Posts by OrnateBaboon
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Another thing you might be able to do to make some of the curves even more rounded is displace the brushes, and move the corners inwards/outwards a unit or two. This could make it harder to see on the roofs for example, where each brush starts, and each brush ends - so that it appears as if it is made from a perfect circle.
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Congratulations on the release
It would be nice to see some light shafts coming through from the windows in the warehouse ceiling (like on de_train), maybe even with some dust motes. Might not be good for gameplay, but sure could look good!
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Nice! Love the originality and the rounded brushwork. Gameplay permitting, underground path FTW! It is rare to see such curvature in source, so it would be good to see the shapes pushed even more.
And thanks for the tutorial. I was wondering how that was done.
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Spherix - Here is the overhead of the map. Can't see the routes underneath or in the house though.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/39.jpg]
Squad - Nah, not tried colour correction yet, though thanks for the suggestion. Found a tutorial for it, and will give it a go at a later stage.
http://gamebanana.com/tuts/3418
2d Chris and FrieChamp - ahhh, that map makes me feel nostalgic!
JeanPaul - The map has received testing, so you can suck my incredibly hairy balls! Lol! In fairness, I should have put some of that in the first post. I have not just been making the building based on the reference. Playtest, then I know what problems there are, then look how to fix it. As an example, I think this was the first one tested with the immediate issues:
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/40.jpg]
So the changes on the latest screen, a lot of them are for gameplay and definitely not because I think they look better, since they are adding to the bsp feeling:
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/41.jpg]
Also, because of all the arches and it just being one structure, adding another route, or blocking off another area is pretty easy. The adding of textures and props so early on was more because I wanted to see if I could get a theme working first. Normally I would only be using dev textures with basic props for scale, but I really did not want to dev block something I might not be able to get working visually. That said, it definitely needs more testing now, and I fully expect to have a lot of stuff to add/remove depending on how things work out. But with the way it is built, I think the changes will be iterative, rather than entire rebuilds. At least that is what I am hoping
Skjalg - Never! I want this to play well. Gameplay over visuals!
3Dnj - I enjoy blocking stuff out, but it depends on whether or not I think I can make it look realistic etc Sometimes a blockout plays well, but is then hard to make look plausible. But I agree, in an ideal situation, blockout, playtest immediately, make changes, test again, repeat, then add art. Then test some more.
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Updated post with some real time images. I will update the others as I go along, and any new ones.
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Hi Guys. I was going to post these in the WIP thread, but saw KungFuSquirrel's comment about keeping things together. I will definitely be doing a lot more texturing in the future, but for now, here are my first attempts at hand-painting stuff, all of which was learned from PhillipK's excellent tutorials. They were designed with UDK in mind, so I wanted to keep them quite clean, since a lot of the details would be added by shaders. Feedback is as always appreciated
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/A.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/B.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/C.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/D.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/E.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/F.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/G.jpg]
This is the orange brick with shaders in the UDK viewport:
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/J.jpg]
A yellow variant of the same brick:
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/K.jpg]
The red variant with basic shaders:
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/L.jpg]
With the paint effects which can be drawn on the texture:
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/M.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/N.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/O.jpg]
I then used the same handpainting technique for some concrete to see if it worked.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/H.jpg]
How they might look together.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/I.jpg]
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Love the look so far
The only thing that looks odd to me at the moment is the zebra crossing on the road, that goes straight into a lamp post.
And good luck with the project!
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Rick D, 3Dnj, FMPONE, HP, and moroes. Thanks, appreciate the comments
Warby and Puddy - Fortunately, I can easily change those textures. There are a lot of cleaner ones in cs_italy. The reason I used them is because they fitted nicely with the arches and the stone pillars. I will test out others at some point to see if anything works better.
Thrik and Squad - definitely agree! Tried to adjust the palms by alpha tinting, but the whole tree goes the same colour
It would be great to have a look like this which has much more colour.[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/36.jpg]
Spherix - Yeah, worked on the layout probably more than the art, but it will definitely need a lot of iterating on. Looking forward to that bit the most! I will post an overhead image with the next update which should help with understanding the map. The floor is absolutely pancake flat at the moment. I will sort that once I have most of the main bits in to get rid of that BSP feel.
Dejavo - Agreed! The interiors are really rough. I just did the minimum to make sure I had enough room to make it feel big enough.
I should also say that I would ideally like to base the place in Chile, so that I can have the easter island type heads in the background, like in Tekken Tag 2. I also think I need to "utilise" that rainbow as well
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/37.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/38.jpg]
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Hi guys, this is a map I began making a few days after CS GO shipped. I should have pimped it a bit earlier to get feedback, but it seems to have crept along at a steady pace, which I am really hoping will continue
I should have a lot more time to do stuff on this (was recently working at Eurocom - eek!), and I think the map is at the stage where it has progressed enough to recieve constructive criticism.I have posted a breakdown of how I have got to the stage I am at now, which people will hopefully find interesting. Feedback is very welcome of course!
So I began by looking at all of the CS GO assets, and decided that a Villa type of map could work, given that there are a lot of nice arch, foliage and boat models. To begin with, I searched for reference pictures, some of which are here.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/01.jpg]
However, there were two that stood out for me, since they looked good for gameplay opportunities. The second one in particular I like, because it has a nice simple shape, a clean silouhette, and a lot of scope for expansion.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/02.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/03.jpg]
I did a rough paintover because I could see various things that might work.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/04.jpg]
Then began blocking it out to see if it will work themeatically.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/05.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/06.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/07.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/08.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/09.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/10.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/11.jpg]
At this stage, I think the theme is working, so I strip things back, build the routes I want into the map (a garage, a cellar and a road) and begin refineing the building. I make the path in the garden curved because I know from the reference image search that a fountain or flower bed could look good at the front.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/12.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/13.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/14.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/15.jpg]
I then get a bit side tracked by some other reference images that have a lighthouse attached to the building. I do some tests, but I think it looks a bit too busy, so remove it.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/17.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/18.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/19.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/20.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/21.jpg]
At some stage I do a "Villa in Videogames" google search, and find the GTA tennis court one (which I think looks awesome!), so use the idea and fashion some routes out of the fences.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/22.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/23.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/24.jpg]
I also find some good tennis court/swimming pool stuff.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/25.jpg]
I then do some work on the interior to make sure the sizes are good enough for gameplay. I have tried to make the interior roofs as high as possible, so that throwing flashbangs and grenades is not a problem.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/26.jpg]
Rest of the building at this stage, and a front back comparison.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/27.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/28.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/29.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/30.jpg]
Comparison of the "paintover" and where I am now.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/31.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/32.jpg]
I then show the map to someone at work, and they suggest looking at the Black Ops villa map, which I do. The Front of the building has a nice fountain, and steeple type of structure. I was looking for ways to make both sides of the building look different, and this gives me the idea to add something similar.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/33.jpg]
And this is the stage the map is at now. Still lots to do - the villa building feels too BSP based and edgy, and a lot of details are missing in general - fountain, gazeebo, lighthouse in the distance perhaps, but the good thing is that finishing the map feels managable. I will be pushing for a playable build soon.
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/34.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.skybex.com/home/35.jpg]
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Psycho - At the moment, it is quite difficult to properly get a feel for the map, since there is a lack of things to hide behind. Without the cover, getting an accurate grasp of the balance, flow and timing is quite hard.
Any chance we can see a build with lots of provisional cover, blocked out in dev textures?
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The map is becoming more and more polished. I really like the feel of it. One of the things that looks odd though is the gravestone in the wheat field. I don't think people would be growing crops on a graveyard.
A good addition might be a windmill. Because there is a lot of wheat in the map, it would fit in quite well.
Also, I would like to see some areas that lead off into the distance. At the moment, there's no sense of there being a world beyond the playable area. A few super extended airy eye candy sections, like those found in dod_jagged (the rolling hills, phone poles, trees, roads and houses), or cs_militia (river, barn, trees, and mountains) would look real nice.
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[Blocked Image: http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/19330/2005924656929781702_rs.jpg]
From the picture, one of the things that stands out as being a potential problem is the Terrorist route when rushing left to site A. It is very head on, and for the CT's to cover it, they only need to move a few units to their right, and will be able to snipe from quite a distance.
I would suggest that you either dogleg the route, so that it is more difficult for the CT's to snipe from, or make the route run further to the left of the bombsite. Possibly even a combination of the two. An example of the kind of site entrance I am talking about can be found in de_cpl_clan_mill.
Obviously it is quite hard to properly guess how the map will play from an overview alone, so when it's blocked out, and has all provisional cover, it could be worth sending it to a few people to see what they reckon. I don't think the timing of the map should be a problem, because the spawn areas are reasonably big. This will allow you to move the players forward/back as needed. First contact points can easily be found by playing against bots on the hard setting, where they seem less inclined to dawdle.
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BioPulse - Yes, lighting needs a tweaking, or complete change. It does look better in game, but there is definitely something not right about it.
Mkz - Detail to be added!
JamesL - Completely fair points The unique buildings will hopefully come when we go through everything for a second time. The areas shown are the spawn, and spawn exits, so when the central area is done, a "special" feature can be thought about. The map is not that old yet, so we have just got the basics in at the moment.
von*ferret - Agree! Using stock material means the map looks like the usual stuff. I think that's why a different lighting set up has to be added, so that it at least looks a little bit different.
RA7 - I haven't touched de_tropea for a few months. Packrat doesn't seem to recognise all the stuff used. Its not near a final, but I would say it is definitely beta-worthy. There are no obvious playability issues. I should have released a beta a while back, just to get some valuable public testing. I was putting together a build to send to people to give me feedback, but lost motivation just at the wrong time. Grrr! I will try and work on it soon, and even though I am not happy with it, just release a beta. The constructive criticism will be worth it.
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Yep, its French. Here is a map.
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Thanks for the comments.
Warby - good idea. The light looks horrible there.
Insta - yes, water tower will go, and a more French one like this added.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/f ... ulouse.jpg
KungFuSquirrel - thanks
Sa74n - Yes, lots more vegetation, and loads of decals needed, along with displaced roofs and broken buildings. Shop might look a bit weird as well when next to a graveyard.
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A hands on of the game, and an interview with Turtle Rock.
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A map I am working on with Skybex. Although it uses the name for a map I was making before, this is completely new. Its still very wip, but moving along fairly quickly - just one more building needs to be worked on to reach first pass.
Rubble, smoke, damage and lots of decals still have to be added, and the water tower is out of place I think. The church textures will also be changed to something with more detail, and the sky looks better when in game, since the web compression has given it lots of contours.
[Blocked Image: http://www.chehamilton.com/Random/dod_zutzendorf_15.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.chehamilton.com/Random/dod_zutzendorf_16.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.chehamilton.com/Random/dod_zutzendorf_17.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.chehamilton.com/Random/dod_zutzendorf_18.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.chehamilton.com/Random/dod_zutzendorf_19.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.chehamilton.com/Random/dod_zutzendorf_20.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.chehamilton.com/Random/dod_zutzendorf_21.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://www.chehamilton.com/Random/dod_zutzendorf_22.jpg]
Feedback appreciated.
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Its coming along very nicely. I would say that the bridge feels a bit out of place though.
All the other geometry meshes together so well, both in the textures and shape. The bridge however, has comparatively bright textures, and is quite flat and blocky. If the textures were changed to something more fitting of a bridge, and the top was made more curvy, I think it would really improve things.
Some other ideas:
- Lots of leaves on the floor, since the map seems quite rural.
- Making the ambient lighting darker, so that there is more of a contrast between the shadowy and the the illuminated areas. Possibly even lengthen the shadows.
- A scarecrow prop in one of the crop fields.
- The village looks like it is still occupied, so the odd smoke stack here and there.
- The castle tower might benefit from having a trim added to it.
- Some (turned off) lamps on the buildings.
- I know this one might be a bit too much, but I can really picture some butterflies in the map.
Keep up the good work!
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Love it
The land form really adds a naturalistic feel to the map . I think e-freak has offered some great constructive criticism. All in all though, it has great potential.
