will2k

Be sure to invest in a laptop cooling pad if you have not done so already; they'll greatly reduce overheating and extend the life of the laptop and prevent premature failure (happened before on 1 of my laptops that used to generate considerable heat)

$normalmap is a unique command for the water shader only; for everything else, use $bumpmap. https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Water_%28shader%29#Shader_parameters

I keep it on standby just in case of a quick edit of a vtf on the fly But VTFEdit is the main weapon to go for handling the vtfs/conversion

While everyone is pointing to the 2nd one (big contrast and I somehow agree), the 1st one could also work with a bit more contrast between buildings and sky. If you could switch the environment lighting to a more orange version (sunset setting or even dusk), things would look better and building shapes will be more pronounced (couple that with some sharpening/contrast in the post process entity and you will be fine). I can see the setup totally working for a dock yard at sunset with a pier and lighthouse Bonne chance To further elaborate on my point, when I saw your pics, I immediately thought of Dishonored, specifically the Hounds Pit area at sunset. I had this in mind when I recommended the sunset setting: You could go for a subtle sunset (orange-pinkish) or a pronouced sunset with LOTS of heavy orange I reckon both will work well with your architecture and mostly brown brick textures. Dishonored would be a great reference for your map

While everyone is pointing to the 2nd one (big contrast and I somehow agree), the 1st one could also work with a bit more contrast between buildings and sky. If you could switch the environment lighting to a more orange version (sunset setting or even dusk), things would look better and building shapes will be more pronounced (couple that with some sharpening/contrast in the post process entity and you will be fine). I can see the setup totally working for a dock yard at sunset with a pier and lighthouse Bonne chance

Yes, I believe the alpha channel must be present in your TGA so VTFEdit can recognize the correct format (ex DXT5) with 32 bit and transparency. I usually leave the alpha channel creation til the end; I could have several layers on the diffuse (overlay, adjustment, fill layers etc..) then when I'm done I can select one or several layers that i want to include in the alpha channel (could be overlapping layers too) then I duplicate these layers and merge them into one layer. I ctrl+ left click on this layer to select it then right click on the "marching ants selection" and choose save selection. this will automatically send the selection to the alpha channel with all the shapes and the tranparencies nuances and I wouldn't have to manually edit the alpha channel anymore. Probably not the best method but it works for me

Yes, unfortunately Valve locked the 2 cmds in CSGO (mat_specular and mat_bumpmap), despite being very helpful in quickly checking spec and normal maps in-game. For normal maps in CSGO, my earlier post clarified the new method to check them in-game (mat_normalmaps); you can also try mat_fastnobump 1/0 to quickly enable/disable bumpmapping. For specular maps, first type r_showenvcubemap 1 to turn your glove and pistol model to a reflective texture. Run around the map and you should see that the reflection is changing depending on the cubemap in that particular area. If your cubemaps are not loaded correctly, then the texture will reflect only the skybox or not reflect at all. This is to ensure that your reflections are enabled and correct. Now for your particular texture, I guess you can inspect it visually to check reflectivity. Make sure all video settings are on high in CSGO (low settings disable reflections by default), then wander near your texture and you should easily see that it is reflecting light. If in doubt create a small test map in CSS and use this particular texture then you can use mat_specular to toggle reflectivity and check the texture closely. Hope this helps

here is a sample vmt's to make things clearer (stock texture from office): LightmappedGeneric { "$basetexture" "plasteroffwllb" "$surfaceprop" "plaster" "$bumpmap" "plaster/offwllb_normal" "$envmap" "env_cubemap" "$envmapcontrast" "1" "$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" "1" } To test your normal maps in-game, open the console and type mat_normalmaps 1; all your textures with normal maps will turn to the blue normal map. If a certain diffuse texture that you are sure you made a normal map for it does not turn into the blue normal map then you know something is wrong either in the vtf or the vmt switches. To test spec maps in-game, open the console and type mat_specular 0 to temporarily turn off specularity and reflections (so you can check which textures are changing) These are boolean command so 0 to toggle off and 1 to toggle on.

As many fine folks have already mentioned, the biggest issue would be copyright infringement and intellectual property theft. The free workshop is loaded with such content and with money involved, I can see it increasing. Without being disrespectful or ungrateful to their brilliant work on the games side, Valve sadly has a poor track record in combating these issues and keeping things under control; they are slow in responding and rather reactive rather than proactive. Maybe the relatively small team size and flat management structure is making them overwhelmed; maybe this management style that worked so far for game development isn't very much suited for a huge financial institution that Valve has more or less become. They definitely need to have active moderation of the workshop with dedicated proactive admins/moderators that can deal with copyright on the spot and finalize any related support tickets from complaining original authors.

This looks really good; makes me wanna reinstall FC3 well done

normal maps are pretty straightforward in source. Once you prepare the normal map vtf, make sure to tick the "normal map" checkbox. The vmt declaration is very simple especially for a brush-based texture example vmt: "LightmappedGeneric" { "$basetexture" "folder_name/texture_name" "$surfaceprop" "rock" "$bumpmap" "folder_name/texture_name_n" } You can name your bumpmap anything but to keep things tidy, just add _n or_normal to the diffuse texture name.

I have published a major update to cs_calm today addressing the feedback received previously on mapcore, reddit, steam and gamebanana forums. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=405675581 The full changelog is here (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/changelog/405675581) Here is a fresh batch of screenshots: and here's the new layout with hostage zones spread like 2 bombsites

Your title is a bit wrong; I believe you meant VMT and VTF thread (not VMF) (VTF is the texture format while VMF is the map source file format) Your answers lie in the Valve Developer Community wiki https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$bumpmap https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$envmap https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$envmapmask https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$normalmap My advice to you is to open stock textures of Valve in VTFEdit and see what they ticked; for exmaple if you are creating a cobblestone texture with bumpmap then open up some cobble roads textures from de_cbble in CSS or CSGO and check the options and try to mimick them in yours (like anisotropic, no mipmap, clampS, clampT, normal map and so on) Hope this helps

As Latteh mentioned, the photoshop vtf plugin (also available for Gimp afaik) will make your life easier by working and saving directly in Photoshop without hassle. A 2nd fast way is to prepare all your work in Photoshop as TGA files then using VTFEdit (nifty free progam from the same creator of the PS plugin) you can batch import them into vtf with the added bonus that VTFEdit will create the corresponding vmt's for you (still have to edit here and there in the vmt for special switches but the bulk is done). I make my own custom textures for my maps so these 2 programs/plugins are indispensable when dealing with large amounts of vtf files

Lighting testing, tweaking and fine tuning in Source was, and still is, a real time-consuming bitch . Dynamic lighting preview in Hammer 2...or riots I have modified the castle lighting to light orange tint (subtle) to enhance colors in hallways and rooms and differentiate it from environmental lighting. here's a quick shot

Almost done with the update; still doing some overall fine tuning as well as re-tweaking of lighting and details. Quality assurance tests are also underway for bugs, optimization and gameplay smoothness. Should be ready to publish by the end of this week. And here's a shot of one of the new areas added:

I don't have the game but the screenshots look damn nice. Makes me wanna rewatch "the expendables"

Thanks These particular steps are 32x12 to slightly reduce the verticality of the stair and reduce the slope while keeping the same overall height; they're all tightly clipped Medieval architecture FTW

Haven't posted here in almost a month so I thought of updating with some progress; as always, free time and real life work are an issue so progress is a bit slow. Major rework and updates are going through as per the shortlist above in my last post. Layout is drastically reworked especially around T spawn and hostage zone and many new areas are added from scratch. The hostages areas are now evenly spread more like 2 bombsites. I'm working as quickly as possible within the available time and should hopefully have a new build by the end of the month; Once I publish the update, we'll have a playtest here on mapcore to check the new changes. And here's a WIP shot of a new area added (2nd hostage room)

Big thanks for Mirror's Edge Flavio, much appreciated

If mirror's edge (steam) is still available, I would like to have it please if that's not much of a hassle Thank you

I can't seem to find it on the windows store (windows phone 8.1). I searched for "ULTRAFLOW" and no results came out. Could it be a regional thing? (l'app est seulement disponible en France/Europe?) I don't think so, it should be something related to a dealy a approval so it can appear when you search it. We had the same thing on iOS and it was good the day after we launched. But this is the page if you want it. Finally, it appeared on the windows store The game is brilliant and addictive as hell; thought I'd play 1 or 2 levels, suddenly I'm at level 20 and still going Well done Franck, un travail de qualité

Hey, thanks for asking I compiled a list of things to do based on various feedback received from mapcore, gamebanana, steam and reddit forums. I have now a good idea of the things to be updated afterwards to make the map less T sided and more streamlined: - 2nd hostage room on the opposite side of T spawn with lower floor access - additional connector to current hostage room from Tsidelower - multiple entrances for hostage rooms on 2 levels - new connector from side hall (arched hallway) to new hostage room - reworking the main hall-long tunnel area to break the big line of sight - possibility of additional CT entrance in CT spawn - opening some skies for nades/flashes mainly between mid and T spawn - misc tweaks (lighting, clips, etc) I wish to thank everyone who provided feedback and constructive criticism, much appreciated. Maybe after the update, we could have a playtest here on mapcore if RZL's schedule is not too jammed

The map is now being played on the reddit CSGO server (community night) if anyone wants to join http://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/2zczm4/in_3_hours_eu_cs_calm_playtest_followed_by/ I have a good idea of the things to be updated afterwards (some clips here and there, 2nd hostage room, additional connector to curent hostage room, opening some skies for nades/flashes and more) I shall gather the feedback of this playnight along with previous feedbacks to include them in one large map update. Feel free to join the game and post any feedback you have here in this thread, all feedback is welcome. Thanks and enjoy.

Could easily work as an alternate backstory opening for "28 days later" or "the walking dead"