KungFuSquirrel

You and your broked stuff. Looks nice I think you could do a lot more with the lighting outside, though. Obviously you need to keep it bright enough to let players see each other, but maybe experiment with more types of light sources combined with a darker sky light.

It is. So is working at Raven, by the way. Really cool place, and just getting better I had a friend do an art test for the spot and he said that he was asked to do it in Max. I think the LW/Maya bit may be a botched copy/paste from a D3 engine posting. I could be wrong, though. But no harm trying!

Tabbed browsing for the win... ShackNews, my site, NS forums, Snark Pit, GMail, my site tracker, and MapCore. Hooray!

...which is the same thing. There is no such thing as 'orange mode;' whether you're using nodraw or a concrete base texture or a purple or pink or plaid with polka dots texture, it's the same concept - rough in your map's layout, basic form, and gameplay before you waste time detailing it. It's not like Valve invented some crazy revolution with a few orange textures or anything.

I saw snow today. We went to a pizza place in Verona for dinner and a car had parked there prior to us after driving through the snow. Kinda depressing (and weird) for the first snow I see of the year to be little piles that fell off a car in a parking lot... I think the edge of the snow front was just south of Madison.

You guys are doing some killer work; keep it up! Can't wait for this one.

Just wanted to bring to light a couple openings on Raven's staff. The programming one I doubt would apply to anyone here, but you might know someone who fits the criteria and is searching for a new home. Here's the info, as well as a link to each gamasutra posting with proper contact info: 2D/3D Texture and World Model Artist Position for X-Men Legends Title Raven Software is looking for a 2D/3D artist to concept, build, and paint complex textures and world models for an X-Men Legends title. We prefer an artist with experience working in the PC gaming industry, with an understanding of creating textures and world models, but with very strong drawing, concepting, and painting skills. A more realistic artistic style is preferred. An ability to create game art for different genres - such as Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror - is a definite plus, but a strong background in drawing and painting realistically is a must. The position will also require an understanding of or a willingness to learn 3D hi-poly and lo-poly model building in Lightwave or Maya. Responsibilities: - Concept and create complex textures and world models for an X-Men Legends title. Requirements: - Strong 2D drawing, concepting, and painting skills. - Experience creating textures and world models for PC games. - Experience creating UV maps from 3D models. - Experience building hi-poly and lo-poly 3D models in Lightwave or Maya or have experience with another 3D package and be willing to switch. - Experience using Photoshop. - Self-motivated, with a strong artistic vision that allows them to complete tasks without supervision. - Relocation to Madison, Wisconsin http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/jobs_d ... ob_id=4691 Console Tech Programmer Raven Software is seeking a talented programmer to play an important role in a triple-A console title currently in development... X-Men: Legends. We are looking for an experienced technology guru who can integrate with a capable development team and make a great game even better. Responsibilities include working with technology designed to work cross-platform for the Playstation 2, Gamecube and Xbox. The ideal candidate would have: • Minimum of five years of programming experience in game development or real-time graphics applications, with at least two shipped products. • Full mastery of C++ and working with as well as creating object-oriented systems. • Excellent oral and written communications skills. • Proven technical expertise with at least one console platform such as Playstation 2, Xbox or Gamecube. Additional strong assets: • Bachelor's Degree or better in Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics. • Experience and comfort with low-level assembly and hardware API's. • Skills with cutting-edge graphics work such as advanced rendering techniques, animation, or optimization. • Previous experience with developing a cross-platform product. • Experience with game-oriented graphics technology such as Renderware, Intrinsic Alchemy, or NetImmerse. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/jobs_d ... ob_id=4690

Very nice stuff, Zaphod. Gotta actually get me that Bloodlines here soon... Might be a bad person and wait to see if it shows up in the company store, though. :X *hides*

Just finished. Took just over 10 hours total time. I'm going to let this one sink in before I make further commentary

I'll make the same comment here I did on the Snark pit... I'd love to see more curves included in this. It'd also help your glowy fluid thing by giving you perfect texture alignment. All the angles are really sweet, and would be even sweeter pulled around a curve here and there. But it's really nice architecture regardless, and a nice smooth lighting style. Keep up the good work!

Ain't developing for in-development engines FUN?

http://www.mapcore.net/forums/viewtopic ... 1&start=60 Posted... today.

As the experienced vets get fed up and leave, they replace them with naive new employees with not a whole lot of work experience. They eagerly take the job, and then are screwed over. They keep the job because a) leaving the team before completion of their first project could be catastrophic to future job hunts and/or b) they just assume it's the norm and don't think twice about it. I guess on some forums where this is going around there are people re-thinking their ambitions to go into the industry, assuming this is just par for the course. My understanding is also that many of the people that leave EA due to these circumstances end up leaving the industry entirely. Really too bad that people let themselves believe this is normal behavior.

We are getting a new building sometime next year. Room for 150, more aesthetically pleasing environments (I think more wood paneling, non-fluorescent lighting, exposed rafters/girders and the like, all cool and stuff), its own mo-cap studio, weight room, improved kitchen, and access to facilities in the other buildings next to us. That'll be really awesome. Our guys are mostly split between Call of Duty and Rocket Arena at lunch and after hours. A few might still play UT2K4. We play another game now and then, too. Ken and I have some fun in our cubes, though no doll of shame... We have the dead chair, for one. His chair was bad. Eric Biessman sat in it and declared he (Ken) needed a new chair immediately. I took Ken's old chair as a drastic step up from my previous one. My old one now lies on the ground between our cubes with a hole in it from where I stabbed it with a pen. It has also been headcrabbed. I also keep a section from a Far Cry promo I saved from GameStop and have it looking into Ken's cube. I'm going to start decorating him with various hats for various occasions, starting with Christmas. Teehee.

We get pizza day once a month, movie day (at the megaplex uber-screen theater just down the block), and profit-sharing bonuses on all titles (even on games you didn't work on, apparently, but much less than those who did work on it) after you've been there for 3 months. Everyone always seems to be in a pretty good mood, regardless. Average length of employment at Raven is 6 years, I think (if I recall correctly). A few people have left since I arrived, but not many and none for a while (and those that did were all on excellent terms).

Apparently it's not even a matter of getting the content done - I spoke to someone who was working on the team specifically referred to in the article (and apparently another team had it worse - the 12-13 hour/7 days a week conditions for perhaps a year or more), and he said that not only was it required to work those hours, but content was getting done and people were sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for more content and were still forced to remain there for 'moral support.' Ouch. Edit: Even more ouch is that sentence structure... I won't even bother

Shoulda gone with Activision. heh

http://www.igda.org/Forums/showthread.p ... adid=13068 Very interesting read. Thankfully that's not really an issue here. Double thankfully, I'd already been offered my spot here when one of the EA guys called me back in May or whenever.

The black and white bits remind me of an old book I had when I was a kid... it was all black and white outlines and stuff, and the first part took place during the day. At the 'end' of the book, you turned it over and flipped back through it the other way, and it told the rest of the story at night. What was a plume of smoke from a factory during the day version was the road during the night version. Really inredible. Gotta try and remember what it was...

please please please freedom fighters 2 or something similar. :D

Maybe give the arch an actual texture to match the shape? like any nicely constructed stone arch or something? Could fit nicely. *shrug* Looks sweet, though

If I ever got anything, it'd be a Quake 4 logo. Even if the Quake franchise itself didn't stand the test of time, it'd still have very direct significance and meaning towards me. Of course, I doubt I'll ever get one.

Oh, duh, .ase works, too. *slaps self*. I'm just so used to LightWave I don't really think in terms of non-.lwo files for map objects

Well, if it says anywhere he did it with Max, I guess that just confirms that vertex painting (and, thus, blending) can hold up on the conversion to .lwo. however awful that 'terrain' may be...

It'd probably be pretty easy to do a quick export to .lwo format from another program, though I dunno if vertex maps for texture blending would work very well across the conversion. Lightwave's not too bad, though, and if you've already taken the step to learn Radiant, you're going to have an easier time with it. Some operations are similar, and the interface is very much keyboard-oriented. I'm still known to accidentally use the wrong key in one or the other, but that's pretty common regardless. I should write up a simple crash course on LW for designer-types to make use of. Biggest thing you'll use it for is terrain, which nice and easy, but sometimes it's handy to export some geometry and convert it to a model as well. Dunno if that'd be overstepping my bounds, though, I'd have to probably check with someone at work for clearance.