2d-chris

these are great. good on ya

Hey guys, so this summer I went on a really exciting 16 day adventure of Iceland, decided to document most of it and whip up a video series of all 16 days. We have a bunch of artists here who might appreciate the landscapes, the variety of landscapes literally felt like Skyrim, every 50KM or so it felt like a completely different location, no dragons though.
The playlist of all 3 parts is below, you can also find my videos on Vimeo for slightly higher quality https://vimeo.com/2dchris
Hope you guys enjoy!

We've made it easier than ever to access the development tools for Unreal Tournament, in this guide I will share instructions, and some handy links for anyone who would like to build a level for the contest.
Downloading the game and editor
Follow THIS link and click "Download UT for Free" (yes, it's free!) Sign in with your account or make one With the launcher open, you should see Unreal Tournament up the top, click on this Download the game (play) and editor (create)
Epic Games Launcher
The next step - Getting to know the game
Even if you are a Unreal veteran, before starting a level, it's wise to play the game for a bit to get a feel for it. Every Unreal Tournament game has it's unique feel, scale and pacing, and UT4 is no different. It is also a good idea to take a close look at the official levels, some have been finished, some are what we call "Shells", these are a great example of proving out a levels gameplay before investing time and effort with art,
Zaccabus has put together some wonderful guides, everything from basic movement to advanced weapon tips, this will be extremely useful for getting up to speed on what UT4 is all about. Click THIS to go to his YouTube channel.
 
Basics of the Editor
Unreal Editor has been widely documented, this should make it quite easy to find specific information you require, but I will provide some handy links for getting up to speed.
Epic's Map Making Tutorial - Good place to start.
Sid (Veteran UT level designer) demonstrating the editor - Tips from a pro.
Unreal Engine Tutorial Playlist - Everything but the kitchen sink (most of this is valid to some degree for UT4).
Jim Brown (Senior Designer) demonstrates the editor - Good summery of the editors core functionality.
 
What is Team Showdown Mode?
Epic was kind enough to provide us with a detailed guide on everything related to mapping for the Team Showdown mode. You can download the PDF version or the Word version.
Additionally, Nato just posted a guide and discussion over at the official forums, check it out HERE
How do you test your map in the game?
We've made it easy to test and share your maps in the actual game, although you can play in the editor, it's always advisable to play it in the real game, we support BOT play which is incredibly useful in the early days of developing a level. Sharing a level will package all custom assets into a single file, making it easy to share with others.
To add bot support for your level, simply add a "NavMeshBoundsVolume" around your entire level, when you hit build it will make the paths for you Once your level has been Built, you need to do the following to play in the game Click "Share", then "Share this level", in the bottom right of your editor you should see a message telling you the script is running, this can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minuets depending on the complexity of your level.  Once packaged, a prompt will appear asking if you would like to share, before doing this make a note of where the file is being saved, click "Open window to packaged Content Directory, then click no From the Epic Games Launcher, play the game, your map should show up in the list if you make Custom game. If it doesn't show up, you might need to revisit the "world settings" and make sure the game mode is set-up correctly.
Share button location

@Helder Pinto Been playing this a lot the past few days, really excellent, city area seems a little sniper heavy, I know you can flank, but when shit kicks off on the point it's easy to be a target. I'm having a blast as always. Love the futuristic stage, the cover that pops up is pretty interesting, happy to see you guys experimenting more with dynamic environments, pretty fun with Moira  Love the idea of the fastest route to the point being the most dangerous (the small chokepoint having to go uphill) nice touches to keep the maps unique.
Visually, I have nothing to say other than, damnnnnn ... all you need now is some giant dominoes in the spawn room. 

Hey guys, just a heads up,  we're looking to hire a senior level designer to work on Fortnite at Epic Games HQ in North Carolina, cheers!
https://epicgames.avature.net/careers/JobDetail/Senior-Level-Designer-Fortnite/3141

Hey guys, just a heads up,  we're looking to hire a senior level designer to work on Fortnite at Epic Games HQ in North Carolina, cheers!
https://epicgames.avature.net/careers/JobDetail/Senior-Level-Designer-Fortnite/3141

Hi, here's a couple of updates. I more or less finished with rough modelling, starting to refine assets.
Trap room rough modelling

First textured asset. This asset uses one tiling material with single unique mask texture with no bake. I'm using custom vertex normals to give it rounded look. I plan to produce assets that way - using just one (sometimes don't uses at all for not significant assets) unique mask per asset.

I also use mesh decals for additional details. Will add emissive for some of them later on.


And lastly, some rough modelling for other rooms

And here's some experiments with emissive mesh decals

That's it for now, thanks for watching

Here's a little tip, if you want to be taken seriously, you need to have something to show to be able to attract talent. Something, anything, even a portfolio of past experience or past shipped projects by yourself would be better than anything. Promises and words are just empty vessels.
At the very least, be willing to pay people if you want them to be embarking on an adventure with you when you have zero content to show.

I've been playing Fortnite for 2 weeks, I didn't know the Battle Royale gamemode was free so I gave it a try.
It's a really well-made game, the gamemode itself is obviously working really well (just as much as PUBG), but I really love how it differs from PUBG aswell.
The visual style makes it really easy to spot ennemies and forces you to stay on the move. And, because you just can't hide laying down in tall grass, the building mechanic is really efficient to quickly build covers and avoid being inevitably trapped in the middle of nowhere.
Btw, i love this systematic approach with building. The fact that everything you build has to snap to a grid was scary at first but you get used to it and play with it quickly. And the most amazing part of that is that everything on the map (except the ground) is built according to that grid, so that you can destroy everything (furniture, buildings, trees ...)
 
When i first saw this game, i was like "wtf this is just a copy/paste from PUBG with simple building mechanisms like in Rust", and it probably was in its beginnings. But the updates and improvements seem to make this multiplayer game really enjoyable, fair and challenging.
I just got my first Victory Royale in solo-queue 3 days ago and my first Victory Royale in Section (with guys i don't know that filled a squad of 4) yesterday. I very much like this game. If you haven't, give it a try and maybe if someone wants to play in Duo/Section, tell me on steam !

Loving the new map, ehehe, the boats are awesome  

hehe thx, I added a short eye candy video for those who don't want to hear me waffle on about rocks for 45 mins, in glorious 4k too!
 

Hey guys, so this summer I went on a really exciting 16 day adventure of Iceland, decided to document most of it and whip up a video series of all 16 days. We have a bunch of artists here who might appreciate the landscapes, the variety of landscapes literally felt like Skyrim, every 50KM or so it felt like a completely different location, no dragons though.
The playlist of all 3 parts is below, you can also find my videos on Vimeo for slightly higher quality https://vimeo.com/2dchris
Hope you guys enjoy!

I think this is one of the first games I'm actually in favor of the destruction, at least it's not just stuck on as a marketing gimmick. All that seems left to do with Rainbow Six is adding more dynamic environments and they seem to of nailed it. 
 
I was not interested at all in Vegas for a number of reasons, but this has my attention.

Just got back from Iceland, what a place, here are a few pics, more to come.



 

Great stuff man, really inspiring photography portfolio! I'm in love with those mountainous landscapes you have on there.
I've been to Grand Canyon this week and it's hands down the craziest place I've ever been, here's a shot, I'll post a few more later.

Here's her origins video, <3 Brigitte:
 

This is amazing and sadly accurate.

Come play CTF ma bros!
 

Started working on a new part of the scene. I took the more of the Catalyst look with this one.

It's soooo good, must be one of my fav maps ever, so creative! 

It's soooo good, must be one of my fav maps ever, so creative! 

hehe, if we got paid what other people in the tech industry get on average, this chart would be off the scale. some wise words here for sure, doing things procedural no matter your area is certainly wise, if nothing else it's a blast to figure out, but everything has it's limits,  just need to figure out the pros and cons. Whats interesting recently, is the biggest games are pretty limited in scope, which is actually smart in it's own right, especially as costs keep going up. I guess, what blows my mind, is how much gamers expect, for say, $30, in a bar, that's a couple of beers and a pizza, maybe 2-3 hours of entertainment, yet games are somewhat expected to last forever, for such value? I'm certainly not advocating we make games $200, but it always fascinates me. Maybe the real issue here is eating/drinking out is too damn expensive!