Posts by Zacker

Hourences, it is not as bad as you make it sound like when you get used to it and when you got a properly customized version of Max. It's not like that we are running on vanilla Max. Your "30 unnatural export settings" equals to zero with our setup. Yep, that's right there are absolutely zero things you need to set or adjust in max when you want to export it which is done in a matter of seconds after having pushed 1 button.

I have also done large outdoor terrains and it was for sure 10 times easier to do in Max compared to Source. We got preview of everything from lighting to alpha layers to scatter in max. The terrain creation process itself is easier in max and regarding exporting and previewing it goes a million times faster than in Source.

After I got internet at home again yesterday I have been trying to catch up in the race lvl 70 in Burning Crusade. I will probably also open those packages with SC+BW and Europa Universalis III and play those at some point.

Quote from seir

true.

only static part of the map can be done in Max/Maya.

We do all of our lighting work in Max for our levels. And ofc. also mockup and props.

Anyways on topic: I have only tried Max which I consider to be one big pile of clutter. It's one of the most patched and hacked together programs I have seen. But it works and has almost all the features I need.

I finished reading it a week ago or such and overall it was a really great book. Nothing new in it, but a totally perfect book for an introduction to level design.

At some points it seemed too much of a tutorial/personal comment from you and not as much as a book. You also repeated yourself quite a few times.

Another thing which annoyed me was some of the picture examples. You got like a totally fucked picture and then a nice one and then you have been so kind to tell me that the nice one is the best. I was often like "O RLY?". Less telling people about what is bad and more about good solutions please.

Quote from Rick_D

I think a lot of it comes down to the strength of currency - if the dollar can't buy twice or three times as much as it would at home then I don't see a reason for people outsourcing as much - as has been said, it's a very fickle industry that is effected by many other uncontrollable outside variables.

No other reasons than currency strength? The guys in China who do props for my levels get payed about 1/10th of what I do. And that's not because I get payed a lot.

I believe that it easily could be a real screenshot just with some work-in-progress shaders and textures.

Your example there Hourences is pretty bad though:D

First of all luck and good timing are for sure big factors. I happened to apply to IO at a time when they were about to look for level designers when my application dumped in their door.

Personally my maps were not super mind blowing looking, but as the position I applied for was not really that much about art anyways, so it did not matter.

Having shown that you have done something that people have shown appreciation in one way or another is a good thing. Tell about download counts and awards for your work. If your programs on average get downloaded maybe 5000 times or more, then your potential employer can be pretty sure about that you have a pretty good clue of how to make good stuff.

It's about really showing that you are good at what you do. Get some straight facts and numbers about how good you are.

During my interview I got asked about my school grades several times. My high school subjects were totally not level design related, but yet the grades seemed pretty important. Having both done a shitload of modding stuff in your sparetime and yet having received top grades in all subjects tells a thing or two about either work ethics, general intelligence level or both.

Edit:

So uhm no, the above mess did not really make sense. I still got a hangover from yesterday, will fix it up later.

Hey man that's fantastic! Reminds me of that I also need to get myself a fancy IOI avatar.

Yeah it was pretty cool...last year.

Looks like just an action figure to me.

I would suggest keeping the deadline for the contest but give people the 5 days or whatever which we use to vote in to fix any bugs in their maps. Then when the voting is over we can release a pack with the best maps in their fixed up shape.

Looks like more like a UT map than a RO map.

That's crazy shit man, congratz on all the exposure!

Cool man, congratz!

We might be a bit behind GBX in the war atm, but we are still recruiting pretty heavily within level design, so that might change.

And yes Zap, english is the official company and office language.

It was really great to have 3 mapcorians gathered! I hope that you get the job, which you should have quite a fair chance of doing.

The PS2 is down to reasonable price now and got lots of good games, so I am thinking of picking up a such one soon.

Well at least I was right about that it seemed similar to the HL1 one:D

Quote from Thrik

Just to clarify Zacker, you realise the picture in the first post is a screenshot don't you?

But a 3d representation of how that new found shark looks like, aye? or not? I am le confused now. What is that picture doing there in the post then?

Looks great, I want more screenshots! What is nice is that a good bunch of the buildings are fairly simple and blocky and yet they look great due to the textures, small details and overall atmosphere.