Geonosis: Prototype map assets

[Giftheck]

Posted to psych0fred's site: http://www.secretsociety.com/forum/downloads/BF1/GeonosisPrototype/

Basically, this is the Geonosis that was shown in the pre-release SWBF trailers. The design was very, very different to what we got in the end.

The included note:

This won't run as is, but you can salvage the assets from it to recreate something that does. It can be at least opened and examined in the enclosed version of zero so you cna check it out and then pull the assets into a new level where you rename and recreate it so it works.
It was a protoype level created to test functionality early in development. It's not exactly as it was as there were different art assets and art style then which was more gritty, and large objects could fit into the world without crashing.
If you remove the droid coreship it should run without crashing in game.
Also included but not in the world is a sloppy republic assault ship mesh, but in the original the core ship would lift off and the republic assault ship was flyable and landed to deploy troops. I say sloppy because it's bloated and I don't know if it's fully functional.
There was also the vtrans, which is the LAAT/C and it would swoop down and drop off ATTEs (which was awesome) but the functionality became deprecated and while it's still in the engine it doesn't work. The ship spirals out control as it approaches the ground and both vehicles get destroyed.I never managed to get it to work with the mods.
The terrain was also darker though I don't know if it's because back then it was vertex colored/lighted or the world file is missing texture references. The terrain looks good if someone can find the right textures to apply or color it so it's not so bright.
I've included some images to explain what's in the map so people know what they are looking at in zero.
There were several coves on the map, one contained a hangar with a secret tunnel entrance. You can see the terrain cutters in zero.
You'll also notice the clouds objects in the sky and probably other things I'm forgetting.
I'd like to get it up and running but getting the tools up and running on Win10 has been a pain otherwise I would have spent more time on it.
I'm releasing it to give you the assets. When I look at it I want to restore it to it's full glory which would take a lot of work, and maybe one day I will if I ever get everything up and running again.
As is it crashes when the core ship enters frame and the view distances are all wrong.
It's still a pretty cool map in my opinion and was meant to better represent the battle of geonosis.

[Michaeluj]

Lonely Dragon released a PS2 mod for BF2 that aims to recreate this map:



What do you think? Does it look faithful?

[Giftheck]

Lonely Dragon released a PS2 mod for BF2 that aims to recreate this map:



What do you think? Does it look faithful?

Yeah, it does look quite faithful to what's presented here.

I wonder if any other early prototype maps still exist. I know they're also attempting to recreate the prototype Theed.

[Michaeluj]

He did another one for Naboo Plains. Plus he's still working on, like you said, Theed. I think that's all he has.

[Giftheck]

He did another one for Naboo Plains. Plus he's still working on, like you said, Theed. I think that's all he has.

Yep, but that one we've had for years (Naboo: Prototype) whereas Theed Prototype and Geonosis Prototype are new. Technically other prototype maps can be remade if the assets are the same as what we already have, since we have the minimaps for them.

[Michaeluj]

Well, I'm no modder, just a (casual) historian. I cannot assist but, if you make any progress on this or learn some secrets, then please let me know.

[Teancum]

I've been in contact with Pyshc0fred, the ex-Pandemic developer, for many years now. I can confirm that Naboo and Geonosis were the only ones he still had. I actually had the Geonosis Prototype years ago. Sad thing was I was a dad of a toddler and also had a dying hard drive. I was in the process of transferring data to a new drive and my toddler accidentally knocked my tower over, destroying both hard drives as they were actively spinning when it crashed.

Dunno why I told that last story, but there you go. Short version is that Naboo and Geonosis were the only original prototypes he had.

[iamastupid]

Lonely Dragon released a PS2 mod for BF2 that aims to recreate this map:



What do you think? Does it look faithful?

It was not a recreation, AnthonyBF2 is doing a recreation, this was the original map - just patched to work with some custom vehicles as a nice touch. Good to see my work is getting around though 

[Michaeluj]

Wait, so the Light Assault Speeder is a custom vehicle and not one that the devs originally introduced?

[Dark_Phantom]

This map will not work out-of-the-box as said in the description.  You can, however, be impressed in ZE because it is pretty cool until it gets rebuilt with working models.
(Note:  it isn't just the Core Ship that crashes, something else causes the game to give up the ghost as well, but it's been a while since I looked at it.  Those models need split into something the engine can handle.)

[Teancum]

Wait, so the Light Assault Speeder is a custom vehicle and not one that the devs originally introduced?

I forget which one is the assault, but if it's the one that's thin like a speederbike with two passengers, one behind the other, then it was cut from SWBF1. On the original SWBF website it was listed as a vehicle, but it was never used.