CS_Metroplex

Thanks for the possitive comments on the road texture . My texturing skill are pretty ordinary. I applied a high res version to a box in 3ds max and bent it to create the curve followed by more ps work to tidy it up. It was simple but I wasted an entire day getting it right. For some reason I was getting seams between the curve and the straight texture even though it was completely seamless. I even blended them together as on giant texture in PS then cut it up and it still had seams. After hours of playing around and remaking the texture from scratch I found out that it was caused by the edge textures on the opposing side of the curve (because the curb is part of the texture). I offset a couple of pixels of the road to appear on the other side of the texture and it removed the seam.

Some more wips

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this shot shows the refractive texture i'm working on for the shopping mall. hopefully it'll look alright and allow me to create a convincing internal area with limited detail.

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I'm looking for someone with better texturing skills than myself to assist in skinning my models. Please contact me if you're interested or know someone that might be.

Thanks for the feedback.

Nexus: You're right about decals but I consider them a finishing touch. I still haven't completed the world geometry or creating all the custom props I need which is what I'm concerned with atm.

Sentura: A new bin and a bus are on my list of models to make, along with an ATM, phone booth, post box, building signage, bollards, magazine dispencer.

Work has been busy as hell but I'm still slowly making progress on this thing. I've reconstructed and optimised a lot of the street area, reducing brushwork and doubling the size of footpaths to allow for street furniture. I've almost finalised most of the building brushwork with only a couple of buildings requiring additional detailing.

kan3, a mapper/modeler/skinner whose skills well and truely exceed my own, has lightened the workload by helping me make all the custom assets I need. Also, Spine from Texturehub http://%7boption%7d has contributed some awesome parody building signage.

Between kan3 and I we have all the models sorted, however, having a dedicated skin/texture artist would significantly reduce production time. As I've said before, my texturing skills suck balls.

No additional screenshots yet but hopefully soon.

Due to the fact I made some significant layout changes and have worked on this map for over 16months, I started the brushwork again from scratch. I'd say the map is about %40 complete though progressing much faster now. My current goal is to get the interior to the same stage as outdoors before detailing the map.

I know progress on this map has been slow and it's taken me longer than most to achieve. I'm not in any hurry though and I'm learning as I go (and working a demanding/shit job too).

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Quote from m8nkey

I'd say the map is about %40 complete though progressing much faster now.

Interiors coming along nicely (so much easier than outside), Should have some pics in a week or two.

Some interior texture set WIPs. Only %10 complete. Lighting will be much darker with wall fixtures and luminated movie posters. Ceiling will barely be visible

kan3 is making some very cool interactive models for the map too

*edit. Jpeg compression hasn't been very kind to these images. Looks a bit nicer in game

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As a starting point I used GCFscape to extract all the Source materials so I could see how they imlpemented various effects. Using them as a base and through trial and error I came up with my on default settings for various materials.

http://%7boption%7d

My VMTs started off fairly complex using many additional parameters but eventually I whittled them down to the bare bones. I didn't see any benefit to the other parameters for what I was trying to achieve. For filesize and performance issues, I skimped out on bump maps for many of the reflective materials.

Alphamap reflections without normal map:

Open your VMF and create an Alpha Channel.

Black = Reflective

White= Matte

Shades of grey for in-between

Here's a typical VMT for alphamap reflections on a texture that doesn't have a normal map

"LightmappedGeneric"

{

"$basetexture" "mapname/texture"

"$envmap" "env_cubemap"

"$basealphaenvmapmask" 1

"$envmaptint" "[.03 .03 .03]" <----Intensity of the reflections

}

Texture with Alphamap reflections and Normal map:

Create the Alpha Channel in the Normal map, NOT the diffuse map!

Black = Matte

White= Reflective

I think the colour values are reversed but don't quote me. Mostly used this for tiles where the alphachannel was basically a flat shade.

"LightmappedGeneric"

{

"$basetexture" "mapname/texture"

"$surfaceprop" "concrete"

"$bumpmap" "mapname/texture_normal"

"$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" 1

"$envmap" "env_cubemap"

"$envmaptint" "[ .1 .1 .1 ]"

}

I agree with Dux and Insta. I made the incline to reduce vis but didn't consider functionality. Wesley Tack pointed it out to me too so I've already doubled the distance over the incline resulting in a much more gental slope.