The Carrier Rework

Carrier was created based on reference model TARAWA-L.MAX (Rusk file date: 14/01/1997) sourced from R.E.M. Infografica

The Carrier level was heavily changed during development, both the level layout was revised making the final level far less complex than the earlier in-development version and the textures were also reworked to give the level a brighter industrial look in comparison to the original dark metal textures.

Let’s dive into this often ridiculed level!

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Early previews of the game across various gaming magazines, the internet and other publications at the time gave a glimpse into the earlier version of the carrier level prior to it’s rework, as can be seen below:

This early preview screen can be seen in the Carmageddon 2 Demo outro (below) – It shows off the lower levels of the original Carrier level with it’s original textures present, it is the earliest known screenshot we have for the Carrier level. You can see the Demo (beta) Eagle 3 model also exhibits the same black shaded polygon on the front which also happens in the demo of the game.

OUTRO2 from the Carmageddon 2 demo featuring the earliest known shot of Carrier.

Various later previews also show off the Carrier level in it’s earlier form but (it is assumed) during the texture rework. As you can see by the below screenshots, all taken during the same session, we can see the early (pre-rework) carrier but with more finalised textures, although some of the textures are still based on the earlier versions.




Again, below we have the same early carrier level, as evidenced by the earlier accessories around the level, this time the sky texture has been changed from the above shots. I can only assume that the screenshots from this session were taken on an earlier version of the second carrier map (due to the sky texture in the above shots being closer to final carrier_mission and the below being the same as final carrier2), again these shots feature early accessories not seen in final, as well as early textures.

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Carrier texture rework took place around 06/08/1998

Within Rusk’s archive contains everything we need to try and piece together what the earlier version of carrier looked like and when the changes were likely to have been made.

Inside the \Carrier_ACCESS\ folder (ACCESS = accessories) we find a jpg showing off all of the textures currently being used in the carrier level as of the file date 06/08/1998 as we can notice that the highlighted BARTOP2U and BARTOPUN (as well as other textures similar to the final look) have file dates that also match 06/08/1998, whilst the remnants we can find of the earlier iteration of the textures all predate this.

\Carrier_ACCESS\RUSKAIRMATS.JPG

06/08/1998

Comparison with final textures

As mentioned; in Rusk’s archives, the textures that were reworked for the final carrier level start appearing dated 06/08/1998, so an assumption can be made that this is the point where this texture rework was made

Contrast this with the earlier textures we can find in Rusk’s archives (and final C2) which all date from July 1998, a month prior

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Carrier level rework took place between 24-27/09/1998

The earliest version of the carrier level that we have available to us is the full original carrier level prior to its rework, this version we have is dated July 4^th 1998, a month prior to the start of the texture rework and two months prior to the start of the level rework.

\Rusk_CARRIER\OLDTiffrgb
Object.sdf – 04/07/1998

The files also contain a version of the network level, this is also the earlier version of carrier but with no interior areas present, as we can see, the file dates here suggest that the level rework was done after the texture rework, this can be corroborated with the additional files listed later.

\Rusk_CARRIER\NETWORK
network_carrier.sdf – 08/08/1998

The \Carrier_ACCESS\ directory contains files dated from between 05/08/1998 and 03/10/1998, excluding the accessories shared across all maps (chevrons, checkpoints, etc.)

\Carrier_ACCESS

File date range

05/08/1998 – 03/10/1998

The \Rusk_CARRIER\ directory contains files for the carrier rework, dated from 25/09/1998 through to 09/10/1998, it is therefore safe to assume this earlier date was the period in which the bulk of the work redesigning this level was done

\Rusk_CARRIER

25/09/1998 – 09/10/1998

Within the \Carrier_ACCESS\ directory is a file titled hullNsea, this file contains everything that was changed for the final carrier design.

\Carrier_ACCESS

hullNsea.ASC – 24/09/1998 15:37

Alongside the level data, Rusk also shared a \Scenes\ folder which contained various 3dsmax scenes from various stages of the game’s development, contained within this \Scenes\ folder is further evidence to assist us with dating when the carrier level itself was reworked.

carrier_access.max shows a small chunk of the early version of the carrier level with an Eagle 3 model for scale, this would’ve likely been used to scale level accessories.

\Scenes

carrier_access.max – 03/08/1998 12:01

The next file shows some early carrier accessories that were later removed from the final reworked carrier level

carrier_access23.max – 03/08/1998 10:45

The next file also shows some early carrier accessories that were later removed from the final reworked carrier level

accessories.asc – 03/08/1998 10:45

The next file is a progression of the previous files from the following day, again showing carrier accessories that were later removed from the final reworked carrier level

carrier_access24.max – 04/08/1998 11:44

The next file we find in the folder is carrier_rework16.max which is dated 24/09/1998, it is assumed that this is the 16th save of this rework and we can see that there are still some leftovers from the early version of the level, most notably some of the cutouts in the top of the map have yet to be filled in.

carrier_rework16.max – 24/09/1998

Next we have some accessories that were eventually incorporated into the final version of the level

CARRIERACCESS.max – 25/09/1998

The next file is carrier_rework17.max dated 27/09/1998 which is the control tower that is seen on the carrier level, it is for the most part visually indistinct from what appears in the earlier version of the level, although there are some slight tweaks (it is shorter for one) –

carrier_rework17.max – 27/09/1998 09:58

The final carrier level-related file in the \Scenes\ folder is carrier_rework18.max dated 27/09/1998 – This is likely the last version of the level worked on in 3dsmax.

carrier_rework18.max – 27/09/1998 10:00

We can tie together the NEWCARRIER# files which we find within \Rusk_CARRIER\ as well as the carrier_rework## files in the \Scenes\ folder and propose a date of 24/09/1998 for the commencement of the rework to the carrier level, with the bulk of the work on this version of the level taking place between 24/09/1998 and 27/09/1998

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Below is the original carrier level (object.sdf as located within \Rusk_CARRIER\OLDTiffrgb\) pulled apart to show the different areas inside the level and full textured by myself to try and match all of the preview screenshots we have access to, ultimately becoming a mixture of the pre-rework carrier level and the mid-rework carrier level combined. As you can see, the level was originally very complex, which may be the reason it was ultimately simplified for the final game.

Below are a few comparisons of the areas shown off in the preview screenshots and those locations in \Rusk_CARRIER\OLDTiffrgb\object.sdf