The project I have been working on for quite a while, the same project that has known "breaks" of approximately 6-12 months, will hereby enter its final stages. I have decided that it is not really worth my time to continue moddeling on a project that will never see the end if I dont cut it off. Of course, this means I will be rendering it in high quality, as long as my PC allows me to, but it also means it wont enter a game engine of sorts, so that people can walk in it, or get any characters.

The reason is simple; there is a vast amount of things wrong with it. To make a nice list out of it:
-The floor was textured wrongly; tiles do not work that well on organic surfaces (and by the time they do, you have got yourself a crapload of tiles and a whole lot less time. Too much of a hassle for just one measly environment).
-I couldnt get the grass right. I did model a few patches and some other stuff (which seemed to work pretty well), but positioning those was hell. On top of that, a lot was needed to get rid of the static feeling, which just wasnt worth all that work (on top of that; with a lot of clones, the texture repeating is bound to get noticed).
-To colors were too bright. Something I recently noticed is that all my colors seem to get way too bright for these models. I should really tone down on the satiated colors.
-The temple itself (being 3 years old, so it isnt any wonder), was not modelled efficiently. Details on places that were barely visible in the first place, triangles floating around that didnt have any meaning whatsoever, and so on. The size was also not good; approximately half the detail of the entire scene was part of the temple.
-The temple consisted out of literal blocks. I really took the term "building blocks" a bit too seriously... Result is a temple that looks a bit repetitive.
-Sizes are screwed; the bridge for example had really a really strange set of dimensions, as opposed to the rest.
-Nature was sloppy; the billboards were not sufficient and I felt the trees to be rather repetitive as well.

I could go on for a while, but long story short; keeping up with this project is like trying to prevent the Titanic from sinking. Its pretty much a lost cause.

Instead, I am planning to make an entire new one, which would also be a good way to see how much I have improved over time. However, if I am going to start it, this one is going to go into an engine one way or another, so this time I am planning to do things the right way. Make some concept sketches, a detailed layout, etcetera. I might also address the style instead of it being pseudorealistic; I am thinking of changing the entire thing into a pendrawing kind of style.

Anyhow, I will at least render the current temple and then it is time to consider this project as finished. Damn, 3 years. Never knew I would drag this out the dust so often.

edit:
Well, I have decided to make this new temple. However, I am not going to do it in the ink painting style I talked about earlier. Instead, I am going to try and do something much closer to myself with it; I will try to change the temple and its entire surroundings into the style I recently started using. You know, the whole illustrative style.

I also plan to approach this much more effectively than the last one. For now, the plans are;
-create a style that has a bit of a cartoonesk feel (no cell shading), by making the entire environment a bit "crooked". Think like "Jak and Daxter" kind of style environment, without the overly bright colors.
-create a color scheme that is easy on the eyes; no extremely satiated colors (current focus, green and brown with a dash of blue).
-make it take place in the winter, with pines. Pines are less needy with leaves, snow can cover lots of areas to give the impression vegetation has just been covered. Plus, I love the winter and snow. Win-win situation .
-draw a thorough map of the entire area to be modelled (think of maps, depth maps, detail maps, those kind of things).
-create sketches for the environment and characters; this time I am going in with sketches instead of a vague idea of what I want. Will also most probably cause the temples not to be a freak combination of architectural styles.
-try to create a generator that generates at least the trees; creating a forest is hell. Creating a forest that doesnt look all "samey" is even worse. Making several areas dense on trees is not smart to do by yourself or without the proper tools. If needed, I will try to get someone else to make some kind of max script to generate the trees .
-This time, I WILL try to put it into a game engine (most probably Unreal 3, because of the easy script engine).

Yet another project being way too large, but one that has a better chance of succeeding as mr. sinking ship before .

Of course, this is all after my current deadlines have been taken care off. Which are 5. Almost 4.

-2 graphic packs
-1 graphic pack plus design document
-1 kiriban for Wybsu
-1 school project