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I haven't posted around here in the last couple of years. But lately I switched from Source to Unreal and my god.. it's day and night

I finally got around to packaging up all the models I made and/or modified (with perms) for cs_orion. The custom materials made for brushes/displacements are not included as I do not have the proper permission to distribute those. Some models aren't great so I'm providing them as-is. I won't fix anything but you are free to contact me on Discord (Squidski#9545) if you have any questions about how I did things or why. You are free to use these for all non-commercial purposes provided you give me credit in the description, for any commercial usages contact me. A final note, some things in the VMF are scaled up for better viewing, some things have multiple skins, and 90% of the things that are just solid white are tintable. Go crazy and make cool stuff. Google Drive download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FrjGU40lf5Odq8lhtQZkkYBiu56issQj/view?usp=sharing If anyone downloaded before this message, I had forgot to include a model and have now updated the download link (at 1:44pm EST)

Watched a hidden gem that was unfortunately overshadowed by the Matrix when it was out. It released back in April 1999, and 2 months later, The Matrix released and took away all the attention since they tackle a similar theme of computer simulation/virtual world/characters. I admit that I haven't heard about it until recently when someone recommended it, and I'm glad that I watched it. It doesn't have over the top CGI like the matrix but the story is captivating, the alternation between LA in 1999 and 1937 was a nice touch, and having a simulation within a simulation (like Inception) was a cool plot twist for a 1999 movie. If you like the theme in the matrix, watch this one. Recommended

I've always felt very strongly about , but my misplaced overemphasis hereof had honestly come to harm my work quite severely. Those of you who've only looked at the screenshots likely wouldn't have noticed, but I'm sure the few who actually downloaded the map will have been surprised by just how fucking low the texel density on many objects was - now working to fix this where needed & possible to try and bring the visuals into the current decade

That short film by 3DMike in UE4 with de_survivor made me nostalgic, so, inspired by his maps de_survivor and de_recon, and being sick and tired of the urban landscapes that look like a warehouse full of crates, i had started a small project of mine, a defuse map. For the start i am going to make it for the wingman mode with just one bomb site to see how it behaves and then i am really thinking of extending it to a fully fledged classical defuse map.

First attempt in Prodeus map editor:

Altitude has now been published, overall I think it's a large improvement from my last map Transit, especially when it comes to texturing and set pieces. I've learned a crazy amount along the way though and there are so many things I'd do differently if i was starting again. If you fancy giving it a play the p link is: m-ht1EjFQZov

Well, I reworked bombsite B entirly and spiced middle as it was quite uninspired. My aim for this map is making it feel more dynamic with different ways of playing/approaching one area and quick rotations for both teams. I hope I didn't go overboard with my ideas, but a playtest should tell more Here the album with more screenshots and info about the timings and angles and such: https://imgur.com/a/UjLjLYv

UPDATE PREVIEW BALANCING CT SIDE After last week's playtest I've been working hard on refining the A site and the pathing around it. CTs were feeling overwhelmed and so the focus has been on improving defense for the CTs. What seemed to be causing the most issues for CTs was the A mid/mid connector area. For Ts, although the angles could be cleared one by one, it proved to be too impractical. But for the CTs it was even worse because they could be so easily overrun by T rushes and were punished for extending. So I closed off the entrance to connector from A mid. UPDATED RADAR: With this change, each team can now fully control a mid connector before any engagements. When CTs take control of A mid, they are rewarded with another connector to B mid for flanks/rotations. When Ts take control of A mid, they gain another entry point to A site. The same is true for B mid and B site respectively. Think this will greatly improve the dual-mid dynamic. SIGHTLINE NERF Another small but significant change was eliminating this long sightline from top of A mid to A site, which was cutting the site in half and making it real hard for CTs to rotate into the site safely. This new big piece of cover serves to block that sightline while also helping Ts find cover on the approach into the site—plus CTs can also boost up onto it to gain some interesting vantage points. BETTER DEFENSE Another focus with this update was improving CT defense on A site. I altered some of the geometry and placed two vendors stands to give both defending and attacking players better cover to work with. This helped eliminate even more long sightlines across the site. IMPROVED A SITE COVER The new vendor cart leaning against the truck creates safer plant positions for Ts. REWORKED A MAIN I rerouted the path from warehouse to A site to make it less overwhelming for CTs. Ts must now push out farther before getting visibility of the site. They are then rewarded with this cubby for pushing out. OVERHEAD VIEW

Get a new job so I can leave my current toxic workplace

I've been putting the finishing touches to my aim_six_arenas spinoff map (which I'm now calling Showdown Planet) and I though I could share some comparison GIFs between the original map and the spinoff map. As I mentioned earlier, while aim_six_arenas merely was a collection of six soundstage-like rooms connected by a hallway, Showdown Planet will consist of six separate arenas meant to represent different places around the world, which means the arenas in Showdown Planet will be far more detailed than their aim_six_arenas counterparts. Dust/Mirage arena: Aztec/Ancient arena: Swamp/Mill arena: Subzero/Monastery arena: Hallway, made more AIM friendly in the Showdown Planet version: I did not record camera positions when taking screenshots, hence why the GIFs aren't perfect comparisons.

Sure, it's been less than a week since I've released aim_six_arenas, but that doesn't mean I can't start working on the spinoff map. The conceit of this spinoff map is still the same as the original: each round starts as a series of 1v1 matches before allowing all the surviving players to fight each other. The difference here is that, instead fighting it out in movie sets and hallways, the players now fight in separate arenas, with the surviving players teleporting to a seventh arena. From a gameplay perspective, this means no more searching up and down a corridor looking for enemies, something players generally dislike. From the design perspective, this means I can add a lot more details to the arenas, which can be seen below: Aztec/Ancient arena (original arena for comparison) Subzero/Monastery arena (original arena for comparison) Swamp/Sugar Mill arena (original arena for comparison) You'll notice that the skies in the screenshots are different, thanks to my use of skydomes. I wrote a tutorial on how I made these skydomes here.

I'm still workin' on porting HLA content to Source 1. It's not much, but it's coming along! It's not really challenging, it's just time consuming to do since it's quite a long process for even just 1 model. Though textures can be rather quick. Car models have proven to be most challenging since they have different textures for both the inside and outside. And they aren't separate like the car models in CS:GOs Dust 2. So I have to manually select every polygon that makes up the interior, and temporarily make the interior it's own model to add the texture. Then I can combine the two together again. It can take hours to do this, but I'd say it's worth it. Foliage hasn't proven challenging. The only thing I have to do is try to re-create how the S2 wind effects look with the S1 $treesway technology. Having a high scrumble setting usually recreates the look well. Dynamic props are the only thing I'm not sure I'll be up for. I have no idea how to port over the animations for the model. But if by some miracle I figure it out, I'll be one happy fella! I'll update y'all soon! I hope your new year has been great so far!

ar_Dome Soon to be released

Hey all. Sorry I've not been around very much recently! Had a lot going on IRL and with work. Hope you are all doing well! Been working on this scene for a while now but finally finished it up. You can check it out on Artstation. This has been a really fun project and I've learned a lot about UE4 and environment art in general. Really wanted to push myself to learn some new software. Speedtree is amazing! https://www.artstation.com/artwork/bK8EPn