Posts by will2k

  • [WIP]De_Calamari (Final released)

    Quote from GenoCide

    On 4/6/2016 at 1:53 AM, GenoCide said: Version B4 released

    I really like the new art direction with all the white stone instead of colored plaster that is more typical to western parts of Mediterranean Europe.

    The areas surrounding site A are my favorite (I'm a sucker for trees and seaside green rolling hills :D)

    Just a couple of quick notes:

    You have some floating props (chairs/tables) in patio near CT spawn - screenshot 1

    Some stone textures are extremely oversized and could use a slight scale reduction (screenshot 5-house with green shutters). If the texture is left at default scale of 0.25 then you might experiment with lowering it to around 0.15-0.2 then adjust accordingly.

    Bomb site B has a lot of dark textures mainly black tile floor and black marble counter etc. It could use a bit of lighting up by using slightly lighter textures (check the new ones in de_nuke for example)

    Keep up the good work :)

  • What have you watched recently?

    Better Call Saul

    Every episode is more awesome than the previous one; the writing, the actors, the camera work are all brilliant.

    If you watched Breaking Bad before, then you are in for a treat with all the parallels, references, and Easter eggs that point to BB in BCS.

  • The Walking Dead

    Quote from D3ads

    2 hours ago, D3ads said: ....yeah I should've seen that coming, what a fucking non-episode...

    http://# Reveal hidden contents I bet when Season 7 starts they'll drag it out with a flashback to an earlier event that will have some deep meaning towards who actually got smashed to death and it'll be extra long just to piss you off even more. Then when we finally find out who it is, you just shrug "eehhh" and it resumes into more filler episodes of crap until the season final where it'll probably end on another cliffhanger where fuck all happens for 99% of the episode. The fuck do I still watch this shit.......

    I was reading comments last week on another community and someone hilariously predicted that season 7 first episode

    Spoiler will be entirely about Morgan's horse

  • de_nuke - A revised optimization system

    I published my latest article titled Source FPS Cost of Cheap and Expensive Assets.

    It should shed some more light on the effect of expensive assets on Source optimization and highlight the effect on frame rate drop that was evident in the new de_nuke (high amount of expensive props/textures in the playable area).

  • Wall Worm Level Design Contest #2 (for old fogies)

    Quote from shawnolson

    6 hours ago, shawnolson said: Thanks to @will2k and @Rick_D for attaching their names to the judging panel.

    Turnout wasn't as high as I wanted, but it produced some cool things. The main thing to note was that this contest was BRUSH-ONLY (no displacements or props allowed). Here were the winners: 1st: gg_futurelobby and 2nd: fy_delaunay_world . I think that the myth about not being able to do brushwork in Max is now busted.

    Too late to audition for myth busters?

    Seriously though, great work Shawn :)

    Despite the low turnout (it's quite normal for a 1st contest into new territory though), the entries were nice and showed craftsmanship with brushwork-only restriction and no Hammer involved :D

    I take this opportunity to congratulate the winners and best of luck for contest #2.

  • The Walking Dead

    Quote from Sprony

    21 hours ago, Sprony said: http://# Reveal hidden contents If Daryl is dead I'm out!

    Spoiler I doubt

    Probably a shoulder wound to incapacitate him momentarily...but you never know with the walking dead

  • [CS:GO] de_coredump

    Quote from Trashbang

    5 hours ago, Trashbang said: Do additional visleafs still matter if the amount of content rendered is the same either way, though? Obviously a more complex PVS of the same size will take longer to compile, but would it adversely affect in-game performance? @Vaya's criticism was that I wasn't func_detailing the facades of my buildings, and I'll absolutely agree that it's bad practice to have all those indents everywhere, but I don't see how it changes the amount of content in the PVS.

    IF (that's a capital if) your map is tightly optimized then there will be a slight dip in fps if you leave everything as world brushes; but if your map is not well optimized then expect a bigger hit.

    I have already tackled this issue in a previous paper of mine Comparative fps study in Source Engine Optimization System and you can check in the paragraph titled func_detail that the fps dropped around 10 fps when I switched my func_detail back into world brushes in a well optimized map. You are basically forcing the rendering engine to search the BSP tree with a bigger and messier PVS to render the content of leaves tagged 1 in the PVS array. The smaller and simpler the PVS, the quicker the engine can draw the information.

    When you start implementing hints and areaportals, your visleaves will be divided and if you already had a big number of leaves, then expect the number to even grow much bigger, further adding to the above effect.

    Lastly vvis will likely take forever to finish and you will rage quit long before the end :D

    Vaya gave you a nice pointer about func_detail :); don't be afraid if large chunks of the level are func_detail as long as you have backbone world brushes to cut visibility, help implement hints/areaportals/skybox brushes, and seal the level. All this is nicely explained in my paper Man vs Engine (paragraph III.5) and in my article about common misconceptions in Source optimization.

    Hope this helps and good luck with the map :)

  • [CS:GO] de_coredump

    Thanks Vaya for weighing in with all the info :)

    @Trashbang: read my optimization papers in my signature below; 2 specific articles should clear up all your questions about visleaves and PVS.

    Demystifying Source Engine Visleaves

    Source Engine PVS - A Closer Look

    I'll quote one line of the first article

    Quote

    Quote The immediate conclusion you can draw from all this explanation is that the smaller the PVS, the better fps you will have. A smaller PVS means fewer visleaves to draw and fewer visleaves’ content to render (brushes, textures, props, entities…).

    Unless the extra visleaves are practically empty (such as upper skybox leaves), additional visleaves means more content to render, therefore in general, lower fps.

    For hints/areaportals, check my 2 papers on "practical guide" series as well as my paper Man vs Engine for the full scoop.

    Knock yourself out and enjoy the read :D

  • De_forlorn WIP

    Quote from blackdog

    5 hours ago, blackdog said: Maybe you said it sometime at the beginning but it's been so long... are these all custom textures you (or someone) made, are they from Black Mesa? I ask cos it kinda looks a bit crispier than that /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":)" width="15">

    Ciao Flavio /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":)" width="15">

    Most of the textures are stock CSGO textures from the new Nuke and Train; the rest is custom textures that I created for this map.

    No assets from Black Mesa are used in this map (neither textures nor props).

    The textures look crispier because Valve introduced some shader and lighting improvements in the last CSGO update as well as the textures themselves being hi-res (in Source's relative view anyway /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":D" width="15">)

  • De_forlorn WIP

    Quote from Squad

    4 hours ago, Squad said: That picture somehow reminds me of the start of the We've got hostiles chapter /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":D" width="15">

    [Blocked Image: http://195.154.69.184/media/2012/06/1024-tree-hl1-wgh-20.jpg]

    Great work so far. When can we play(test) it? /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":)" width="15">

    The very first time when you encounter the HECU grunts...classic /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":)" width="15">

    Soon I guess for the playtest /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":D" width="15">; still got some more or less major additions in T spawn and Mid to get out of the way

    Quote from jackophant

    2 hours ago, jackophant said: Nice /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":D" width="15"> we doing to get a sneaky headcrab noise as well? /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":P" width="15">

    maybe /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":D" width="15">

    Quote from D3ads

    1 hour ago, D3ads said: " For God's sake, open the silo door! They're coming for us, it's our only way out!"

    then you hear that dreadful beeping of the turret...and goodbye scientist /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":D" width="15">

  • De_forlorn WIP

    Quote from blackdog

    1 hour ago, blackdog said: I like the inside more than the outside areas, but anyway the HL vibe runs strongly in this map, very good job /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":)" width="15">
    Maybe not use just orange lights?

    Curious, how come not work on content for Black Mesa? Or have you given any thought of re-purposing the map for a DM/TDM on there?

    Grazie Flavio /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":)" width="15">

    The map has a variation of orange-ish lighting (the wall lights) and blue-ish lighting (the fluorescent ceiling lights) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=";)" width="15">

    As for Black Mesa, as a matter of fact, I did think about it /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":D" width="15">.

    2 months ago, around Christmas, I contemplated the idea of stopping this project for CSGO and transfer the map to BM deathmatch; I even went further and seriously thought about expanding this level into a single player experience for Black Mesa. Eventually, I decided to stick to CSGO for this level and work on a completely new level for BM deathmatch from scratch (still in planning process) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":)" width="15">.

    Quote from El_Exodus

    1 hour ago, El_Exodus said: I request a .bsp. You know... for... science.

    Please pick a number and wait in line; thanks for your understanding /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" title=":D" width="15">

    A playable version will be coming soon, stay tuned

  • System Shock 3

    Quote from Sprony

    On 3/15/2016 at 11:45 AM, Sprony said: @(HP) is a very talented designer but he doesn't know dick about embedding gifs and videos so here you go:


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    Teenager me from 1994 is super excited about this. Shodan's voice at the end is

    Warren Spector being at the helm of System Shock 3 (and possibly this HD remake of SS1?) is the icing on the cake. I trust he'll keep with the vision of the first and second SS games.

  • ITT: Post maps/scenes that never saw the light of the day.

    Quote from VIOLATION

    A scene I worked on 2 years ago but never really did anything with

    [Blocked Image: https://i.gyazo.com/b09ea41dbd996faf3f5d71edfe6f0f95.jpg]

    As I was once commented on your "Monaco scene" last year, I repeat myself now :): you need to convert this into a playable map; it's a real shame to see this splendid effort go to waste and be just a screenshot.

    And you couldn't have asked for a more opportune time: the new Nuke assets will work wonders on this specific theme of yours, trust me :D

    Hope to get a hold of a playable version soon, keep it up.