Posts by 2d-chris

Overwatch and planetcoaster for me

Definitely Mass Effect (1) it's so hard to end a grand adventure on a galactic scale, but they pulled it off, sure the Saren boss fight wasn't amazing, but they pulled the pieces together masterfully, I really respect a game that ends well, shows they really care about people who invest in the game (since we all know most players don't even get to the end) but that mentality hurts the people who care the most, which is why I tut every time i hear it being thrown around

You know, the super moon isn't that much bigger, and in terms of brightness any stand alone camera can compensate for the difference, you can shoot the moon at any time of year and get just as good (or better) results, it's all about having a long lens (200-300mm+) and framing something other than just the moon to give scale. I missed the supermoon because of cloudy weather, but then i researched it and felt better so fret not, just shoot the moon with the right gear!

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yeah it's so awesome how that area worked, throws a wrench in the game, and it needed it, mid game, it's time for a change

Digging this

You don't have to be an architect, think about if you had to build it, how would it all fit together. You don't even have to do this most of the time, it only matters a bit for the areas you actual go inside, but for most games you won't enter every room of every building, that's why you get away with illusions. It's never easy to make interiors and exteriors match perfectly, and many games don't even try, you load inside where the interior is twice as big as it should be (rpgs) and nobody blinks an eyelid that you've actually gone inside a Tardis. Or walls are 1 meter thick because you didn't care enough to solve for it.

If you really want to pick up the basics, just watch some documentaries on building structures, you'll find out pretty quickly how the various types of common building are constructed. Now, if you're trying to be absolutely accurate and realistic, you'll just have to do your research of the structures of the period.

If in doubt, google answers any question. I just did a search and got tons of building plans from the period.

Start with an idea, draw it on paper (if you want to) make it, delete it, start again, revise it, delete it, start again, starting to get somewhere now, revise it, hmm, feeling better, revise it, nice. Then, play session, man this sucks, start again, The point I'm trying to make is, if it's a new game your in for a world of pain, and if it's a well understood game that your modding for, it's not easy either, because you'll have to go through many of the struggles the devs did because you don't have the info they learned. Making good maps is hard and takes a lot of commitment and failed attempts before you get it right. Spending the time to really understand the game your making a map for is essential, and a lot easier to do once a game is out and your making maps for it, than when it's in development and changing all the time,

The most important map I made was for a competitive tournament for cs 1.6, changed completely How I approached level design, it sure helped that I was a serious player at the time so I understood the game. But, I made LOTS of crappy maps and cool looking maps before that, so I got the visuals and technical part down, then it was about the gameplay. You really don't have to do things in the order that many schools teach you, drawing > layout > art, the point is there is a ton of things to learn and you'll need to be good at them all, so just have fun and do what feels right at the time.

Some photos from my trip to Indonesia this summer

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Quote from Bastion

On 9/13/2016 at 3:37 PM, Bastion said: Would be nice, but I have a feeling Blizzard won't give potential mappers the time of day.

depends on the map, usually between 0 and 24h

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Quote from FMPONE

On 04/09/2016 at 3:43 AM, FMPONE said: Very inspiring indeed! In addition to being a fan of your level design I loved learning more about photography and enjoyed your obvious passion for it. Your bag looks dope, could be a good outdoors hobby to get into for sure.

Have you done any photogrammetry?

Hey thanks bro, nah, not really interested in that, not a big fan of chasing realism right now, but it is very clever.

Hey guys, just put up my new photography and game dev website 2d-chris.net , I'll be added tutorials and blog posts over time for anyone who can benefit from this, thanks!

Invested in some nice audio recording mics and preamps, planning some tutorials

AKG 214 mic with a Roland quad capture interface

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Quote from AlexM

2 hours ago, AlexM said: Extremely tired but I now have a 4 day weekend lined up. I'm on the fence on whether I should do a gamejam or just chill and catch up on games. Both feed my soul in different ways.....

edit : just realized I still have my profile as not working. I've been at Relic for a good 2 months now :X

2 months ... your almost a relic grats btw

you make the portfolio once you've spent 10,000 hours learning a trade

Quote from Vilham

2 hours ago, Vilham said: CoughChris'swhiteboxUT4mapentrywhichhadmodelsandbevelsCough

ahahaa owned, to be fair I was trying to make it pretty, which comes under art

Quote from Mitch Mitchell

On 8/23/2016 at 0:10 PM, Mitch Mitchell said:

More than happy to offer beer to that, 'sir - that is the kind of comment the internet sorely lacks!

I do play games, but have spent a long time playing games part-time and definitely fall into the 'hobbiest' category for level design.

Side topic (maybe not) why is the CryEngine5 is not being used so much for whiteboxing, or full-on level design - the 'designer tool' (playing with it as we speak) seems a decade forward than other tools on other engines....?

because it's about games not tools, and personally I don't like crydesigner, when I was there I actually used the old tools because I thought they did simple geometry more efficiently - could of been improved now, but I really don't want all the complex geometry options for a whitebox, ideally you'd stick to a 1m grid, and if your beveling things you've kinda missed the mark for a level designer (for a whitebox) I understand it could be useful for students without a modeling app, but there are enough free ones these days I can't really see a use for it

Just finished my holiday movie was a ton of work but worth every second ...

The mako missions had interesting story arcs though, I can remember a lot of them because they are quite unique, even if they where copy/paste environments most of the time I would say the lack of art resources forced them to have the storytelling aspects in focus, the very alive citadel hub made the barrenness feel cool and acceptable For some reason I really felt like the planets in mass effect where really being lived in (most of the time) it could be because the majority of planets you scanned had nothing interesting, so the ones you did go too felt special even if it was a small area with only a few buildings and points of interest. I was a big fan of the mako missions in ME1 and it was a shame when they basically removed them in ME2, they had huge potential, so much that they tried to fix it with s DLC for ME2, but it's not the same

I'm waiting for a few big patches, like pretty much every game I buy now