#trescom

[thetrespasserfrontier]

Security Record: Poachers Incident

(Report by R. Muldoon)

The inevitable has finally occured: poachers. The eventuality has been discussed time and again, and has finally happened. Perhaps I was the only one who took it seriously. This past week, a routine survey of Sector 023, along the Parasaur game trail, turned up several animal foot traps. Management decided long ago not to employ such devices, and so it was relative certainty not to be from InGen personnel. Less than a week later, an empty Benelli shotgun was found on the edge of Sector 024, where Ornitholestes are known to hunt. For my part, the evidence was conclusive. I put together a team of myself, Mr Andrews, and Dr Carter to seek out and locate the poachers. We took a standard InGen survey Jeep and eventually found footprints near where the traps had been found. Getting out of the Jeep, Dr Carter and I advanced on the prints' trail while Mr Andrews attended to the wheel. What we found next was more than I expected. The shredded remains of a tent, a multitude of empty shells, a broken gas lanturn. Human and Dinosaur prints in all directions. The Dinosaur prints were indeed Ornitholestes, but we found only a dash of blood on the tent. After searching the campsite another fifteen minutes, I finally discovered where all three individuals had gone, into the bush. Dr Carter had found a tuft of human hair, but it wasn't anything to go by. We followed the prints. I thought briefly that we would end up right in the Ornitholestes nest. But no, all three sets of prints passed it by. Eventually we passed out of Sector 024, then through 025 and 026, when we came to a stand of oaks. Already cautious, we suddenly heard a growling nearby, and I signaled to halt. The growling continued, and then there was a shot. It was unclear if the shot hit, but the growling continued, more aggravated this time. After a moment, one of the poachers yellwed out, something to the effect of "Get back you Devil!" It was a sothern American accent. Then a different voice, something in Spanish. More shots were fired. I had a plan. Dr Carter and I circled the large oak, where it was evident the voices had come from, somewhere in the canopy. There were a good deal of branches low to the ground; we scaled the tree quietly. Coming around the trunk, we saw the two men standing, not seven feet away from us. The American was shaking. Then, without a thought, I fired my tranquilizer at the Ornitho. It stood in surprise briefly before collapsing to the ground. The two men turned to face me, my gun already aimed. They looked at each other a moment. They did not seem as upset as I'd expected, but they threw their weapons to the ground and lifted their hands. No sooner had I begun to step forward than a screaching sound came from behind me. Not moving my aim, I looked back just in time to see a Dimorphodon racing toward me. I had no time to react; it scratched my face as it flew past. I had just enough time to see the pterosaur land on a poacher's shoulder before falling head-first out of the oak canopy. Dr Carter was fast. He gripped my ankle and held it, the rest of me dangling there like a piñata. I heard both poachers laughin briefly, then exchanging words and jumping to the ground below.

We never found out what happened to them. After Carter and I got down from the oak, a storm began, and the mud became too difficult to track through. Either they are still out there, or they got smart and left. That Dimorphodon looked unusual, I'm not sure it was ours. But this incident will be our first reminder to add what new security measures are necessary.

[thetrespasserfrontier]

Prehistoric Insects of Sorna

Insect Cloning

In addition to Dinosaurs and other prehistoric vertebrates, InGen cloned several species of prehistoric insects. The extraction techniques used to clone from insects trapped in amber sometimes yielded genomes from species other than chordates. Sometimes the DNA taken from amber was grown and resulted in species such as Meganeura and Meganeuropsis. These were ancient dragonfly species with much larger wingspans than those found today. Over two feet long. Another species was Arthropleura, the largest land arthropod. Similar to a Millipede, it munched rotting vegetation and grew up to six feet long. InGen figured out they could be used for biowaste processing in addition to the Compsognathus. Another insect, a springtail called Rhyniella, was bred. Half an inch long, it lived in the soil. InGen found them more of a curiosity than anything else. The insect species bred may not be very apparent when visiting the island, but they are part of what constitutes Sorna's prehistoric ecosystem.

Donna Gillman: Insect Specialist

InGen maintains an Insect Labs facility dedicated to the study of prehistoric invertebrates, as well as some native Sorna species. One f their most dedicated employees is a woman named Donna Gillman. Donna has three main areas of expertese --- amber analysis, species classification, and specimen collection. She takes her work very seriously and a thirty-four book library occupies her office. One of her jobs is to identify which insect species is in an amber sample. She looks for markers such as eye type, body section size, and limb count in the case of arachnids and other arthropods. Sometimes the DNA in an amber sample belongs to an insect instead of a vertebrate. When these are cloned, it is up to Donna to identify the prehistroic species. She has particular interest in special-niche beetles. Sometimes Donna goes into the Sorna wilderness to collect specimens. One of her methods is to gas an area known to be home to a specific species, and going in after to collect the unconsious insect(s). One of the labs at the facility is filled with cages holding live insects. Glass aquariums hold multiple species and insect food. Species which do not get along are kept separately; the prehistoric fire ants are kept in their own space due to their aggressiveness. On her days off, Donna spends time reading books on insects past and present. She turns out the lights, and imagines herself in a micro-world of invertebrates, lost in a canopy of grass and a floor of earth.

[thetrespasserfrontier]

The First Release

This is my first entry relating a made up version of the entire Site B island. It takes inspiration from all manner of JP/Tres material and is sort of like a written mod with no level to play. Hope you enjoy it.

InGen finally made a decision regarding animal holding on Sorna: specimens would be tagged and released into the wilderness. It was seen the animals just did not do well in such small enclosures. TAR ("Tag and Release"), noted for its backward metaphore, was enacted. The gather data first, only one animal was released: Staurikosaurus. At only three feet of its eventual six-and-a-half foot adult length, the Triassic herrerasaurian left pen 26 immediately, running with its back held horizontall into the forest. The TAR JPAC personall watched as the Staurikosaurus disappeared into the trees, then watched their GPS unit as it followed the Dinosaur's path. It made two stops on its way, possibly to drink water or eat a nativie animal, but then continued without stoppping for several hours. The herrerasaurian went on until finally stopping at the northwest lagoon on the edge of the island. The two JPAC men watching the GPS wondered if the anmal had been somehow trying to leave the island. Over the following week, the other captive Dinosaurs were released. The Staurikosaurus continued to be monitored. One day, a Psittacosaurus ended up at the lagoon where the first release still resided. Notably, the early ceratopsian's signal stopped moving. JPAC admitted that this was an obvious relult of TAR, and at the same time both lamented the results meant for Jurassic Park and felt awe at the reestablishment of a Mesozoic ecosystem.

STAURIKOSAURUS

Name: "Southern Cross Lizard" Length: 6 1/2 ft Diet: Meat Time: Late Triassic Location: Brazil, South America

[thetrespasserfrontier]

The Trees of Isla Sorna

There exist several versions of Isla Sorna. The Lost World film, The Lost World novel, The Lost World arcade, among others. One is Trespasser, whose jungles, plains, and forest were populated by Dreamworks Interactive in 1997 and 1998. Painted, rather than photographic, textures seem to have come alongside low-detail models to simulate a semi-open world environment.

Jungle The southern half of the island was covered using jungle-assets, as opposed to conifers, grassy plains, or mountain-tops. Broad-leaves dominate vistas and ridges covered in lush vegetation. Below are groups of trees featured within this. -Canopy Trees- The quintessential trees apart from palms are the "canopy" trees, perhaps meant to fill out a vegetative ceiling. Some pre-release material features light beams descending from the sun above, aiding this possibility. There were "split" and regular trees, most of which feature pre-lit bark textures.

-Cuban Palms- Also very frequent in Sorna jungles is the cuban palm, found as well following either side of Main St. at the north end of Burroughs. Simple in form, they project beautific eminence and steadfastness. The variety of models include dead-but-standing and fallen-over variants, as well as individual leaves.

-Royal Palm- Different from the cuban palms, this variety has a perhaps more lush appearance and dignified leaves.

-Hawai'ian Palms- Two slanted trunks and a "twin" combination claim heritage from Hawai'i. Whatever the truth of this, they do seem quite relaxed, with grey bark and darker leaves unassaulting to the eye. Bring your PH picnic chairs.

-Willows- Perhaps not especially willow-like in form, the willow tree does make an appearance in Trespasser. Coming in multiple detail levels, the ones with more leafage do seem somewhat close. If one can look past this, the peacefulness of the species may still be felt.

-TPalm2Trees- Similar in color to the Hawai'ian palms, these two trees make up an un-obtrusive addition to the southern flora. They differ by having fern-like or more-broadleafed leaves.

-Tall Palms- This wide variety (perhaps depending how you view them) of palms seems to be more common in older, pre-release images of the game. They are fairly simplistic in design, possibly with a less realistic appearance than was achieved in later models.

Swamp Not an official biome of Trespasser levels, there is a full set of swamp trees in the game, having been combined into the jungle assets well before the game's release. Industrial Jungle was meant to have an area of swamp after passing the central lake, but this location was never truly built in surviving builds of the game. -Swamp Trees JH- These two models are impressively tall, featuring lightly-colored bark and long skinny leaves. They may not have been used inside the gameplay area.

-(Small) Swamp Trees (+JH)- This set of high and low detail, cypress-looking trees were also meant to fill out swampy areas. Some branches feature hanging (Spanish?) moss, and the bottoms of their trunks appear suited to rest at supposed water-level. Leaves are either broad or skinny.

-Swamp Tree T- An additional cypress-looking tree with grey bark and a small, upright-pointing twig is found in Tres, however may not have been placed ingame. Its trunk is more organically-shaped; possibly its higher detail was the reason for its removal. It features broad leaves.

-Swamp Tree New- These dead plant swamp denizens never made it into surviving builds of the game, having come down to us solely from developer "Mystery Models". One wonders if more than one swamp was considered at some point. They mirror the forms of the regular swamp trees' trunks and branches, but have little-to-no living tissue about them. One, not pictured, even comes with a built-in deadfall trap, for Raptors or an unsuspecting Anne.

Plains The developers of Trespasser initially envisioned an entire, open-level ecosystem mirroring African plains, coming between the InGen Town and Pine Valley. At some point it was determined that this part of the game's vision was too much for the engine being built, and PL was removed. A small number of assets survive through developer materials. -Tree Dioca- These two bendy plains denizens don't offer much cover, despite Anne's wish in order to evade predators. They do make nice scenery, being a bit bigger than a bush and small for a tree.

-Serengetti Tree- This tree's textures are missing from developer materials we have, but their shape can be seen from the model found in the PL 3D Studio MAX scene.

Forest Finally we come to the Isla Sorna forest, populated with evergreen trees. It covers the northern half of the island, surrounding non-residential facilities and climbing up mountain slopes. The famous and once-lost Pine Valley was the heart of this biome. -Redwoods- These are the tallest and thickest of the pines and co. The bottoms of their trunks are so thick that a separate texture image is used for the lower portion to give more detail.

-Pine Trees J- These models feature a few long, thin branches. Possibly the developers would have put more branches on on these models if more ingame detail was permitted. It has a calm, feathery appearance.

-Blue Spruce- Not actually blue in leafage in its Tres form, black barked trunks support yellow-green foliage. It comes in two variations.

-Scott Pine- These blue-green evergreen trees appear to be seldom used ingame. Why the developers chose not to use them is unclear, although they have pointed tops reminiscent of older-generation models for the game.

-Green Pine & Pine Tree- Unlike the other conifers of Trespasser, these trees' scant foliage comes in the form of circular bunches, and not much of that. They have inward-slanted trunks.

-Dead Pine, Dead Trees L and H- Amongst the living trees are three dead pines, two short and one tall. Essentially black bark covers their leafless exterior. They seem under-used amongst the forest levels.

-Dead Tree- This very simple model of a dead tree occurs both here and in the jungle biome, yet may most resemble a dead pine. With greyish-brown bark, its low-detail limbs were evidently separable in earlier versions.

Together with logs, underbrush, grasses etc., these models make up the flora of The Lost World's digital sequel. Sadly many exact species remain unknown, but characteristic common themes in overall appearance abound. Too bad they are generally unclimbable!

[thetrespasserfrontier]

InGen Construction Fleet

On John Hammond's Site B facility, various locations and structures were built or begun by Portland Construction, realizing the old man's plans for the island in stages. Despite teh wealth of research, support, and other facilities, most were relatively great distancfes from one another.

VA116 - You've got to be kidding me. "Welcome to my island. No, don't try to escape. Let me tell you my plan."

While we don't have examples of the northern facilities' construction, it's unlikely the Island Express bus system was present in the earliest days without paved roads. Multiple references point to a railroad system which never made it to the recovered builds of the game, but even then additional modes of transportaion would be needed. Bus or no bus, InGen construction workers had to get themselves, their lunches, and the horseshow-throwing game around somehow.

Of the several vehicles Anne finds left on Isla Sorna, some were or may have been used for construction. The most basic of these would be the not-always-hood-covered, white pickup trucks. Branded with one of the first InGen logos Anne sees, these would have brought workers to sites over rugged jungle, pine, or plains terrain. Maybe sometimes actual human bodies road in back, but the rear section was surely a mainstay for transporting crates, rebar, and beer. Be careful of the doors falling off if you choose to investigate one.

Though possibly needed throughout the island, the unfinished monorail construction is home to representatives of another kind of vehicle: the manlifter. Red black and white, they sit collecting dirt and rust where they once stood to raise workers up to the level of the concrete rail. The Tres devs originally wanted Anne to operate the lifter from a control in the carriage. It's gone in the retail release, and the one down below doesn't work. Work with boxes to get up and over.

In the IJ area of teh power pylon construction, a third variety of vehicle sits nearby. It's not for transportation - well, not of people. Instead of lifting workers to reach higher up, the classic rusted-yellow construction crane comes with a long, counter balanced arm and a sharp hook for picking up heavy loads. The 'cockpit' for driving controlling this small monster comes with dials and buttons, but by the time Anne gets there, they don't work... Sitting beside a brown metal fence at the end of the level, it used to stand on the other side of the valley on "Gravel Hill," where legend has it a battle with the local Albertosaurus would have taken place. The devs dreamed big and may have imagined a swinging arm of metal crashing into the bloodthirsty predator, making it safe to follow the road to the town. He still waits on the hill, where Anne is left to find some other way to make it through.

A final go-time truck sits up high on Mount Watson. Was it used for construction? Various wood beams and supplies are scattered about, but in the final version of Tres, Anne would never guess that a mountain-climbing train system was being put up. Scaffolding puzzles and a Donkey Kong debris-rolling Raptor are nowhere to be seen now, but DWI had the idea earlier on, and we may guess what survives is a remnant. The Unimog which sits here lies on a paved InGen road, a construction contractor trailer sitting nearby. Was this Mercedes delivering supplies for the tram, or for the wind turbines higher up, or was it "The Maharajah's" transport, that missing InGen Hunter who was meant to radio from the station above? We may never know...

[thetrespasserfrontier]

The Oceans of Trespasser

Trespasser takes place on an island, and some of its levels have oceans beside the terrain. The game begins with "Beach", where a small sandy lagoon provides a view out onto the Pacific Ocean. Closer to Anne is the transparent version of the same texture, and then closer still is an actual water entity, showcasing the game's ripple rendering.

"Jungle Road", the second level, has an ocean as well. Just beyond the abbreviated Cathy's Beach is the ocean once more. Again Anne cannot actually swim out into it.

The ocean isn't seen again in the retail version of Trespasser until the "Lab" level. Here Anne is blocked from approaching it by a steep cliffside. Along its edge is a muddy-sandy region where the tide is mysteriously very low. The Emily tug, used for bringing in freighters to Site B, can be seen scuttled on the far docks.

The ocean makes a final appearance for the retail game in "Ascent", where only a cliff boarders it. Unlike the previous level, there are no scripted events which cause her to die if she goes down the edge. Typically a player wandering off over it will find their death from the amount of fall damage, but member Mattila/killer89 demonstrated that Anne can descend successfully if care is used.

The textures for the ocean in retail are fairly uniform, a relatively broad range of color being used. The transparent ocean textures from BE and JR may be not reduced to a 256-color palette, but for some reason have a lower range of colors. Lower still, for some reason, is the range of color specific to the retail JR ocean. Likewise its ocean floor texture is very degraded in color range, used instead of wet sand.

Usual Ocean

24-bit Ocean

JR Ocean

JR Ocean Floor

The oceans in some earlier versions of Trespasser, such as JR in build 55, are an entirely different kind of object in the game which may not be replicatable in new levels. Surprisingly these work in the latest versions of the engine, including Trespasser CE. Instead of a texture, a flat blue plane receiving fog is used.

Oceans in Trespasser are fairly similar to each other, yet can be quite varied. New levels sometimes feature an ocean, with their own textures, giving potentially fresh appearance to the Pacific for the TresCom community's engines. What will the next ones look like? No one knows...

[thetrespasserfrontier]

Theory of the View Building

Amongst the old pre-release images let out by Dreamworks Interactive for Trespasser in the earliest days was a set of images featuring a box-shaped, two-story building with broken blue glass windows inside an ominous pine environment. One of these images contained "view" in the name and as such the structure was called "the view building" by fans and later PV theorizers. Its purpose remains fairly mysterious, other than that it seems associated with the Geothermal Plant.

The view building is apparently sitting next to a concrete trench. Unlike the trench found in PV material later on, surrouding the outer wall for drainage, it has vertical walls and different textures. Possibly the shape was changed afterward to accomodate the physics used by terrain files.

Ontop of this rests a wooden bridge. A version of the familiar Trespasser model, "SWreckedBridge00-00", sits ontop, along with an extension missing from current model files.

The bridge is seen again, even earlier, also ontop of a concrete construction, in a concept art sketch. Based on some Walkthrough descriptions from Industrial Jungle, a swamp puzzle may have been planned here, where straying from the bridge would lead to certain doom.

Also beside the view building is a staircase into the trench. Like later PV files, this may have been to bring Anne back to a starting location if she fails a puzzle to cross. More stairs can be seen in another pine image along with another power pylon and the familiar brown hill.

In the lower right of the above image, we can see white patches along a thin path. What was this meant to be? The first-person view of the bridge, earlier, also features a white specked path beyond. TresCom member hppav once theorized this was a stream of some kind. Member MinePass has suggested it is a road, perhaps overgrown since InGen's departure.

Another image shows the building from a distance. A grey manmade landing appears to sit in front, perhaps a loading area if the it was meant as a warehouse.

The interior is also depicted. The building is mostly empty, likely so due to the evacuation. What purpose does the pipe above have?

Member MinePass has suggested the buliding may have been an early version of the cooling tower. The tower in PV level files is not enterable, and without research into the mechanics of a plant it's hard to say if  it qualifies. A pipe is featured on the outside of the cooling tower.

We may never know the true purpose of the view building. It may be that, like assets in other similar early images, it was created as a "test" asset to establish the intended appearance of assets for the game. The view building remains a PV-theory heritage mystery and has gone on to inspire theories and modded creations.

[thetrespasserfrontier]

The PV Tar Pits

Before TresCom's acquisition of the Beta Trespasser game in 2009, "build 96", the lost level Pine Valley was known only through a collection of pre-release images, showing parts of the level in various stages of development, and the demo level, an asset created by the devs which was based on the PV terrain along with some of its models and textures. Prior to build 96, fans devoted many web pages and posts to analysis and theory on what the level may have looked like.

One of the mysteries of PV was the tar pits, known by ingame-name as a "lagoon". Three images show the area with light-brown pine terrain, "proto Tres" foliage, and a collection of assorted assets. The flat, black liquid may have been tar, or it may have been murkey water. The objects placed with it were likely not intended for the represented ingame area, but the signpost may have expressed some warning detail about the pits.

In one image can be seen an obscured red machine, probably connected with the Geothermal Plant, and can be seen more clearly in another, older image. It may be akin to the "Feed Pump" located outside the Plant in build 96. [Circled red machine in Lagoon, Proto Tres red machine, beta feed pump]

Finally, it has been noticed that an area of road just before the Plant is both jagged-shaped terrain and covered in sandy terrain objects. Might there have been some sort of sink-hole here? This area is also where the road splits in earlier versions. [Beta sandy terrain, alpha road-split]

It is very difficult to verify if PV ever contained tar pits. Certainly the "CSetAlphaWaterAction" could have created murky CEntityWater objects (although in Tres this setting applies globally to all water in a level). The concept seen in the images may never have been actually applied to PV level files. It remains to be seen if this mystery is ever solved.