Posts by PogoP

Those screenshots look incredible, I'm definitely getting this when it comes out. What platforms is it coming out on?

Looks awesome, but the Aliens don't look very scary in my opinion.

Looks like a good start SP. Though I'd recommend just focusing on small areas at a time, getting them detailed up and then moving on to a new area. Once your initial layout is down of course

Here's a few shots from my latest devblog over at Black Mesa. These shots are from On a Rail.

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[Blocked Image: http://www.blackmesasource.com/bmcms/data/upimages/bm_c2a2a0034.jpg]

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[Blocked Image: http://www.blackmesasource.com/bmcms/data/upimages/bm_c2a2a0030.jpg]

Excuse any minor graphical bugs such as the light models casting shadows, they're fixed now. Sorry about the watermarks too.

Quote from killertomato

awesome. i want your pack.

Fixed again.

Yeah, just think of all the other wars that have been made to look 'fun and friendly'.

Well, I can't think of any at the moment, so my argument has just been shot down. Darn.

Quote

":10pj0x6w]lol, yeah I remember I made the "mistake" of using one of the default presets of the program, I just changed it a bit. At that time, it was supposed to be just a playground map, not a serious entry for a competition, otherwise I would have tried to make something a bit more unique. You can always try other apps dude, there's plenty of them. Here's a tut on how to import heightmaps to SB2 from WorldMachine: http://crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=11097

[Blocked Image: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/PogoP/Love.jpg]

HPPPPP.

How did you get your island to look so damn good in that heightmap creation program you used? Did you just use one of the preset island ones? I can't really get it to look good without making it look identical to yours

Quote from skdr

That's correct.

Then cool! The planet looks nice

I don't get it... This map doesn't take place on Earth? Is that right?

Do you work for Black Mesa by any chance? Some of the other devs on the dev forum were on about making a Smash TV mod. If you're not on the team, then I'll let them know about this project!

WOAH those are real people?!?

He has some kind of horrible burn injury on his hand

Other than that, it looks awesome!

Quote from Quakis

The video with the UE improvements, seriously. Maybe I should just abandoned learning Source and get stuck in UE3 instead... not sure.

I know exactly how you feel there mate

Quote from Cybbe

That lump of meat just made me cum instantly

Oh dear. That statement reeks of sexual innuendo.

I tend to use a low brightness 'light' entity about 32 or so units away from my light source, and a light_spot shining in the direction of my light.

I find you don't have to use lights in a way that would make sense in the real world. Let me explain. For example, if you have a light that emits in all directions from a wall, you would naturally think of just sticking a bright light entity in front of this light source. However, I use a low brightness light in front of it or a light_spot pointing AT the source, to show it is emitting in all directions; but then I also use as many light_spots as needed to create interesting shadows off things in the vicinity. For example, if there are railings nearby, I would use a strong light_spot and lower the lightmap of the texture that will have the railing shadow cast on it.

I'll go into more detail about lightmaps. These are very handy, something that will make your map look better than the 'newbie' style, as you mentioned. When you go to texture something, check out the 'lightmap' scale in the texture applicator. The lower this value, the sharp shadows will look on that particular face. So use this to create some nice shadows. The lowest I tend to use is 2, I think 1 is just too much. However, don't go mad with lowering your lightmap values, it will drastically increase the size of your map's BSP file. You can also raise the lightmap scale for faces that won't have much light cast on them, which will lower your BSP size.

I also do not tend to use env_lightglow. I like to use env_sprites and scale them up or down. I just think they look better in most cases. But I've not really messed with env_lightglows much, so I could be wrong. I suppose it's down to personal choice.

The colour of the light you should use is a hard thing to grasp too. For most lights, I tend to use an orangey/brown colour. It tends to look quite natural and doesn't wash out the area the light is in. Don't use particularly dark colours, drag the slider up towards the white, so that the light is close to white, with a hint of orange/brown. If you imagine the slider on the colour chart in Source as being in 8 segments, drag the slider down about 1, maybe 2 segments.

Also, for an added effect, stick a func_dustmote entity around your light source to show dust particles being lit up by the light. Don't make the particles really bright or big, just make them small and very slow moving. It's a subtle effect, but it really adds to the atmosphere of a map.

Most importantly, use your lights to highlight specific, important things in your map. If you have a doorway, try and incorporate a light above it so that people will be drawn towards it. People are drawn to light areas, so by having a medium/high contrast between light and dark areas is always a good thing. Also, stick to a specific colour palette. I tend to use yellow/oranges/browns and reds in my work, but it entirely depends on the level. As an example, do not stick a red light right next to a green light; it just won't look right. I guess that's just common sense though, really.

I hope those tips helped, I've picked them up over the past few months working on Black Mesa and my TF2 maps. However, the best thing for you to do is simply try it out, experiment and show us some pictures. Other people can constructively criticse your own work a lot better than you can by yourself (I don't mean that personally, I mean it for every level designer). Unless you're a god, like Hourences

Wow, that turned into an essay!

Is that Sin from FFX in the last screenshot, in the sea?

Almost every single time I have played STALKER, those damn Army guys have shot me... Except for the last time I played. I went up to them with my gun lowered, and I could pay them to let me pass

It turns out they are official. Check out http://%7boption%7d for more info.

God damnit, they're adding a third side. C&C is all about having 2 sides, GDI/Nod or Allies/Soviets! Why do EA insist on adding a third side all the time?

The idea of it is epic win, but the following screenshots not so much so. I don't know if these are legit, but they were on the HLFallout forums, in the RA3 topic anyway

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What is it with EA and sticking weird Mechs into all of their C&C games? The Red Alert universe should not have walking robots that shoot electricity... The only thing that should shoot electricity are Tesla Coils and the Tesla Troopers from RA2. On the topic of electricity-shooting towers of death, why the hell are they so small in RA3? They should strike fear into the hearts of enemies (via 500,000,000 volts of electrical energy) with their sheer size and stature!

I don't like how they're deviating from the look of RA/RA2...

This is RA.

[Blocked Image: http://www.ea.com/downloads/eagames/official/cc_firstdecade/aftermath/screens/1_lg.jpg]

This is RA2.

[Blocked Image: http://files.ea.com/downloads/eagames/official/cc_firstdecade/redalert2/screens/2_lg.jpg]

As you can see, they share similarities. However, RA3 looks totally different, and I fear they may ruin it... I'm not sure how though, heh. I think it looks too visually cluttered.

To quote Han Solo, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Try building cubemaps in LDR and HDR (mat_hdr_level 0/1, or mat_hdr_enabled 0/1)

Then type mat_reloadallmaterials in console, then reload your map. See if that does anything for you.