Posts by Pivac

Quote from aprats

1 hour ago, aprats said: Good job! The models are very nice.

I also use Blender to create all models, either for soure or other engines.

The theme of the textures, is there any news? Do you know if there are problems in creating maps with bigger textures 1024px what?

Sorry for my English.

Thanks. I have found that Valve used some 2048x1024 size textures in new Nuke, but nothing larger than that. Currently for wooden crates I am using 2048x2048 and I don't have any frame drops or similar performance problems.

I would like to use edited Mapcore logo on some wooden crates as a little tribute and a shipping company MPC Shipping (so it's not blatantly obvious, but it still represents Mapcore), do I have permission for this from admins/owners?

Screenshots:

Spoiler [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/2j3Mfp5.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/MHD2zK8.jpg]

For anyone wondering, crates are based on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBfPM19aX6g

When it comes to WW2 I like historical accuracy and authenticity, be it in movies, games or whatever - and looks like this is exactly what you're going for. I also like tanks a lot, hopefully they will be available to use at some point (would require multiple players to operate a tank, but still). Looking forward to some info about damage model and ballistics.

Definitely keeping an eye on this, looks promising. Good luck!

Testing the new "drop shadows and highlights" feature for blend materials on displacements in CS:GO - http://blog.counter-strike.net/workshop/maps.php#dropshadows

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

Quote from sevin

22 hours ago, sevin said: Will2k can probably provide a more in-depth explanation than me, but in general, the higher your resolutions, the larger the map file and the lower the frame rates.

Will has an article here on MapCore that explains some of this.

Good article by will2k, but not exactly what I was looking for. The difference between these models isn't in texture resolution, but mostly in models' polygon count and materials. I have been looking into some of them and didn't find anything higher that 1024x1024, so I'll stick with that too. There must be a reason why they didn't use higher res.

EDIT: Actually, I was wrong. They did use textures with resolution higher than 1024x1024. Texture example: metal_pipe_001.vtf, size 2048x1024. So I guess that's it for anyone wondering.

Quote from sevin

22 hours ago, sevin said: I really like the assets you've made so far. I was not a fan of FMPONE's rendition of de_season because I thought the place looked entirely too clean and bright, but something about the way you've done it is pleasing to me... I think it may be because you've broken up the colors more so they're not as flat as Season's look.

I'm not sure if I'm qualified enough to critique FMPONE's work, but indeed some parts of de_season feel a bit flat. Otherwise the map is top quality visually, but some more darker tones to emphasize geometry and add depth in some areas would look nice in my opinion.

For my map, I figured only the line where players could appear should be white and less cluttered with props and as view goes higher the colors are darker, with more props and details. Also I'm using these dark border plates on brush edges to stress out the major shape of area which makes it easier to quickly read the overall structure. This also focuses your sight on important parts where players could be standing, but visually the environment still looks nice.

Currently de_section only has the bombsites in the style shown in previous posts, other parts of the map are heavy industrial concrete/asphalt flirting with occasional dirt and grass areas. I will post some screenshots soon, been reworking all assets to step up the quality as I mentioned.

One more question regarding textures: How does Source handle textures in resolution higher than 1024x1024?

Since Valve stepped up the game in terms of technical quality with the new Nuke I thought I might as well with this map, so I've been reworking custom textures and models and decided to use mostly these in combination with Nuke assets. In this particular case I have a few 2048x1024 and 2048x2048 textures, how does Source handle that? Does it increase loading times and how much does it affect frame rate?

The texture is not showing?

1. Make sure the material in Blender is named exactly the same as your .vmt file

[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/scyC6X0.jpg]

2. Make sure path to texture is correct

3. I don't work with GUIStudioMdl, I just drag and drop .qc file on studiomdl application for compiles, so maybe it's something wrong with GUIStudioMdl

Here's my .qc file that works, so try using this code for your model (change models names of course + I used .fbx for this one, so change extension to .smd)

shipping_crate_1.qc

Quote from NihiL

I wonder how much we'll see phong materials for brushes from now on. I gotta do some testing in regards to looks and performance but if the latter isn't an issue - why not use it pretty much everywhere? Any reason against it apart from possible performance issues?

I noticed they didn't use a single phong material on new Nuke, not even on models. They did use a lot of them on new Train which was released more than a year ago. On Nuke they used pre-made cubemaps for reflections on every brush and model material. Does anyone find this weird? Maybe that's how they prepare the map for Source 2 port?

Quote from Squad

I get this:

[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/huAMQ0G.jpg]

The same happened to me before I extracted the models where you said. Weird that it happens only to some of us.

I like their new approach to props in terms of making them in neutral grey, so you can customize the color. Gives more room to make custom maps feel different and have their own color style.

Quote from Squad

This shouldn't be a problem, as long as the website/author of the textures allows this. I used a few textures from cgtextures.com in de_ali. If you're not 100% sure you can always ask the people who make and distribute the textures. Like I did, even if it was pretty much clear from the FAQ that it's permitted

Awesome, thanks

Still working on the map, progressing slowly but surely.

I have a question for mappers whose map got into one of CS:GO operations (I'm hoping this one will too, time will tell though):

What is Valve's stance regarding use of textures from sites like textures.com (former cgtextures.com)? From what I understand textures.com allow their textures to be used in such way as long as it is a part of 3D model/map and not sold individually. I'm using their textures only to add detail to my own textures and make them look more realistic (overlaying them over my own basically). So if my map ever gets a chance to be featured in operation could this be a problem?

GTA, my favourite game series of all time. Started with GTA 2, and then GTA 3 came out... No comments necessary. The amount of hours I spent playing every one of them since then is crazy, most of it San Andreas.

And GTA V is the best of them all. Masterpiece. Still getting into Online, got to earn some monies.

I like the Middle East setting generally and I think most people do (sunny, palm trees, warm colors), you just have to make it a bit different and have some unique landmarks. Try to use some custom texures and models in combination with existing ones.

Speaking of Black Hawk Down, having something unique like a chopper on a bombsite would make your map stand out.

If anything I'm very happy for pistol moving accuracy nerf.

Revolver should only have the delayed left-click shot ability, so you have to utilize that properly. Right click spam should be removed, so that you are defenseless during that 1-2 second shot delay. And perfect accuracy while moving - big NO.

I'm a little bit confused about rifles, in their patch notes they make it sound like they made one-tapping and short bursts more reliable, but it is actually the opposite? Spraying is just less effective and one-tapping is still unreliable? Imo the problem is that first shots with rifles are still too innacurate, they should buff first shot accuracy.

New round and bomb times in MM are good, but forcing these into majors - not so sure.

Also there is a new smoke bug and there's a way to abuse revolver (a bug pretty much), but I expect a patch for this asap.

I like the office setting, but as you said hostage maps aren't much fun to play, so making a defuse version is a good idea. Can you mark spawns and bomb sites on top-down overview image? It's a bit confusing for someone who's looking at it for the first time.

Quote from leplubodeslapin

?? Are you sure ?

I'm pretty sure you have to add "$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" 1 to force the game to use the specular mask saved in the normalmap's alpha channel, or at least that's what i'm doing.

If you don't set any custom exponent texture (i don't really know how to use it actually), it will automatically use the specular mask, that is also used for the cubemap reflections.

Actually you're right, I completely forgot about that line because I had used it right from the start and later on was just mindlessly copy/pasting and tweaking only the values.

No, the game recognizes it automatically

You have to edit you bump map's alpha channel, which makes it a bit complicated, but once you understand how it works it will be easy.

In Source bump (normal) maps consist of three channels: red, green and blue (more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_(digital_image) ). For this to work we need one more: alpha channel (the one that controls transparency, but in CSGO it's used to control the amount of reflection). I use Gimp for this: I decompose channels and each one of them becomes a separate layer: red, green, blue, alpha. Then I edit only the alpha channel (basically you paint with black, white and gray - black is completely non-reflective, white completely reflective), recompose those layers back in one single layer (image), pack the image as .VMF and test in-game (similar to .VMT testing).

Here's one example. If you look closely you'll see that the amount of reflection in screenshot corresponds to amount of black/white in texture's specular map (black and white part on the right). This is a brush texture, but it also works on model textures:

Quote

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

EDIT: I think that video is pretty good, another method but works very well.

Quote from Psyrius

I think there's a command in game to reload materials. "mat_reloadallmaterials" is it? Does this work for the phong parameters too? Or do I have to recompile every time to see how it looks like?

Edit: "mat_reloadallmaterials" works. What a huge time saver! Finally I can make it look nice

And I was recompiling every single time... FailFish

Quote

$phongMaskContrastBrightness

$phongAmount

These doesn't seem to work for models? What a shame... Because I think it was those parameters that helped me get a nice result before without the model. A normal brush surface being hit by the env_light.

I think these should work. If not, you can use specular map to control the amount of reflection. For this you have to either bake it in 3ds max or paint it manually in Photoshop. It is stored in normal map's alpha channel, a simple way to make reflections look better and it's easy to tweak.

Thanks

Metal is only on bomb sites, the rest of map is mostly concrete, so I don't think it will be annoying. And the exact area where bomb is planted is using rubber texture/material from new Train.