Thanks Skullhozer. Some more pics.
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Cheers Fruchtzwerg.
Absolutely Insta. Different textures, big Italian style decals, broken stairs, wires on the lights, a fuse box, rubbish on the stairs, leaves, sprites, hdr and anything else that would fit.
Some pics of the area I have been working on today. These are of inside, and underground areas.
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The arches in the final pic are on top of a bridge, which will have an eye candy view of mountains, houses, the sea, a road and a beach.
I know it looks strange to see the first batch of images followed by such different types of geometry, but hopefully the transitions from area to area will be okay.
Minotauro - yep, some landmarks are definitely needed to distinguish one area from the next, and to help navigation.
Killertomato - never really thought about the displacments as being too wavy. Will make them more subtle.
Dark - is definitely too empty. I think these are in the "just about pimpable" stage. It is just that to get feedback at this moment really helps to save time in the long run.
Furyo - good spot! Will change the rust textures at some point.
Mazy - yep, some of the buildings have a similar look at the moment. It is my hope that all the buildings will look very different to each other. Yellow texture is also used too much like you say. Is a bit of a bare texture as well come to think of it.
Been Working on a CSS map for the Mapcore competition that never quite made it. Based in a place called Tropea in Italy. Layout is complete, (save modifications after playtesting) and all areas have rough direction. I have only really worked on the playable areas, so this is why there is a lack of detail in the distant sky line. These are of the T spawn.
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Issues:
Same colour roofs
Flat pavements
Blocky corners
Not enough dirt/stains/damage on the walls
Not enough variation in the building textures
All light fixings and lamp post models are bright. Will add some unlit ones
Need to displace the roofs
More unique aspects to generally try and make the map look different to other CS Source and DOD Source maps.
No HDR at the moment
No sprites yet
Crates!
Looking for contructive criticism, and any good ideas people might have that could be added to a map of this type. Thank you to Skybex for hosting the images.
Art lacks a modern satisfactory definition, which is why it is very difficult to even properly talk about it. For me, art is such a vague term, that it is impossible to distinguish between that which is art, and that which is not.
Reno - brilliant! One thing I think that could be worth experimenting with though is the lighting. Right now I can see some nice bright windows, which could have the light shining through, very much like on de_nuke. You might be able to then lower the light maps as well. Agree that there needs to be more rubbish around the place.
Spartan - great start. I really love themes like this. Slight issue with the box models going under the wall, and the wall texture repeating twice though.
I think someone has already made cs_docks. 4 or so in less than 2 months though! Some real speed mapping will be required!
Looks amazing! Very organic, and has a real world feeling to it. Seems a bit more balanced now as well. Bluestrike, maybe people don't like inferno because their machines can't handle it or something. I know that blowing up lots of the plant pots with a grenade can cause lots of lag on my PC.
I wonder if any more of the old maps will get converted. I would prefer to see new maps myself, provided they play well of course. If a playable community map comes along, it would be good if Valve took it on, added eye candy, and then made it official. de_russkia for example, a new CPL map looks really poor, but plays very well.
I think that the remake that least uses the power of the source engine is Italy. Far too block and prop for me. Playing it after inferno really shows a big contrast in detail.
Yes, de_nuke is great as well! I never liked it that much at first, but it has gotten better the more I look at it. I really like the idea that they have used crates instead of trying to contrive some other type of cover. If official maps have crates, it kind of makes it more acceptable for custom maps to include them.
Not a big fan of the way that de_port looks though. I wonder if all the old maps, like de_vegas, de_torn and cs_siege will be remade.
I can't believe that people hate inferno so much! Out of interest, what CS source map do people reckon looks the best? I am with Inferno and Train.
Being immature is not common on this board, which is probably why it is one of the best for feedback, constructive criticism and advice. Being abusive though is just poor form.
Regarding the map. It looks like a solid start. Nice lighting, and shadows. Good use of props, and the buildings all look very different from each other. Always positive when the geometry does not look like it has been cut from the same stone. In some of the pics, it looks as though a lot of the props, rather than brushwork, is doing too much of the work, though I imagine that this is because the map is early. The roads also look very straight and very flat, again because of the maps earliness.
I think the Main building should be a bank. A cinema next to it, a few eye candy roads as well. Not a fan of the map though. Cheap easy kills for the T's all round.
So that people know what they are signing up for, maybe it might help if some stuff is clarified. Questions I have. First, when is the closing date? If a firm one has not been set, then roughly what time are we looking at? Second, is there a theme, or are we free to make any type of map? Third, are people allowed to make maps on their own if they want to? Fear of letting down others (for a possible lack of time to be able to dedicate to the project) might be enough to deter people from entering.
Seems impossible to compile this properly. No errors at all in the compile log. Not even minor ones. Everything is below the limit, with the highest total being the brush count, which is at 75%. Level is properly sky capped, ran on a full rad and vis. Latest drivers, version of directX9c etc. Also tried using batch and the hammer compiler. When running the level, the “HL2 needs to close” message appears. The error report provides no information about the potential error.
If the cube maps are deleted, the map will then compile and not crash, except the displacements are black, and vis does not work properly. I know that lots of people are having problems with the HDR bug, and running cubemaps at the moment, but I don’t know whether the map crashing is due to this, or something else.
At the moment, hammer just seems very, very buggy. The last two weeks have been spent trying to fix this error, and very little, if any progress has been made. Does anyone have any ideas as to what the problem might be?
Hi guys, there have been some problems. First, I have a new job, and virtually no time to put in any hours. Second, Skybex was on holiday for aaages. So, nothing much in terms of pimping material has been done to the map. We have had a load of errors, map_tex_info, leaf portal saw into clusters, and now, after a full compile, the game will just crash, and mention something about the HL2 exe needing to close. Only problems in the compile are minor ones, like glass depending on itself, and model that is slightly outside the world, yet not producing a leak.
So, hopefully, once these little issues are resolved, we will be able to move forward with finishing the map. By the way, the new pointfile in Hammer is excellent for finding leaks!
One thing I would like to request is a small tutorial about how you have made these look so impressive! I know how to use terragen, but these skies are truly inspiring. I am thinking about all kinds of ideas for maps, based on these alone.
Great job 
MJ - Don't know if there is anything that can really be done about the horizontal textures thing. To be honest, I would never have thought of this as being an issue.
Skjalg - Indeed, the actual playable areas need a fair bit of work.
skdr - My one mapping wish is for Valve to add a working snow entity!
Ginseng - I would do an overview...if I knew how. Anyone have any links?
Marcos - The lights thing is a great idea! Would fit the map as well if done properly.
As usual, appreciate the criticism. Lots to think about.
zeOx - agreed, a bit far fetched.
Scmung - agreed as well. A bit too uniform. Will look at this.
Some more images of a few different areas. What we already know about all the images is that the snow looks too flat, and too boring. We need to add tracks, shadows, bushes etc to break up the monotony. Constructive criticism appreciated. Will soon start to work on the criticism people have given.
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