Speculation thread [img heavy]

by Reconcilliation , Imagination Station, Sunday, March 10, 2013, 18:32 (4373 days ago) @ zumphry

I'm probably reaching here, but those orb like structures (greenhouses? anger domes?!) kinda remind me of the shots of the windmills and the battered orb structures from O Brave New World:

Though, as Duncan pointed out (since I yoinked those images from him), that first image is from Bungie's Siggraph ’09 presentation, Lighting Research at Bungie, so those could've just been made to show lighting through moving structures (windmills) and structures that were partiality destroyed (orb structures).

...OR Mars has/had windmills for power because it's a desolate wasteland and orb like greenhouses so the people that lived there could have some sort of vegetation for self-sustaining themselves. The windmills' power lines even somewhat match the power lines connecting the buildings there in the concept art.

So maybe orb like structures are prevalent throughout Mars for its aesthetic/background (or that crack I just [figuratively] smoked was really good)?

Well, Mars has a very sparse atmosphere, I seriously doubt you'd get much energy with a windmill at those pressures. The image likely over-exaggerates the effect of sand buildup, that kind of movement of sand dunes probably doesn't happen on any sort of human timescales on Mars.

More striking to me were the dead-looking tree-things growing on parts of the building (in particular, the right hand side of the image). Lends some credence to a greenhouse somewhere inside. Makes me wonder what sort of things were being grown there, too.

Also, the way the image is put together makes me think of an artist taking an in-game screenshot of 3D assets, and then arting over those to help establish feel and aesthetics of the environment. A lot of the concept art seems to have this blend of 3D and 2D about it.