Posts by R_Yell

Wagon will be accessible, as it's a good place to hide inside, and yes, probably will have some crates inside. In fact the game mode is about crates :wink:

Old wagon:

[Blocked Image: http://www.fistful-of-frags.com/edicion/noticias/fof21.jpg]

Developers gave good reasons to remove nades, mainly stop spam and increase class differentiation if I remember correctly. The second is double edged IMO, it'll require more teamplay and that could end in frustration easily.

Always liked TF, the soldier class was my favorite, followed by engineer. Don't know how it'll play with the gameplay changes they are adding, hope it'll do well too, in the end seems more like graphical upgrade . Graphics are great, the new engine additions will bring some interesting possibilities there.

BTW, how much time Valve wasted trying to do a sequel for TFC? There was that infamous TF2 for GoldSource, and then was also another project, seems like TF was considered to be the primitive multiplayer of HL2. There were multiple references in the original SDK code.

This tactic also ensure them a lot of rejected maps that will be available on release time as unofficial stuff.

Great then, so do I send you the scene as is now? BTW .obj format is okay for you? Its native format is XSI.

Maybe this section of Grand Canyon?

[Blocked Image: http://img179.imagevenue.com/loc572/th_18748_gc_122_572lo.jpg]

Mesh: around half million triangles

Normal and diffuse: 4096x4096

I could lower down mesh or textures resolution.

Well, the first thing that counts is the idea, and this one could work. Nothing radically new but the theme is promising. Good luck filling those positions, maybe showing some pics of your map when is ready will grant you more chances.

It's simple for me: if a compressed normal map doesn't create noticeable artifacts in-game, then there is no reason to make them uncompressed.

BTW, the problem of wiki is that everyone can post there, hell, even I have a tut there

Compression in 3D cards is meant to take less video memory, the point is just that. So yes, using compressed stuff (including normals) saves memory. Examples: check games using Doom 3 engine with compressed and uncompressed normal maps, uncompressed version takes much more video memory.

BTW, Someone remember Valve promising support for 3Dc normal map compression, that is supposed to eliminate artifacts?

Thx for sharing Adam, very good read. I could disagree in some point, but only because I'm designing a game mode that is hard to match with this:

Quote

Each level must be designed carefully, with every moment planned and considered. A level must be balanced to best represent the core mechanics, ensuring that the conflict zones are placed in locations where the players encounter each other within 15 to 30 seconds.

That principle is basic, of course, but when you introduce some layers of game play where random events take place, then is hard to consider and plan every moment.

I'm trying to create some order inside those "chaotic" random events, in the end they shouldn't create any major imbalance. It's like those maps generated randomly in RTS genre. Every player has a mine near its camp, but sometimes there are also some imbalances that makes the game interesting. Players must learn the map every time, but they know that key principles of map generation are always the same. Well, I'm about to introduce something in FPS using a similar concept.

My two last levels have some normal maps made with Crazybump. Making quality maps with this tool is so easy and fast, a must have. I using it now to create height maps for a render.

I think each custom map, even using default stuff, should try to create its own atmosphere. This one fails at that because most parts looks much like some official maps. On the other side, this map looks like a learning exercise, and it's a good effort IMO.

Thx for the tips I used a more conventional solution there, hehe, just covered the area with a solid. Next time I'll try what you said.

Ah, very interesting. Using displacements in that way probably will increase map size a lot, but quality will pay though. I love how lighting works over displacements. I had some problems when displacements are a continuation of a solid, lighting doesn't work well there.

Good luck with that application Defrag. Now you mention displacements, XSI vmf exporter doesn't support displacements, why Valve, why! Anyway, one of the things I like from Hammer is displacement creation if it's something like a cave or small parts of a map. It could be easier or faster, but actual tools let you do many things.

I thought this could be interesting. Using a 3D app to work on solid geometry could be much faster sometimes, there exist that possibility using XSI vmf exporter but it tends to find concavities in almost every interesting piece of geometry.

I tried to avoid that limitation working with a cube splitted in 4 parts like can be seen in the wireframe shot. The result was quite satisfactory, I could use deform tools over the mesh composed of those cubes (every single object is grouped). That one was deformed by curve, quite simple.

[Blocked Image: http://img169.imagevenue.com/loc342/th_64568_emp_canals0000_122_342lo.jpg][Blocked Image: http://img156.imagevenue.com/loc525/th_64569_emp_canals0003_122_525lo.jpg][Blocked Image: http://img167.imagevenue.com/loc464/th_64574_bend_122_464lo.jpg][Blocked Image: http://img41.imagevenue.com/loc512/th_64575_wireframe_122_512lo.jpg]

This is a tower like shape using the same technique:

[Blocked Image: http://img168.imagevenue.com/loc398/th_65016_tower1_122_398lo.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://img147.imagevenue.com/loc440/th_65017_tower2_122_440lo.jpg]

Hope it can be useful.

Thank you . We are about to start some private online tests. After that we'll decide if the mod is ready to be released.

We are still seeking some level designers.

At least Hammer has a few features like fast vrad and cordon compile to check lighting settings without waiting too much time. But nobody could deny that lighting preview would be a real time saver, and the fact is Valve is trying to implement it.

IMO a WYSIWYG is not a big issue for Source level designers, there are much worse problems. Would be good to have more options to work with external 3d packages. You can't import brushwork, well, it can be done in XSI but it isn't useful because all concave shapes are discarded so you'll end making blocks.

Sometimes it's good to have access to the lowest level. Once ago I had a bizarre situation where I needed to create 64 vmt's that were part of the same group. I made a script to automate that process. However, Valve should integrate material creation, model compile, soundscapes, etc. into Hammer. Both, low level and easy usage, should be possible.