Virtual Serenity

Q. - What is Virtual Serenity?
A. - Virtual Serenity is a set of one, possibly two, maps for id Software's Doom3. These maps are a reasonable representation of Serenity from Joss Whedon's Firefly.

Q. - When can I download it?
A. - While I am loath to go with the Duke Nukem Forever-ism of "When it's done," I'm afraid that's the best I can give right now.

Q. - How much of it is complete?
A. - Depends - do you mean how much of the ship, or how much of the project? If it's the project, I'd estimate at about 50%. Of the ship, about 35-40%.

Q. - What areas are modeled currently?
A. - While the entirety of Serenity will be modeled, right now, I've finished the crew quarters, fore hallway, dining room, aft hallway, and engine room. While all of these areas have the majority of their structural details modeled, they are "without personality," so to speak - no little personal flairs like the flowers in the dining room or the Chinese artwork in Mal's quarters, for example. The areas that are not currently finished, which includes all of the lower deck, are, with the exception of the bridge, relatively undetailed. For example, while the cargo bay is vast, it's wide-open shape allows for relatively easy brushwork.

Q. - How faithful is it to the show?
A. - I strive to make it as canonically correct as possible. However, there are some things that the engine simply cannot do - the ladder entrances to the crew quarters were too narrow originally, so they had to be widened, for example. There will be many a small detail missed here and there - I work from a relatively small set of images from the DVD set which mostly showcase architecture more than detail. Also, there are many areas that I have to speculate on. Good examples include the small door in the fore hallway, and a very similar small door on the bridge.

Another one, which I've completed, is that there is a fifth ladder to the crew quarters area. We never got to see what was down there. What I've decided for that is that half of it will be a combined bathroom and shower area (as Jayne and Kaylee do not have a sink/toilet unit, and nobody has a shower), and the other half will store generic computer equipment.

The Virtual Serenity I am constructing is faithful to the show, not the movie. There are some particularly unfriendly changes to the set design of the film Serenity - some examples include curved cargo bay walls and particularly brutal changes to the elevation of the dining room and the spaces that enter and exit it.

Q. - How do you design a room of the ship?
A. - First, I break out the excellent published blueprints, which, for the most part, are accurate. I'd make a few changes to measurements here and there, but aside from that, they are very good. Next, depending on the complexity and modularity of the room, I will do a few drawings on graph paper. Ironically, if the room is very complex in design, such as the dining room or the fore hallway, I will skip this step. I next take the measurements and my drawings and basically plot out the blueprints on the grid in DOOMEdit. I then build up walls as necessary, working from my drawings and screen grabs. Occasionally, I will miss particularly important details - I redesigned the circular shape of the engine room three times. After getting down almost all of the structural details, I then start texturing. Texturing is my least favorite part, though they usually come out looking fairly good with the Doom3 engine. Finally, I start adding nonstructural details.

Q. - Can I test your map?
A. - My personal philosophy is that I don't give my work to others to screw around with until I am personally satisfied that it'd be of muster if I suddenly had to give it out in a pinch (it's why I find rough drafts to be a waste of time - I write to turn in). However, right now, due to the complexity of my map, I'm thinking about having Virtual Serenity broken up by the stairs, thus, there will be two maps, one for the upper deck, one for the lower. And, as I mentioned previously, there is a good deal complete on the upper deck. Once the bridge is complete with reasonable detail, I would feel comfortable releasing this for people to play around with for a little while.

Q. - OK, can we at least have some damn screenshots?
A. - Yes.







Q. - LOL DOOM 3 IS DARK LOL. Seriously, flashlight?A. - Seriously, flashlight. OK, not so much. Basically, the Doom3 lighting engine is radically different than that of Quake 3 based games. I suppose that's what you get when you can turn off lights. Anyway, because I have yet to decypher this problem, you get to see the maps in-game like I do. Lucky. You should see the FPS drop in the dining room, the only screenshots with light - scary part? Still looks awful.

Q. - Why don't you look at Doom3World.Org?
A. - I have. Seems like the lighting bible over there is a forum post some guy from Raven Software did, and while it has good suggestions on how to make better lighting, lighting in the first place is remarkably difficult information to find.

Q. - You're missing <STUFF>.
A. - Yep, I am. Whatever it is, if you can get me a good source picture, I can probably figure something out.

Q. - How can I help?
A. - Source pictures. While I love Firefly with all my heart and soul, screen grab farming is not fun for me. Mostly because I want to watch the episodes . Anyway, the more "straight on" the shot, the better.

Q. - Firefly/Serenity sucked, why are you wasting my time?
A. - Why are you wasting my time asking this question?

A couple quick updates.

First, the not-so-exciting. For project-specific e-mail, please send it to virtual.serenity@gmail.com.

Now, for the exciting.

THE STRUCTURAL WORK OF THE BRIDGE IS DONE.

Big deal, you might say - how hard could it be? Very hard. Basically, it requires shapes that aren't exactly natural in the first place, and ones that are nearly impossible in DOOMEdit, especially with the dimensions that I had to work with. That nose is a harsh mistress, let me tell you. I've still got a bit of brushwork detail to do, and all of the texture detail for the consoles, but aside from that it's done.

One thing that I really enjoy is what I put behind the bridge door. Basically, it's now just another entrance to the bridge, but it uses a very steep ladder/stair design, much like what is used on naval ships. You even have to duck to get up and down them - a nice bit of realism. I might add some "caution" detail to the edge to make sure you don't hit your head. That area also hooks in to the "bridge crawlspace," a very small area below the bridge which is where the front ladder/stair goes to. I hope to fill that area with some vaguely computerish detail.

That's why I suggested you start a WIP thread there. There is a lot more knowledge over there than is written in the tutorials, and asking people specific questions or asking for suggestions in a thread will help a lot.

Like I said, when I have some free time in a couple of weeks I will take a look at this lighting for you.

I just started a thread there tonight regarding my issues with lighting only - so far, no fruit. But I'm optimistic.

EDIT - I would start a WIP thread, but I'm terribly embarassed - compared to a lot of the stuff there, mine looks awfully bad.

Dude, there is a lot of junk there. That said while your map still needs a lot of work, it does show a lot of potential and will definitely get responses as you have shown you are able to put in the work by things such as the fact you are making new textures (no quick job in this engine).

Make a WIP thread damnit. If you do I will make people reply.

OK, got the stuff over at D3W up - so far, pretty quiet.

Meanwhile, I'm taking a break on the bridge and starting on the passenger dorms. Because they're all at 45 degree angles, it's a little crazier than I would have thought. Just to remind everyone sqrt(2) != 1. If only it could be that simple.

It's been pretty quiet because you made two posts on the forum and then disapeared.

Well, don't want to spam up my own threads, and beyond that, I'm still pretty new at everything, so I'm not sure what positive contributions I could make towards the work of others.

No-one cares if you spam up your own threads, it is good to have updates, gives people things to comment on.