Naticus

Good eye. I’m sure that was not the only texture misalignment I missed. Towards the end, I scaled up the diagonal texture and missed a brush face. These are corrections for version 2.0. Unfortunately because this is a seasonal map I moved a little bit faster than I would normally to get this released so there would still be some time to play it before Christmas. It would have been great to make everything perfect but time just wasn’t on my side. I hope you can understand a few rough spots. Even with a few blemishes, this map is still fun to play. There are lots of little surprises that couldn’t come across in pictures so please give it a run through!

Thanks Chris! It has been a while since I have submitted anything to the Mapcore community and I overlooked the Work Release subforum. Could an admin kindly move this thread over there? Thanks!

xmas_icecastle By: Naticus Game: Counter Strike Source Map type: Defusal, Christmas Download: http://www.natcarm.com/xmas_icecastle.zip Server: 8.12.16.219:27015 Here is a fun little Christmas map for your holiday amusement. The Ice Castle is home to crystals that produce Christmas spirit. The terrorists are bent on destroying the crystals and ruining Christmas for everyone. Here are a few hints and tips for navigating your way around the map: - The dual speed track is just like the Slideracer maps. The snowmen, bombs and Santa Furby will instakill you so be careful! - To control the track speed, shoot the corresponding targets over the track. - The Castle contains speed tubes that let you quickly go up, down or side to side. Follow the arrows for the proper direction. - There are also arrow ramps on the roof that let you long jump from one roof to the other. Make sure you jump at the very edge or you will miss the other side. Cross jump at your own peril. - There are 3 bomb sites. Site A is at the Christmas tree immediately below CT spawn. Site B is on the roof at CT spawn. Site C is located on the balcony overlooking the massive power cube in the Castle opposite CT spawn. Strategy: Terrorists - If you have the bomb, try not to die on the track. It is really difficult for your teammates to locate and pick up the bomb when moving at high speed. - With three bomb sites to choose from, try to get a jump on the CTs by finding the site they’re not defending. Counter Terrorists - Cover all bomb sites and get to them quickly. CTs have the advantage of getting to any bomb site faster than the Ts. It is essential to have your teammates get in position quickly to defend each bomb site and signal where the bomb is going. - Determine where the sites are located and the fastest way to get to them. Knowing the fastest way from site to site is really important! Secret Area: There is a secret area in the map. It is not easy to find but I’ll leave you a Jumble. (stirred and course are NOT correct answers) All comments welcome.

I don't know if the word "art" really means anything for purposes of this discussion and what game designers really want. I believe the core of what the game designer wants is recognition and for his/her work to be considered important. Art is something created that is recognized and considered important by society. What exactly that "something" might be is hardly definable. Lots of time and hard work are put into making films, music, and other things considered art. Recognition validates the creator and encourages more creation. I would argue that generally the things that are worked on and thought about more please more people. To move the gaming industry to the level of say film or music more effort is required of the designers and developers. Everyone working on games can think bigger and work harder.

Sorry for the second shameless self promoting post. I have created a forum for the project which can be found at the following web address: http://kearnmanor.natcarm.com/index.php If this interests you at all, please stop in to find out more about it! Naticus

I put a small HL2 death match level called Romanpool together last year based on a pool from the Hearst Castle. http://www.natcarm.com At that time, I decided not to pursue a much larger single player project based on the entire estate. I’ve recently had a change of heart and believe a full scale HL2 single player adventure in a beautiful setting like Hearst castle could turn out very well. To execute this properly, I’ll need lots of help. When making Romanpool, I paid a lot of attention to recreating the pool as close as possible to the real thing. That is not the intention now with this single player project. I would like to make the map as visually impressive as possible but just loosely base it around the setting of the Hearst castle with layouts being dictated by game play rather than strict accuracy. Due to the scope of the project with multiple chapters/levels, I anticipate it taking around a year to complete. If anyone has any interest in helping with mapping, textures or modeling please let me know and contact me at natcarm@yahoo.com. I would also like to hear any opinions, good or bad, about making a single player level like this. All feedback is welcome. Naticus

Use of intellectual property is interesting stuff. I remember there was a law suit between Microsoft and “Lindows”, a Linux based OS that was very similar to windows. The issue in that case was whether the concept of a windows style OS could be copyrighted at all. Can’t remember how that one turned out. I think Lidows was forced to give up that name due to a trademark decision. I’m not sure what it goes by now. I get the general impression that it is in the mappers best interest to steer clear of copyrighted material for any project. I stay away from protected material because I don’t want my hard work to go to waste. If I made something really impressive from protected material and could not use it for anything outside of my own viewing, there would not be much satisfaction. There are some who will say that mapping done with copyrighted material could be reserved for a portfolio. Is it possible that including work like that in your portfolio could hurt rather than help? Would an employer look at the portfolio in a negative light due to the copyrighted content?

This makes sense to me, but is there really any company or watch dog that issues cease and desist letters to level designers? Have you ever heard of anyone having to pull their level due to copyright violations? There are some pretty well know levels that have used tv or movies as the basis. De_simpsons comes to mind. There have also been some pretty good looking Matrix levels that I can recall. I'm sure that everyone here can think of a few. I suppose my point is do the mega entertainment corps really care about "home made" levels? Does the gaming community care about those corporation's copyrights being violated? As for music, something I haven't seen is the equivalent of a level designed to a song, sort of like a gaming music video. For example, take your favorite rock song and imagine pacing a level to it with the level of enemy attacks based on the parts of the song. Just have something that compels the player to move through the level at a certain rate to reach the end of the level by the end of the song. But I digress.... This seems easy enough to do but I can't say I've seen it done. Is this because of song copyrights? Are level designers respecting that boundry by not including copyrighted soundtracks?

I haven't seen a really good thread discussing copyrights and game design so I'll kick this one off for a casual discussion on the topic. There are some general questions I have regarding making maps or mods for commercial games. I think it is pretty clear that you cannot create and sell a game that contains copyrighted material without first obtaining or buying the rights to use such material. But what about the the average level designer who makes, for example, Counter Strike maps. Is he also bound by the same copyright law? Can he freely make maps with copyrighted material because he will never be making any money off of it? Is he still bound by copyrights but the copyright owners and gaming community don't really care if they are violated? Does the type of copyright matter? Here are some examples of copyrighted material that might be used and have been used in creating levels: Photos / Textures Music Art Architecture TV and Movies Other copyrighted games Which of these can the non-commercial level designer freely use and to what extent? Does the scope of use matter? If a designer's goal is to create a popular map that could be played on servers everywhere, what advice would you give as far as copyrights go? It seems clear to me the game design community is self policing in a way. This is very true with unauthorized use of textures, models and other game elements which are taken from others. Does the gaming community look down on or care about the use of copyrighted material taken from main stream media? Just curious to hear the opinions more than anything.

Like many things in life, you get what you pay for. To get a jump start on modelling in XSI I highly recommend: XSI-Modelling 1, by S. Diston-Hunter (reissue) It can be purchased from http://www.3dtutorial.com for $50 bucks. Probably the best money I ever spent. There is a ton of great information in there. I'm considering purchasing another one on UV texture mapping. Some of the free tutorials are good but can leave you with a ton of questions requiring you to dig through forums and other sources for answers.

If you are going to use Source, Valve provides several useful programs (Hammer being the most important). I like the interface and the tools are pretty easy to figure out. For modeling in Source you should download the free version of XSI for HL2. The interface is a little overwhelming so I would recommend downloading video tutorials to quickly familiarize yourself with everything. I can recommend some good ones if you are interested. As far as textures go, Photoshop CS is ideal but “The Gimp” is a very good free substitute. All of the development tools I use are free. To pull everything together and learn how to negotiate working between these programs and eventually get original content into Hammer, you will need to scour the Valve Developer wiki pages and forums. I am still learning something on almost a daily basis. Bear in mind mapping is not for those who are easily frustrated or give up on things too quickly. Good luck with whatever direction you decide to go!

Well shoot...I thought all I had to do was align one last texture and it was going to be completely finished..... :roll:

Here are some screen shots of some very early work on the mapping of Casa Grande, the main house on the Hearst estate in San Simeon, CA. Please keep in mind that most likely none of the textures you see in these pics will be used in the final version. The last image is the inside of a spiral stair tower that has exits on all four levels. There are currently two spiral stair towers, one on each side. I may add two more smaller towers towards the back of the house. I plan on making the map a single player HL or maybe a CS level with large portions blocked off. All comments are welcome. It is very likely I will need help on this one to finish in any sort of timely fashion. If anyone has an interest in helping me construct and detail this monster, please let me know! Challenges are fun right?

The linear mirrored layout of the roman pool is very simple. Sometimes simple layouts can be compelling for other reasons. This map was directly modeled after a building that exists in real life. Multiplayer gameplay considerations did not “shape” this map. My original intent was, and perhaps still is, to try to recreate as much as the Hearst castle as possible to be played in a single player format. When this room came together, I was pleased with the result and thought that the shape and water terrain, while not ideal, would make a pretty interesting multiplayer format. It was at that point when I added the bathrooms (which there is not access to in real life) and kept the mirrored theme going by putting one on each side. I believe Hearst actually had a gym in one of those spaces. I have played CS way more than DM so I am a little biased toward a good old gun fight. I didn’t want to overwhelm the level with too many prop_phys to throw about. However, there are 12 sinks, 12 toilets, 4 radiators and 4 benches to have fun with in a relatively small level. Due to the small size, I would not be able to play this level for hours on end but as part of a rotation of dm maps, I think it is a nice way to change things up for a bit. I tend to agree with this. A night setting would not only keep the focus on the interior and I could avoid the hit I would take on gameplay from adding 3-d elements outside. That is exactly why I changed the sky and added the dusk sunlight colors, because people seemed to like it. I like it quite a bit too as it seems to give certain areas of the map a portraitesque quality. I think I prefer the lamps static because they seem like a pretty important visual element of the level for me. The lighting doesn’t seem overwhelming to me. I would like to hear what others have to say about it. Those benches are prop_physics but are set motionless until hit with the physcannon. I suppose I don’t have a problem with keeping motion on them from the start. Well the players seem to do a pretty good job shattering glass, breaking benches and leaving bullet holes so that the pristine look doesn’t stay for too long. I also don’t see why pristine is always a bad thing. Not every level needs to be a post-apocalyptic industrial shanty town. I may change one of the bathrooms up a bit to improve the bearings of the player. Although after playing it a couple times, it is pretty easy to figure out where you are going. I don’t think Hearst ever really intended the roman pool to be a traditional roman bath. In fact at one point he had tons of salt added to make the water seem like the ocean. He even had crazy ideas of adding sharks and other sea life. The salt water ended up corroding the pipes which had to be replaced. The diving area also seems to indicate more of a pool style area. While I don’t know the layout of the Hearst bathroom area, I imagine it would have had showers at one point to wash off all that salt. Thank you for taking the time to critique and give your impressions of the level. A critical take from all angles is very useful. Sorry if I disagreed with some of your suggestions but I tend to defend things I take pride in.

I've put a beta version of the map back online for play testing. Please download it at your convenience and try it out. I would love to hear any and all comments/suggestions you guys have! http://www.natcarm.com

Right...that was in the back of my mind after I reduced the sun glare effect from the env_lightglow. If you look at the pic I posted at the end of the first page the window is fully illuminated. Unfortunately I had to cut back on that effect because it didn't look natural when you moved side to side in the back of the room. It sort of flickered on and off. I will work on brightening the windows where the sun is hitting by some other means. Maybe a spotlight or just a plain light entity in the right place. Any other ideas for that? Oh and thanks for the tip with the glow effect! It worked great. I ended up using an env_sprite instead because I couldn't get a constant glow at a specific distance with env_lightglow. I really appreciate all of the advice and help you guys are giving me. It is speeding things up for me considerably.

Thanks to the admin that moved this post. I was just thinking it really does belong in the WIP forum. Here is another brief update. I tried to stick with a dusk theme. Let me know what you think about the lighting. New screenshots here: http://www.natcarm.com

Here is my first crack at some lighting effects. I'll replace these shots in a couple days with better ones after I adjust my graphics card and kick up the antilansing. I stripped away most of the light entities and let a light_environment do most of the work. I also put in a env_lightglow to simulate a sunlight glare when you are looking out the windows facing the sun. I also added reflection via cubemaps and normal mapping to most of the tile textures. I'll need to tweak the lighting balance a bit so it is not too dark. I ran into difficulty though with the lightglow on the lamp models. Because the bulb part is so large, it swallows the light when I place the entity in the center and I can't move it to a place where it looks natural. Any ideas?

Very cool! Sweet effect even with just the photoshop touch up. My mind is churning now with all sorts of ideas for the lighting. I think I will take down the map download for the time being until I have the lighting and color balance worked out. Doesn't seem like I'm too far away though. Anyone know any good tutorials for lighting design? Definitely not a strong point for me. I went ahead and desaturated those really blue texture files and changed the windows. Here are the before and after shots:

Thank you all for the constructive comments. These are really important as it is almost impossible to get good criticism from close friends. CJ is right, it is too blue! I’ve been looking at it so long that I became blind to it. I will play around with the saturation of the textures a bit to try and achieve more realism. Cool lighting effects would definitely improve the overall look of the level. I need to put in some extra time and learn all of the environment lighting tricks. That really seems to be an art unto itself. CJ is also correct that I modeled the level off the Roman Pool from the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA. After a visit there a few years ago I was really struck by all of the great art and architecture on the estate. I tried to keep all the core elements of the room intact as well as some of the tile design. A perfect replica would require too much time and too many different textures. I think at some point, it is possible to go too far with the level of detail. A current project I am also working on is a level based on Casa Grande, which is the main house there. That one will likely make a better candidate for CS. Keep the suggestions and comments coming in! I hope to have an improved version for you in the next couple weeks with the suggested changes made.

Please take a look, download and give it a spin (edit - Back up for play testing!). All comments are welcome. I'm a novice mapper and looking for all the advice I can get, design related or otherwise. This is a small map designed ideally for 3 - 6 players. http://www.natcarm.com