bearborg

[bearborg]

how is level geometry stored? is there a fairly standard container / filetype?

All 3 games in the Prime Trilogy use a file format called MREA, short for Metroid Area. This wiki has extensive details on the file format itself if you're interested in parsing the raw data, but I'd recommend against that since there are some decent tools available (see below).

basically, im wondering if there's a way to get the level geometry for frigate orpheon as a mesh file so i can do something fun with it in a radiation physics simulation software

Good news: There is! Not-as-good news: The project is currently dormant and hasn't been updated in a while, so getting it set up will take some work.

HECL is a tool that converts files from all 3 Prime games into Blender files (or human-readable text), but as you might notice, there are no publicly viewable releases of the tool anymore.

The Metroid Prime modding community has pretty firmly fallen to the Discord side of the Discord/forums war, so I would recommend joining their server and checking out the #metaforce-chat channel. There's a pinned message there with an archived HECL build and some info on setting it up, and the community is very willing to help if you run into any issues.

You'll need about 4 GB of free space, since HECL extracts the entire game rather than specific assets, and I'd recommend setting it up close to the root of your hard drive, because it creates a lot of sub-folders and sometimes runs into issues with path-length limits.

bonus question: do you think the reactor is fission, fusion, matter-antimatter, or something else? i already have my opinion, but curious what others think

I am super ignorant when it comes to real-life physics, but I guess I had assumed fusion? Just cause that seems slightly futuristic, but also still capable of emitting deadly radiation. It also seems to be powered by a bunch of big orange crystals, though, and I have no idea how those fit into any real world reactor technology... Maybe they got them from Xen.

open question to metroid mutuals... ive never really dived into the internals of the prime games outside of sifting through extracted audio and texture files...

so my question is: how is level geometry stored? is there a fairly standard container / filetype?

basically, im wondering if there's a way to get the level geometry for frigate orpheon as a mesh file so i can do something fun with it in a radiation physics simulation software

bonus question: do you think the reactor is fission, fusion, matter-antimatter, or something else? i already have my opinion, but curious what others think

[bearborg]

Path is blocked, but for how long?

[bearborg]

everyone's too caught up in the underwater frigate orpheon MAIN theme (you know with the piano) to notice that the intro track has an electric light hum that's synced to the beat

[bearborg]

Oh, this is super gorgeous! Love the recreation of the Super Metroid Nintendo Power pose!

For those curious, I believe all the Chozo text is made up of repetitions of these words: "beakless", "calling", "wingless", "soaring".

At Full Power

[bearborg]

The Botanica in SkyTown, Elysia. Because what's cooler than an ancient floating alien steampunk facility? One with trees growing throughout an entire section of it

[bearborg]

[bearborg]

Background art I made for the Scavengers Reign season 2 pitch trailer. https://www.instagram.com/p/DB-DuB5Se07/

[bearborg]

Every song in the Metroid Prime subseries is like. *auto parts factory soundscape* *geiger counter noise* *haunting MIDI choir sample* *fork scraping against a plate* and you listen to it for 7 hrs without getting bored

[bearborg]

All the bits of text on Gray Voice's robes here are repeated sections of the phrase "This is our daughter[...]", so I like to imagine he's wearing the Chozo equivalent of one of these shirts

Fledgling

[bearborg]

I made a one page zine based on Scavengers Reign as part of a 24 hour challenge.

I did a basic test print on 11 x 17" paper to make sure that the format was working. I've uploaded the zine for free to itch.io (feel free to print off and share with friends who have seen the show!)

[bearborg]

I painted this after watching the teaser for the fabled season two of Scavengers Reign. I was immediately struck by the design of the head of the cultists, especially the iron jaw.

I'm still holding out hope for the second season to be made.

Gouache on toned paper.

[bearborg]

Me when I get my hands on the median voter

Me when I get my hands on David Zaslav

[bearborg]

Me when I get my hands on David Zaslav

[bearborg]

Joe Bennett, co-creator of Scavenger's Reign, just posted this on his instagram:

"As of right now, Scavengers Reign is not being renewed for a second season.

I wanted to let everyone know directly because I really love our fanbase, they've been such champions for the show, and I don't want to leave everyone hanging.

We've had to fight tooth and nail every step of the way to get this show made, starting all the way back in 2016 with the Scavengers short film to the release of the first season last year.

It's a case study for believing in something and persevering through a million and one hurdles. But, it got made, thanks especially to so many people who supported it along the way, in big and small ways. I want to thank some of those people, starting with my co-creator Charles Huettne, Chris Prynoski and everyone at @titmouseinc, my home base at @greenstreetpictures, the writers, directors, and so many incredible artists who worked tirelessly on the show, and the folks at Max who were incredible partners to work with.

But this is not the end. There is more story to be told, we are ready to make another season, and we produced in-house at Green Street a teaser for what was going to come in the second season.

Thanks again to everyone who watched and supported the show."

[bearborg]

A gouache painting of some of the flora around the show Scavengers Reign, done on toned paper.

The final week of my month long drawing challenge is a bit shorter this time, but I wanted to finish this project before the month is over. I had some extra time and wanted to finish the project with a flourish, so I practiced using gouache (and pen for the outlines).

I hope that you all enjoyed the works that were done over these past couple of weeks. I enjoyed making them.

[bearborg]

A drawing of Fiona for the October drawing challenge. Each week in October, I'll be posting an image based on the show Scavengers Reign.

Included is the drawing process. You can see that I had a different idea for the frame in the background, but I went with the similar circles for the Kamen drawing.

Still debating about the work for the final week, but I'm sure that I'll come up with something.

Drawn in Clip Studio Paint.

[bearborg]

A mock-up of a book for the show Scavengers Reign that I worked on a couple of months ago.

Would buy an artbook immediately. Apparently the creators are looking at getting one published. Hopefully that happens!

Created in Illustrator, Photoshop, and Blender.