In my last post, I shared the long-overdue release of my old source files from ns_eclipse and ns_veil. My biggest regret was not being able to provide more of a play-by-play commentary of how and why the map changed over the months of development. Unfortunately, even with a good memory, it’s very difficult to browse through dozens of 10+ year old hacked up .rmf files and remember exact intent or even in some cases what the specific changes were.
Last Saturday, I spent some time chatting with my old friend and fellow Half-Life modder Robert Yang (more on this conversation to come!) during which we discussed the making of Eclipse and Veil. I shared the story of Eclipse’s texture swap from the grungy wall_black set to the clean wall_lab textures that became the signature “Eclipse” style. The following morning, with Natural Selection still strongly on my mind, I decided to dig through my old files in search of some before-and-after screenshots. I found them – along with a pile of in-progress shots not seen since the old WIP threads on the NS1 forums.
I still can’t necessarily recall exact technical details of every change or my guiding philosophy at the time, but for the Natural Selection fans out there, here’s the illustrated evolution of Eclipse.
EDIT August 3rd 2013: All screenshots have been brightened to emulate in-game gamma adjustment.
Basher of Muttons 