cincinnati, I plan on adding area avoidance in the summer, I'll pick a different useless dev texture and you can place that anywhere you don't want it to make brushes. Then if I really still want to work on it I'll add an option to simply omit brushes that would occupy the forbidden space, or to frame the forbidden space as well.
But even as it currently is, the small amount of fixing required is much faster than making the beams all from scratch or even copying and pasting from another area.
JOINER
1.0.3
06-04-2012
Created by Timothy 'YM' Johnson
This has been made in part for a university programming project, and part because it's something I've always wanted to do. Now it's at a level where I can hand it in for my uni project I'm taking a break from developing it further. I made it with TF2 in mind, since that's what I map for, but Joiner will work with any source engine games, since they all use the same vmf format
[Blocked Image: http://www.subtleallusion.com/images/joiner_main.jpg]
You can load in any VMF you like, as long as it has a brush textured in dev/slime Joiner will do it's work.
Joiner will never ever modify your input VMF, so it's totally safe to put in your working VMF, no need to create a new one.
Joiner works by finding volumes defined by single brushes textured with dev/slime. To create supports for a room, create a single dev/slime brush that exactly fills its entire volume.
You can have as many of these volumes in a map as you want, they can adjoin or intersect in any way. Joiner will create one set of supports per volume it finds.
The output will be completely func_detailed too.
Joiner will not work with any angled faces. Sorry folks, that's a feature for the future.
Joiner will not account for touching faces being the same room. That's another feature for the future.
Here are some before/after shots:
[Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2126504/autobrush/ym_autobrush_gif.gif]
[Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2126504/autobrush/aly_autobrush_gif.gif]
If you have any problems let me know what you were putting in, what the console said as it did it, and what you got out so I can try to fix it.
I've made these two: http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=10287
They're not great or that in-depth but they're easier to see what I'm doing than the timelapses.
I wouldn't do anything the way I did the first tutorial, after discovering how face normals works I don't actually think I've used x/y/z since.
I don't often use smooth, I know in the first tut I hadn't worked out how smooth really works, I get it now and it can be very useful but I don't use it a lot. (maybe about 3-4 times in that whole timelapse) I find it best for making walkable terrain smooth enough.
I spent 8 hours doing some displacements for tc_strata, and recorded it. Here's the 16x timelapse in three manageable chunks. I really enjoyed making this, I think I may make more
(actually it took 10 hours but I lost 2 hours of video in corrupted files 
)
Part 1
Oh, well it's still a wip but if you think work release is better.
I always try to get interesting angles into my maps now, it just makes them feel much more organic than when everything is orthogonal
Introducing Haste!
TF2maps.net ran a contest over 72 hours, much like the weekend challenge just gone here, make a TF2 map in just 72 hours. I managed to work on this single stage payload map for 45 hours before the deadline came around, with just a few more hours work (now at 52 total) Haste is ready for public releases.
You can read an hour by hour breakdown of my 72 hours here and see near hourly progress screenshots in this flickr set
[Blocked Image: http://subtleallusion.com/images/pl_haste_1_thumb.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://subtleallusion.com/images/pl_haste_2_thumb.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://subtleallusion.com/images/pl_haste_3_thumb.jpg] [Blocked Image: http://subtleallusion.com/images/pl_haste_4_thumb.jpg]
(clickies)
Download: http://%7boption%7d
And of course, an overview:
[Blocked Image: http://forums.tf2maps.net/geek/gars/images/1/8/5/thumb_45-overview.jpg]
Enjoy!
Here's mine, runs in HL2 EP2: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2126504/keeps/gc_door_ym.bsp
And the video:
[attachment=1]gc_door_ym0000.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=0]gc_door_ym0002.jpg[/attachment]
Think I'm nearly done with mine 
Just got to spend an hour or so over the next week tightening it up and making sure the final step isn't too hard figure out. I fear it may be. Don't want fiendish difficulty to penalise me D:
Jeeeeeez would Friday harry up already!I'm dying to get started on this, last thing I'd like to ask, since l'm not accustomed to mapcore challenges, can we use our entries how we like afterwards?
Quote from Mr. Happyseems to conflict with
You've seen inception? Make some paradoxical geometry 
I have to ask, can we have a 'fail condition'. If the player doesn't do all the necessary steps before opening the door I'd like to have them restart instead of it just not working.
Also, awesome challenge!
"But.. you already gave away the ending.. whaaaa"
*skims* "Gordon's half-brother..." *checks post date... penny drops*
Well I'm glad that post is a joke, but I do feel a part 2 is needed! (I said that already but if I say it enough it might get done..)
Out of interest, what's the download:feedback ratio like? If you're able to track download numbers that is.
Mod was awesome but the closure at the end seems to destroy possibilities of a part 2 which I thought was needed (and greatly wanted!)
Since Twitter is the only reason I know about the cube challenge (and this thread) I wouldn't say they're annoying at all, they might be more annoying if you're only following a few inactive people but I'm following over 300 I think now so they disappear down my feed pretty quickly, I could totally cope with twice as many mapcore updates.
From running contests on TF2maps.net, the smaller the target size the more people will try (until valve get involved that is) we found that the make X in 1024^3 is a pretty good formula to go with. People liked the ones that were useful afterwards even more. cp_coldfront, which is now an official TF2 map, that started as two entries to one of our mini contests (capture point in 1024^2), we allowed multiple entries and Icarus bashed out two stunning entries over two weekends then combined them afterwards into cp_coldfront.
I'd say hold the course and make sure challenges are announced on twitter before they start so I know about them! 
Slate and strata (soon to be dumped for slate, she's a much saucier girl than strata and has far more potential!) are both in the "I've no idea what theme to use" stage. Both of them have gone through multiple texture changes even though their current state is very bland. I desperately wanted to make slate alpine, it would be incredibly difficult to do without masses of custom content since the alpine theme just isn't expanded nearly enough.
When I resume mapping properly in mid june (lovely exams until then 
...) I'll apply some leverage(ie having mangycarface on my side) on acegikmo to get the custom textures he made for cp_yukon, cp_glacier and ctf_icefield and I'll progress ctf_slate in the same or very similar style to cp_yukon, which I happen to think is one of the most beautiful maps for TF2 to date.
Also to DvS, if you've spent and length of time actually analyzing valve's maps you'll see how little detail is actually in there, custom maps come under much more scrutiny about detailing than valve's maps though. Furnace Creek has a comparable level of detail in it to gravel pit(even if you wouldn't believe it without actually looking closely at GP), but I do agree with you that there is always room for more detail. More detail (amongst other things) is being added into the next beta.
Furnace creek is a three CP map for Team fortress 2 using the popular gamemode from gravelpit. Blu have to capture both A and B before C unlocks and they can make their final attack. We've chosen a unique atmosphere for Furnace Creek, using a new skybox texture and some new lighting settings we've created a warm sunset feel over the whole map. The lighting is a strong orange but through out alpha testing there were no comments about blu not looking blue, only that there were quite a few dark areas, which in the detailing process have all been lightened significantly.
I've finally got a beta out, did a double release to fix tournament mode so we're straight in at cp_furnace_b2 rather than _b1
Here are some images:
[Blocked Image: http://forums.tf2maps.net/geek/gars/imag…urnace_b1_1.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://forums.tf2maps.net/geek/gars/imag…urnace_b1_2.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://forums.tf2maps.net/geek/gars/imag…urnace_b1_3.jpg]
The final filesize is under 50mb and around 20mb compressed in a bz2 so it's far better than either of my previous popular maps hoodoo or halfacre which are both much larger, hoodoo being twice the size at final compile. Without custom content though the map is around 43mb which is almost exactly the same size as valve's gravelpit. Please attract the attention of your nearest server admin and request they try it out for you :wink:
Map downloads:
http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=978
http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/94628
Co-creator, Nineaxis made this, just for kicks. It's got the flythough preview I made a few weeks ago in it. - http://furnace.tf2maps.net
Hope you enjoy it
Yeah it's getting the major detail passes now, all the details that had been done up until yesterday were all key structural details. The next few days will be pretty much soley spend on the little things.
Have many many pictures of an upcoming map, only stitched cleverly together into some sort of moving image 
OK guys, finally final! I've spend a huge amount of time on this and I'm really glad to be able to stop tinkering and say it’s done.
Some stats about the map:
Time taken from start to finish: 9 months
Hours clocked up: 1000+
Versions released: 11 (with three additional private showcases of each stage partway through development)
Filesize: 95.6MB
Bz2 filesize: 39.2MB
Brushes: 7595
Custom files: 115
Unique textures: 130
Final compile time: 1h 1m ~30s
Huge thanks to everyone who has helped along the way, all those who've provided feedback, answered questions, run it on their servers, asked questions, made content for me, and a special thanks to Valve for making this awesome game in the first place.
So without further ado, the download links -
Enjoy it!
I've updated it to _b3 now, I've worked on detail and balance mainly. I'm hoping this will be the final beta release before the final release in about two weeks time - coinciding with the end of the contest, I urge you to check out some of the other maps being entered too, most notably frontier and cashworks
Both the previous download links will work for the new version, here they are again:
TF2Maps.net: http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=803
FPSBanana: http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/72535
The changelog for those interested:
Beta 3 released 30/12/08:-
* Properly fixed doors closing on players.
* Miscellaneous detailing improvements over the entire map including the skybox.
* Slightly slowed the cart and adjusted respawn times marginally.
* Removed a healthkit at certain times to discourage spawncamping.
* Adjusted ammo/health packs to aid Blu's capture of the final point.
* Minor optimisation, including added fade distances to most props.
* Significantly expanded non playable areas, further concealing real world/skybox join.
* Added soundscapes.
Thanks guys, enjoy it.
