"20 Brush" level compo! WIP / discussion thread

With enough submissions it could be categorized like the leveldeisgn.nl competition. Or just limit Unreal users to only additive brush building. So, no subtracts, but you can still do all the crazy intersecting and clipping that radiant or hammer handle all the same.

Soooo obviously everything but UnrealEd sucks...

Just separate it out by engines, no? Then those Source kids don't have to worry about the super hot & sexy cool Unreal people shoving them into lockers and stealing their lunch money (or using subtractive brushes).

Warby: We specifically addressed the intersect and de-intersect operations with the rule only allowing convex brushes. No intersecting, no extruding in UE3/UDK, etc. It would absolutely be against the spirit of the challenge to build an entire level, convert it to a single brush, and say "oh look, I have 19 left."

As for additive/subtractive, I don't consider this against the spirit of the competition or an unfair advantage. This is intended to challenge you with a limited number of resources and encourage creative use of geometry in any technology you choose. If someone decides to build in UT99 or UT2K3/4, subtractive is the only option they even have. The combination of additive and subtractive is just a different way for people to build, and it doesn't inherently mean a better result. If you look at the results of the leveldesign.nl contest, I think the most remarkable entries are still the Quake 3 submissions, even though you can see one from Unreal where overlapping subtractive brushes have been used to create a significantly higher level of detail. I also think of Erratic's two, his stronger was the first that used only additive brushes, vs the number of his brushes that had to be used to create the trims (though the creation of 4 pillars with 1 additive and 2 subtractive brushes is, I think, exactly the kind of creativity this challenge is about). And personally, I don't think a single one of the leveldesign.nl submissions in Unreal had the strength of Campaignjunkie's Source level on page 1 - and he even wasted 6 brushes on a disco ball

Depending how many Unreal submissions we get vs. quake/source, we can look at splitting the results. But I don't expect the Unreal users to automatically beat out the others, and with the strength of the MapCore talent pool, I don't expect technology to be a limiting option or an unfair advantage.

CJ that tribute looks fucking awesome.

Ive finally got my layout planned, just need some time to make my CTF UT3 map now.

Really like the second one, looks nice!

somebody should make a mgs vr training level themed map

CJ: I love the colours Good Stuff

Heya, this seems like a interesting idea, aaaand I have an inspiration for something, but just that I have to nitpick and confirm the rules.

(with Source engine btw)

--The way I read the rules is that if I have one displacement face, it counts as a whole brush.

If I have a cube brush (6 faces), and I make a displacement out of that, all 6 faces, it counts as a single brush, or..?

Since the facecount of a brush doesnt matter, I take it a 6-faced displacement cube counts as a single brush.

--And that, you´ve ruled out displacement terrain, so only for structural use.

So does something not wholly organic, but not fully strucural, count? Biomechanical.

I imagine the terrain rule goes for mountains and hayfields.

cheeers

Stumbled onto this - I've spent little time lurking MapCore, but the idea of this intrigues me enough to register and try it out. Good excuse to practice my brushwork, in any event.

Quote from Leon_Kilean

Heya, this seems like a interesting idea, aaaand I have an inspiration for something, but just that I have to nitpick and confirm the rules.(with Source engine btw)

--The way I read the rules is that if I have one displacement face, it counts as a whole brush.

If I have a cube brush (6 faces), and I make a displacement out of that, all 6 faces, it counts as a single brush, or..?

Since the facecount of a brush doesnt matter, I take it a 6-faced displacement cube counts as a single brush.

Welcome, Leon! We actually tally each displacement (or patch, in id tech) as a single brush. This is in large part because it'd be very easy to take a complicated brush and convert 6 (or more!) faces to displacements or patches and go to town with it. If you look back at campaignjunkie's example map with the awesome disco ball, he used 6 of his "brushes" to create it out of a single solid.

Quote from Leon_Kilean

--And that, you´ve ruled out displacement terrain, so only for structural use.

So does something not wholly organic, but not fully strucural, count? Biomechanical.

I imagine the terrain rule goes for mountains and hayfields.

I would consider this a valid use. Our big concern is someone sculpting a big level out of terrain and saying "look how few brushes I used!" A biomechanical type theme (Prey immediately comes to mind) sounds like a great theme to try out, as long as it is not created with any sort of heightfield terrain editor (a la UnrealEd's terrain tool).

Quote from Slamdance Cosmopolis

Stumbled onto this - I've spent little time lurking MapCore, but the idea of this intrigues me enough to register and try it out. Good excuse to practice my brushwork, in any event.

And welcome to you, too! I think you may have the best name of anyone on this board.

You guys dig WIPs? Well there´s plenty to come.

Since the displacements are so expensive, I´ll skip my idea of building a Gigerish penis-alien for a level, and I´ll go with a minimal floating cube-level,

something Im not too keen on since its the first thing to come in mind with a competition like this.. But I´ll work like the devil on the textures -something Im pretty good at- so it´ll be interesting for me, how spiffy I can make out of this simple design.

[Blocked Image: http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh224/L…ean/20bWIP1.jpg]

The design was a simple 30min job, plus I added greyscale textures around that align somewhat according to the geometry... Next starts the texturing then.

PS. (The test for the Giger-alien-thing)

Quote from KungFuSquirrel

I think for this contest, we'll probably have to say it's probably a no-go. What did you have in mind?

I could use 20 base boxes as brushes (terrain, walls) but much more decoration objects but that brushes are objects too, that's nonsense. I'd use CryEngine or Chrome Engine but again... how to count brushes where there's no such stuff

[Blocked Image: http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh224/Leon_Kilean/WIP2.jpg]

Getting there, slowly. I need to refine the geometry a bit... and Im not happy with the skybox´s colours (the bottom is supposed to be oceany, but the light cyan feels odd)

I know Hammer and Radiant, but I have a lot of resources for Chrome Engine, I'm working with it every day. I'll think about it, I'll try UDK

And here then, worked on this in the afternoon for a good 3-4 hours, most of that went into the textures:

[Blocked Image: http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh224/Leon_Kilean/WIP3-1.jpg]

This IS 20 brushes, I´ve just clipped the brushes into more than 6 sides.

And the reason the textures align that well, is they´re actually "skinned" on top of the different brush faces.. the main floor is 4096x4096, but seems to run just fine. The only downside with that, is that from closer by, they´re a tad bit blurry... I might be able to help on that with macro textures tho. OH and the reason the layout and the colours are different in each shot, is because the map constantly changes form and colour (material proxies and func_doors).

I just have to fix a bug or two, and add some final spiff on that.

PS. Its a HL2DM map right now, couldnt think anything more creative.. =P

PPS. To further explain the "skinning on brush faces", here´s one of the textures:

[Blocked Image: http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh224/Leon_Kilean/WIP4-1.jpg]

PPPPPPPSSSSS. I did keep the original day version of the skybox as well, if anybody wants that, for..something? Or the night version. 2048x2048.

looks pretty cool to me.

I wondered if anyone was going to go with this texturing route for this. Great way to work around the texturing limitation on large brushes - something that's being a pain in the ass on mine thus far, haha