Posts by OrnateBaboon

Thanks for the comments.

Polaris - Thanks will check out the shingles.

e-freak - Map is not worthy of that kind of praise, but appreciated That texture will be adjusted.

Furyo - at the moment, the lighting is kind of straigt on. I have tried to avoid angled lighting, since this often casts those jagged shadows that source does not handle too well. When nearer final, I will work properly on the lighting side of things.

Meotwister - Lighting does look odd in places, as do the lamps. When I do some lighting adjustments, I will see what lamps are in the dark, and keep them on, while the ones in the lighted areas will get turned off.

KIIIA - Glad you like it so far. I wanted to add the dev shot cameras, and do lots of light builds, takes screens, and see what ones looked the best, but dev shots don't seem to work at the moment. So for the tme being, the lighting will look iffy.

Small update of some of the sections that had little time spent on them. Still need to add loads of decals, more roof details, and adjust the lighting like BlackPanther suggested.

Criticism appreciated.

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I think that the ropes make things look a bit too overworked. I am wondering what all the ropes are actually for. They almost make things feel a touch cluttered. Also, it is possible to actually see too many areas where the angle of the brushwork changes. For example, the beams that go up the walls contain 16 brushes. Ideally, I wouldn't be able to count these. They would look a lot better if they were modelled.

There is a similar situaton going on with the floor, and the rail tracks. This could easily be fixed by turning everything into displacements, and then adjusting the corners so that they look perfectly curved, and super smooth. This should not be too much work, and would make a massive difference.

Could be a good idea to fiddle with the lighting as well. Maybe try and get some more shadow up the top. I would really like to see some orange lighting used, so that everything looks more alive. Or possibly a blue lighting set up contrasted with some yellows. Point spotlights might fit the scene as well.

A bit more on the story and what system it is running on. A beast of a PC.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OF9qoWKNbA&NR

Saw this posted on interlopers. So good, I thought I'd share. Is probably the best looking in game stuff I have seen.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DetnKgOxrSI&eurl=

I think that another good way to maybe detract from the 90 degree stuff would be to make the skylight an octagonal or circular shape, with a modelled dome type of thing. If it could incorporate breakable glass, this would be a real nice feature for when grenades go off.

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/objects/fea ... rture1.jpg

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbv ... y_dome.jpg

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbv ... e_dome.jpg

http://archrecord.construction.com/reso ... 502_1d.jpg

While these pics are not ideal, they give an idea of what I mean. Added last link just because it looks cool.

Great work I was looking into this kind of thing before. Found a good tutorial on it. Have you got the original pics to show?

http://www.seb4d.com/tutorials/Mattepai ... nglish.htm

Just add a cubemap to the middle of the room, though make sure it is 16 units away from all brushwork. You won't need to assign any faces to see the effects. Go to the console, type "buildcubemaps", and that should work.

The tree shadow looks a bit crisp in comparison to the shadow on the left, so depending on how high poly the room is going to be, you might be able to adjust the light maps to suit. I also think a shine (is it called a specular map?) would look good on the tile textures.

Have you added a shadow control entity yet? Can't really tell from the screens, but this will give your props_physics a shadow, as well as the characters running around the map.

All of the geometry in the room looks as though it should be func_detail, since it is not vis blocking. Also, the sky box has been dragged around the whole map, which means that parts are being rendered that shouldn't. The base portal vis part hates the big skybox method, and just by properly sealing the map., you will cut loads of time off of the compile.

Motes are in there, but I don't think the particle number is high enough. Will adjust this.

Ahhh! Two useful links. One explains how to change the skybox, and the other gives you the recomended light properties for the sky you are using. 250 brightness is very low. Even dark maps would probably go 150 higher. With the pitch, go between -15 and -65. You should see an appreciable difference.

edit - or do what hessi said

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki ... yed_skybox

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Sky_List

What kind of light environment are you going for? Is the map going to be sunny outside or slightly gloomy like the skybox?

Thats looking pretty good damn good already, even though it is very early. It will be easy to adjust the light environment so that the room is filled with light from the outside. Tinkering with the pitch and light angle should do it. Love the shape the room is taking

Cheers Mino.

Adjusted the lighting in the cellar. I think this is about as dark as I can go without seriously harming visibility. Still looks a bit too clean though.

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I also have 15 easter egg Italian tarot cards "hidden" throughout the map. So for example, shoot the barrel, and one is hidden behind it. Need to adjust the alpha on them. Barrlels along the side in the room are placeholder until they can be properly modelled.

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e-freak and Schmung - I think that making the map DOD compatable would be more trouble than its worth. It would require lots of rebuilding to make it play properly. I will wait until this version is finished, and perhaps make something out of it, but I think that would be a bit cheap. I have a very early DOD map in the works, and if I were to finish a DOD map, I'd prefer to work on that.

Warby - Yeah definitely. 100% custom content would be great. I started making some textures with the intention of using them on this, but I think I would rather save that for the next project. Having custom textures and then standard models won't look right. My modeling skills are lame, so for whatever I make next, I will attempt to 100% custom it.

twiz - Superb! Great criticism! Will take it on board. Bottom of the chimney can't be seen from the playable areas though, so that shouldn't be a problem. Will definitely displace all of the roofs in the map. Just need to be certain that I am happy with them first. The displacement for the close up is a bit stretched at the moment Needs a going over. I need to add a grass blend to the texture above it to make things look more beleivable.

Seems as though the wine cellar needs a good reworking. Does look too bright, and needs more decay. Will lower the metal grate on it, and probably add some sort of handles to it so that it looks as though it can be opened. Those clumps of ivy stuck on the wall will go. They just look too flat. The lights might get turned off depending on what I do with the light environment. They do look quite white. Never noticed that before. Appreciate the crits

Now that you guys mention it, it does look very flat. Will get some more variety in there. Thanks for the criticism.

Please excuse the flimsy mountains in the distance! These will be properly worked on when I move on to the 3d skybox. Crates are placeholder at teh moment as well. Will tinker with the lighting soon. Criticism appreciated.

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Meotwister - not a big fan of it myself, but I can definitely see why people like it. Same as de_cpl_strike. I can see why it is played, but I can't seem to get into it.

In no particular order, I would say that these are all worth a look.

Hostage maps: cs_china, cs_xmas, cs_miami, cs_docks, cs_docks2, cs_haste, and cs_thunder2006.

Bomb maps: de_clan_mill, de_clan_fire, de_russka, de_villa, de_cpl_strike, de_losttemple, de_lochs 2, de_venice, de_corse, de_rotterdam, de_bahrain2006, de_trading, de_static, de_nightfever, and de_menace. People also like de_matrix, which is bit different to normal bomb maps, but definitely worth a ldownload. Some great entity work.

Lots more I will add when I remember them.

I love custom maps, but not many get played. Go on to a server, and it is usually dust and dust 2. Some of the more popular maps I have seen are de_villa, de_russka, de_lost temple, de_clan fire and mill, and de_contra. All of which do not empty servers when they come on, play really well, and have great frame rates. Contra looks a bit unfinished though.