Wooooow!!! That’s awsome artwork! 
Those environments look so fantastic. Can you tell us please in few words about the process of environment creation. How do you figure out distances and metrics, lengths between ledges, areas that wont trouble the camera and stuff like that… does all of that come with experience or are there some methods, tips and guidelines…
Do you use Maya for level creation?
Thanks! 
it’s been said dozens of times in this thread… but… wow… this is easily the best game I’ve ever played, you’ve done the PS3 proud
you better be working on uncharted 3
going to miss nate, sully and elaina if not
Uncharted 2 , for me and i’m sure, for many many people all around the world, is the BEST game of 2009. That’s an AMAZING job you guys did there! Graphics, Dialogs, Environments, soundfx, EVERYTHING - TOP QUIALITY.
BIG Thanks to all Naughty Dog members!!! You deserve that.
From your great Fan from Russia 
Fantastic work again guys, been playing it for a couple hours now, and gotta say it is really an impressive game, one of the best i have played, engine, models, details… Very impressed with the realtime ambient occlusion shader! And did you guys used relatime GI? Sometimes it looks like the light scattering in some of the characters are coming from nearby objects, but not so sure if this is lighting well placed or hardware Gi we saw some time ago in some engine’s reels… Fantastic rig too, facial rig if surely the best i have ever seen at in game, now i understant the need of so many polygons on the face models, outstanding work guys! The anckle deformation is a bit odd by the way, but this is not a big deal at all.
I was wondering this as well. Is it screen space ambient occlusion?
Also thanks for the informative reply to my question earlier Behrooz Roozbeh, very helpful.
Hi,
There will be in-depth technical talks at the Game Developer Conference
(GDC 2010 /SF)
https://www.cmpevents.com/GD10/a.asp?
option=G&V=2&CPid=277,282&Sortby=1&SPln=0
also here are some online interview on uncharted2 and other tech analysis videos
General Game info here:
finally Naughty dog blog covers info related to uncharted2
I am not specialized in lighting , but general answer is yes. we have baked ambient occlusion shader also we have real time lights generating shadows.
my dealing with lighting is when we get artifacts and some noise and I have to manually turn off ao feature on problem shader/objects .
some interior cases engine ambient occlusion doesnt cut it and we layer it into the texture to compensate for lighting loosing normal info. What ever makes the illusion work. right?!
Hope somewhere above you find your answer. Cheers.
Behrooz<-long posts means I dont know what I am Talking about
You guys really rocks!
I really LOVE this game. 
I purchased PS3 almost only for this game.
I can hardly wait to play Uncharted 3; I’m sure everything in U3 would be greater than U2 as this game were.
Thanks for giving me the happiest time, Naughty Dog.
I’ll write this in my language just in case…
本当に素晴らしいゲームでした。
このゲーム最高！ほとんどこのゲームのためだけにPS3を購入したんです。
Uncharted3が待ち遠しい！きっとAmongThievesがそうだったように、全てが進化してるんでしょうね。
Naughty Dogのみなさん、最高のひとときを有り難うございます！
Hello Team Uncharted 2!
I completely LOVE the game. I really think it is the most groundbreaking game in a long time. Simply because it is the first game (that I know of, at least) that really steers you through an experience. It is EXACTLY like playing through a movie in my opinion, which I’ve never seen before. It’s not segmented as the MGS franchise (which I also love) for example. Two thumbs up for you guys. I would give you more but I can’t afford the plastic surgery 
Great assets! Have been scouring the web for something like this (I remember a similar post after the first game). Can’t believe I missed it for this long though! But really amazing assets and really great designs aswell!
But where is Lazarevic? I loved his design (aswell as the model, shading (!) and texture work). Who were involved in creating him? Really impressive work.
Also, I remember reading on several places that Uncharted 2 were using 80 000 polygon characters. I thought it seemed like a crazy amount and going by this thread it seems it was not correct. Could anyone clarify where this came from? Is it that all the LOD meshes equate to 80 000?
Man, I could ask a million questions but don’t really want to make this an interview
I’ll just say - amazing work and I loved every minute of the game and the art direction aswell as art assets are completely amazing. Hat’s off to the whole team!
Wow! Great work!! I’ve been following this thread for the past couple weeks… very cool! I need to get a PS3 and Uncharted 2 so I can admire this great work in action!
oh my god, i can’t wait.
I’d love to see more of your work as artists. How about the Nepalese temple, the village, Shambhala, Lazarevic or Elena?
Is Hanno Hagedorn still with Naughty Dog? I certainly hope so.
Hey guys,
Thanks for all the compliments !:o Please continue sending us your positive energies.
I know we collected bunch of images for an Art book a while ago… I have no idea where it stands.
Yes…Hanno is still in the kennel. 
Also If you search for our concept artists …there is a good chance you will find their web sites…as good as any art book out there.
here are a couple of links to keep you busy before the book is out:
http://illustration.org/?p=1746
http://www.characterdesigns.com/index.php?sitepage=recentWork
http://www.robhruppel.com/gallery-7-lighting-keys/
http://illustration.org/?p=1977
also the ones who escaped from the Kennel
Behrooz<-Sorry to keep diverting you out of Zbrush… desperate times
Hi… interviews from uncharted 1 link may answer your million questions:
Hint: Uncharted1 was using 30% of PS3power and uncharted2 is using 100%
http://www.naughtydog.com/docs/Naughty-Dog-GDC08-UNCHARTED-Tech.pdf
[QUOTE=Behrooz Roozbeh]Hi… interviews from uncharted 1 link may answer your million questions:
Hint: Uncharted1 was using 30% of PS3power and uncharted2 is using 100%
http://www.naughtydog.com/docs/Naughty-Dog-GDC08-UNCHARTED-Tech.pdf[/QU
Hi Behrooz and thanks for replying!
I’m pretty site I’ve read most of those articles and therefore I am a bit confused, especially regarding the polygon count. I’ll see if I Can find One of those links!
Thanks for the links though and especially your time! Keep up the great work!
OTE]
not familiar “I am pretty site” , but I understand confused.
I will ask around and see if I can get your answers.
,And later in the Bat-cave crime lab
…Checked around to make sure I am not giving away any company secrets.
characters max poly are ~30K
LOD drop as they go farther from camera
Beshrooz<-should have known better …not to post while doing my taxes
Thanks roozbeh for your time and effort!
Also, “im pretty site” should’ve been “im pretty sure” but my spellchecker is not so Nice to Me
Your website is pretty cool too Behrooz. Very impressive portfolio and some lovely screenshots of Uncharted 2 !
…always encouraging to see an “oldtimer” giving all those young whippersnapper game artist wannabees a run for their money in terms of sheer quality
Maybe I can hang on in there for a little while longer too !
Pigeon: you’r welcome. Thanks for the definition. Thank god for the Edit feature.
Tortilla: … its all about being at the right place at the right time
dont get me started with the aging. 48 in Dog years feels like accelerated decrepitude. Enough pointless ramblings of an aging hipster.
Behrooz<-Anger, denial, bargaining, depression, acceptance…all that Jazz
Sorry to jump in on this so late, but what’s the average time it took to create one of these tiling environment textures in zbrush? Which types were one were the most difficult?
Thanks for your time.
Hi Don, average set of texture (diffuse, specular, blend, height, transparency, normal,detail, environment,… etc.)takes a day or two (more or less). Usually we make two or three versions.
Its usual to model base geometry using Maya (lets say making a stone wall)and then in Zbrush add all the detail work on individual pieces and probably layer it with dirt , moss or ornaments…also for each version we make a damaged version to blend with the undameged set.
The ones with relief carvings. If you want to create a replica of a real piece that people recognize or if it should look exactly as your concept. These take more time.
Hope this helps.
Behrooz<- \m/
Hey, I just finished uncharted 2 and thought the character models were incredibly well done. Thanks for contributing to such an awesome game.