Most of our blog entries so far have been about scripting, sudoku or slime, so we thought we'd put together something a bit more practical - texturing.

Jason Lange is one of the main artists on our NS2 team (also known as JJJ1) and he recorded his entire workflow while he textured a 3D model of a cannister (while listening to Juno Reactor, apparently). View the YouTube video below or download one of the higher-quality versions to get an idea of what goes into a simple prop.

Download higher quality (20 megabytes)

Download highest quality (98 megabytes)

This cannister is one of many props that we need to create in order flesh out the our world, to make them feel detailed and "realistic". Other props include swinging cables, grates, vents and doors.

Along with an array of props, we are also creating a library of materials and sounds which, along with our mapping guidelines, will be bundled together to form the NS2TR - Natural Selection 2 Technology Release. Anyone that was around before NS 1 was released might remember the NSTR, which we released in a similar fashion. It served as a stripped down version of the game that level designers could use to start creating levels before we released the game. It included our custom particle system editor, a basic commander mode and the skulk wall-walking. It turned out that it was used not only by mappers, but by players.

So once we've created a large enough set of base props and materials, we'll be releasing the NS2TR to the public. This gives us some nice press and some early feedback but even more importantly, it means you guys can start creating maps. With Natural Selection, we included the best community maps as "official" and part of the game and we'll be doing the same for Natural Selection 2. Because we are selling NS2 though, that means we'll be buying maps from you guys outright. Many NS1 mappers moved on into the game industry professionally and we think this is an even better opportunity!