Img-Tag:
that one is for free 
On topic: Map looks solid - the waterfalls are looking good.
Nice screens, nice waterfal!
I realise this I just thought image spam might be bad etiquette -Changed anyway. Thanks for you comment
I do love picture spamming - and tbh no one 56k is around here any more.
I like the bases interior, very TFc like (in a positive way ofc 
)
The textures look cohesive and I like the architecture of the blue fortress.
Some of the light fixtures in the red pics don't look self illuminating. The red looks very saturated too. I like the shade of blue you used for the blue lighting, maybe use a red with the same amount of saturation?
Thanks for your comments. Re: lighting, inside the bases and above ground level I have used pastel shades so the colours are more subtle, the underground area for both bases has a more saturated intense light to contrast with the dark areas. These areas are just connectors to the main base really, and won't see much action, so I've taken a bit of liberty with the colours i think your right about the self lighting on the models, to be honest I havent paid much attention to how all those littlelight models render, but Ill sort it out for the final release.
I find outside base geometry a bit odd but I like the way you did that uphill route to the flag.
may i ask where you found the waterfall? while i havent seen it live, it looks amazing; and i am having the hardest time finding a way of getting such effect in source myself.
Bravo, clever use of displacements.
Your approach to lighting makes sense. Send me some dimensions and base colours and I'll wip up some light textures for you if you like, pretty simple stuff.
That's kind of you, you mean to use instead of the FF models? Surely models supercede brushbased lighting?
I need help now with regards to the performance on this map. It seems that on a busy FF server, (that's Fortress-Forever - not to be confused with friendly fire ) FPS drops to single figures in the flagroom. This is partly because of the reflective water, but also I think because of the moving textures on displacements method Im using to get my waterfalls. How easy would it be to convert a displacement to a model, and if I did this would it give a performance boost, bearing in mind I will be using the same moving texture material on the model?
Thanks for your comments.
Does FF use Orange Box SDK? If not ep1 doesn't support light emitting models so you still require light entities to give the impression the model is emitting light.
As for models vs textures it really depends on the circumstance. There are several cases where a texture does the job.
Using "$additive" 1 and "$translucent" 1 in conjunction with eachother it's possible to create very nice neon looking signage. The alpha map is used to simulate light falloff. This technique is prevelant and used to good effect in Dystopia mod. It can also be used to create very cheap inset style ceiling light fixtures too.
Texture lighting is also the way to go if you want to create a trim around an entire room that emits light.
I also don't use the lights.rad for texture lighting. I rely on selfillum and the alphamap to denote which areas should appear to be emitting light. I use this method for both models and textures.
Whether you use model or texture lighting, the light emitting areas need to match, or come close to the colour of the light entity. In your bottom pic for example the light is red but the model appears to be emitting a white light.
*edit re:performance issue
You could create the same shape by creating a brush the same size as the dislpacement, breaking it into triangles, then vertex manipulating the triangles to reflect the displacement shape. This would be more expensive than a displacement though. The geometry looks very clean and simple but purhaps it isn't well optimised or you have a leak (sometimes Source makes it through VRAD even though you have a leak, check your compile log for errors). Judging purely by the pics you should be able to afford an expensive material effect in that sort of scene. I'd look at optimising the geometry.
yess support FF
map looking good..
Looks good, if you can fix the performance issues I'll have to see about getting this known on the dev team forums.
Quote from m8nkeyDoes FF use Orange Box SDK? If not ep1 doesn't support light emitting models so you still require light entities to give the impression the model is emitting light.
Yes FF is still on the Ep1 engine.
As for models vs textures it really depends on the circumstance. There are several cases where a texture does the job.
Using "$additive" 1 and "$translucent" 1 in conjunction with eachother it's possible to create very nice neon looking signage. The alpha map is used to simulate light falloff. This technique is prevelant and used to good effect in Dystopia mod. It can also be used to create very cheap inset style ceiling light fixtures too.
Texture lighting is also the way to go if you want to create a trim around an entire room that emits light.
I also don't use the lights.rad for texture lighting. I rely on selfillum and the alphamap to denote which areas should appear to be emitting light. I use this method for both models and textures.
Whether you use model or texture lighting, the light emitting areas need to match, or come close to the colour of the light entity. In your bottom pic for example the light is red but the model appears to be emitting a white light.
I get your point, some of my models arent the correct colour for the light they are emitting, Im going to sort this.
*edit re:performance issue
You could create the same shape by creating a brush the same size as the dislpacement, breaking it into triangles, then vertex manipulating the triangles to reflect the displacement shape. This would be more expensive than a displacement though.
How would this help my performance then? Surely it is best to keep the displacements as they are ?
The geometry looks very clean and simple but purhaps it isn't well optimised or you have a leak (sometimes Source makes it through VRAD even though you have a leak, check your compile log for errors). Judging purely by the pics you should be able to afford an expensive material effect in that sort of scene. I'd look at optimising the geometry.
I have no leaks - if I did you would notice the water not renedering properly, if at all. I think world geometry is my main bottleneck, so yesterday I tried using XSI to convert some brush based geometry into models. I got as far as exporting a mesh and compiling it into a model, that works fine. The problem I am having is gettting textures onto my model. Unfortunately the tutorial I found for XSI here: http://www.hl2world.com/wiki/index.php/ ... ng_Outline seems to be outdated, or for a different xsi version, I am having great trouble unwrapping my mesh and getting a texture onto it. If anyone knows more about this than I do i would be grateful of the help. I will look into using a diferent program to get a material onto my mesh, that might be easier than trying to work out how to use xsi, which seems to me like it doesnt want me to have materials on my model mesh.
Looks good, if you can fix the performance issues I'll have to see about getting this known on the dev team forums.
Hi ginerlord good to see you on here and much enjoying epicentre Have you much experience with the brush-to-model procedure described above? DrSatan is putting togethere a map pack, I think hes holding off to see if this and a few other maps get finished before he releases it.
Thanks for your help and comments.
you can copy the displacement you have and paste it in a new empty map and file>export to .dxf which 3ds max can open. That's how I do it.
I worked out that you can export a displacement as part of a prefab VMF, which can be imported into XSI. I dont have nor am I willing to shell out for max, I am but an amateur!
Anyway this is academic as I have worked out that displacements arent hitting FPS too badly, and props are actually my main bottleneck, especially when combined with the expensive water I have. As light fittings are what I am using most of my props for, I think it is an idea to rethink my lights set up and get rid of the props. I am so glad I worked this out before geting further into converting brushes to models,which would only have compounded my problem if anything.
Quote from m8nkeyYour approach to lighting makes sense. Send me some dimensions and base colours and I'll wip up some light textures for you if you like, pretty simple stuff.
I would like to take you up on this offer if it's still open, i will send you some info in a pm.
Edit: I cant read lol.
What does the showbudget panel show?
found an .dxf importer for xsi for ya!
http://www.highend3d.com/xsi/downloads/ ... -4354.html
so if you wanna do it the way I was talkin about you can.. unless you figured it out with that other way..
Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!
