CoraBlue

Sort of new to posting here so tell me if I'm posting too often, but I decided to actually finish this map (I suppose after the graybox is completely done I should make my own thread?). Some new models that I'm mulling over before I UV and texture. Making use of Cobblestone assets where it makes sense to cut down on work and filesize.

Yeah your environment light looks like it has the default value of 20 brightness for ambient (whose idea was that anyway, like having fog enable set to off on fog). You may know already, but I find a brightness of around 260-300 and an ambient of 160-180 does a pretty good job of faking GI. Though I'm not sure which version of the engine you're using. If you have access to HDR you might need to play with it to keep your dark areas dark.

@BreadParticles Great polish. It looks fantasic. Wow there are a lot of places to hide though. I'd be paranoid as hell playing on that map. Feels dangerous but that's not a bad thing.

Thanks for the encouragement. I might do that. In response to the critique I raised the ceiling and tweaked the environment light to give it a more open feel. This particular bombsite is just about roughed out so I might switch to the other one soon.

I'm feeling completely aimless lately, so maybe throwing some stuff up here will give me a tiny bit of direction. I was feeling like I wanted to do something organic and green at the beginning of the month, especially since I'm dirt at modelling trees and Nuke gave me some decent ones. Pumped out this. It was actually way more difficult than I anticipated, so while it ended up looking really nice, I decided against a full map since I hadn't really blocked it out properly to begin with and wanted something screenshotable right away. I started playing Dark Souls 3 and really got pulled into a gothic architecture kick. It was when the cathedral was ready for an initial art pass that I realized that an average PC was going to choke on all the stonework and filigree I was going to need to make this look authentic. People complain about Cache. There was no way I was going to achieve ANY kind of poly budget on this. So I thought about taking it underground. I kinda like it, might actually finish this since it's blocked out. I want to grab some reference images and try to go for Catacombs of Paris perhaps.

Another update. I did decide to check out VTFEdit for textures, and it does a pretty neat job. It even allows you to generate normal maps (though I prefer to use highpoly bakes or NVidia's PS filter when I can. So I've imported a few small detail type textures to help me get a feel for the aesthetic. The wall is a SDK texture and doesn't look modern enough for me, but overall things are coming together. Sure thing Shawn. I hope you don't mind my candor about your tools, but they are great! I wasn't even aware you were here or I would have added some feedback. 1) Importing level geometry from a VMF in your tools is currently frustrating. There are a couple reasons why. One is this. This happens pretty much consistently. Some level geometry is destroyed or garbage meshes are floating around unless the map is extremely simple (though I will say I do love entity representation and the scope of your tools). The second thing is that it doesn't handle tool textures very well. I want to be able to choose to ignore very specific things like trigger, clip, and nodraw. And nodraw is tricky because in almost all cases, nodraw is going to be on at least one face of every brush in the map. So it needs to be able to delete on the polygon level. If you need a better idea of what I mean I suggest using VMF to SMD. I'd use your tools if I had the best of both worlds. 2) Wall Worm Model Tools 2.52, 3DS Max Design 2013. At first I didn't know what was happening. Now it appears that after using the export QC + Model button, Max tries to cope with it but crashes about 75% of the time. If it doesn't crash, somehow the translation tools stop working and I have to reboot anyway. It also appears that after turning Editable Polys into Wall Worm Models that they become uneditable. I'm not sure if that's intentional or not.

Thanks for everyone's replies so far. Today was a trial run using some of the tools and techniques suggested, and I thought I would share what I learned. 1) VMF to SMD is a great tool. I used that. Wall Worm VMF Importer is horrible, because it can't ignore nodraw on single faces. 2) Unfortunately VMF to SMD tris the map mesh, so to fix that I welded verts and quadrified it (I didn't see an option to do this in the tool itself). That got me my level, which thankfully is still aligned in worldspace properly. Can't tell you how much it would have sucked if it didn't. So then I got to start modelling over top. I did two test meshes. A window and a feudal-era roof. Here it is in Max. 3) I used Wall Worm model export tools, which seemed to do an okay job for the most part. These tools crash Max a LOT. And you have to make sure your origins are aligned properly or you're going to have a major headache (I did)! Textures later, but this is the result of a couple hours of work. Most of it was learning interfaces and dealing with crashes and compiling. I can speed up this workflow. Still interested in hearing about alternatives!

Hey thanks! I was under the impression the VDC was still woefully outdated (to some extent it is I suppose) but there are some links to some really hand tools here. Thanks a bunch. Getting the map into a 3D tool in the correct scale is really the first and most important step, and I think VMF to SMD may be the route to go there. I'll play with it. Thank you as well. The first two shots are very old work, but I'll have a chance to show what I can really do soon enough! And yeah, I can't wait for Source2. I've been able to import models WITH textures (via FBX) in UE for so long now that Source is so painful. But I have such passion for CSGO I really want to get passed the current authoring drawbacks.

New member, so I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Cora, and I've been working with Hammer since Worldcraft. I used to be much more active in the community and for a while I even tried to break into the professional scene. I went to college for Game Art and Design and got what I thought was my very first freelance job with CEVO way back at the very beginning of Source. I was incredibly green, but I felt good about it. Interacting with the community itself on map layouts and art design was a ton of fun. The experience left an incredibly sour taste in my mouth at conclusion though. CEVO never paid me, even though they did use the map as an exclusive in season rotation. All contact with me was shut down, and I faded into the shadows. I've mapped for myself in the meantime and still had a lot of fun with it whenever I get the urge to just open SDK. I gotta be honest, I want to come back for real. I miss community. I miss feedback. And its really high time I let my single bad experience stop me from doing something I love. I am SO out of the loop when it comes to content pipelines in Source, though. I have evolved a bit, but my modelling talents are really useless in a tool as unintuitive as Source is right now. I'm making things out of brushwork that really should not be brushes. My latest map is blocked out and ready for a initial art pass, but I wanted some advice before I overdo it, so to speak. I know of Cannonfodder. I know of Nem's Tools. I know of Wallworm. But knowing about these things doesn't really equal experience. Can I get some help? Which of these tools works best? What is your workflow like? Is there a tool that will automatically center origins and things of that nature so each piece doesn't need to be made blind? I just need to know where to start. The more streamlined, the better. Any help is appreciated, and sorry if this ground has been covered. I did use the search bar and a few different terms, but nothing came up initially.