Natural History Museum, London

This is a mostly complete 1:1 recreation of the London Natural History Museum, sans the more recently built extensions and not including any of the real exhibitions.

This has been my ''lockdown activity'', of sorts. All mesh created inside the hammer editor, and using near-exclusively custom textures ( 125+ ! ) all edited by hand.

Currently only compiled for cs:go, but I intend to port it to at least gmod as well, maybe it could work as scavange/survival in l4d2? Would love to see it in HL:A too, but I don't yet own VR so if anyone's interested to port it for me - or in contributing in any other way, please do contact me. If you've got a good idea for props to fill the exhibition spaces with, that'd be cool too - I was gonna do a half life theme but pretty quickly ran short of actual suitable models, at least that I could find.

Files;

• 24/08/2020 (first public release): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ojDYBt…gJjI7Up8_1/view
• 02/09/2020 (improved east hallway, 24 spawnpoints): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PKLII33cFCqnOnBOmLTD8dFUealSDCbY/view
• 18/09/2020 (all around improvements/additions, fixed cubemaps): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YkZuPr…1lZ7pFuFRc/view
• 15/11/2020 (added exterior, increased model quality, general polish) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1veuRpy29IGv8cxBl3OuQWsuoTmAy5TBe/view
• 21/09/2021 ( changes listed below ) ( edit; now includes working nav mesh! ) https://gamebanana.com/dl/662744
• 11/11/2021 https://gamebanana.com/dl/691124

( look through posts below for more detail on the changes )

Spoiler

Thanks it's for cs:go

I want to compile it for other games too eventually, like gmod and HLA

Ah, never played Arkham City but I just looked at a video of the level. Yea, they've definitely taken some of this architecture for that map, but the layout's entirely custom as far as I can tell. Makes sense, really, the real museum's layout is pretty barebones when you get down to it, which I think they're trying to counteract nowadays by putting up a lot of temporary walls to kind of subsection the big halls into more densely usable spaces. Quite enjoying the arkham interpretation though, very bioshock-esque

[edit] was gonna upload a new file last night but I noticed some oversights that I'd like to fix first, here's a screenshot of the redone east hallway though - you'll notice the lighting is kinda drab because I forgot to make the windows transparent

Spoiler

New file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PKLII33cFCqnOnBOmLTD8dFUealSDCbY/view

Changelog;

• rebuilt east hallway
• added details to hallway entrances & ground floor display chambers
• redid parts of the north hall second floor
• added details on third floor & got a bark texture for the sequoia slice
• fixed clipping & missing walls at ground floor main hall wing entrances
• fixed west hallway ''triple arch'' texture & rebuilt mesh
• general texture cleanup
• general clipping fixes
• found out renamed map files don't run cubemaps lol (which still affects this release but I'll try to remember it for the next one)
• increased spawn points from 2 to 24

Spoiler

New file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YkZuPr…1lZ7pFuFRc/view

Changelog; (yea it lists some v minor things but this was kinda just my checklist as I was editing the map)

• east hallway: added doorway on end right
• east hallway: entryway ceiling/texture
• east hallway: back wall new texture
• east hallway: display case side textures
• west hallway: ceiling/window textures
• west hallway: arch1 texture improvements
• west hallway: ceiling arch texture
• parallel hall: ceiling/window textures
• parallel hall(way): arch1 & arch2 textures
• wing hall: wall/window texture
• main stairway texture improvements
• upper bridge texture improvements
• main hall second floor: new mesh for stained glass windows
• main hall second floor: new stained glass projection
• main hall second floor: goat gate unique texture & mesh
• main hall second floor: moa room stained glass mesh
• main hall: new window textures
• main hall: improved / added more floor textures
• fixed ''inside'' textures on all arches (maybe temp idk yet)
• adjusted cubemaps & remembered not to rename bsp

Since it's relatively small changes all over the map I feel like new screenshots aren't super warranted right now, they're still meaningful changes though so if you're interested in the map please don't hesitate to get the newest version. [edit] got some new screenshots anyway but I decided to replace the ones in the main post rather than put them here

I'm kinda hoping this'll be my last upload before the ''rc1'', so if any of you *do* experience a crash while running this map, please let me know sooner rather than later. I've still yet to have issues on my end with these files but it wouldn't be the first time I'm getting some weird behaviour so honestly idk maybe my editor is just cursed.

Full release / rc1 will mostly mean colour correcting all the textures and adjusting clip meshes here and there, but since there's at least ( * glances at materials folder * ) like a hundred unique textures that's not necessarily just one afternoon of work. Also my texture editing folder's like 23GB and entirely not sorted so that's not gonna help speed things along ( ._.) Either way yea don't sit on the edge of your seat waiting for it and please download this release so I can fix some of the inevitable glaring oversights

Thanks for 1000 views everyone

I've been kind of busy the past 2 weeks so I didn't find much time to work on the map. I've sorted & renamed most of the relevant textures though, so there's still some progress on that end

Don't intend to include this in any public releases, but here's a screenshot of the main hall with real-time reflections from a few weeks ago. It's kind of washed out & I could have gotten it looking better if I didn't layer the reflection over the regular floor, but then I'd've had to make like 10 different materials and idk I was probably tired

opaque reflections for reference;

Spoiler

Pretty much in the last stretch now, managed to do some good work on it through the autumn break but still falling just short of what I'd confidently call the RC1. Finally got lighting figured out a bit though, and swapped out all the dynamic models for static ones - so better shadows and no more seams.

Got nearly all the textures' colour and brightness normalized, and improved the meshes on all the custom props with much increased polycount as well as adding some more details while I was at it. Most of the map's detailing up till now had been done with - well - at lack of a beter phrase; hammer sensibilities. I should clarify that I have little if any real modelling experience, and rather have mostly just limited myself to working within the source sdk itself. This has caused some quirks in my work, such as that I (with very few exceptions) only create lines at relatively specific angles, as well as that I tend to be pretty conservative with my brushwork - well, conservative compared to someone using modelling software, but pretty liberal by hammer standards. On this map though, I hit the block and waterindice limit right before I intended to upload the first public version on here, so I had to start using propper to get that back down.

Since that pretty much completely removed my constraints, I've been able to add much more detail than originally planned, which is kind of a monkey's paw since I'd hoped to be done with it much sooner. What was I getting at again? Oh right - so the point is that even though I'd converted most of the map details into props, they were still designed with ''how do I make this out of as few blocks as possible'' in mind, which means very large and often very elongated polygons. So, yea, I've subdivided them and tried to equalize the polygon size a bit, which has improved the lighting a lot.

I've also culled some of what I considered redundant areas - in effect about half of the wing & parallel halls, since they were all just copies of oneanother. Some of the doors in the east hall are open now though, and the stairwell is fully usable now, too. Not very well detailed, mind you, but it's very hard to find references for it, nevermind create some acceptable textures.

Spoiler

I'd originally dropped doing the building's exterior, but it was pointed out to me that looking through the ceiling windows of - well - all of the parallel halls had you looking right through everything so clearly it needed to be fixed.

(rough) changelog:

Spoiler

• added building exterior
• made lots of arches less blocky
• more windows are now transparent
• improved lighting
• misc. texture improvements
• misc. model improvements

Spoiler

Hey so I usually don't like to bump my threads unless I've got something to show but oh well

Firstly, sort of antithetical to the point of this post but a short changelog; ( starting from my last post in this thread )

• bunch of new textures & started modelling large parts of the exterior
• re-...structured(?) a number of large textures, to reduce wasted space & increase texture density on models + general model improvements
• fixed second floor dimensions
• reconnected building exterior and interior

[edit]

I've deleted most of this post because it was just me venting in tangents but the main point of it was that I'd (finally) found some much higher quality reference material - but since I only found it now it meant I'd ""have to"" start re-doing large parts of the project, which was kind of overwhelming

Working with my new reference material, redoing huge swathes of the structure so my previous insinuations of near-done-ness are once more back in the aether. Gonna start logging all my changes in this post from now on because . . it seemed like a good idea?

Rolling changelog;

------------------------- [ +18/06/2021] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• wing exterior scaling fixed, new textures & models
• created interior for eastern & western 2nd floor (second meaning top floor bc British) ( herbarium pre-war interior ) & improved wing roofs
• redid front entrance ramp
• new stone handrail texture ( which seems minor but this texture is used A LOT and honesty the old one was total garbage )
• new metal handrails ( actually I've had those for a while now but I'm not sure I mentioned them previously )
• improved mosaic floor textures ( the main one wasn't actually tiled previously, but it's so noisy that you might not have noticed the edges unless you looked close )
• all main hall second floor central ceiling tiles are now unique instead of using the same one 6 times, the ones above the lower part of the hall are still repeated (for now(?))
• cleaned up parallel hall archwall textures
• turned main hall ceiling windows into models to fix translucency sorting issues & general quality enhancement
• various model and texture improvements

------------------------- [ +20/07/2021] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• substantial improvements to stone handrail models ( second floor, bridge )
• miscellaneous improvements to bridge & upper bridge area
• substantial improvements to second floor centrepiece
• brand new textures & models for wing pillars
• added raised walkways to dinosaur exhibit ( west wing ground floor )
• added unique textures and models for back-facing wing sections
• rescaled & re-detailed west hallway & parallel halls
• re-detailed main hall exterior to match back-facing wing sections & updated north towers
• updated metal handrails
• updated mineral exhibition cabinets
• north hall: added skylight models & detailed exterior
• main hall: updated skylight models
• adjusted wing skylights

------------------------- [ +17/08/2021] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• updated main hall / north hall first floor exhibition cabinets
• revamped main hall first floor "south-facing-doors"
• detailed front entrance
• added raised walkway in dinosaur exhibit & added tarpaulins to exhibition spaces
• new seamless textures for small pillar clusters in main hall / north hall
• adjusted main hall roof & skylights
• improved bridge & upper bridge handrail textures
• improved main hall staircase model
• basic detailing for front gardens
• sprinkled around detail props throughout building
• revamped main hall floor checkering ( balcony hallway & second floor )
• east hallway: cleaned up skylight textures & created detailed window props
• fixed floor texturing around edges of main hall balcony & second floor
• new material for metal handrails using tf2's australium cubemaps
• west hallway: resolved scaling faults & added unique textures for opposing sections, misc. adjustments

------------------------- [ +06/10/2021] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• fixed several missing mipmaps
• fixed a number of missing faces
• improved collision mesh on a number of objects
• adjusted east hall in-facing roof end
• detailed east hall south wall cabinets
• upper bridge mesh fixes
• minor improvements to main entrance towers
• minor improvements to wing towers
• updated model for main-north first floor connection window
• adjusted darwin centre placeholder
• HDR lighting improvements
• adjusted wall between main hall & north hall ( idk what to call it anymore )

------------------------- [ +11/11/2021] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• replaced dropship with custom whale skeleton prop
• added custom groundsloth skeleton prop in east hall
• added placeholder exhibits in western wing top floor
• misc. lighting changes

------------------------- [ +21/11/2021] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• added outer fence & fenceposts
• updated entrance fenceposts
• corrected layout & scaling of extensions, surrounding streets & buildings
• added basic textures for surrounding buildings
• updated eastern extension texture
• cleaned up parallel hall ceiling textures
• improved west hallway roof geometry & brought texturing in line with east hallway
• fixed missing shadows in east & west hallway

------------------------- [ +10/01/2022] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• misc. mesh & texture fixes/improvements + + +
• updated stained glass windows +
• basic outer tower interior added ( & a possibly-not-true-to-life stairway inside them to improve pathing )

------------------------- [ +22/03/2022] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• improved mesh & added exterior for main hall backwall
• added mammal/whale hall & darwin centre blockout
• parr.hall tweaks & improvements
• new textures for south-facing exterior ( & tweaked mesh accordingly )
• mesh & texture tweaks for main hall interior balcony
• rescaled main entrance towers to facilitate interior space
• mesh tweaks & new textures on main entrance

to-do's

• north hall exterior re-detailing ?
• east hallway rescaling & exterior detailing ?
• fill exhibition spaces with placeholder tarpaulins ?
• add outer tower interiors ?
• (optional) replace dropship w/ whale skeleton ?
• improve front landscaping & road ?
• add interactable doors ?

Rough progress estimate

• main hall interior 95%
• main hall exterior 95%
• north hall interior 90%
• north hall exterior 95%+
• west hall interior 95%+
• west hall exterior 90%
• east hall interior 95%
• east hall exterior 90%
• parallel halls interior 90%
• parallel halls exterior 90%
• wing interior 85%
• wing exterior 95%+
• wing towers (e) 90%
• main entrance 95%
• front landscaping 85%
• road & surroundings 72%

I realized - or rather, it was pointed out to me - that I haven't uploaded any new files since like . . oh wow quite a fucking while

But I have been working on it! Just never really find a good time to compile since I'm still making big changes so there's always a rough edge somewhere

Anyway, this time's no different, but I was kindly asked by someone (dare I call him a fan?) to upload a more recent version of the map, so here it is I suppose. ( well, not actually here - I'm continuing my habit of adding downloads to the main post up above )

Spoiler

It's new! It's bright! I'm not sure my cubemaps are working!

download link!

Spoiler

[edit] also actually I'm not sure I mentioned this before but, like, all previous versions of this map are kind-of sort-of liable to crash frequently and without exception - but this one's not! I think!

I guess my desktop's haunted or something? The maps it compiles always run fine on itself, but seem to break apart on any other device . . whoops? At any rate, this one was compiled on a different computer, and I haven't seen any issues with it as of yet.

Quote from will2k

1 hour ago, will2k said: The outdoor shots are magnificent

Some indoor shots are overly bright

Some indoor signs are from Venice; I guess these are temp placeholders for a London museum?

Great work sticking with this project and coming through till the end

Thanks

Yea, I guess everyone here can relate because source is source but I'm having a pretty tough time trying to tune the lighting with no visual indication between compiling (._. )

I'm assuming you're mainly referring to the 7th picture? I think I forgot to re-solidify those roofs, shame I didn't catch that before but it should be an easy fix. The whole parallel halls set ( right hand background of 7th picture ) is still pretty rough in general though, it's a hard section to get good photographs from so it hasn't progressed much since the first uploaded version of the map

[edit] yea those are from canals, just wanted to make the space a bit less empty - they'll probably be replaced eventually