Dagored's Sci-Fi Corridors and Halls

I've been meaning to purchase from Dagored for quite a while.  Unfortunately I just couldn't find the item which struck my fancy the most.  I have, however, eyed the Sci-Fi Corridors and Halls pack for a considerable length of time.  I felt I owed Dagored a purchase - a while ago he gave me a custom model that I'm still holding onto - a scientist for a game I've been working on (kept under wraps for now).  

So eventually I gave this thing a real hard look and realized: Hot damn.. this is going to look good with static lighting.

Here's a demo video using stock dynamic lighting:

So I gave it a further look and found it comes with several really excellent pieces, like this animated vent:

The texture is so-so but the rotating fans are very well done.  Overall a good piece.

 A good enemy model (for game guru, this is fairly rare):

The centurion is really well done overall.  I will likely retexture it later to give it a 'more ancient' feel.

So you actually get SEVERAL enemy models.  The other two are less noteworthy (the spider and the drone).  But they are there and frankly with character/enemy models being among the highest individually priced assets on the store, this is a boon.

You also get this HIGHLY detailed shuttle:

Not bad and given you can go inside it has significant utility.

The shuttle is obviously inspired by the Star Trek 'runabout' shuttle.  That said, it's clearly not identical and has it's own variations - enough to stand on it's own two feet.  I am not wild about the bright reds and blues though so I'll probably mute those for my own project.  I like to retexture/color things I buy for personal use and this will be no exception.  I do really like the smooth lines on the cockpit and the interior panels as well.

There's even this slick lift:

The script that comes with it is useful for other projects as well!

I really like how the texturing on the lift is properly aligned.  One major pet peeve for me is when people do not actually align their textures with the shape.  It's part of the reason I won't release any of my own modelling attempts - I have difficulty texturing like this.  Bravo, Dagored :)

So you literally get three enemies, a bomb/mine, a shuttle, a teleporter chamber, a lift and script for the lift... and that's not even counting the actual ROOMS AND CORRIDORS.

The corridors came out extremely well.  I will use some of his stock photos for example's sake but after I get home tonight I will try to add my own photos with some lighting so you can see how well they respond.  One *REALLY* nice surprise is that on 'highest' shader level for the entities I discovered the hallways and rooms have illumination mapping!

The quality on these pieces, despite their simplistic shapes, is extremely high.  I'm very satisfied with my purchase.  One very nice bonus was finding that all of this stuff snaps together exceptionally well.  Normally there's a lot of fitting and wiggling and trying to put this stuff in such a way that it just.. eats up time.  Not to mention Game Guru has a nasty glitch that's been going on for a while where if you are moving an object sometimes it will slide it the entire length of the map.  So grid snap is pretty much a MUST and this whole set it aligned properly.

Please check back on this post later for pictures of some of my own tests/attempts!


Bottom line on this one is it's a steal.  I've used all manner of Sci-Fi kits and while most are fairly good this one makes putting together a decent base or installation a breeze.  Coupled with the bonus goodies and it's a no brainer.

Oldpman's Sci-Fi Block Kit

I've been meaning to do a proper write-up on this kit since I bought it.
It's no secret I love Sci-Fi set pieces and that I tend to favor them (if only for my own projects sake, but nonetheless I do tend to bias *JUST A BIT* towards SF pieces when evaluating.)

Store Link: https://en.tgcstore.net/pack/10731

Oldpman is renowned for his prolific kits that contain many building blocks with which you can build sprawling maps. I own a few and enjoy them, though mostly they don't typically fit my style.
The previous pieces have lacked the gritty realism I usually enjoy.  Initially during the development phase of this, his first foray into the realm of Sci-Fi set pieces, I was nonplussed. I saw a lot of interesting shapes (that much at least was compelling) but a lot of the same out of place bright colors again.  Somewhere right before I smash the buy button, this all changed.  He managed to figure out illumination mapping and boy - what a difference that made!

See for yourself!

I remember sitting on the forums and watching this take shape; seeing it become closer to being a real piece I'd be interested in.  It debuted shortly after the Sci-Fi DLC came out, which admittedly was probably either really great timing by riding a wave of enthusiasm or really poor timing by being a competing product.  I resolved eventually to buy it when I saw some of the screen shots from the illuminated versions:

Most of this is done without lightmapping!

When it comes to Indy game development, you really have very little going for you.  You DON'T have multi-million dollar budgets, more than one or two people (in most cases) working on it, and massive art departments to work with.  So it's important that you have a clean, consistent style that's compelling to look at and doesn't scream "INDY GARBAGE".  This is one of the reasons to purchase Game-Guru in my opinion; you can source LOW PRICED, QUALITY art/assets very easily.

The updated palette brings it into System Shock/Doom-style levels of grit and color.

We've been gifted by several really good content releases for Sci-Fi products and this is no exception.  In fact, I'd easily say with the illumination mapping and low price ($14.95 as of this writing), it's firmly in the 'must own' category.  

You get 118 pieces and every single one is very intelligently put together.

Fitment of the pieces is less 'snap-together' than previous kits.  This does require a smidge of extra work to get pieces aligned, checked, etc.  That said, it looks phenomenal when completed.  Of special note is the brilliant touch of overhead glass windowed ceilings to work around the known limitation of quirky indoor lighting in GG.

Note the very clear squares letting light in from above and beautiful curved windows.

I'm going to just say I actually like this BETTER than the pieces from the Sci-Fi DLC.  Now that said, there's reasons to buy the Sci-Fi DLC as well (custom character pieces for instance) - this set only includes one character.  While it's not bad, it's not great.  It's a non-functional 'drone' which can be used but will require customization.  I like it's 'meh' face texture though the jets are a little bland looking.  That's more a byproduct of the lack of particle effects within GG though.

The "You done yet?" drone was a welcome addition to an otherwise set-piece only kit.

There's a LOT here though; objects, colored lights, signs, robotic arms, even a docking bay.  Really solid stuff.  Take for instance this barrier door:

I love how the barrier creates shadows but also takes illumination.  It's subtlety like that that makes it an Indy game look more professional than it might actually be.

 At the end of the day here it's really hard to match the quality and value of this.  You're paying a pittance for a FULL level building kit.  And not only that, it's wildly interchangeable.  A lot of these kits have a very 'similar' feel.  Levels lack variety because the pieces are all square, simple, or symmetrical.  The rounded corridors, variable heights, colors and shapes all make this infinitely variable which is a HUGE welcome for someone willing to put the time into developing a quality Indy title.

The bottom line: Pick this pack up now.  You'll have what you need from the art department; all you will need will be to improve your skills to meet the high bar that Oldpman has set for you.

OldFlak's Deep Space Skies Set

Given my Sci-Fi game, I was in the market for some purpose-built skyboxes that looked good and were reasonably priced.  I searched about a bit and eventually settled on the 'deep space package' found here https://en.tgcstore.net/pack/10689 and made by the artist "OldFlak".

Normal pack price is 5 dollars for 4 skies (normally 2 USD per sky) at a savings of 38%.

There's not much out there about the artist himself; he's much like myself though in that he doesn't appear to have been a lifer evolving from older iterations of The Game Creators products (like the original FPS Creator).

His initial offerings are several series of skies which fit different genres.  I agonized for a while over which sets of skies to buy from the various producers and eventually chose his because of their overall utility and ingenuity.

Now a few notes here.  First, when I purchased this I had some issues which I reported on here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213912 ... these issues to the best of my knowledge were not the fault of the author and should be fixed at this time.  If they are not, my repair process is listed on that link.  It bears mentioning that when I complained about the issues OldFlak threw in a free sky, which was unnecessary but very welcome :)

The four various skies all showcase different types of skies and while I have some complaints I will say I find it's been an excellent value.

First in my game I've been using the appropriately named "Amethyst Nebula".  Here's a video of what it looks like (from OldFlak's youtube channel):

One thing you'll notice here is the white ringed sphere, which initially I didn't like but I found if I put one of DevCore's free fog decals over where it hangs in space it looks pretty good.  The same follows for the 'vapour moon' which has a static vapor image that looks cool at first but needs a little oomph to keep it from getting stale.  Thankfully the Devcore fog is free and works well (See my freebies post here: http://gamegurureport.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-comprehensive-must-have-free-stuff.html)

There's also a really nice one called the Sear Nebula - which is found here:

This is one of the better skyboxes in the kit, IMO.

Now, the Sear Nebula looks great; it's got nice colors and those yellow wisps look better in game than they do on the store.  Included with this pack though is also an intriguing design called the 'Sear Nebula Outpost'.   This one is the same but with a static image of a dome-structure and floor built in.  

It's the only one of the four skies with a ground plane.

At a glance it looks flawless but there's some shears in the texturing that at first seem out of place but when actually put into an appropriate map it seems to work well. Also if you look straight up there's a nice circular connector for the 6 supporting rods of the dome.   I will likely be using this for one of my final maps.

The bottom line:  All in all I know these maps look great, not just from my own words but EVERY SINGLE PERSON who has playtested my game's first level has remarked on the awesome outside sky when they first go looking out the windows.  I make sure to showcase the outdoors in my levels time and again, even in secondary scenes.  One can only do that if the quality of the skybox is up to par.

The appearance of depth is huge in games like these; to give people a sense of awe and make them realize that the world is bigger than the small level they've been assigned.  While these textures aren't perfect, they're really well done and more importantly - ambitious.  I appreciate what's been done here and if I had to would spend the money again.