Welcome to our second Isonzo Intel blog! Today we’re going to look at how you go about recreating locations from more than 100 years ago in a video game. The focus will still be on the Monte San Michele map that we revealed last time, which is part of the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo Offensive campaign. If you missed it, you should read all about the new Offensive game mode here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1556790/announcements/detail/3059609427948758061
Museums and Rocks
With Isonzo’s move towards recreating specific battles and where they were fought, it’s vital to do good research in many different areas. Part of our process in representing the Carso landscape and doing justice to the heavy fighting in the area was a visit to the Museo Del Monte San Michele, which stands right on the summit of the mountain. It was an excellent museum with some fascinating virtual and augmented reality tech to immerse visitors into trench life. Their website has 3 minute video showcasing the museum which is well worth a watch.
A WIP screenshot of one of the trench lines.
And here’s a video we took on our field trip of one of the surviving trenches with those distinctive rocks.
The distinctive sharp rocks of the area, which you can see in the WIP screenshot above, were essential to get right. A particular challenge is that in the present day the entire region is covered by forests, which was not the case back then. The curator at the museum explained that before the war this landscape was completely bare rocks, because sheep ate all of the vegetation. Some imagination and looking at historical photos (which is difficult because you cannot see grass or foliage that easily in black and white photos) was needed to derive a good concept of how we should represent the landscape.
Rocks everywhere, with some foliage visible - hard to determine the amount and types without colour!
Also essential was getting the correct tech, which meant innovating and using more advanced techniques than in previous titles to bring these razor sharp rocks to life. We spent quite a long time tweaking this, and it might sound funny to put so much time into rocks, but they really have a huge impact on the sense of place. Getting the basics and fine details correct is vital to create a solid base for everything else. When you’re aiming for authenticity, attention to detail is never a waste of time!
The carso landscape, dominated by boulders - in the rear areas it contrasts with the grass.
Rocks alongside a path.
Maps are a very useful reference when laying out areas, but you have to be mindful that places do change a lot over time. If you can’t get maps from WW1, more modern maps might still be useful - but you have to be very careful. Take a look at this comparison between a 1916 map and one from 2018...
The Town of San Martino del Carso
Another important part of the Monte San Michele map was the town of San Martino del Carso. It was heavily battered during previous battles and even the scene of combat following rare breakthroughs by Italian forces in earlier attacks. We recreated a Polish village for Tannenberg, but the towns of Isonzo are on a different level, being more densely built-up. These rustic towns are very distinctive and needed to be represented with accurate details. Especially the irregular way construction materials are typically used in rural Italy, with a mixture of brick, stone, concrete and plaster.
To this end we spent quite some time designing and tweaking the way we render walls and ruins to make these Italian towns feel real. You can compare one of our WIP screenshots with a period photograph below.
The ruins of San Martino del Carso.
The village is completely ruined, so you’ll have to fight your way through piles of rubble.
The town offers challenging combat scenarios which are closer to “urban” warfare, with the general destruction, crumbled walls, and half-destroyed roofs offering perfect cover and tactical fire ports.
Finally, inspiration comes from places other than history books as well - such as this by Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, written during breaks in the fighting. The town is the subject of the poem:
SAN MARTINO DEL CARSO
Of these houses
nothing
but fragments of memory
Of all who
would talk with me not
one remains
But in my heart
no one's cross is missing
My heart is
the most tormented country
of all
Until next time!
That’s all for this week! As for next time, we'll be having a look at some of the weaponry you'll be able to get your hands on in Isonzo. For instance, take a closer look at this… can you identify it already?
