Cheers guys and thanks Hessi, the tutorial was very helpful.
I turned off shadows on the trees and made some overlays to fake them. They are not quite perfect yet, and there is a little of what looks like z-fighting where my displacements hit world brushes, but it's certainly an improvement.
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Great atmosphere. Looking forwards to seeing how it develops as you add the detail. Time to reinstall BF2 
Played it a few times today on our server. There are several places you can boost n skywalk outside the world. Clip the top of all the walls.
Quote from hessicreate a snapshot of your tree from the top in VHE in a complete empty area so you can extract the trees shape from the viewport background. then fill the tree shape with a soft grey in an alphachannel of a new texture and create the color of the texture completly dark (maybe with some ambient blue).btw: sounds difficult to explain. should make a tutorial on that too.
I tried doing this as a solution to the bad shadows. I got the tree shape into photoshop and made an alpha mask for its shape, but it comes out really sharp in game, the edges are too strong.
I think I am using a 1 bit alpha, just black and white, no softness. I never made a proper 8 bit alpha before and I don't really know how. My 2d skills are not too great.
Nice work, the environment shows great promise and I think could be an excellent 4-6 player map.
In terms of improvement; the HDR is over blooming from the very light surfaces and needs toning down. I would also add these extra routes (blue arrows) and reposition the bombsites slightly. You could still add in more detail in the form of props and func_detail brushes without losing framerate I think. The map is small, tight and vis's well enough enough to go to town with it.
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Still working on it.
Shadows are a bit borked, but I am kinda stuck between big black blob shadows and none at all, neither of which looks very good.
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Looks good so far, obviously lacking detail at this point and the fog needs some work but the direction looks good. I wrote a tutorial on level to skybox fog blending based on some stuff Steve Zonbie showed me. Makes it pretty quick and easy to get effective results. You might know this already but thought I'd bung a link in case not.
What happened to Tropea anyways? lots of folks are waiting on a beta of that still. Off work all this week gimme a shout if you wanna do some maptesting.
I have been getting the first problem since the last Steam update. No idea why. I have to restart steam to fix it.
Sony's London-based development studio is currently looking for three designers to come and work on an exciting next generation action title. The three vacancies are:
1 Level Designer: the Level Designer will be working in a team responsible for the concepting, paper design and 3D "grey box" of levels. Upon completion of the level design phase the level design team will then be responsible for the implementation and balancing of gameplay. For this role experience in a 3D package is a must.
1 Scripter: the Scripter will work with a Level Designer on the concept and paper design of a level. They will then work on the scripting of 'set pieces' (using Java) and implementation and balancing of gameplay. Experience in Java, C, LUA or other languages consistent with game development is a must.
1 Systems Designer: the Systems Designer will work on the written specification of game mechanics and features, and then monitor and balance their implementation. Experience of working on other titles in this area is required.
Applicants should send through a CV and examples of their work where possible. PM for contact email address.
Thank you very much Hessi, really really helpful tut on one of the things I have been struggling with.
Any plans to make further tutorials?
Great stuff, I live just down the road from CA, in Brighton. Great part of the country to live in and a great company to work for. Grats
It's the same everywhere, I think it just gets less coverage because the mass media isn't nearly so well developed as it is in the US.
Quote from SteppenwolfI'm sure you as american wouldn't agree if someone says private persons don't need guns to protect their property.
One can 'o worms at a time
Nice overview. It would be great to see a release in some form, even if you just bung an fy_ in front of the name.
I agree with RD about the lighting, the overview makes it look a little flat. If you are stuck with what do to to improve it then have a browse through some of the of the finished/WIP map threads here on Mapcore. There are some great examples of nice lighting on show in many and I think it would really help lift the atmosphere.
Quote from ReNoI think its looking great. Personally I love the character designs
Likewise, I think the art direction and style is awesome. Highly atmospheric.
*please please please be good*
Don't sell yourself short mate, even with all the ramp up and experience with the tools it's still fabulous work.
Yeah smoothing groups will improve the look considerably. Also, if this map is purely a showcase and you're not especially worried about performance, then why not double the number of faces on those pillars and tunnels? Might be a bitch to have to re-make them all, but with double the faces they are going to look very sexeh.
Quote from kelly4di will prove it when i can be arsed
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Sorry for de-railing, model is excellent, good work.
Saw concept stuff for Bioshock like almost two years ago now, doesn't look like its moved on my further since then. Hope its not gonna be another Duke Nukem Forever...
Vivi you wh0re 
