The latest expansion pack of wow has some jaw dropping amazing instances, the art and style is just perfect. Everything is large because of gameplay reasons (no one wants to fight bosses in cupboards, plus it be would exploited like crazy) but yet there are small alcoves and sections with details that bring everything together on consistancy. The instances are where wow shines the most for me, the huge game world is cool but the real wow factor is indoors.
Last weekend I had a small mapping break from my forever map and decided to try an experiment with rich coloured lighting, decals and sky portals.
http://www.simonoc.com/images/design/maps_q3/focal1ac1l_1024.jpg
http://www.simonoc.com/images/design/maps_q3/focal1ac1l_1024.jpg
The above screenshots feature simple blue panels wrapped around geo architecture and accented with gold and blue lighting. Most of the time was spent with the animated item marker on the floor. I really wanted the decal to maintain edge shadows, have solid fill colours and yet be a decal at the same time!
Something I always find lacking in my maps is the connection between world geometry and skybox, so the next experiment was connecting this together with various shaders, models and a portal skybox.
http://www.simonoc.com/images/design/maps_q3/focal1ac3l_1024.jpg
http://www.simonoc.com/images/design/maps_q3/focal1ac4l_1024.jpg
The blue light beam flows upwards to the portal sky and the models in the portal sky then carry on the illusion up to multiple swirling cloud layers which gradually alpha away to blue sky horizon. The architecture around the focal point is just to accent the view upwards and make the players viewpoint vertical.