Probably going to pull the plug on this one, not interested in CSS anymore and the gameplay wouldn't suit TF2 very well.
I might restructure some of the design elements into a TF2 1-flag map but not just yet.
PS: Map was compiled with cordon bounds taking about 4500 brushes away so that's why you see beneath the world on the left.
Quote from ZetaI'll also be releasing the vmf at some point in case anybody wants to make an edited copy.
Cue cp_busytown_NITETIME_2009_LoAL_REMIX.
Anyway, class stuff as always 
Quote from Inveramsaynoticed that I forgot to remove the netgraph but it is only wip
Looks cool but you could scale up the water texture a bit.
Quote from InveramsayIt does seem a bit uneven in the quality. Who knows, maybe the lead likes it that way?
Maybe it's because the game isn't done yet? 
Quote from KungFuSquirrelLong term post-release support is rare and you should be glad you get it when you do. Free content, whether patches, maps, or whatever, incurs a huge development cost that publishers aren't generally willing to offset - did you see Activision doing anything more than maybe 1 patch to games before they could make a killing on map packs on XBL? Raven's obligation to Q4 ended at the first patch so Activision wouldn't have to pay for it anymore, id's games have had longer support because they can afford to self-fund. Gearbox had to release the Halo Custom Edition that included all sorts of crazy fixes plus the ability to make user-made maps as an unofficial add-on. It's just not feasible for studios to do long-term large-scale stuff for free - as much as I'd suspect many of its employees would want to if they could. Again, based on the wording, it sounds like more in the form of a sequel or expansion may be on the way. That's a good reason to move on. No need to brand Crytek the devil here.
Patches are not free content, they're bandaids intended to fix a product that's already been sold to possibly millions of people. I don't really expect developers to give stuff like map packs for free, but when it's patches, I feel I've already paid for it.
Click face 1, click face 2, planar map?
Should align the faces together on the uv map, I think?
Quote from ZetaDVS could post a write up on how you used to make those perfectly alligned domes for HP?I've always wondered how it was done and have never been able to recreate the effect satisfactorally.
Le torus tool...
It can be very tricky, even if you manage to get the shape you want, it will not be 100% on the grid and trying to align it usually causes invalid brushes.
Usually you won't care too much since it'll be func_detail anyway, but you can often have lightmap glitches with stuff minutely off-grid.
Like the Stardock dude said, the people who wouldn't have bought your game if they hadn't been able to pirate it don't count, you do not factor them in as participants, you do not cater to their needs or wishes. They are simply irrelevant.
Copy protection has two ends of a scale, one end is the stardock side where they basically have no copy protection and the other side is the harsh DRM/rootkit shit that does nothing for your sales except bad PR.
In the middle you have the usual copy protection, but across the board no matter how well your game is protected it will be cracked, simply because there are very talented people out there who crack games for the sake of cracking, not just because they want to play the game for free, in fact most crackers buy their own games in order to crack them.
An example of the "DRM/Rootkit shit":
I bought Neverwinter Nights 2 and the expansion not too long ago and was surprised that my above-average computer was chugging along with stutters and occasional freezes until I read that it was a common issue traced to securom and that the unofficial fix was simply to pirate/crack the game... People who didn't pay for the game were having a better experience than I was simply because of the obnoxious copy protection, this shit makes me mad. This form of antiquated business models needs to be eliminated and rearranged into digital distribution.
Also, the "80-90% piracy rates" thing kind of gets to me, just like the RIAA makes up bullshit estimates for how much money the record industry is losing to piracy, there's no effective way to gauge your losses. Not everyone who downloaded your game/album/movie would've paid for it had they not been able to get it for free, and in the case of good products, those non-loss downloads are actually generating GOOD PR through indirect word-of-mouth. It's no justification for pirating, but it's a valid point none the less. Like the phrase goes "83% of all statistics are made up on the spot".
I think that, as has been said often in this thread, digital distribution is the way, and the only way to reach people who pirate everything just because they can. Like with steam, not only are you getting your game online with minimal effort but you can access it from anywhere, you can have updates streamed to you as they are released and with the new SteamCloud, they store your configs and savegames as well.
Sad but inevitable, some of the comments from the "extreme jumping" forum are quite the lulz though;
when do you finally leave your pc and do some other stuff? your really anoying me with your 10 year old replys. Always you guy, always. Why are you even in xj team? You have NO official maps, the maps you make suck. And your not even a good kz player. U lick buts? I dont like u, not because you give critism, but the way you act.
WHY I HAVE 99 FPS !? Its not our problem you or flibo have crappy PCes.Buy new and you will enjoy
Mapping technic:Many mistakes on the texture applys. House edge start with a window but the other side is cutted of the window. The windows props are to high. feels more like a rats map. Streetlamps with a walltexture?
I wouldn't put these guys a day over 14.
Quote from m8nkeyI don't know of any tutorials for it, but I'm guessing it envolves exporting a DXF from hammer then converting that into an SMD using XSI. If this is the case the resulting models probably aren't very efficient. I find exporting DXFs from hammer a useful scale reference though.
Enough for me, I would've guessed .map or some other weird format, thanks!
Just tried it and it worked okay for me.
Try deselecting all textures and then just select the 9 faces that make up the sides of the arch, looks like you've got a few in between brushes.
Just to cover all the bases, you're using snap to grid, a relatively large grid size, and all the vertices match up in the side view, correct?
I think you're selecting too many faces in the second subdivide step.
I started out accepting that I would probably not be able to visblock with complex geometry like that and it works fine ingame, my computer blows and I still get upwards of 200fps.
I know you're trying to help, but my problem doesn't lie with performance or optimization, but with arbitrary limits on how many brushes I can use.
If I ever get the brushcount down I'll be using occluders and hints as well as I can, but it's not like the map would slow to a crawl for anyone without such optimizations.
Quote from Seldoon182
I know how vis works, but that has nothing to do with brush limits or what affects those.
Quote from the0rthopaedicsurgeonis there any point in the brush limit? i mapped for CoD before HL2 and everything in that was brush-based. i remember making some prefabs for dods in codradiant before HL2 was even released and once i ported them to source and built the rest of the layout i was already over the limit. i haven't hit it again since i started using models but i don't see why it's there in the first place.you could've increased the height of the steps by 150% (looks like they're 8 units so you could scale them to 12) which would keep most of the smoothness, but it's probably advanced too far to replace every single step by now.
Actually, sweeping changes aren't that hard to implement, all the steps are segmented into groups and at most I'd have to retexture one of four arms of the pyramid.
The problem with that though is that then I'd have to get rid of a lot of detail that is in between.
I'll find a solution and then start my own thread, don't want to hog this one 
Wrong proptype?
Also, the lights in the first two pics look a bit bright.
Otherwise looking good.
Quote from Meotwisteruse models
Don't got time to learn a new tool 
Quote from Senturasome crazy shit right there. i want to see ingame screens!
My anisotropic filtering is stuck to bilinear so it looks like ass 
Quote from bruno_hkYou could try to nodraw the unseen brushfaces, I remember something like that from the old hl1 times.
Do faces that get stripped out count towards the MAX_MAP_BRUSHFACES?
An overwhelming majority of the faces in the map sit flush against another face and thus get stripped out during compile, haven't bothered to paint it all with nodraw.
Seems I've hit an impasse of sorts.
MAX_MAP_BRUSHSIDES
In before "over 9000".
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Just for kicks, nothing too serious. Planning to change the texture set and make a more realistic skybox.
Looks just like HL2, and lots of people have done it. You could do much better by focusing on not using hl2 specific assets. Otherwise you'll just blend in.
Not bad at all though.
