I pulled a 42 hour work day before UT2k4 went gold. I slept damn good when I finally got the chance.
Posts by TomWithTheWeather
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Yeah they are both different maps. The water fall map is DM and the building-hanging-on-a-cliff is CTF. Meh. I get burnt out on mapping 5-7 days a week and by the time I get home, mapping is the last thing I want to do. :-?
I'm usually against posting screenshots until the map is 95% but I probably wont ever finish these.
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...here's a few screenies from a couple of WIP UT2k4 maps I have in the works. I'm not looking for feedback yet or anything as these maps are not even at the 50% mark. Textures are temp, lighting is temp, and there are a lot of things missing. In the DM map, the layout isn't even complete. In fact I'm going to redo it completely. What I have in there now is an old stupid map layout I was just experimenting with. Anyway, here they are.
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/wip/DM1.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/wip/DM2.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/wip/DM3.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/wip/CTF1.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/wip/CTF2.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/wip/CTF3.jpg]
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Plain box, preferably DVD. No more, no less.
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Canon Digital Rebel with the stock lens. Best camera evar.
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Yeah, it's basically a choice between the lesser of the two evils. The problem is, which is the least evil?
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If you've ever wanted to see a honey bee up close, now's your chance.
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/bee01.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/bee02.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/bee03.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/bee04.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/bee05.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://tomwiththeweather.beyondunreal.com/miscpictures/blueskydeadtree.jpg]
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Quote from insta
Gearbox folks, does DD have his own office alone in the basement or something?
He will soon enough.
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In that case, for me, about 6-8 random hours a day are spent outdoors. :wink:
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Now I've seen it all. A pathetic, pointless, dictionary battle on a message board. This is a photography forum. Keep the ego battles to private messages. (I'm looking at you DD)
Nice pics Fletch. I wish I was outdoors in the country on a mountain bike right about now.
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In the end, an artist devoted to making mesh bits is going to do a high quality job. I personally prefer this way because, 1. I'm not that good with max/maya/lightwave/photoshop, and 2. it frees up my time to focus on making gameplay as good as possible.
Level design is getting to a point where it takes several people to make a map. The title of Level Designer should probably be something more like Gameplay Designer.
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Quote from DD
I agree but that's beside my point. In the end you insulted BSP, so I insulted Unreal.
Huh? Because I mearly stated an accurate prediction about the future of predominately BSP/brush based game design, you thought I was trying to slam HL or Quake? I never even mentioned one or the other, or even thought about Unreal for that matter. O_o
Quote from DDUnreal doesn't not have partions or generate partions to decide what to cull automatically. You have to manually zone everything which usually results in different partitions.
Unreal culls on the node level based on how the level designer has zoned the map. Zoning is a method Unreal uses to make sure entire rooms/areas are culled at a time. The only disadvantage Unreal has compared to Quake or HL, is that it's BSP cuts can be a little messier, but it really doesn't matter seeing as how all you're going to do with it is make the basic shell of a room and then populate it with meshes. You don't have to worry about perfect BSP polys with Unreal like you do in Quake or HL. As long as you don't have any HOM's and don't try to create spheres with it, you good to go.
If you want to see it in action, load up UT2004/03 and any indoor map and open the console and type "rmode 1" for wireframe view, then type "show staticmeshes" to turn them off, then move around and watch how the nodes cull. :wink:
If you ever do a .t3d export of an Unreal map and open it up in notepad, you'll see that there is no BSP tree in that file, even though the brush dimensions and locations are there. Then, when you import that .t3d file into an empty workspace in UnrealEd, your brushes show up in wireframe view mode but not in 3D mode. You don't see that BSP tree because it doesn't get exported with all the rest of the map data because you'll have to do a fresh compile after you import anyway.
Quote from DDNot many people know the theory behind BSP and it doesn't make you any less talented or more.
I understand the theory.
On another topic, nice info Zaphod. Gee, look at all those meshes.
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I'm not saying BSP will disappear completely. I'm just saying that meshes will become much more predominate in maps than BSP. Of course, you'll still have some simple BSP for culling and such. I mean, why make a flat wall out of a mesh when it could more easily be BSP? Stuff like pillers though, 99% of the time, look better as higher poly meshes, especially when lit correctly.
Now if you're talking about a square pillar or an 8 sided one or something...
Quote from DDOnly someone who hasn't seen the power of a correct BSP culling, which allow for much greater detail in indoor areas than any fake BSP or any distance cull can do, would suggest something like BSP will go instinct.
Lol. I'm assuming you're trying to slam Unreal, which is real BSP. It's culling methods and CSG are just a little different than your beloved Halflife. What is the correct culling method? Just because it's done differently doesn't mean it's done wrong. When you're creating an engine you implement the best culling methods for that type of engine. Just because it's not what your used to doesn't make it wrong.
Quote from DDA fair balance of the two, weighted towards mesh of course, allows for massive indoor areas with tons of detail that artist in max couldn't do even near as fast.
Eh? I think somehow you just contradicted yourself in the same sentence. Nearly as fast as what? A highly detailed indoor area that is mostly mesh would require an artist. O_o
A good artist in max might take a little bit longer to make a piece of geometry, but it will always look better than BSP cube primatives in the end.
Quote from DDOf course working on massive outdoor games leads you to believe otherwise.
In the end, you do what's better for the game/map your creating. Indoors and outdoors require different methods and have to be approached differently from a design standpoint. Believing one or the other is a wrong approach entirely. You do what's best for the game. You pick the best tech for the situations.
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Meshes are computed and stored in the video card memory and are instanced in that memory only once, even if you have 100 of that same mesh in your map. BSP computes more slowly and is not instanced if you have many of the same brushes. I'd go with a mesh. It'll look better in the end anyway.
Meshes are the way to go. Engines that rely heavily on brushes/BSP for geometry will eventually die out as the need for higher poly geometry becomes more important. The days of making an entire map from BSP, that looks good, are rapidly coming to an end.
/me turns off his crystal ball of doom...
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Quote from DD
Good one. http://%7boption%7dWhats the average for those other games again?
OH DISS!
I case it flew over your head, I wasn't refering to actually playing certain games. Of course, people are still going to want to play Halflife and it's mods; that's beside the point. Even I load up Doom2 every now and then... but I don't map for it anymore...
My picture was refering to mapping with ancient tech when you could very easily be using prettier, newer, more flexible tech, reguardless of what new engine it is.
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You forgot to mention Algor (Dan) who posts here, well... at least in the TES4 thread. Hoochie lovin' for Dan too.
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Quote from Pericolos0
thats what i hated, i liked the alien part, people preparing for an invasion. I HATED that in teh end you realise the sign were signs of god himself, and that he wants to show us that god gives us signs all the time. totally wasted the movie for me
That was the genius part.
It's the same with The Village. Most people totally missed the whole underlying meaning of the movie. It's not about spooky monsters in the woods, but about the fact that you can control people with fear. I think it was M. Night's statement about the state of American society today. That's what I saw anyway. And I loved it.
The between-the-lines message is why I like M. Night's movies. The fact that his directing technique and camera work is just simply beautiful is an added plus.
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/me shits his pants and prays that this screenshot is TES4...
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