. Given this position and the overall height of the building, we can project the printing line on the model exactly where we want it.

Notice the fluctuation of the printing line.

The completed parts are given their regular PBR material. The remainder of the building is shown in the form of a ghost, using a classic blue fresnel effect. To indicate what is currently being built we apply a strong emissive light. In order to make the effect even more spectacular, we added some waving in the XZ plane. The end result looks as if someone was filling a vessel with some liquid, so it is a little irregular, but much more lively.

Here's what it would look like if the line was completely straight. Artificial and uninspiring.

Add a couple of particle effects, some cool sound samples and you’re done! If you want to sell a building that is no longer useful, the process will repeat, but this time in reverse. Questions? Thoughts? Leave them here: www.discord.gg/exorstudios

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