Posts by Fletch

  • DE_KERK [updated July 5th, new screens page 2 + beta d/l]

    New shots! See how smart I am, I post shots of Kerk, then distract you with Docks, then distract you with Kerk again. I am like some sort of PR ninja. Just like Reggie.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/portfolio/images/de_kerk1.jpg]

    New view down one of the main paths. The little alcove is now where there once was a connecting route between the two bomb points. Now, CT's can still get up there and snipe this route, but have to come down to ground level if they want to protect the bomb point quickly from the Ts.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/portfolio/images/de_kerk2.jpg]

    One of the outside plazas. Now with new lighting color and shadows.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/portfolio/images/de_kerk3.jpg]

    Bomb A, the pathway on the far right now leads to a path around the back of the church to the other bomb site.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/portfolio/images/de_kerk4.jpg]

    The new CT spawn in the back of the church instead of the side.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/portfolio/images/de_kerk5.jpg]

    New overview of the church. The new lighting color and direction helps bring out a lot more shadow depth. Thanks guys!

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/portfolio/images/de_kerk6.jpg]

    Just showing up the new lighting color/direction/shadows a bit more. (Ignore the texturing error). Also, if you'll notice in all of these shots, those clouds move (thanks to Port for the cloud model). Hopefully that should help with the "lifeless" problem a bit.

    And, just because I'm a kind soul: http://%7boption%7d

    Keep in mind that the CT spawn is new, and thus the 3d skybox around that area doesn't line up. I've had to rebuild that thing 4 times now and it's a pain in the arse to work in 1/16th scale because barely moving terrain litterally makes mountains out of mole hills. So I want to make sure these spawns are locked down before I go and rebuild that thing again. On the bright side, it has a pretty lake... and a visible skybox texture that I find amusing.

  • XP on a Macbook

    Apparently OS X limits the full power of the on baord graphics card to prevent heat issues, but Windows does no such thing, so people have been reporting getting amazing speed out of WoW on the XP partition and only decent speed on the OS X side.

    Yeah, my next computer is probably going to be a Mac.

  • CS_DOCKS2 - The Dockening...er...est

    I really should start turning net_graph off for these things.

    The warehouse interior is supposed to be much brighter. I've been having a really wierd issue where the lights in there work fine in my test map, but then fuck up when i compile the full map. it's flip flopped back and forth 2 or 3 times now and it's making me insane. The rest of the areas I've tried to divide into playable and nonplayable zones. The playable zones get nice overhead lighting while the others don't, hopefully ending up with the illusion of a dark night without makign people crank gamma. My overall feeling is that in this day and age if you're willing to put down $400 on a new graphics card, but can't pony up for a new monitor to replace those dim CRTs, you need to stop playing games.

    As for bluish tint lighting: no. I hate bluish tint lighting. It is not blue outside at night. I can prove this. Go outside at night. See, it's not blue. It's not that I want to piss on tradition, but blue "night" lighting is just on of those HL conventions I want to die.

  • CS_DOCKS2 - The Dockening...er...est

    Still working on Kerk, but I needed to play around with something completely different so I didn't go batty, and thought it was a good time to go back and play with Docks seeing as Brew was nice enough to entrust it to Mojo, Mike, and Me (and Joesmoe, but he isn't aruond and his named didn't match the alliteration I had going there).

    So I'm calling this Docks 2 because it's Docks but it isn't. I really wanted to stay as faithful as possible to the original level, but Docks had some flaws when it came to the realm of logic (I mean, come on, it was a river with no exit). Also, because of Half-Life/CS's persistent issues with water and gameplay, I had to make sure people weren't going to go muck around in the water, so that meant one of the main routes had to changed. Additionally, the sewer route has been scrapped and replaced with some modified layout bits that should help rebalance it. Overall, the main layout is left alone, but the surrounding architecture gets a major facelift. (the famous, how to make a vis blocking hallway is now a street). But since I changed some significant layout things, and because I'd feel like a prick calling this thing cs_docks, it's being called cs_docks2.

    These are shots from what I'm considering the first alpha. It's technically playable, but there are some lighting, clipping, and other rendering bugs that persist (including Source's pissy water).

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/maps/cs_docks_a11.jpg]

    The new "back route" that used to be the water route. You now run behind some warehouses to get to the dock area. It leaves you vulnerable to sniper fire, but you can duck and avoid it to a degree.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/maps/cs_docks_a12.jpg]

    The CT spawn. I saw a picture of these building fronts in a magazine and liked them enough to put them in. Need to finish connecting the bridge in the background to the skybox.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/maps/cs_docks_a13.jpg]

    func_dustmotes is cool

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/maps/cs_docks_a14.jpg]

    Standing between the two T buildings.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/maps/cs_docks_a15.jpg]

    Upstairs in one of the T buildings. Used to be crates and radios.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/maps/cs_docks_a16.jpg]

    T warehouse. Still tweaking those lights to get the ambient level correct.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.mapcore.net/fletch/maps/cs_docks_a17.jpg]

    CT vantage point of the route from the first shot. skybox on that side needs to be redone. Valve made shitty skybox models.

    Still tweaking those env_lightglows since Valve seems incapable of allowing for settings to make it look correct. So if you've got suggestions, let me hear them. And if somebody want's to make an impassioned defense of why there needs to be a sewer route, feel free to make it. I'm not completely dismissive of the idea.

  • WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    Now I remember when we first met. It took us less than 24 hours to get drunk on Guiness and hit things with golf clubs. Ahhhh the olden days.

  • Burnin the American flag

    The flag is a symbol for our freedom to speak and act freely, even if it might offend somebody else. Thus it is a symbol whose strength is that allows itself to be destroyed. It's called a paradox. Some people are simple minded and don't understand that it's a paradox. This scares them, so they write flag burning amendments to prevent themselves from having to think.

  • Tell me about your CS adventure!

    Ugggg, drivable vehicles. The only joy I'd get out of those is the fact that stupid CTs would spend so long filling up the APC that it wuold give me time to hide outside with a auto-shotty and HE Grenade. Wait for 'em to drive by, toss in the nade, and then do a run by after it goes off. My record to this day is still getting 6 kills in under 3 seconds doing that.

    I miss Siege.