"20 Brush" level compo! WIP / discussion thread

    FINAL EDIT: Updated rules can be found here, please use these... I know there are a lot, but they're mostly there to cover edge cases: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=15843

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    EDIT: err, can someone move this to 3D forum? My bad.

    EDIT 2:

    Quote

    I'd submit, if we do this, a starting date of Jan 8th with a final submission on Sunday the 23rd? That's 3 full weekends and the two weeks in between... hopefully way more time than people need, but not so long that it fizzles out?

    INTRO

    Over at leveldesign.nl they've recently wrapped up a 20 brush level contest -- http://www.leveldesign.nl/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=102 -- and the results are really cool and inspiring. Maybe we could run one of our own too? (I recently discovered an invitation to be a judge in my Snarkpit inbox which I haven't checked for months... oops)

    THE RULES

    I think they have too many rules though (http://www.leveldesign.nl/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=86) so we could keep ours much simpler. I propose these:

    - For our purposes, a "brush" is a single convex primitive that was built in a level editor, whether additive or subtractive.

    - A small MP map in whatever engine you prefer, but that engine has to use BSP. (Source, HL1, Q1, Q3A, UT, UDK, Crysis?, etc.) Any game mode you want, though DM / KOTH would be easiest and CTF would probably be most difficult.

    - 20 brushes max. Each "face" of a patch or displacement, before it was subdivided, counts as a brush.

    - No fancy 3D skyboxes filled with props; use only the most basic skybox setup for whatever engine you're using.

    - No static meshes, detail props or particle systems, unless they're already part of a weapon base or capture point or other gameplay entity.

    - Each sprite / decal / overlay counts as a brush.

    - Custom textures allowed. Paint whatever you can within the time limit...

    - Unlimited number of faces on a brush, light actors, postprocessing, weapons, ammo, player spawns, vehicles, whatever.

    - Special brushes (skybox, portalsky, trigger, nodraw, etc.) don't count, as long as the player can't walk on them or run into them.

    - IN GENERAL, just try not to do stuff that goes against the spirit of this compo.

    TIPS & TRICKS (?)

    - Use the clip tool to make bevels; that way you can easily put trims, if you want.

    - Vertex manipulation is your friend. Remember -- in Hammer, you can select two opposing edges (the yellow boxes) and press CTRL+F to split the face!

    - Displacements and patch meshes are your friend too. In theory you could make your entire level out of one displacement... if that sounds like fun to you, go ahead!

    JUDGING

    From there, we vote on winners in several different polls: Overall Winner, Coolest Use of BSP, Prettiest, Coolest Layout, Weirdest, etc. whatever categories we want.

    No one will have time to play levels, especially with so many different engines, so they'll just be judged based on two (2) screenshots: (a) a beauty shot and (b) a layout shot. It isn't ideal, but let's be honest, it's how people would vote anyway.

    All we need is, like, 3 people and that'll be enough to get started. People can jump-in whenever they want.

    Sounds good? or bad?

    Moved it for you!

    I think it sounds like fun, and it's a short time commitment which always helps participation. I'm definitely interested. I'll put the call out on the MapCore Twitter, too.

    I'd submit, if we do this, a starting date of Jan 8th with a final submission on Sunday the 23rd? That's 3 full weekends and the two weeks in between... hopefully way more time than people need, but not so long that it fizzles out?

    I think 20 brushes is a good amount. It makes you think, "do I need this brush? What is this brush doing?"... which I think is a question that people skip over a lot.

    Then again, no one's going to verify whether you stayed under the limit or not. (Honor code and all that.)

    ... but like here's a floater I made in about 90 minutes as a test run. It's HL2DM low gravity KOTH instagib with ar2-altfires. The displacement sphere came from a 6-faced cube, so it counts as 6 brushes. (textures / skybox by Hipshot, converted and HDR-ified by me)

    [attachment=0]20b_nara0003.jpg[/attachment]

    [attachment=1]20b_nara0004.jpg[/attachment]

    ... and here's some examples from the leveldesign.nl compo:

    [Blocked Image: http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9837/cr3b20full.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.leveldk.co.uk/20b/20b_v2.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/phantazm11/Level%20Design/phantq3_20b_1.jpg]

    Like I said, this doesn't have to be a 10 month project. You can crank out an entry in an hour or two, in your editor / engine of choice, and enjoy yourself... Or you can make an awesome CTF map (like the leveldesign.nl people did) with only 20 brushes and plan everything meticulously.

    I took part in the leveldesign.nl comp.

    Their rules were fine. But yours suggest unlimited brush faces. That makes it possible for most people to build pretty much anything with just one brush. A face limit is required to keep it sensible. Otherwise you could honestly build anything and there would be no point in a brush limit

    This sounds right up my alley! Haven't cracked open an FPS editor in almost a whole year, so this provides the perfect excuse to give it a shot again. 20 brushes sure sounds limiting, but in a really cool way, and as said it really lowers the time investment required which will hopefully bring in a fair crowd.

    I don't think unlimited faces is a problem - surely we're assuming a brush has to be a single, convex primitive right? I don't think adding one with hundreds of faces really gives you much more flexibility than one with, say, 10 faces, if that is the case.

    Quote from Cr4zy

    I took part in the leveldesign.nl comp.Their rules were fine. But yours suggest unlimited brush faces. That makes it possible for most people to build pretty much anything with just one brush. A face limit is required to keep it sensible. Otherwise you could honestly build anything and there would be no point in a brush limit

    You do remember brushes can only be convex, right?

    I mean, you could in theory divide the crap out of a single source displacement and painstakingly paint a whole hedge maze out of it, but, if you want to spend three weeks on that, well hey, congratulations, you win!

    Generally, as long as we stipulate "convex" I think it'll be fine. UE3 allows for some pretty crazy structures, though, which I would argue might violate the "spirit of the competition" if abused. Converting an entire level to a single additive brush probably should be frowned upon.

    Grrr, Hammer seems as buggy as ever. First HL2DM will only load in the 2006 version of the SDK tools, which just renders empty blackness in the viewports on my ATI card. Then after setting it up manually to use the 2009 version of the tools, it appears to be working fine but will only show 1 of the 4 viewports at a time, even if I tell it to reset the 4 viewport windows. Some of the keyboard shortcuts (cut/paste for example, and tool hotkeys) are either not working at all or working with a weird delay, while others work perfectly fine!

    Think I might build an entry in UDK instead...

    Quote from sarge mat

    It's really about seeing what you can do anyway. I would not see the point in trying to cheat

    true, this is about pushing yourself. i began doing something today, i've finished geometry at 16 brushes

    cool, just one thing

    Quote from Campaignjunkie

    - Each sprite / decal / overlay counts as a brush.

    why so strict on this when:

    Quote from Campaignjunkie

    - Unlimited number of faces on a brush, light actors, postprocessing, weapons, ammo, player spawns, vehicles, whatever.

    ?

    No need to rush it, there's plenty of time. But, no harm starting now if you want; this isn't really a time-critical challenge. Should also give us a little time to iron out any kinks in the rules before the "official" start this weekend.

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