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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Guys pls check out my youtube fan tribute for this game, thanks |
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i really hope this game is free like guild wars if not f--- it ill pick up mass effect 2 and the new halos |
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Quality doesn't come cheap. From what I've seen so far, it looks like once this game comes out I won't need to buy anything else - whatever monthly fee they charge will still be reasonable considering how much I won't be spending on nonessentials like food. I figure if anyone can make an MMO worth the periodic payment, it'll be BioWare. |
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Look, everyone who says they want a free MMO here is wasting their time. Why, you may ask? Well simply because it costs alot of money to make a (good) MMO, so if you want to play, be prepared to pay. Also, remember BioWare is a company, and a company needs to pay it's employees. So if you want to go down the train of thought that they don't have to make a profit, this is a job people do every day. Don't make it a socialized thing. |
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agreed,but based on the number of player that is gonna play this game I hope the price will not be too high like 10 or less per month will be okay or 15 like wow |
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This game will be not free ist an MMORPG like wow,lotro,swg not an ORPG like guild wars.... If you want an really nice game you need to pay for ist not easy or free make an good mmorpg.They need money for build an big game and for help community and we need to paid for this... |
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agreed unless its like 5 bucks a month i can live with that |
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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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I would choose B) a quest for constructing your first Lightsaber Great Idea to add Hutter, cant wait to explore this new world |
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Ugh I want to know the different classes there are, and i also want to know what species there are. |
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nal hutta is goin to be a funked up place to go im sure |
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Pay-to-play? that totallly just ruined it for me(as well as everyone else). just come out on a console and be done with it.. |
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I've always avoided MMOs partly because of the monthly fee. So I'm hoping SW:ToR is worth it. And if it isn't, that's $75 I wasted on a video game. Either way, I then won't have enough spending cash on hand for any other video games for a while, but in the first case I won't care because SW:ToR is awesome, and in the second case it'll be good for me in the long run because it'll force me to get a life. |
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Also... A girlfriend kost much more than 500-600$ a year;-) |
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i agree but xbox 360 isnt a good game runner. like the red ring of death. pc is better and also it will cost the same one xbox if they do make it on that system. |
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your really new to the whole MMo world if you are surprised at a monthly charge. Even on console you would have to pay for Xbox Live etc.. So your argument is somewhat flawed to begin with. Also servers don't run and maintain themselves, so again I'm amused by your reaction. So in regards to your rant I can summarise in two word......... EPIC FAIL |
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Will you stop spamming that same bable SwtorMaster!?!?! |
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A console version just wouldn't do this game justice! In order to go from a large scale, multi-server, mmorpg game like this down to a mere console game would cut countless amounts of gameplay, not to mention just make it like any other star wars game... If 15$ a month is enough to make you worry about whether or not you can afford a girlfriend anymore then: A- it's time for a career change; or B- it's time to lower your standards and find someone who like you and not your 15$... |
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Look, I am a poor Hungarian guy, we are making our living out of 40-50 thousand Hungaian Forints per month, that's 203-254 USD! I will play with the game, even if I am poor, I am a STAR WARS fan, a Sith fan, and I don't give a @#˛% about money, if it comes to STAR WARS, and a real girlfriend needs only your company, your love, and your caring, if the only thing that matters to her is money, than you sould dump her, you know, it doesn't really matter how hot she looks like, the important thing is her soul, because she can be smokin' hot but she also can me still a moron, think about this, my friend... All hail the SITH EMPIRE, and it's superb wisdom! :P |
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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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I think it will be the best mmo game ever created on all galaxies |
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ok so dev's, can you please tell us what kind of servers wil there be? like RP servers for all these SW fans, but pvp servers for us that enjoy the feeling of killing each other just out of pure anger? what about RP-PvP servers that are fr those ppl that are obsessed with their roleplaying pvp and always screaming "for the sith" and other stuff. While these little kids are in every game out there nowadays, make us have PvP servers so instad of screaming "for the sith" or "for the republic" people are screaming "becuase im pissed!!!" lol |
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whoops, meant to say the below comment here |
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Sorry mate I have to agree with bbq when Im doing a quest and someone runs past spamming the chat saying "The sith are coming, ready your blades we shall take them back to hell. For The Jedi!" Gets kinda annoying, even more so said 10 times in a row.Serious RPers, I dont really understand how you can get that much into a game, Saying that I may do it in my head hahaha. |
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Hey, hey. I'm an RPer, and I take offense to the fact that you think all RPers are little kids. You might think that because there are a lot of crappy RPers out there, but there are some people out there who are srs bizznuss at it. Not every RPer out there is a Sith fanboy, either. That entire comment on RPers is just... ugh, nevermind. Why bother. I hate ignorant people. |
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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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There is no Dark Side, nor a Light Side |
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Once again, people who misunderstands what a Gray Jedi actually is. They are NOT Jedi who straddle the line between Light and Dark. Grey Jedi are those that operate outside the strict tenants of the Jedi Council, but are not Dark. That is to say, they are still Light, in heart, but they do not follow the council on many points. Generally, they disagree with council rules such as distancing yourself from ones family, or the forbidding of love (for real love leads to no darkness, only infatuation, the illusion of love, does that). Most Gray Jedi follow the philosophy of the Living Force. In fact, their devotion to the Living Force was born of a desire to avoid falling to the dark via arcane strictures of the kind supported by the post-Sith War Council. Indeed Qui-Gon Jinn himself, one of the most famous of the so-named Gray Jedi, was a staunch adherent of the Living Force, and as much aware of the dark side's lure as any of his peers. He may have been unorthodox, both in his behavior and relationship with the Council, but there was never any doubt of Qui-Gon's adherence to the core of the Jedi philosophy. Gray Jedi were also known to have worn their own robes, as if it was an official faction. Kreia or, more accurately, Darth Treya, was, in truth, Sith. Not Gray. She simply thirsted for knowledge more than brutality, setting her apart from the other Sith. But make no mistake, she was dark. Her seemingly "gray" force allignment status was the perception of the Exile, nothing more. She's called the Sith of Betrayal for a reason. |
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there is nothing but the strength of the Dark Side |
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Grey jedi suck. The old lady in kotor 2 was a piece of crap. |
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Grey, good is good, evil is evil. To demand a balance of both is obviously a deviation from good, which would be bad, which wouldnt make sense. Balance isnt about evening out good with evil, its about truly embracing good. You cant ever be too good, you can be arrogant and prideful about how "good" you are, but that is a negative thing. Humility mixed with good actions is the way to go. |
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could you please stop writing this stuff all over the website. It is pretty lame. We get it you are a gray jedi. Move on |
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This is going to be "the game", its going to beat WOW in qualati withe ease. |
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that place look like Mexico :S |
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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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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! |
AUTHOR
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SeanDahlberg |
| Other Posts | Date |
| Developer Blog: Creating Ord Mantell | 04.24.2009 |
| 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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