[WIP] de_pharaoh

    Hello guys. I don't know how I dint come to know this site early on. I had intended to post my work in progress here for more feedback. I am doing all of the work, modeling, texturing, lighting, etc. The only thing I got help with was the park logos and posters for the ad walls.

    I am working on de_pharaoh a CSGO bomb/defuse map. It takes place on a theme park section, where construction is almost finished on the new inverted roller coaster Pharaoh's Curse. Terrorist are no fun, so they want to blow up the coaster's train station, or the coaster's power generator. I started working on this project since early January. I wanted to do a map for CSGO for some time, and then suddenly it hit me that I could try to make a roller coaster themed map as I was looking forward to the theme park games coming out as well as doing some modding for Parkitect already. I have a detailed blog post of the changes every week which I'd like to share out.

    The idea of the map is that it's near completion but still not open for the public, just the final installations are being done. Bombsite A is the train station where a car is being installed, and bombsite B is a power generation for the coaster. The lift section as well as part of the ride goes through the middle of the map. Use that to align nades and to always know where you are in the map. It's sunny bright, with yellow tones similar to dust 2, but with a cartoony feeling in the "public" areas. I haven't worked on the call outs, but a lot of the zones have very natural names such as "exit, maintenance, lower fast pass, queue, entry, gift, etc"

    My current worry is the gift area, as enemy identification is still tough to balance out, lots of shadows and pockets which make it difficult to identify enemies. And I have to work more on the lighting of the queue area, as well as the detailing there as I feel is too similar. If you guys have ideas and suggestions, I am very opened to it.

    I recently released update 4 on the workshop, which I hope you guys will enjoy and let me know what you think out. Progress happens every week, and I try to publish a new update every month or month and a half due to the new long compile times.

    Cheers!

    Quote from Wrakke

    Just now, Wrakke said: Boy have you got competition.

    I know, I found out just before I went of to GDC. Gonna be tough, but I am gonna keep working.

    Quote from Motanum

    3 hours ago, Motanum said: I know, I found out just before I went of to GDC. Gonna be tough, but I am gonna keep working.

    Honestly competition and the quality standards that are being put out right now is what motivates me to work harder, its good that you're not giving up. I visual styles of both maps, and I will definitely play them both.

    Hey guys. A quick update.

    P4 was bugged out. I have fixed that and pushed out a new updated p5. It also includes some visual upgrades for Bombsite B, and the supply area around bombsite B. I also deleted some unsued models and textures. Finally I did some lighting tests for queue and some tests rocks which should not get on the way in entry queue. For Bombsite A I did some optimization as well as removing a door so now you can nade from and to Coaster Exit and Bombsite A.

    For this week I will try to focus my efforts into the queue area as well as the T spawn site a bit. Some unfinished elements there as well as the need for a light pass on queue.

    Cheers

    Spoiler How do I place the images in the spoiler section?

    Hey guys! This past week I focused extensively on the queue. I did a lot of redesigning the layout as well as doing touches on the art and theme. Now each room has an identify landmark. For example, There is an ark now, resembling a scene from Raiders of the Lost ark, which should help with call outs and help people not get lost. I also changed the layout between ark and tomb, so now there is no clear line of sight. This means that Terrorist are safer from the Ark room if they manage to cross emergency exit. However, I did ad a behind the scene drop way into ark, so you can go quickly from tomb and into Ark.

    I also did some lighting tests. Still need to do some tweaking. I want the queue area to be theatrical but still bright.

    I still have other layout changes ideas. I plan to bring down the main entrance, so T can have a way towards A without being spotted from middle. Some fixes to the light textures as well as to do more light tests on the queue area to get that finalized quickly for the next beta version of the map.

    Spoiler

    I wrote a small update on my blog post.

    Also, there is a new version n the workshop now available for play! Let me know what you guys think! I will also update my own server so feel free to play there with your friends!

    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi…s/?id=620464966

    Now, I will focus on the 3d skybox, soundscapes and cubemaps. And I will also edit layout if I get some feedback back from you guys. So please let me know what you think.

    Screenshots!

    Spoiler

    This map is looking phenomenal. I'd love to playtest it 5v5 to see how mid plays out.

    I feel like something is a little too cartoony with the color palette in the gift shop, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe the light tan near the top is too light, and the pastel bottles are too bright? Really hard to find things to complain about though. Love keeping up with the blog posts as well!

    It's nice to follow the progress of this map with the very frequent updates.

    Here's some feedback:

    I'm not a fan of these railing posts. They appear kinda "big". I think they would look better if they were a bit thinner and have a more fitting material. Maybe try a coloured version (blueish) instead of shiny metallic. You could give the nuke railing props a try as well.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/nT55MYm.jpg]

    Some of the colours used in the level are a bit too saturated imo. Here are a few examples and some suggestions on how to improve them (pardon my bad PS skills).

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/aRbMwgH.jpg]

    Not a really obvious thing here, but the awnings in the original seem to be almost pure white, which is very contrasting to the rest of the area. Toning it down just a little bit, would help the overall scene.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/s7c7fSE.jpg]

    Improving readability of the text.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/V6ZUwTM.jpg]

    You also mentioned the compile takes 9 hours and 53 minutes. That's abnormally long. How is it divided into vvis and vrad?

    Thanks for the comments! I will teak out the saturation! I agree with the metal posts. They were some of the first models and materials I made for the map, which means I wasn't as agile as I am now. It also doesn't help that the phong and specularity in Source is so old that I't a guess work trying to figure out what spec values will work well when I am working with substance. I will see what else I can flesh out!

    There are loads of hint and skips. VVis takes 10 minutes, quite long, but the real issue is the static prop polys. When I compile without staticpropolys it is quite fast.

    Quote from Motanum

    52 minutes ago, Motanum said: There are loads of hint and skips. VVis takes 10 minutes, quite long, but the real issue is the static prop polys. When I compile without staticpropolys it is quite fast.

    Try adding -StaticPropSampleScale 0.25 to the compile settings along with -StaticPropLighting. Might help if you don't already use this value/command.

    Quote from El_Exodus

    1 hour ago, El_Exodus said: Try adding -StaticPropSampleScale 0.25 to the compile settings along with -StaticPropLighting. Might help if you don't already use this value/command.

    I don't use it because I want the shadows to look good. Plus when the update was pushed out I added that command and it didn't really improve that much.

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