Pop quiz: If you had the chance to contribute one thing to a game like Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, would it be A) a new Rancor design, B) a quest for constructing your first Lightsaber, C) new Sith Force powers, or D) six paintings of mud? If you said “D”, you might be an environment artist or have low self-esteem!Luckily for us environment artists, Star Wars™ has an almost limitless supply of amazing planets and environments to get excited about. It’s hard not to get excited when it sinks in that you’re working on an icon like Korriban. Of course, for a well-known planet like Korriban visual reference is abundant — we all know what it should look like. But what happens when the designers want to create a planet nobody’s ever seen before (is that even possible)?
That turned out to be the case with Hutta (aka Nal Hutta) when we started production. In fact, the Wookieepedia entry for Hutta now uses an early screenshot from The Old Republic as the only image available. Hutta is the home world of the Hutts, which you may recall as the incredibly notorious species of slimy crime lords from the movies, and is integral to various class stories in The Old Republic.
So how does one create a never-before-seen environment in the Star Wars universe? Where would you find reference for an appropriately vast swamp? Start with photos of Florida.
Environment art lives and dies on the quality of its reference. For most environments, artists will find as many reference images as possible from the movies, art books or production images and cherry-pick the best elements to emulate in the game. Next, the concept artists are let out of their cages long enough to produce some amazing concept images of mood, lighting and important points of interest specific to the areas that we will work on.When we began work on Hutta, we knew it was supposed to be a polluted, filthy sewer of a planet, just like the Hutts would like it. Without any movie reference, we gathered a wide variety of real life photos of swamps and wetlands, taking note of common themes and basic shapes that come up again and again, like hanging moss, thin trees and ankle-deep water. We complimented this with a collection of images from industrial sites, construction zones and junk yards. Now that we know what this dump is supposed to look like we’re ready to start!
When a planet is shiny and new, artists start with a “gold standard” area. We single out a small test area of the planet and add new textures, plants and props, making changes as we go. This makes sure that everything looks good before we spend the time to rinse and repeat the process across the rest of the terrain.
- The first piece of real work involves identifying the types of terrain we want the player to trek across and create hand-painted textures for these, hence the “paintings of mud”. In the case of Hutta we needed to have some appallingly polluted areas, some dry, packed-down mud for paths and some terrain that is overgrown with rotting vegetation. It’s not uncommon to end up with over a dozen textures just for terrain.
- Next up is flora and other natural props, like rocks and tree stumps. When designing vegetation we often create a lineup of sketches of each plant and prop in relation to the character’s size. We want to make sure that we get a wide range of widths and heights. Without planning ahead on a flora-dense planet like Hutta it’s easy to end up with all your vegetation getting lost within each other. Unacceptable!
- The last part of creating the gold standard area involves fiddling with sliders, engine settings and color ramps to fine-tune the global light color, light angle, fog, shadows and sky. These settings will affect the look of all outdoor areas of the planet. Fortunately, our engine allows us to update all these things on the fly, so we see the effect of adjustments as we make them. Often, all of these pre-production steps will be in development simultaneously, assigned to multiple artists.
We now have a working, playable environment with finished terrain, props and global settings and are usually walking around the office patting each other on the back and handing out cigars. At this point the Lead Environment Artist and Art Director come over and slap the cigars out of hands with some constructive suggestions and changes. We all get back to work. After a round or two of feedback we’re ready to move to the next stage. So far, environment art is still confined to our very small test area. It’s now time to venture out into the bleak world of designer block-in terrain! By the time we have begun art on a planet, world builders have already laid out the rough shape of the terrain for gameplay testing purposes using flat textures and boxes to represent buildings or props.
What this means is that we’ll be replacing and reshaping the rough terrain to look good, er… better. Hutta provided some unique challenges. For example, while swamps are naturally flat, this would make for some dull gameplay. However, having steep hills of swamp muck doesn’t make much sense. To solve the problem we created a set of large metal shoring props that became essential to “shoving” mud to the side in piles to create paths of different heights. The end result is corroded metal walls with swamp muck oozing out from the cracks - fitting imagery for Hutta.
We also knew that Hutta couldn’t just be a swamp; it had to convey a swamp that had suffered from heavy industrialization. To accomplish this we built a variety of modular pipes and refinery equipment that could be mixed and matched and then spread throughout the planet, snaking in and out of the corrosive sludge as though the planet were being held together by a network of metal and mud.
As we refine terrain, other artists provide large assets such as buildings, wall sets and large props like generators and smoke stacks. Because we don’t have finished buildings when we start a planet, forward planning and careful scheduling is essential. On the bright side, as the last assets begin to roll in, we can finish up the final polish like adding lights to interiors and various particle effects.There are always a thousand little fixes and adjustments to make but eventually we have to put a planet to rest. Depending on the sheer amount of playable terrain, a team of three or four environment artists can take, on average, four to eight months to finish a planet. Once reviewed again by management we can get the final thumbs up.
Then we’ll start the process all over again.
Alex Thomas
Senior Environment Artist
Tags:
alex thomas | blog | hutta
COMMENTS
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If Hutta is polluted will this mean that certain areas on the planet will be toxic and will give you some sort of debuff or do small amounts of damage over time? |
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Neutral planets? lol. i think this is going to be a darkside planet. i think there are no neutral planets. they seem like starting planets. i hope you can go to other planets (of opposite alignment as well) a full out player raid to mess up korriban/tython would be pretty sick. if there WERE neutral planets, can you imagine the tension of NOT trying to start a fight? lol. sith just salivating at the thought of running his lightsaber through the nearby lower lvl trooper. LOL. id love to be that trooper, see how far i could push the sith before he snapped and a huge fight would break out. |
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Given that Ord Mantell is a war zone and Nal Hutta is covered in cantinas, I think it's more likely that Smugglers will come from Hutta and Troopers will come from Ord Mantell. And it seems to me Hutta would be a Republic planet - Hutts are at least shrewd enough to know not to deal with Sith. |
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Netural planets is a good idea but i think that only when you would hit a specific lvl. That way if you do get into a fight you would have a fair chance to win. Also taking in some of the info from the documentrys, There is a Treaty, that dosen't mean theres no fighting. But i think that if there is a netural planet the main city is pretty much no fire zone. Once you leave the city it no holds Fighting. |
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nal hutta is goin to be a funked up place to go im sure |
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creating a planet like Nal Hutta is one hell of a challenge and yet again as always i have to applaud the designers at Lucas Arts and Bioware for as always, outding our expectations. you have to see swamps up close to truly understand how hard it is to create a planet like this. a world completely coated in swamp is incredible. my only fear is that while im fighting I might step on something that eats me instantly. |
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I am absolutely amazed at the fact that they created such a fitting planet for the Hutts from scratch; nothing to use as a guide except a disgusting slug and look at the perfectly pieced together world that was an abstract jig-saw puzzle to begin with. The two main questions I would pose to the developers would be: |
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i hope could join hutts |
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Nal Hutta's looking beast, never really had the desire to go there myself though, I might spend most of my time on Korriban or Yavin, I'd love to explore the lost Massassi Temples or some Sith tombs, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it! |
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Two things, 1. When this game is done, first place I am going is Nal Hutta, I don't know why but like this place and, heck, if you can survive there you can survive anything. 2. I live in florida people. It is actually a good place to live. I see more jokes about Florida, and Connecticut, than any other state, what is up with that. |
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i agree with talaka. a lot of people who play on rp servers are actually mature, normal people, who just enjoy actually acting the part of their characters because it makes them feel like they are actually part of the star wars/middle ages/magical world. however there are some people who take it too far and unfortunately those people have become the cliche. |
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This looks sooo like the best world so far! Instead of houses, which everyone seems to be excited over, why not speacecraft, which takes you from planet to planet, you can customise the inside and whatever like everyone seems to care so much about? will there be mounts, like in WoW, and what will they be like, will you need different ones from planet to planet, like hover or ones that skim water on this one, due to water? will you meet anyone from KOTOR 1 or 2? there are so many questions! Anyone know how far they are into production, and how many planets there will be in total? how long will the rest take? how big will each planet be? Will there be instances like on WoW, and will there be healer classes? really cant wait! |
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Just think of all the radioactive waste the Hutts have probably disposed of inappropriately. This place is just gross. I love it! :P |
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will there be other neutral planets like hutta? If so,will this be like a big outpost for the Bounty Hunters? because they seem more like neutral. |
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i hope play in this beautiful world |
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This is going to be "the game", its going to beat WOW in qualati withe ease. |
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Keep up the great work guys and girls :] I wonder if the whole planet will be traversable? However mind-blowing that would be, I wonder if it's acheivable. Possibly an update on this would be sweet. I've noticed yous in perticular want every character to feel quite unique, hopefully in turn then that would mean there will be MAAANNY races to choose from - Take full advantage of the Star Wars world for what it is. You don't want every Bounty Hunter to be walking around as a human surely, would just kill people's interest. Sorry if I have missed an update on races. |
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some things i would like to know: If it takes 6 months to make a planet for a 4 guy team hopefully they have more than 1 team, but then the graphics on planets would varry too much so... how many artist do they have? also how many planets are the artists going to make |
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This looks fantastic, I can easily visualize PvE here. |
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Very nice! Can't wait for another Planet! |
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"...four to eight months to finish a planet. Once reviewed again by management..." First parsed as "Once revived again by management" :) The concept art looks fantastic - exactly the sort of place you'd imagine Jabba pining for. |
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I've read all of the books ever to have the name Star Wars printed on the cover and in every book and game I've ever played the planet was named Nal Hutta. Just wanted to point that out before any other rabid SW fans start foaming at the mouth. |
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commenting to the first post they will probably make it a neutral planet that wants nothing to do with the sith or republic and is only interested in anything or anyone with money. |
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yes the name is Nal Hutta but the common name of it is just Hutta since no one bothers with the "Nal" |
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The thing that's really gonna make this game great is the fact that there hasn't been any archived history around this point in galactic history SO there's no telling how the coins gonna fall, Jedi or Sith. It's really gonna depend on the players. |
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Its most likely going to be the jedi, even if the sith outnumber them. You realize that in 3000 years the jedi are in supreme control and theres only 2 sith left. It obviously means that |
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Nice post, can't wait to see what this will look like in game. |
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The process seems a long and tedious one. I mean with three to four artists taking 4-8 months to go around the team and everyone to agree its finished. It reminds me of composing music even when your finished a peice your still not happy with it after you give it the thumbs up. The community has faith and confidence in you and your jobs to 'do what must be done' Keep up the hard work! |
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Ah, This makes me look forward to walking through a massive bog even more, Keep the good work up Guys!! Gonna be Epic! |
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Omg i cant wait to hunt some of u on this amazing planet !! if u see me dont run cuz It’s never a question of if Bahi will find you… only when. |
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Bioware... No words describe your dedication and epic amount of classic content. Hats off to you all. !,,! You can bet I'm gunna be picking this up ASAP. |
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I would love to go on coruscant, exploring planets will be fun :). |
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This question goes out to the devs. team are you going to put the capital planet of Coruscant into the game. I know sounds like a stupid question however I think that you should really consider doing it because it wouldn't make sence to put it in the comic and not in the game. |
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Four to eight months, wow. Quite the project, just for ONE planet in this game. Hats off to ya gents! |
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Good work guys, keep up the quality work. and about the release date. Never believe rumours! Wait till we get it directly from the Devs team. Be patient, a jedi must learn these qualities. Surely soon enough the Devs will make you all members of the jedi council!! |
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cant wait to cross that planet, i really hope that you might be able to go on courescant! anyone agree with me? |
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Looks great! any idea when beta is going to start? |
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oh my god, i think i'm going to die from some sort of anticipation based illness!!! |
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Agree with you there, what i wanna know is how, once you have your lightsaber, how do you get a better one? and will there be like, dual wield and two handed? |
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Fatum
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I am so with you! |
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good work on the environment i cant wait for the beta test i would love to be apart of that. |
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looks like a place for a lone bounty hunter |
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Or a Place for a Bounty Hunter Guild to setup shop. What better place to be for a Bounty Hunter then a place that is one enormous Black Market. I can't wait to play this game. Like a kid waiting for Christmas. XD |
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It really looks pretty amazing, probably this game will be available the next year because it appears that the developer team is doing a great job with all this concept art!!! Don't give up people, we can wait as long as you can keep us informed!! |
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My god! I cant wait for even the beta test! Im just glad that they have my fave species, Kel'Dor, but anyways if u look at the FAQ it kinda hints that HK-47 or T3-M4 is gonna be in it |
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Hmm wonder if I can live there? |
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still cant wait for it to come out, and this planet does look pretty fun to explore |
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Very neat. I can't wait to explore Hutta! It looks truly great. I don't think I'd like to live on the planet (if we have player housing that is, which I hope we do, though as instanced apartments not houses we can place ourselves... but that's another story), but I'd definitely love to explore it. I can't wait. I'm getting more and more excited about this game. :) And by the way, what's this October release date people have been mentioning all about? I haven't seen any release date announced on this website... |
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Art and Game Development have always interested me. Art more so. But that's cool knowing how some of the steps of production go in process. Cool blog. |
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Awsome...... I can't wait to see Nar Hutta for myself. It sounds like a truly unique environment. |
AUTHOR
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SeanDahlberg |
| Other Posts | Date |
| Developer Blog: Creating the Bounty Hunter | 04.03.2009 |
| Developer Blog: How the Content Team Makes it Happen | 02.07.2009 |
| Developer Blog: Mark How | 01.02.2009 |
| Developer Blog: Welcome to the Community | 10.21.2008 |
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