Posts by Andre Valera

  • Office Space (EARLY WIP)

    It's cs_office set on a space station, in a parallel universe, where fax machines and Mondays still exist.

    https://imgur.com/a/gCZbHk4

    DEV NOTES

    Spoiler In late 2020 I took a few courses on Udemy for Blender to get familiar with the workflow. Who doesn't like a good challenge? and instead of starting small I thought it would be a reasonable idea to basically remake cs_office in Blender inspired by the mystery of its earliest version. It's possible to imagine the 1.6 version of cs_office being set in the Half-Life universe in parallel with the Counter-Strike universe.

    Interested in modular workflows it was time to put that interest into practice. The result was an attempt to create an entire modular library of assets relating to different areas of a space station / fuel mining facility (very original idea of course).

    The project was put on pause early 2021 and is getting revived to finish out the modular sets and an art pass that would fit within a parallel Counter-Strike universe.

    There's a few more maps I'd like to port over to CS2 before this moves forward - that being said, the next goal specifically for this project is to learn and practice the techniques taught within Thiago Klafke's Environment Art Mastery course (https://thiagoklafke.gumroad.com/l/environmentartmastery) and Simon Fuchs' Blender Drone Tutorial (https://simonfuchs.gumroad.com/).

  • Torch

    Here's the main reference for the project! It took forever to find but my personal favorite blend of village and castle aesthetics.

    https://imgur.com/a/ktPTo9R

    Spoiler

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    Here's a really great reference video ^

    but wait...

    https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/chat…602dd69e82e978b

    https://sketchfab.com/AdrienCrapoulet <--- another really great scale reference (there's a parking lot with cars in the model)


    Found these references after making the major adjustments to current csgo workshop version (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi…/?id=2449712505) The latest csgo version was loosely based on the Alnwick Castle though the contrast between the castle and the surrounding city area was too noisy for me and meant that I would need to rely on interior and exterior castle areas instead of a castle/village mix. I was really struggling with making 2 castle themed sites that were both fun and unique so starting with a fresh reference made it easier for me.


    It's been a while since I've posted anything about Torch but I do plan on writing a more formal review of the process before the end of the year.

  • Torch

    https://imgur.com/a/exhmOhv

    Almost updated Torch for cs2 this past weekend but ran into a bug where cover isn't rendering to the radar so taking a different approach and using materials instead of selection sets, really excited about this variation of torch so posting a sneak peek before fixing these bugs and releasing a public version (without cts spawning at 0,0,0 😅)

  • Rally (DNQ)

    -Added a radar! Huge shout out to @JimWood for the work on RadGen and the documentation, and Sami / Eagle One Dev Team for putting together tutorials -Replaced majority of the map with new meshes -Added 3D Skybox placeholder -Efforts continue on cleaning up the geometry, there's a few areas left to be cleaned up and an optimization pass still needs to be done

    Spoiler


    Here are the most recent screenshots

    Spoiler

  • Rally (DNQ)

    Spoiler First public version of the map is up so here are some screenshots! Just switched over to Source 2 a couple of weekends ago so there's Source 1 brush work, optimization is missing and I haven't looked into making a radar yet. The important part is that it's playable and I'm taking care of as many bugs as possible before the first deadline. Good luck everyone!

  • Rally (DNQ)

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    8/18/2024 MAP DID NOT QUALIFY FOR STAGE 2

    Congrats to everyone who made it to Stage 2 and cheers to everyone of us who tried!!! ❤️

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Map Name - Rally Location Reference - Conques, France

    Rally is a defusal map set in a village inspired by Conques, France with a racing event set as the background theme.

    https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi…/?id=3300133474 Reason to take part in this contest? Well... I'd like get familiar with S2 (Yup, I'm still plugging away in S1 H++) another reason is finishing a project, I'm hoping some of you can relate to unfinished maps we have collecting digital dust or being reworked on an infinite loop (✋).

    Updates:

    Spoiler 4/22/2024 - Created a layout this weekend but it's still a bit early to share, will look to continue updating this thread next weekend :)

    4/29/2024 - Updated the layout this weekend and continuing to balance each area, will need to take a couple more weekends to make sure the layout is fun and everything looks like a sloppy mess :D

    5/6/2024 - Mid and A are set, working on B next

    5/12/2024 - No updates / Out of town

    6/2/2024 - Life things until end of June!

    6/8/2024 - Hard reset...

    7/6/2024 - Earliest version of the current blockout is playable! (racing to the deadline / screenshots soon)

    7/28/2024 - Last official save in Source 1 / Hammer++ (<3) before moving to Source 2

    7/31/2024 - Source2 port is on the workshop and playable

    8/4/2024 - Updated pathing for T Spawn to Mid, Updated pathing from T Spawn to A including the underpass between A and B staging areas

    8/10/2024 - Added a radar! Huge shout out to JimWood for the work on RadGen and the documentation, and Sami / Eagle One Dev Team for putting together the tutorial. Replaced majority of the map with new meshes. Added a 3D Skybox placeholder. Efforts continue on cleaning up the geometry, there's a few areas left to be cleaned up and an optimization pass still needs to be done.

  • Torch

    Updated the blockout based on competitive/casual feedback. Put together a comparison video explaining the update in more detail if you're into that sort of thing.

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    If you are interested in playtesting I've created a steam group, of course I'll also be requesting to playtest on Mapcore.

    Torch Playtest Group

    blockout2 timings

    Workshop Link

  • Torch

    Hello there,

    Here's a 2 minute video overview for the blockout of de_torch. Since it's early in development I thought a video would do the job of showcasing my intentions and goals with the project.

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    Steam Workshop Download

    Blockout Timings


  • Kaizen

    Hello, haven't posted in a while so here's a quick review of the latest update for Kaizen. Along with some layout and visual adjustments I worked on prototyping a small mod to the Wingman mode in Kaizen. It's currently set as the default Wingman mode (not custom) when playing the map from the workshop. Players begin the match attacking and defending A, the following round each team attacks and defends B and this loops until one duo is victorious.

    Here's an overview of where each team spawns and how much of the original map is utilized.

    Spoiler

    Additionally here are the patch notes and a screenshot album.

    Kaizen RC1 Oct 31st 2020 Screenshots

    With Kaizen getting some playtime on the hub and players finding and reporting bugs there's another update looming, but before you go, and thanks for reading by the way. What do you think of this Wingman mod?

  • Radio Island by Andre Valera [ CSGO ] [ EXOTIC MAP CONTEST ] [ WIP ]

    Classic 5v5 competitive defuse map based on Islands such as Migingo and Santa Cruz Del Islote.

    You're likely to see a mix of water, man made structures, dirt paths, caves, trees and technology. I would imagine a contrast between very high tech equipment and very low tech / natural foliage in the environment.

    The mood board idea is contagious, so here are some general ideas to start this project with

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hli7EU…iew?usp=sharing

    Here are some videos I found on Youtube.

    Difficult Life At Migingo Island, this is a heavy documentary although there are parts of bigger fictional stories that can be extracted from the video.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1buTh1841aA

    Living on the Most Crowded Island on Earth

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G63TF6OMa_8