Thanks for the comments,
does anyone have an HDR skymap of a dark sky I could use? I'm using the cobble HDR skymap atm, since it's the only HDR skymap we have... You are correct, it doesn't match the ambiance colors of the map. Also, In the previous shot I set all fade in/out's the same for all models. These shots are with the correct fade in/outs, thats why these may not look as perfected as you so say.
About the dots on the skybox, thats my texture on my sphere model to create the moving sky.
Just played the map in 1920*1200, all details turned on. Took some shots, thought I'd share them since there were some comments of the other shots being too small.
http://users.pandora.be/simon.wt/ol_dow ... igh_01.jpg
http://users.pandora.be/simon.wt/ol_dow ... igh_02.jpg
http://users.pandora.be/simon.wt/ol_dow ... igh_03.jpg
- Wesley
Really nice work, I'm not sure what engine this is?
If it's Source, I'm really impressed.
Mabufo: I'm sure it would be fine, takes 4 hours on mine (2 hours for each pass, since HDR is 2 passes). And vis takes 1 minute, on Styx it took 5 seconds. Downfall is a bit heavier cause of the large openness of the map.
About the interiors, I've had most crits on those, I'll do some hallway / office prop work this week, small things that will make them look better. I'll post new interior shots when I have them.
Why I left them so bland was mainly because the open areas are very big and open (a lot bigger than any official CSS map, I think the biggest would be Aztec or Nuke, and those are also pretty low on outside details). So with that I have to use a lot of custom props that are low detailed with heavy LOD models and also a good fade in/out distance setting. Occluders helped as well. But it was a lot of work to get it optimized and running smooth (both Styx and Downfall). But for the interior I guess I can add a few more poly's as long as I set the fade distance very short. So thats what I'll do asap 
More soon
- Wesley
Thanks for all the crits and comments, much appreciated !
FMPONE: We will make the cars destructible at some point, kinda like BF2. This plus some trip mines and Grenade Launchers will make you think twice before using the vehicle
RA7: Thanks! yes it's for http://www.off-limits.be/
RD: This map is for Off Limits, which will have an alien on every surface, to make things a bit more intense some darkness wont hurt. This will give both the alien some advantages as well as the humans. (if you walk in the dark, the alien wont be able to see you very good, as seen in this video demonstration: http://www.off-limits.be/mediarelease/m ... l-xvid.avi ). This is also the same for the alien, it can hide in some dark corner watching the people pass underneath it, if it wanted to).
Steppenwolf: Thanks! You are correct about the corners. But it slipped my mind on this one 
(I did it with Styx). And changing that now would mean a totally change of the whole level (street would shift, as well as the highway and buildings). So I'm not going to fix that anymore. It's kinda hard to see in the screenshots, but each sharp corner has a triangle that goes to the same height as the street level, this is so when you drive the vehicle over such a corner you wouldn't slip (as previous version proved 
).
I did a recompile today with the new traffic lights, here is a shot I took of it:
[Blocked Image: http://www.wesleytack.com/images/downfall/downfall_033.jpg]
- Wesley
Thanks for all the great comments everyone, crits are still welcome. No map is ever really finished as I'm sure you all will agree
Quote from atrocitySomethings I would look into is turning on a couple of those street lights and give them a nice soft orange glow to compliment the blue overtones you got goin. Then I would work on placing more detail in the streets. Overall the map looks excellent, and is posted in the Finished work, but this is something I might have pushed at.
Thanks for reminding me, I was planning this but it totally slipped my mind (the traffic lights).
Here is a model I made just now to replace the Valve one and an ingame shot:
[Blocked Image: http://users.pandora.be/simon.wt/trafficlight01.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://users.pandora.be/simon.wt/trafficlight.jpg]
About the empty street comment, Off Limits has drivable vehicles, so I left them relatively empty so people wouldn't bump into objects all the time. Also for such a large open area having too many prop cars in the scene will be bad for performance (especially Valve cars, which tend to be a lot of poly's).
Here is a video of the map (before it was optimized, you'll see my computer lag at one point ). Now the map runs fine. I recorded with my photocamera, cause running fraps would have ruined my race
http://users.pandora.be/simon.wt/OffLimits_Lap_One.avi
I'll recompile it again sometime this week with the new traffic lights and other crits that would emerge.
Thanks!
- Wesley
Finished my second map for Off Limits, this design was made in collaboration with Forrest Dowling, who initially started this map over a year ago. It's been through a lot of changes but the core gameplay has been the same since it was constructed by Forrest. I picked up this map to finish it and get it ready for the Off Limits RC1 release. Here are some shots of it:
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More shots can be found on my website: http://www.wesleytack.com
Made for http://www.off-limits.be
Hope you like it, and a happy newyear to all ! May it be better than 2006!
- Wesley
It's the same in Internet Explorer 
damn this is weird
Quote from Rick_DThat's pretty tasteless ;DOh and Source's collision models mean you won't have every angle and edge colliding with the player, you know that, you're just making excuses ;D
Sure, but then you'll have players clipping in the model, which looks worse imHo than a plain and simple model. And we all know thats a common crit we hear on every game/mod screenshot, is when you see a player character clipping through a model (blasphemy!).
still no luck ?
I didn't ask for comments, I just wanted to add to the WiP thread
Psycho: Why not reconstruct the WTC, I wonder why no one ever did that actually. Would be cool to have the plaza + 2 WTC towers and being able to go up and defuse a bomb... CT's start at the bottom, T starts at the top.
You could make it pretty cool with two bomb spots in tower 1 and 2. Heck I'd make it if i didn't have to map for off limits
I'm not someone who put every detail in map props, cause people will walk through that room in 2 seconds (if not 1) so they wont look much to any details. Also, I could have broken it up more, but I think a smooth gameflow is more important than some more broken up props that take more space and give more edges for a player to get stuck upon or bump against (which is very annoying in a multiplayer game). Thats just my opinion.
I'm finalizing a second map for Off Limits, it's actually the first map we made, but it's been through so much stages I've lost count. It's a map designed by Purerage, I'm making the final touches to get it in the Off Limits release asap.
[Blocked Image: http://users.pandora.be/simon.wt/downfall_electriccabin01.jpg]
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In firefox, when i turn off the option:
"allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above"
Than the whole site is of course fucked, but, i can see the black text then in the buttons. So somewhere you must have the text set to white, it's really weird I'm the only one with this problem..
Don't know if this will help, but I thought I'd post it.
the only crit is have from that last screen is barb wire isn't supposed to be going up like that, but should be hanging straight or down a bit.
My latest compile (visleaf) took 3 seconds? as you see in the log I posted it was 4 at that time, is this possible? It's a big map though? Or do you mean for the whole compile to end it shouldn't take more than 5 min? Cause mine at full HDR at normal takes 1 hour 28 mins to compile.
And my streets are basically how hessi posted it in his preview, I have an underneath "layout" with the street/sidewalks on top as func_detail, with those as func_detail the cuts in the bsp are a lot cleaner since I have some turns in the road/sidewalk. I'm also a sucker for a clean bsp (I check a lot in glview)
Quote from SkjalgIt most likely has to do with your settings in FF, you can tell firefox to always set normal text to white (which you've probably done:P).
My text is set to black in FF options
Quote from Mojoright now FI_Subice is the only forum template that is allowed to be used. maybe you some how got the non working on, check your profile to find out.
my profile is set to FI subice (there is only once choice)
The latest firefox, the button itself isn't quite white, but the text is, so I need to squeeze my eyes and go very close to the screen so get and idea of what it says. For the comment posting I can watch the text rollovers thankfully, but still annoying. Is there a way to change to another theme to do a quick test?
Thanks
This is somethings thats been annoying me ever since I got on this forum, so I thought I'd finally post it and deal with it
All the buttons on the forum are white, and the text on it also? I'm I the only one? Can I change the forum theme? Can't find it
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did you buildcubemaps?
yea,
Keats, the main coder thinks i could be what Zacker said:
- The light info from the lightmap patch directly below the origin/pivot of the model.
This would mean that the player model casts it's shadow on the weapon(..?!..), and when you look up or jump the weapon lights up. So far it makes sense, he will do some tests on this asap. I'll let you know as soon as we got some concrete information.
