Pre-beta content: Difference between revisions

Fans have sometimes observed that earlier versions of Oni's levels as seen in pre-release screenshots and the [[Trailers#1999|1999 trailer]] looked sharper or more detailed than the release versions. The reasons for these differences are given in these three posts by Hardy LeBel, Oni's Design Lead:

{{Quotebox|align=none|width=850px|source=--[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19648 source]|quote=There was no conflict between anybody. It was just that early versions of the story called for certain locations and (before they knew any better) the architects went ahead and modelled them as "real" spaces (you shoulda seen the fully modelled toilets...very impresisve!). We basically had to go back into every level of the game and completely rip it apart to support the gameplay we were going for or else build them new from scratch.}}

{{Quotebox|align=none|width=850px|source=--[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19669 source]|quote=All of the levels were remodelled in a short period of time. Higher detail environments were typically the ones that needed less changing. [...] I do remember that there was discussion at one point about the fact that every level started to get the bluish tint because they were all "high-tech". Perhaps that led to the new palette.}}

{{Quotebox|align=none|width=850px|source=--[http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19695 source]|quote=As I said, glass (and the glass-breaking effects) was often stripped out of the levels for performance reasons. That particular iteration of the TCTF lobby was reduced to a crawl because of all the glass. Also the glass retaining walls and bannisters didn't provide any cover for gunfights from one ledge to the other, so they were replaced by the low walls.}}

Level names in Oni are stored in the global resource file known as "level0_Final", so that the out-of-game loading dialog can display them. Somewhat surprisingly, the names of missing levels are present even in retail versions of Oni.

It appears that levels below 20 were intended as single-player levels, 30-35 were multiplayer maps, and the rest were test levels. For some of those levels, there are fragmentary scripts which can be found in the [[European Mac releases]] of Oni. If there was any info to be gleaned from those scripts, it is described in that level's section. Here are the missing levels alongside their presumed BSL folder names. Click the name to jump to that section below:

The presence of the '''Airport_II''' IGMD folder in some versions of Oni explains why retail Oni contains an '''Airport''' and '''Airport_III''' folder but no "Airport_II". The scripts in this folder are very short and little of the level can be gleaned from them. However, a mention of the animation "KONOKOlev5_outro_run" allows us to pin down '''Airport_II''' as the missing level 5 in the sequence of levelx_Final folders in GameDataFolder. This is consistent with '''Airport''' being linked to level4_Final and '''Airport_III''' being linked to level6_Final. [http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=14227 This post] by Chris Butcher indicates that there was an underground portion to the Airport which was removed.

===Obsolete, etc.===

This level, which would have been level7_Final, represents the gap between the end of the airport levels and the first TCTF HQ level. Since Bungie blanked the name of this level, we can only speculate on this level and the unnamed levels 15 and 17 (for 16, see "BGI HQ"). However, Chris Butcher's comment above and Hardy's comment [http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=19648 here] indicate that levels were originally ordered in line with an earlier version of the story.

 

Hence, the gaps in numbering are mostly indicative of a change in plans rather than content being cut. When the game was taking its final form during an intense crunch period, closing the gaps in the level numbering would have required renumbering levels that didn't otherwise need to be moved. Names of various animations indicate that the Mountain Compound level which is now level19 was once numbered level7. What that says for the original flow of the story is difficult to say, but it illustrates how much content may have been shuffled around.

This level was likely intended as Konoko's final confrontation with the shadowy [[BGI]], which was later excised from the story as Oni's development ran out of time. Fragments of a script for this level can be found in [[European Mac releases]] and the [[Oni (PlayStation 2)|PS2 port]]. The scripts contain two cutscenes, one of which describes Konoko setting a bomb and taking cover, and the resulting explosion, and the other cutscene introduces the [[Iron Demon]] that would end up getting cut from the game. The number of the level indicates that these events would take place before Konoko returns to the TCTF to confront Griffin and after meeting with Kerr in the Science Prison.