Posts by will2k

  • What are you playing now?

    Quote from Vaya

    2 minutes ago, Vaya said: never bothered with 2 as it wasn't by the original team. Infinite was great though :D

    Infinite is next on my list after I finish 2.

    You are right that the second was made by 2k Marin which btw incorporated some guys from Irrational Games (briefly known as 2k Boston) who created 1 and Infinite.

    Bioshock 2 in its own right should be played if you completed the first; the story flows naturally after the events of 1 with every major character/event/battle in 1 referenced in 2 (Ryan/Fontaine/Tenebaum...), the environment and game mechanics feel familiar, and you could see that the consequences of the first game are felt throughtout the second.

    Give it a try :)

  • What are you playing now?

    Quote from Radu

    On 12/30/2016 at 9:24 PM, Radu said: I finally get to play this game - appropriate music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7JTXxyqIeA

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/U6lOfay.jpg]

    Hurk was a hilarious dumbass

    Spoiler Hurk (to Ajay): YEEAAHH...Let's go and kick some Golden path ass...

    Golden path soldier (sitting in front of him): but...we are the Golden path

    Hurk: Oh yeah, I mean the Royal Army...whatever

    :D

    Hope you enjoy the game, story was much more solid than FC3 and that douchebag Brody

  • Cities Skylines: The misadventures of Steppenwolf

    Bought the game a year ago in December 2015 and hopped straight into building my first city; reached 99,000 population with 1.7 million $ surplus budget. All is good except for really bad traffic.

    I then stop playing for about 7 months when around July 2016, I decide to go for a second city from scratch. The city reaches 101,000 population with 1.9 million $ surplus budget. Again, all is good except this time for pollution and garbage piling up.

    I stop playing again for about 5 months until Christmas holidays this week when I decided to go for my 3rd city; hey, third time is the charm :)

    This time, I avoided all previous mistakes and everything is running like a Swiss clock; so far population is 85,000 and budget is +900,000$ and not a single major problem in sight :D

    In fact, in 2017, I will run for mayor in my city and when they ask about my experience and proven track record, I'll show them this

    [Blocked Image: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/179414328904446838/592DA35DF7FDA4F442FD1026E8BFAC6E8C882F22/]

  • Brest

    Quote from Vaya

    2 hours ago, Vaya said:

    Damn son(s), I'm proud of y'all :D

    Looks very polished and detailed, love it.

    One minor nitpick is the slightly "clean" look of the cobblestone floor in the dock area (1st pic); one would expect it to be a tad dirtier in a busy docks area. This is just an observation based on the screenshots only and this could be different in-game. If that's the case, disregard this nitpicking :)

    Really solid contender here, best of luck

  • What are you playing now?

    Quote from Radu

    On 12/14/2016 at 11:08 PM, Radu said: I hope you enjoy playing through the first one. It's definitely one of a kind. Would you kindly share that backlog?

    I managed to knock down my backlog's size of unplayed games over the past year but I still have several games to go through.

    ARMA 2, ARMA 2 Operation Arrowhead, Bioshock 2, Bioshock Infinite, Metro 2033, Metro Last Light, and some missions/expansions packs for Quake 2/Doom 2 :D. Many games, not much time.

  • [HL2_Odyssey] Confinement

    Quote from Yokogeri

    21 hours ago, Yokogeri said: If we just imagine that the first rooms were better lit; did the escape route puzzle feel adequately challenging and "realistic"? I want that room to feel as if the CP's have just used it as a storage room, and would never think of someone managing to escape from it.

    You could always add some storage shelves that the player can use to reach the ceiling, where he "accidentally" finds a crowbar on the top shelf that they use to break a vent right at the top of the wall to exit the storage room, and rain death on the unsuspecting CPs from above :).

  • dm_forlorn [Black Mesa]

    Black Mesa vs CSGO fps

    I had an interesting observation while working on the Black Mesa remake of Forlorn.

    The fps in the BM version is significantly lower than the CSGO version even though the BM map version has an enhanced optimization system compared to the CSGO one. I was able to make a crude comparison since I now have both versions up and running.

    I chose a random location for this quick study and recorded the fps

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/mru3y5A.jpg]

    The fps is 133. Please note that all settings are on high/very high, with anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing, running in full HD 1920x1080.

    Now the same spot in CSGO with basically the same settings.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/RmPVIfW.jpg]

    The fps is 223. That’s a full 90 fps difference, a very significant one.

    BM ran originally on an updated and customized orange box version of Source engine, recently switching to Source 2013 version, while CSGO has its own “proprietary” version of Source that Valve does not license to others as far as I know.

    I started a quick investigation into the BM version to try and narrow down the reasons for this fps variation.

    I had a hunch that I should start my inquiry with the CSM (cascade shadow maps) system.

    When BM was released, it did not have CSM since this is not a feature in Source (Only CSGO has CSM and Valve does not license this engine branch nor does it share its code)

    The guys at BM decided recently to code their own in-house CSM system; they did a tremendous job and this turned out to be a beautiful system where you can even have named/switchable lights (something that is not feasible in CSGO’s CSM system). However, the coder himself admits that the system still needs tweaking and work.

    Based on this knowledge, I decided to turn off the CSM system in BM and test again.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/eY2ZV5s.jpg]

    The fps is now 200; that’s a huge increase of 67 fps just by reverting back to the old, “ugly” lightmapped shadows.

    In CSGO, there is no menu option to turn off CSM but one can do so using a console command that kills off the CSM entity.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/IyhY7qh.jpg]

    The fps is now 241; a mere 18 fps increase when CSM is disabled.

    The CSGO CSM system appears to be more efficient and less taxing on the engine resources and subsequent frame rate.

    A second area of investigation was static props.

    I hid all static props from the map in-game.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/CNDUwFY.jpg]

    The fps is now 181, a 48 fps increase from the initial version with static props rendered on screen. This is still a noteworthy variation.

    I tried the same approach in CSGO where all static props are hidden.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/tve6zco.jpg]

    The fps is 252, a 29 fps increase from the full map with static props present. This number is still notable but it is lower than the 48 fps variation recorded earlier in the BM version.

    This observation also leads me to think that CSGO handles static props slightly better than BM in terms of frame rate and engine overhead.

    Finally, I tried hiding func_detail and displacement in both versions, however, results were very similar on this front where the increase was limited to 10-15 fps in both versions.

    In conclusion, we can safely say that more or less the same map in BM has considerably fewer fps than its CSGO counterpart; 2 main culprits in this fps decrease could be attributed to the CSM system and prop statics rendering.

    In another conclusion that probably ascertains a 100 similar conclusions before it, Source is really OLD and OUTDATED.

  • [HL2_Odyssey] Confinement

    The start of the map is nice; I liked the fact that the player starts helpless and has to find an alternate way to leave the CPs custody while avoiding their batons and pistol fire.

    I did not find the escape route frustrating but it does need better lighting to see all potential escape exits.

    The airboat "mowing" section was funny but in all honesty, it feels a bit exaggerated and out of place. The sheer number of CPs standing still just waiting for me to mow them down was hilarious but also out of place. It takes away from the seriousness of the level.

    I would recommend to reduce the number of CPs standing there to a smaller size, more realistic for one's expectations for such a situation.

    The other thing is that having multiple airboats also is a bit unrealistic and feels forced. The fact that are 2 sets of airboats on each side of the canal where the player leaves the first airboat and mounts the second, further breaks immersion and realism (feels like an airboat taxi service :)). I would recommend removing the fence in the middle of the first canal section and let the player keep riding the initial airboat, have a U-turn at the end and continue on the second part of the canal with the water and sand bumps.

    Keep it up :)

  • Brest

    Quote from Terri

    On 12/10/2016 at 0:00 AM, Terri said: Today I did a pretty huge change to the 3D skybox, I'm now very satisfied with how it looks. As it's all mesh now, I baked all the lighting information from a cycles render (256 samples) into these textures and it looks fairly realistic :)

    Looks great

    Just make sure to have it as cheap as possible (textures/polys/...) otherwise it might start to affect your fps if it's too detailed or there are several parts like this one in the 3D sky.

  • [HL2_Odyssey] The Raid

    Welcome to mapcore, hope you enjoy your stay.

    The concept here is interesting since you are focusing on slow-paced exploration without any meaningful fighting; you just need to make sure that there are enough "things" to explore (hidden stashes maybe, or some Easter eggs...) and to have some scripted sequences involving the CPs and civilians where the player could admire them unfolding before their eyes.

    Some issue I noted:

    The upper floors are way too dark; lighting should be a priority for your next build

    The locked doors appear the same as the ones that can be opened; it would be nice to take a cue from the HL2 stock maps where locked doors are clearly marked to avoid unnecessary frustration and wasted time going from door to door.

    The key on the desk is a nice touch but you should consider having it as a prop/model in future builds as brushwork key looks massive, more like straight out of a shooter from the 90s :)

    Keep it up :)