DM Krodan - WIP - UT3

    Hourences: I know you don't like when people say it looks good, but rather want some nitpicking feedback that can improve a level.

    The way you used ivy that hangs off rocks is very sprite like. In gears the ivy has numerous planes that twist and create that dimension to it. Recently I was adding some ivy to one of my test levels and one of my friends suggested using two planes to give the ivy more dimension (one shorter than the other). Also possibly upping the res or remaking the texture will be good. GoW rule is make one very good looking asset and reuse it all over. Also I got a sense that some of your textures are much lower res than the ones used in gears such as 1024 x 1024 and 2048 x 2048.

    Overall level is shaping up nicely. You really got the understanding for warm and cool colors to establish an atmosphere.

    -Method

    Quote from Method

    Overall level is shaping up nicely. You really got the understanding for warm and cool colors to establish an atmosphere.

    -Method

    Agreed. This map has a completely different visual style to your GoW map.

    Some more constructive criticism from me....

    It's looking very good already generally, but I can't help but think the stalactites, noticeably in the second screenshot don't really come out looking natural. The general shape makes me think of Spire, as if you simply copied them over, and that may be why they don't fit.

    In the 2nd screenshot, the ones most to the right for instance don't have a rounded base with the cave. Overall they may be a little too spiky for such rounded caves. Visually speaking you could also perhaps work on their integration in the scene, with a water dripping overlay for instance, and possibly very small stalagmites forming down on the ground. Seen as these spikes aren't made of rock but of minerals, a texture change may be in order as well.

    I think the lighting looks a little washed out in my opinion, could use a little more refinement. Also what would maybe look cool if there were some carved gargoyle / whatever statues in the rocks. Or just more statues on the building thats built into the rock to make it look more impressionable and striking!

    Thanks all

    dux: Worked on the lighting as you can see below. Statues are rather difficult. I suck in modeling statues and the game didnt come with many. I did add one small new statue on your request though:)

    Deh0lise: the cave runs down, I cant be bothered investing time in making water run downhill and "pile up" at the exit of the cave. It would be cool but not worth the effort imo.

    Furyo: I know but without them the cave would be empty, so Id rather have something pretty but illogical than the other way around. I did add a second texture at the tip of every stalactite, a different and more smooth rock, but its rather difficult to notice ingame..

    I cant change the entire texture on them as that would make them blend in badly.

    Method: the ivy is a bitch to make, all ivy is unique and modeled around the rock behind them. Its a very tedious job so I dont feel like modeling some more. However I did rephotoshop and re-shader-ify the ivy textures so they hopefully have more depth now. They are already 2048, its just a huge surface.

    The level is getting near final visual quality, but I have a lot of optimization and gameplay work left to do. Major changes, I am getting satisfied. Enjoy:

    [Blocked Image: http://phalanx.planetunreal.gamespy.com/hourences/krodan4.jpg]

    And while you are all at it, check my other thread on the release of my book and UE3 tutorials

    http://www.mapcore.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10246

    Sorry Sjoerd, I should have been clearer.

    I wasn't suggesting you cut them loose, but a minor reshape would help a lot. After some more thought to it, here's what I'd suggest now:

    Make them smaller, and make the ceiling of the cave more curved in and varied, as if there were many other stalagtites possibly forming. The reason for this is that as I look at them, it looks as if someone above tried to nail something through, and failed.

    HL2 Ep2 may give you some more examples of what I'm trying to say here, so they just blend better. If you're not going to change the texture, for reasons I perfectly understand, then they can't be interpreted as a different thing than rock, and as such they'd look better if they actually were a part of the cave geologically speaking.

    My two cents, worth less than that

    PogoP - it is 100 percent modeled, nothing in the entire level is made of BSP. Actually, two cubes are, but they are just meant to block lighting

    Furyo - I perfectly understand what you mean, but remodeling the whole thing might be too much. I agree that it could look more natural if they were different, but I need to find a way to change that without investing in more time than really needed for such a relatively not so important element. I might make an experiment with a more smooth rounded off stalactite. That would fit the otherwise really smooth rocks better.

    Quote from Hourences

    PogoP - it is 100 percent modeled, nothing in the entire level is made of BSP. Actually, two cubes are, but they are just meant to block lighting

    That's incredible. So presumably you made those textures from scratch then? Or are they Photosourced?

    All textures, normal maps, and materials (including advanced vertex color blend maps and the water) are self made. Most textures are photosourced. Most normal maps were made using Crazybump, but I used Mudbox to really paint a map for the rock manually.

    I love the bridge part (last shot). The only thing I would say is that the texture scale could do with a bit of tweaking. Method mentioned it before - and it's probably me getting used to working with really high resolution stuff for my own project, but the textures in some shots do look a bit oversized/blurry. And if it shows up in small screenshots, it will ingame. Just a bit of scaling is all that's needed.

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