Posts by RedYager

  • Level Design Help Files

    Guys I'd like to ask a question here rather than start a new thread.

    What are you views on 'copying' vs 'Inspired' from a level design point of view?

    I'm not talking Zynga copying (that's just overkill). I'm talking rough layouts and perhaps settings or locations levels take place. For example I want to start a new small level design project. I'm no environment artist, So I often look to existing concept art or existing games for a setting or style. I like the design and architecture of the Citadel in Mass Effect, yet when I start looking at images, I feel like I'm just 'copying' what I see in both layout and visual terms, sometimes without realising it.

    The positive response to Jean Pauls new TF2 map based on Avalanche has got me thinking how many other level designers do this. Do you believe this is evidence of lack of imagination or skill within a level designer, or is actually showing their ability to use others work to influence their own for a better result, thus showing skill?

    Are these feelings of 'copying' actually inspiration?

    Cheers

  • Source Editing

    Do's

    What Evert said

    The displacement tool is probably the only feature I think works well, I wish more editors implemented a similar tool.

    I think starting small to begin with, dont rush into large environments, learn how it works technically. How does visibility work (crap I might add). Optimisation is a lengthy process using the source engine. Static meshes do not occlude, and without proper planning and optimisation work, the BSP will do a crap job too.

    Don't spend too long pissing about, get yourself reading/watching/following tutorials early on. I wish I had done this to start with.

    Give yourself a task or a small level you want to make, rather than making brushes wherever.

    Watch for Leaks! They're dicks! https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Leak

    Learn console commands to help you diagnose issues, check vis ect

    use dev textures, they are very helpful, if used and scaled properly. search 'dev' in the texture browser

    learn how to align textures, alt-right click is very useful

    Ask for help, show us your work, early on too so people can set you off in the right direction quickly

    don't's

    Never use the carve tool

    No giant skyboxes, you will learn more about why when you start looking into optimisation/visibility, but to start with dont worry too much.

    dont stretch textures. Textures scaled at values such as 0.25 (default) look sharper. Make sure you don't leave texture lock on

    Dont rotate, fuck with brushes without making them func_detail. The vertex editing of brushes leaves you with errors if you mess around too much with it. Use clipping and additional brushes where you can instead.

    Don't use small grids. At least early on. Small brushes that are not brush entities such as func_detail love to cut through visleafs and make a ruddy mess of everything.

    Thats all I can think of for now. By the way don't go in making sure you do/don't do any of the mentioned. Make some mistakes and see what they do, and how you can avoid them.

    Some good places for tuts :

    http://%7boption%7d This guy has lots of little tips and tricks you can use, I highly recommend.

    http://%7boption%7d Well Duh

    Here

    youtube

  • Insurgency

    But why use the ever ageing Source engine? You even admitted yourself that its a very lengthy and painful process. Will people really be willing to back a project that is going to have a longer build time than an identical project on another more modern and user friendly engine? It's common to see within the source modding community disappointment when a project moves to a more modern engine, simply because they are die-hard source engine fans, and are missing the bigger picture, that being that the project will be of likely higher quality, quicker development and have room for more advanced and ambitious features than what Source is capable of.

    Look at Nuclear Dawn. Great game, really great. Yet a lot of users are claiming that in comparison to other games such as BF3, they get very bad performance. It looks great, but only when you consider the limitations of the engine. I recall one of the developers saying that they chose the source engine rather than UE3, and looked at the fact that 'Frontlines fuel of war' was a failed game. To me this suggests it failed purely because of the engine choice. I might be contradicting myself in some way saying this, but since when did an engine choice dictate the overall success of a game?

  • Source 2 in the works?

    Why are we constrained to bsp though? I have yet to see/use an editor where I can use some primitive functionality see in modelling programs. Doesn't the spark editor allow this sort of manipulation? Sometimes it would be really handy to create some simple non-bsp shapes and structures instead of having to work between programs.

  • Planning fatigue, how do you knuckle down and actually plan

    Hi, A really neat program that might help you is 'MindJet'

    http://www.mindjet.com/

    I used this for my last large scale project, I was sceptical at first as it had been suggested by someone who didn't really know what I was doing. However after I started fleshing out my MindJet plan I started to really enjoy using it, and planning became more fun than it should have. I used it throughout the 4 months of my project and I can say it really did help, everything from basic description of what I wanted to achieve to final nit pick details was listed, and marking them as 'Done' felt great. You can set yourself deadlines for individual tasks, and it helpfully creates a gantt chart for you. However its not free

    I sound like a sales man.

    Some pics of my last project plan:

    [Blocked Image: http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/8933/mindjet.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/3159/mindjet2.jpg]

  • The random model thread!

    Quote from seir

    Normal map will smooth all the edges you want and it's a blast for your model. There's a way to fake it by chamfering the edges and changing vertex normal so there will be no problem with weird gradients. Anyway, you should think about making a high-poly model

    Would I be faking the smooth edges for the low poly mesh though, or is that for the high poly? One thing that concerns me is that the normal map will have to be a certain high resolution for the slightly smoothed edges on the main body of the vehicle to show up well.

  • The random model thread!

    Hi,

    I didn't use a hi-poly mesh, mainly because I still haven't ventured into that area of modelling yet. I actually made this over 2 years ago for Red Orchestra 1, it was quite a shock seeing how terrible my UV map was back then, so I went back and finally finished it (finished for me).

    I'm curious though, where would the high poly come into play, Would it be used simply for details such as the bolts, tire treads ect, or for rounding off edges a bit too?

    Cheers