Wheat, Apples, Octavia's Cello, and Random Screenshots

To quote a favorite character of mine, "We Aten't Dead!" The mod is still moving along at about the same rate as it always has, which means updates shall probably continue to be sporadic. However, we do have several new items to share today that I have a feeling you're going to like. Let's just say that we haven't been sitting around twiddling our thumbs.




New models

Since the last time we updated, ActionScripter and VFX Kid have have recreated the shack from the ending of Portal 2 as well as various shapes and sizes of wheat! Excellent work y'all!

We'll be implementing these ingame very soon. They just need to finish the textures first.

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Scale Map of the Sugarcube Corner Kitchen

We are waiting for the update on the architectural drawings on Equestria Daily. Since it never made it up there, I'm taking the liberty of showing it here first!

Scraticus from Thinking with Ponies (that Portal 2.5 Pony mod from a while back) has begun work on a full on architectural map of Sugar Cube corner, complete with pretty much every nook, cranny, and dimension of the place. The way this is done is by using several pieces of software which turns the 2D frame into 3D with 'depth' and using the ideal that a pony is 52 inches high, (40 inches or 10 hands to the shoulder) the frame can be scaled to match that measurement.


This is pretty difficult considering how often Pinkie Pie loves to accidentally shatter the boundaries of time and space, with her black hole stomach devouring everything, also the fact that a lot of the backgrounds are also scaled/not in the correct perspective.

Update:

SugarCube Corner Kitchen: (Now Complete!)

Plan (Top down View)
Elevation (Left/Right)
Elevation (Front/Back)
More to come soon!

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Also, we have an answer to that age old debate: Is Octavia playing a cello or a double bass? Recently, somepony attempted to use the APPLE system to solve this problem. Unfortunately, they made a few critical errors in their calculations. The first of these is that they used an incorrect doppelganger apple system not created by Scrat... (Don't accept any substitutes for the real thing folks! It doesn't work.)

Secondly, while their idea of scaling Octavia's face until it was the same size as Applejack's was an excellent one, it missed the fact that Octavia is actually a smaller pony. There are two pieces of reasoning behind this fact.

First off, let's compare Octavia to the grand piano. Standing on her hind legs, she comes pretty much just even with the top of it, which places her somewhere around a height of 48" inches when she's on her back hooves.

Then we have this fun (and slightly inappropriate) little pic which proves that Pinkie Pie (with a height of 52" when she's on all four hooves) is definitely taller than Octavia's 48 inches on back hoof height.

A Scale different is pinkie standing next to the tuba player, shows also that she is taller than octavia when she is standing on her back legs. she is a smaller pony, in line with a filly's height



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Scrat Update:
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I wasn't going to post the pictures of my apple scale's actual lengths, but i know there will be a few neigh-sayers out there that will whine and moan about not seeing proof of concept.

So i've put a post in about this.




The Cello is around 60" in size, (64" in apple size, but it shrinks to 60" in 2 other shots with pinkie pie in them (as seen above)

The BOW octavia is using IS a cello length bow at 28". if it was a double bass it would be 25-26" in size. it matches 7 apples exactly, as you can see here.

Octavia, is a smaller pony at only 48" tall, which means she's either a filly or a teenager pony, because her height matches that of the piano, when standing (which is 4 feet tall).

The apple scale i use is based off the two shots with pinkie within them, (and the fact we know how tall a grand piano is). The Harp also is 58" tall, which could have been from the inspiration of this harp?


Octavia's height when standing on all 4 hooves: about 40" tall (20" to the shoulder) (about the same as the average filly and 10" shorter than Pinkie Pie)
The height of the instrument (without its stand): 60-64" (around 5 feet) tall
The height of the instrument (with the stand): 64-68" tall
Length of her bow: 28" long
Height of piano: 48" (4 feet)
Height of harp: 58"

Based on these numbers, we have no choice but to support the cello side of the debate. With any luck, this will hopefully end the "conflict".

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Mod Screenshots

While we've been mostly concentrating on behind the scenes items, we have made a decent amount of progress in terms of actual mod items, particularly since most of us have minimal experience with Source.

First item of importance: Double Portals!

While they are both currently the same color scheme, the double portal system as a whole works well and feels completely natural when using it around a level. You're going to enjoy this folks!

Secondly, we are making actual levels right now. Valve has made a few changes to the engine that are slowing down our progress, but it's coming along nicely. Sadly, it is currently impossible to make new particle effects (which are mandatory for parts of the mod), but with any luck they'll fix the problem soon. For your viewing pleasure, here are a few screenshots of some of what we've completed so far.

The following is a simulation of something from the first chapter. We can't get the full sized particle effect quite yet (no particle creation tools...), but it's at least a sneak peak of what's to come!

And just for the fun of it, here are a few bloopers. I'll let you figure out what they are. :D

In any case, that's all we have to show for now, or at least all we want to show for now. Check back in a couple weeks, and we'll probably have something else up here again. See y'all around!