WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

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Lighting and geometry is nearly done. Unfortunately the engine is suffering from some severe bottleneck because those sharp shadows are causing the fps to drop to 0, specially in the main area with the green glow. The rainbow colors are caused by I don't know what. It isn't texture compression because compressing lightmaps with DXT would cause the same artifacts seen in quake 3 when texture compression is enabled.

Was thinking about that pool: green meaning toxic vs blue meaning liquid nitrogen

Quote from mr.P

ye thats some nice shizzle castle! agree with fmpone, wanna see/hear more about the art style dressing that will go ontop, would not mind if it was in a bottom mineshaft with some steep ass rockwalls leading up to a scorched surface with some chains etc hanging down for some nice parallax,

or overgrowth theme, might go more inhand with the temple-ish style already in there...

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Wow, I haven't seen this screenshot in a while. I really need to go back and finish this map.

Can't wait to see your map, Hipshot!

Quote from FMPONE

That's what a beast this guy is! Seriously, I'm loving these update shots dude. It's fantastic. My critique would be that this looks like a nice, fairly generic "under" layer. I now want to see you take it in a new, interesting direction with a "twist" which would go over your sci-fi hexagon kind of style. I'm thinking nature (overgrowth) + hexagons, or holo screens and girders + hexagons, something + the hexagon foundation to really bring it all to life and to it together into something unique.

I'm curious to hear if you had any of that in mind thematically, what your gameplan is. Keep up the great work.

Well the plan has been to find something that is next gen looking but isn't too over the top like UT3s art style. If you take a solid look at UT3 Low poly level designs you see a much better representation of level design in terms of game play. However the graphics end up taking a back seat and you end up with a next generation engine running what looks like old school level design.

For example: PlayForGG's UT3 map.

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It looks great right? But it also looks like it could have easily looked roughly the same in UT2004. Which is fine, but what should a PC centric next generation FPS look like? How can we make something that appeases the PC master race of tomorrow while not making every area a blurry visually confusing headache?

Finding this balance has been a giant mind battle for me for years. If you make a level that is designed around pure game play you end up holding back on the visuals and if you make something that goes balls out on visuals you end up hurting the game play. For the most part UT3 tended to do the latter.

The answer to this dilemma, I think, is to try and make an arena that looks as though it was constructed for the sole purpose of deathmatch like a Portal test chamber. The portal test chambers are visually impressive and they explain the strange game play centric geometry choices while not stepping outside of reality. You find a balance where you can try for fully realistic visuals while having the oddly shaped rooms and hallways an arena shooter often requires.

So my plans for UT4-1on1-Chamber has been to embrace this idea that it is a artificial construction like a Portal test chamber. I love the idea of hanging vegetation. I haven't really thought enough about how generic this will end up looking if i am not careful! that's is definitely something to keep in mind. I am planning to put stadium seating around the outside as well as a dome ceiling. I have considered hanging TV screens and a set of arching power grid nodes.

I will likely be thinking about how I want to move forward as I am about to take a 1460 mile trip very soon and I wont be near a PC for awhile xD

Quote from phantazm11

Wow, I haven't seen this screenshot in a while. I really need to go back and finish this map.

Can't wait to see your map, Hipshot!

make it happen! this map will seriously make me re-install q3 ...it would fit so good to see the lil bouncy armour shards like candy on the right side, and also add a platform in the middle of the big pillar with a teleport exit and red armor

Not sure if this should be its own thread but Here is the video of me making the level.

You can download and play the level here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-2YIX…dit?usp=sharing

Quote from Castle

Not sure if this should be its own thread but Here is the video of me making the level.

You can download and play the level here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-2YIX…dit?usp=sharing

http://youtu.be/vJ11VkWLDK4

Excellent. Inspirational. Make more!

Quote from Castle

Not sure if this should be its own thread but Here is the video of me making the level.

You can download and play the level here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-2YIX…dit?usp=sharing

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Great vid, it's really nice to see fast DM and TDM levels being created these days, I'm actually starting to look forward to the new Unreal. A good and even 1v1 match is also the ultimate experience. before skydiving or whatnot.

Quote from Hipshot

Great vid, it's really nice to see fast DM and TDM levels being created these days, I'm actually starting to look forward to the new Unreal. A good and even 1v1 match is also the ultimate experience. before skydiving or whatnot.

I like it a lot myself. I feel like UT4 is a chance at a modern Arena shooter to really shine. The completely new development model is amazing, the tech is amazing, what can be done is limitless. But most of all I think its a great time to branch off oldschool FPS design and make a new modern counterpart. Single player that involves figuring out levels and collecting keys with hand placed monsters combined with fast paced arena multiplayer.

I want to design a mod that brings back Doom 2 style game play. XD

My issue with Unreal has always been the core movement and I know they won't change that. Vanilla Q3 had a shitty art direction when it came out, UT was so much cooler. But unless they skip that shady dodge and double jump system I will always think Quake is superior in gameplay, even if modes like Assault are really really fun and I wish Q3 had a similar mode!

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Dude, that's killer!

Beauttttiful.

Quote from Hipshot

My issue with Unreal has always been the core movement and I know they won't change that. Vanilla Q3 had a shitty art direction when it came out, UT was so much cooler. But unless they skip that shady dodge and double jump system I will always think Quake is superior in gameplay, even if modes like Assault are really really fun and I wish Q3 had a similar mode!

Your level looks amazing man!!

As far as the movement I can tell you it already feels roughly the same as UT3. Quake 3 is better in terms of game play mainly because its so boiled down, every weapon is a clearly defined archetype. UT has always been all over the place making every gun roughly equal and encompassing multiple archetypes. However on the highest level an observation I am having with top end competitive play is that Quake 3 is actually too boiled down to be an ideal competitive platform anymore. The reason is that top end players dont miss anymore. Combine this with hit scan weapons and ...

Its like basket ball where every player can shoot hoops from any place on the floor. The community has out grown the older Arena shooters.

Quote from Castle

Your level looks amazing man!!

As far as the movement I can tell you it already feels roughly the same as UT3. Quake 3 is better in terms of game play mainly because its so boiled down, every weapon is a clearly defined archetype. UT has always been all over the place making every gun roughly equal and encompassing multiple archetypes. However on the highest level an observation I am having with top end competitive play is that Quake 3 is actually too boiled down to be an ideal competitive platform anymore. The reason is that top end players dont miss anymore. Combine this with hit scan weapons and ...

Its like basket ball where every player can shoot hoops from any place on the floor. The community has out grown the older Arena shooters.

Heh, I see it the other way around and better players hit worse players all the time, not those that are as good =) Even with slimmed down weapon and movement features.

I agree fully that the gaming community has grown out of arena shooters, that's also the reason why UT4 is a mod-based development and not a AAA-title, Epic knows that it won't sell like Uncharted or Watchdogs, not even with the best marketing.

Quote from Hipshot

Your level looks amazing man!!

As far as the movement I can tell you it already feels roughly the same as UT3. Quake 3 is better in terms of game play mainly because its so boiled down, every weapon is a clearly defined archetype. UT has always been all over the place making every gun roughly equal and encompassing multiple archetypes. However on the highest level an observation I am having with top end competitive play is that Quake 3 is actually too boiled down to be an ideal competitive platform anymore. The reason is that top end players dont miss anymore. Combine this with hit scan weapons and ...

Its like basket ball where every player can shoot hoops from any place on the floor. The community has out grown the older Arena shooters.

Heh, I see it the other way around and better players hit worse players all the time, not those that are as good =) Even with slimmed down weapon and movement features.

I agree fully that the gaming community has grown out of arena shooters, that's also the reason why UT4 is a mod-based development and not a AAA-title, Epic knows that it won't sell like Uncharted or Watchdogs, not even with the best marketing.

Yes! The skill cap in Quake 3 is amazingly high thus it can often create the feeling that hitscan weapons result in one sided matches even though it was really due to skill.

The thing is though, it now seems to be a paradigm across all modern arena shooters to not allow hit scan weapons. And many times even while talking to the same people who were for a standard shotgun spread in CPMA I have been told that they wished to experiment with giving RG a cone. (This was many years ago.) When I watch modern 1 vs 1 matches these days both players have roughly equal skill in aim if you look at their statistics while the determining factor to who wins the match is through movement and tactics. I think a lot of this tends to be due to the nature of hit scan weapons. What do you think about this?

imo, if q3 had 70% of the pro harcore fps:ers, then hldm probably had the rest 30%, unreal (at any point) didnt have a chance compared to these two, not to mention the disepointment all other unreal games was (however ut which was fairly good) and its fairly easy to see why, hldm was by far a more fast paced game compared to q3 where q3 was more about timing, they both had good networking and physics, so did ut...but remember later unreal revamps being glitchy and unplayable, what saved epic was def gears, even after their tries to get the community involved after the "make something unreal"-contest,

their new take on ut seems good, with the engine being free and all that, that approach might work, from what i've seen so far their tools are good and user friendly, perhaps they will have a chance,

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The "T" pipe on the floor was missing a source of liquids, added two tanks in each side of the lift for that. Dimmed the light beams by making the alpha channel 50% darker.

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This is what I want as a final target for lighting, but the problem is that lightmaps like that are having two major drawbacks: unplayable framerate and unberable rebuild time.

Updatetime. Most of the puzzles are still missing but thats my mistake. i like the design phase a bit more so i often set the "lame" stuff at the end. I know my work flow is flawed because every change I make in the end can result in mayor optical changes

Also these areas are not pollished in any way. its the sheer size of this map ... Well less then 3 weeks to go...

Here is the latest video for my TF2 CTF level

Episode 11 of Castle Does, TF2 CTF_TheDamned_b3

I will begin putting my videos on this thread rather than make new threads as I plan to be making A LOT of these videos and I dont want to spam.

Quote from Castle

Here is the latest video for my TF2 CTF level

Episode 11 of Castle Does, TF2 CTF_TheDamned_b3

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I will begin putting my videos on this thread rather than make new threads as I plan to be making A LOT of these videos and I dont want to spam.

What program do you use to record hammer?

Quote from holiestcows

What program do you use to record hammer?

Its called Open Broadcast Software or OBS

Its pretty effective for the most part but when working with UE4 I notice some slow downs.