Schmung

I think there's certainly an element of truth in it. I made/make levels for fun. It's not a career path for me because I alreadyu have a job and more debt that a small African nation, so I'm always going to be a hobbyist, but when things get as complex as they are now and making what I want entails churning out model after model and then begging someone to texture/compile etc it just puts me off the whole process. I'm sick to death of the limitations placed on me by the HL engine, but I can't work with next gen stuff because my limited skills in other areas prevent me from even hashing together basic stuff. Nexus, not sure what you're saying, but my point is that you can't just go placing in brushes and making nice lights and interesting architecture and muddling along with free textures and then ending up with something thats actually half decent Now you have to be able to model and texture your own stuff to a point where it works seamlessly with the environment you're placing it in. The current gen of stuff (D3, Source, UT whatever) means anything aside from the norm is out of the reach of all but the most talented and artistic of folk.

Yeah, it's sad really, the amount of effort required to do something decent in Source compared with HL is staggering and is what really puts me off trying it to be honest, I just don't have the skillset to do everything required. The amount of personnel and skillsets required now to make a mod for current gen stuff is so much greater than it used to be and that makes it a lot harder to get anything done. Part of the fun of the Quake era was that you didn't need a 20 man team to make a mod and the short lifecycle involved meant there was a lot more variety in what you saw. Even with HL stuff you needed a fair amount of guys to do anything decent, especially later on in the games lifespan.

Awesome. WIth the first shot, how about using that recessed red light thing you've got going in the elevator? Would liven up the trims on those lower walls a treat. Alternatively you could put the occasional cut out lit panel between those beams. Really like the style and feel of this map and it gets better every time you show us more screens. Good luck getting that beta out, can't wait to run aroundd it.

The scratches on those slats could do with a little more variation, maybe some actaul patches of rust would help?

I'm down with that so long as it's submitted to my home address for me to 'judge'. Back to the point, would anyone be up for doing a brief mapping competition lasting no more than two weeks with restrictions in place to try and ensure that it canbe made speedily?

I picked Q1 on the basis that it's so basic and that you can make a map for it pretty quickly, thus requiring the minimum amount of effort/commitment from participants. A strict limit of time/resources would be a must regardless of engine to keep everything in line, so wholly for doing that. I suppose HL1/Source would be more feasible for folk here, but from a personal standpoint I'm fed up to the back teeth of HL1 and haven't had time to get to grips with source yet due to other commitments. Still, I'd like to see us try something, so I'll go with what the majority decide.

The last mapping competition thingy died because of the horrific complexities of doing something for HL2. That and lack of interest and direction, but we'll ignore that for now. How about this : Week long Quake 1 mapping contest to create a small DM level. Less time/effort/commitment required and I think it could be genuinely interesting. Quake is what got me into mapping in the first place and it's setting allows us real creativity. Looking back at some of the stuff that was done for it still impresses me because of sheer creativity. If we get enough folk interested then we'll sort rules regarding whats allowed and what ain't. Stuff like using new fangled engines so you can use higer res textures and coloured lights. I'd rather keep it fairly pure, but up to you lot. What think ye? I realise I've not been her a huge amount of time, but I think it could be fun and hopefully one of the moderbaters would be willing to sticky a WIP/Release/Judging thread or whatever.

This new, or the one from back when it was announced? Can't check it in work.

Lovely work there mate, dunno much about the HL2 engine myself, but I imagine theres some form of memory hit from using a lightmap at that scale. Dare say it's fine if used sparingly. Is this just pracite making a scene or part of a larger level?

Gimmick tacular. Card in your PC has a lot less to do with your ping than the routers/switches and infrastructure thats between you and the server. Furthermore, it's probably going to do more harm that good for some people as I'm guessing it will be incompatible with certain ISPs networks.

Looks like a good start and you've got a clear idea of what issues the map has and what needs doing to fix them, so it seems we're set for something rather nice once you're done. Looking forward to seeing more.

Rexture and relight the badboy, brushwork and detailing is nice, but it's somewhat monochrome at present. Your lava looks a bit naff as well. Great start though, muchos potential.

That is the shit. Love it.

YOur graass is really, really horrid. It's like fairyland grass or 'hello magic mushrooms' at present. Considering the amount of it you've got, you either need to dramatically increase the size of teh texture you're using (porbably not feasible) or make it look softer. AS ferret said, you really need to lose the black, it's not helping matters. I ehartily second that as well.

A64 3700 Asus SLI Deluxe 2GB corsair XMS GF6800 Ultra (256mb) 250gb WD hard drive shitty lg 17" crt dell black keyboard (nabbed from work) Logitech G7 laser mouse DVD/rw drive Got a load of usb memory sticks lying around. Monitor is the next upgrade on the list. Will see where I am at the end of the year, may swap the graphics card out then. Otherwise I'm gonna leave it for a year and a half. Bought half of the current one on my credit card and half of it from my wages. Flogged the old one for £200 which wasn't bad going. Probably do the same, upgrading is a bit futile most of the time because by tiem I get round to it the architectures have ussually changed.

no idea whats going on with those vents, you've got smoothing errors there and they almost look painted on. Weird.

I like that lots. Good stuff. Loving the indeted red panel light thingy doofer.

Those In shots are fucking awesome. And hullo venom snake.

Sweet. An AWP map thats actually had time spent on it to make it look nice. Two thumbs up from me. Could change it easily enough to other localities just by changing the vtfs or whatever couldn't you?

Love the look of that spine. Maybe combine those panels with some nice blue inset led style lights?

Yeah, keep at it and hopefully you can be whisked away somewhere. Visa wise, Europe or Australia is probably your best bet IMO. Maybe you should start putting together a serious protfolio and feeling out game companies and see what their reaction is?

That whale is awesome. Maybe a shader for those eyes?

So, this clearly has problems, the ortho views show them best. I need ideas though, suggestions. Going to stick a spoiler on it to make it somewhat more interesting, but am somewhat lost beyond that. Clickly thumbnails for embiggerment.

People are too ambitious, they release an alpha/beta with god knows how many features in there, but don't bother refinining anything. Implement one element of gameplay at a time, make sure it's fun and then push on. HEre's our mod, it has DM, CTF, Round Based this that, grappling hooks, 30 different weapons and 4 maps. Great. Except 8 of the weapons are useless, 3 are too good, CTF doesn't even work, 2 of the maps aren't done and the grappling hook will randomly kill you for no reason. Why not just get DM and 10 of the weapons working, make sure that works and that it's fun and build from there.

That NeoTokyo screen makes me moist. I can't wait to be done with HL1 at present. Its getting right on my proverbials.