HL2DM - dm_cows Beta Version 1

[The-Real-Game]

Hi.

This is my first hl2dm which I think is good enough to release.

It's a sort of rural / farm based map.

Screenshots :

More Screens :

http://www.therealgame.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/hl2dm/cows3.jpg

http://www.therealgame.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/hl2dm/cows4.jpg

Any criticism / ideas / whatever is appreciated.

Most of the architecture work is done now, there may be a couple of bugs, so if you spot any please tell me. I'm also aware that the skybox is bugged, it'll be fixed in beta 2 hopefully.

Download Link:

http://www.therealgame.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/hl2dm/dm_cows_b1.rar

Thanks for looking.

[xempest]

Needs more cows.

[jayrabbit]

OMG look at teh Godzilla-grass!

Did you use the grass for the 3d-skybox, or why are those sprites that huge?

[The-Real-Game]

OMG look at teh Godzilla-grass!

Did you use the grass for the 3d-skybox, or why are those sprites that huge?

Accidentaly used the wrong grass texture for the skybox :/

I've fixed that now though.

[jayrabbit]

Anyway the map looks nice.

But there's something wrong with the lighting. Were does that huge dark shadow behind the red barn comes from? Those silos are too small for such a big shadow. Maybe you should readjust the angle of the global light.

[DD]

I can see the edges of your skybox in one picture! It appears that you created your sky incorrectly. Judging from the picture you created giant bsp walls and placed the actual top/bottom/left/right/front/back textures on each side. If you did this what you need to do is instead:

1. Place a texture called "sky" on each face that will have those same textures.

2. For outdoor lighting use a light_enviroment.

3. In the map properties, set the name of your sky textures. If you look at the textures you used they should have a matching name... skyname_tp, skyname_bt, skyname_lt, etc. Hopefully that makes sense, just type that skyname into the map properties under the obvious key.. I think it's called skyname...

Also, I don't know of many farm/rural areas with barbwire lined fence. The industrial stuff in the background is kind iffy too.

[The-Real-Game]

I can see the edges of your skybox in one picture! It appears that you created your sky incorrectly. Judging from the picture you created giant bsp walls and placed the actual top/bottom/left/right/front/back textures on each side. If you did this what you need to do is instead:

1. Place a texture called "sky" on each face that will have those same textures.

2. For outdoor lighting use a light_enviroment.

3. In the map properties, set the name of your sky textures. If you look at the textures you used they should have a matching name... skyname_tp, skyname_bt, skyname_lt, etc. Hopefully that makes sense, just type that skyname into the map properties under the obvious key.. I think it's called skyname...

Also, I don't know of many farm/rural areas with barbwire lined fence. The industrial stuff in the background is kind iffy too.

I did create a proper 3d skybox, using the sky texture etc...

I don't understand why those lines still appear though.

[Tequila]

Try a 3d skybox, to push back the boundaries. Looks awfully cramped at the moment.

[Spydre]

needs more cow bell...

[ShaDoW]

Some things I noticed during playing;

• 
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]There is a purple / black checkerboard texture under one of the cars.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]Grass sprites coming through the wooden floor in the family house.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]Powerline cables hanging straight between the 2 large poles, rather than hanging / dangling a bit. Also, the cables stop quite abruptly.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]Some shadow bugs indoors due physics objects.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]Wheelbarrow in shed had a shader error. Place cubemaps to fix that.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]Sometimes repetitive placement of static objects. E.g in your kitchen you have 2 laundry machines next to eachother. Next to that you'd have the 2 sinks with conviently 2 well placed melons in them. A little bit further you'd have a fridge you would only see in large restaurant kitchens.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]Saw blades in shed. If you have playtested your map before, you would quickly find that these are seriously overpowered physics objects!
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]The map in its entire form is quite cramped. There is little space between all the buildings, and when there is, it's filled up with some kind of hill or pit.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]The top floor ceiling in the family house is bugged. When I came upstairs I could see a clipping error between the ceiling hole model and the brush ceiling itself, after that, the whole ceiling went black on me.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]You have some mighty gigantic, bit scary looking, grass in the 3D skybox.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]Speaking of which, the 3D skybox is fairly small. You could easily give the map a much more outdoor / open feeling if you would extend it.
  
  [*:3n6aqfea]There are some weird shadows on the outdoor terrain. They don't seem to be coming from the buildings though.

That's all for now. I hope I've been able to sum up one or two things that could help you. The map seems pretty fun actually. It kind of reminds me of being this dumbass farmer, spawning next to your bed and yellin' "Wake up Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermott, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Kendal, Katlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kira, Ian, Lauren, Q-bert, Phil ... Hey, Ma! Get off the danged roof!"

Good times.

[Thrik]

I did create a proper 3d skybox, using the sky texture etc...

I don't understand why those lines still appear though.

Can you take a screenshot from the same angle as your first shot in Hammer please?

[The-Real-Game]

Thanks for all your great feedback so far.

Errors I've fixed are:

- Lines in the skybox.

- Missing texture under the cars.

- Grass sprites in the skybox

- Wheelbarrow shader

- Ceiling of the house.

- The huge shadow by the farmhouse.

- Couple of smaller errors

Improvements:

- Covered up all the visible displacement map seams.

- Tripled the amount of terrain in the 3d skybox.

- Changed some of the props and amount of them in the kitchen

- Added ceiling supports and reduced the room size in the farmhouse.

- Added slightly more detail to the farmhouse.

- Some more trees.

- Working gas canisters.

Here's some screens:

http://www.therealgame.pwp.blueyonder.c ... cows22.jpg

http://www.therealgame.pwp.blueyonder.c ... cows21.jpg

Once again thanks for the feedback.

If there's anymore bugs you've spotted or anything else you'd like to see in the map please tell me.

[ShaDoW]

If you have a map based on the outdoors, and you have the resources to spare. I wouldn't be afraid to increase the power of your displacement maps, making them much more detailed and smoother.

[bobjones]

i think you need to change the scale of the grass texture in your 3d-skybox

looks pretty big compared to the grass in the play area