Just starting this now so that we have a place to discuss and show our progress.

The basic idea for this project is to create an environment based upon the world of Pandora from the movie Avatar.


Team so far:

TheDaywalker

C_Mireneye

And Myself


As of right now our mission is simply to create a reasonably sized chunk of land that will hopefully resemble Pandora, quests and all other sort of flashy junk are not in the cards at the moment. This, for the time being, is simply an aesthetic project meant to be explored.



Hopefully we will have some pretty pictures soon.

will you make them to scale with the movie?

Looking forward to the 3d version

Your dev team is going to need a good intellectual property lawyer.

Only if JC comes reigns down upon us like the mad god Sheogorath!

Notice how the title says "Pandora?" it's all that is needed really. It could be Pandoraish or Pandorum, the general ideas are just inspired. Inspiration is not IP infringement. If so how would they define JC's world? An alien jungle world? Has been done before you know. It's not a new concept in that sense. There are things that look very much alike but nothing quite like it.

I don't see how it would be a problem. If nothing else I could send a mail to the man himself ask if this tiny little project has his permission, I've talked to "big" guys before, usually they are really friendly and supportive in if anything else how we can change so both projects can co-exist.

If you need custom bloom/fog/color mood/sat/desat/whatever else for it, I can toss that in.

As for the project, I haven't seen the movie, but the commercials and such looked pretty cool. I'd love to see somewhere like that ingame and play-able, looks like it'd be fun to wander. Especially with some heavy firepower. XD

somehow I don't think legal problems will be an issue. ^_^
they will have people scouring the internet, but "Pandora" is the name of countless other things and blue aliens aren't exactly original. not to mention the story line was basically stolen from a history book (lol).

Like Miren said, this is not intended to be an exact or necessarily even a near exact copy of "Pandora" from Avatar, it is simply inspired and based upon the look and feel of the environment. Almost none of the plant life and even the terrain in the movie Avatar is an original concept. Have a look around Deviantart if you think I am wrong, you will find loads of art that is very similar to that of the environment in the film. If the "name" (I simply chose the name of the title to illustrate from where we gather the inspiration for this projects, the name need not be the same upon release.) or source of inspiration is a problem then we can change that, however Cameron doesn't hold a copyright upon gnarly rainforest type trees nor floating islands or a specific way parts of terrain look.

Im willing to help do models and textures, just give me reference pictures and Ill get to work.

I can cobble a few unique creatures to flit about/graze/lurk to add to the atmosphere (should there be a need ).

Beatiful style on that world don't you think?

Certainly. I have some reference images on my comp some from Avatar itself and some from random artists/artworks I have found on the net.

However Deviantart is a good place to look for good reference images.



Here are a few i just found:

http://marcadamus.deviantart.com/art/Rainforest-Complexities-58690195

http://pmp.deviantart.com/art/Rainforest-Water-II-40371518

http://innocenteye.deviantart.com/art/Rainforest-37417788

http://nathie.deviantart.com/art/The-Old-Tree-75736813

http://inshield.deviantart.com/art/Boring-tree-9454030


EDIT: If you would like to make some trees that would be cool, I could then focus more on making the foliage, rocks and some fell tree's/logs. I would prefer some tree's to be rather large, think redwoods, and some trees to be more of an average size to add some diversity. As far as over all appearance something similar to the 3rd image linked above with moss and vines and such covering and wrapped around the trees. And also some more gnarly trees with interesting bends and twists. I have one tree similar to what i have described that I made a bit ago that can possibly give you an idea of what I mean for the more gnarly type of tree's.





That would be cool, would add a bit more life to the place rather then just some boring foliage and junk.

my favorite were the helicopter bugs that flashed colors and spun

Heh, I've always had this image of how Valenwood would look.
And the planet Pandora is exactly how I pictured it.
Actually, I think the Na'Ri kinda resemble the bosmer in pretty much everything they do.
I'd almost say James Cameron is an Elder Scrolls fan... =p

As I said in the previous thread, Cliff Racers, Nix Hounds, and assorted giant insects could easily be retextured to appear as some of Pandora's wildlife

Glowmap all the foliage, so at night it will glow and during the day you won't be able to tell.

But make it a faint, animated glow map, so in the day you can't see it, and at night it flickers and fades. Or layer textures, with a plain black base texture (shader-hooked to glow when the player is nearby) and a detail map providing the actual texturing.

Dear god, i should request things more often!

Just got back from the movie for the second time already. It's something different and unique, I can say that. Somehow the word "epic" doesn't fit...phenomenal, astounding, immersive...perhaps "stirring," all fit much better.

Anyhow, I generally dislike the idea of bringing characters, races, and ideas from other "universes" into Tamriel, but this endeavor I wholly support and appreciate.

You all know what I have to offer, call me up should my talents be needed. One thing I'm pondering is making the ground light up as you walk on it.


Edit: So as a result of my 20 second brainstorming session I have an idea for that, and I need a specific resource created. I need a variety of very thin meshes with no collision, mostly full alpha with variations of glow mapped "veins" running through it. Various colors and highlights would be good. It ought to be about five times the surface area of the character's foot.

Like Dongle's water meshes?

P.S. You guys won't have any legal issues naming the mod Pandora; not only is it a mod and not for profit, but Pandora is also a name that no one owns the rights to. If you really have IP worries, drop me a line.

Do it, yeah. And make a race, please, heh.

I'm also pondering this right now. Am I right in thinkking you are going to place these as the character steps through an area? If so, these veins would have to fade away outwards on the simple, thin mesh.

Wouldn't there be big problem with slopes and what not?

OMG, what's going on here, LOL!!! I really enjoy to see that there is a large common interest in creating this mod and any help is much appreciated!!! This is the kind of community collab I was always wishing for, glad to see it working finally!!! :rock:

@Fligg: Let me just create the basic landscape and then I will make you those meshes you need. I will make some nice animations too lateron, which need to be triggered. So your help is very welcome!!!


TheDaywalker :rock:

Well, someday you make a beta and then you will be trying to find beta-testers. So, feel free to PM me. I'll be very glad to help you, guys.

If I can find the time, I'd like to contribute.