Modularity

[BlisTer]

It has been a while since my last visit here. In the meantime i made this map (room actually). It got 2nd place in the snarkpit 2006 contest.

download

You can think of it as a futuristic flagroom or something. Sadly i can't expand it into a full map atm, because of a nasty FinalLightFace crash when i try to add (even simple) things..

comments are always welcome

[Squirrelly]

Repetitive textures but I like the style... it's very original.

[dissonance]

vaguely reminds me of THX 1138, but with more... detail.

unique, indeed.

[Hourences]

Original concept and looks, lighting could be better sourced though.

I also think that a concept like this would do great with some cool shaders and materials

[KIIIA]

Hmm, in my opinion you missed a lot of chances on details and lighting.

On pic one for example you could make the scene a lot more interesting by adding a projector or HL2 equivalent to make some funky round light spots on the floor (maybe even some rotating fan shadows).

BEhind all the quads that are the walls i would put a plane with a moving blue energy lasertexpan.

I would replace the orange skybox (i think it is one, right?) with a beautyfull space art skybox with rotating colourfull planets etc.

Pic 2 really lacks a funky JumpPad with upwards moving energyshizzle.

[von*ferret]

spotlight worthy. Keep the spotlights rolling so that we can constantly get refreshing ideas.

This reminds me of the geo mods in q3. Purely architecture and design.

[Minos]

Very original I must say

[hamst3r]

I really like the look and originality of it, but as the others have said the lighting is a little bland. Good job none the less.

[Dennispls]

I like how people avoid negativity by saying its "orginal"

I think the whole setup is nice but the texturework could use a lot of work.

For example the metal walls have so many scratches and very inconsistent ones as well that it looks weird.

Especially in places where people and things do not brush up to the metal so that doesnt make sense.

The rest looks nice:)

[Pericolos0]

it would look alot better if you took those screenshots with better texture filtering . I really like how it looks, great things can be done with floating panel setups like this...

[KungFuSquirrel]

I think the first shot looks really good and I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that was the first piece you built? Very creative style; it looks like it'd be well-adapted to Portal in the future

Comparatively, I don't think the tiny squares motif holds up in the rest of the room. The ceiling and big inset piece (right side of shot 2) end up looking too uniformly built. I think you hit your sweet spot on the longer strips in the bottom left of shot 2, and I almost dare say the first shot would have worked better with 4 strips instead of 12 squares each.

Obviously this is finished, so you won't really be revisiting this map, but if you do give another shot at the style (I'd say models are your answer assuming that's all brushwork), I'd put more emphasis on more varied sizes, maybe losing almost all of the squares in favor of staggered strips of varying sizes and angles.

[RD]

It looks so weird, i dont even know what engine this is

[BlisTer]

HL2

Thx for some great feedback. i would love to improve on some things and expand it into a full map, but as i said, the FinalLightFace problem won't let me. I'll have to wait for a working solution for that before i can improve Modularity (I know e.g. CampaignJunkie had the same error at one time).

Original concept and looks, lighting could be better sourced though.

I also think that a concept like this would do great with some cool shaders and materials

If i could (see above), i'd tilt those big lights in the first shot so that sourcing is better. About the shaders, i was actually thinking about implementing my gold-liquid-refract material, visible here and here , behind the panels. i'll see whenever i get the map working again.

... (maybe even some rotating fan shadows).

BEhind all the quads that are the walls i would put a plane with a moving blue energy lasertexpan.

I would replace the orange skybox (i think it is one, right?) with a beautyfull space art skybox with rotating colourfull planets etc.

Pic 2 really lacks a funky JumpPad with upwards moving energyshizzle.

Rotating fan shadow could work out nice indeed. not sure about the blue laser beam though. There is no skybox. A space skybox could work out nice but would have to depend on the style of an eventual mod. jumppad too.

lighting is a little bland

i tried to move away from hard shadows like in my previous maps. i agree that lighting is maybe too bland on the lower floor though, which is something i would definately work on if the FinalLightFace error is solved

it would look alot better if you took those screenshots with better texture filtering

yeah, i had to make them with jpeg quality 90 for ppl on 56k. Best to have a quick download if you'd like to see it in more detail, the normalmaps and reflections work out nice ingame:)

I think the first shot looks really good and I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that was the first piece you built? Very creative style; it looks like it'd be well-adapted to Portal in the future

Comparatively, I don't think the tiny squares motif holds up in the rest of the room. The ceiling and big inset piece (right side of shot 2) end up looking too uniformly built. I think you hit your sweet spot on the longer strips in the bottom left of shot 2, and I almost dare say the first shot would have worked better with 4 strips instead of 12 squares each.

Obviously this is finished, so you won't really be revisiting this map, but if you do give another shot at the style (I'd say models are your answer assuming that's all brushwork), I'd put more emphasis on more varied sizes, maybe losing almost all of the squares in favor of staggered strips of varying sizes and angles.

you're right with your guess About replacing the square panels with rectangular ones: that's certainly something i could try. If not on the walls then maybe on that ceiling. I'm just worried about people screaming "repetitive textures!" (like Squirrelly here;) ) when there are only rectangular ones. Other shapes are difficult imo, e.g. when you want to rotate skewed panels they don't "fit" anymore. varying sizes would still be repetitive imo. Still, some nice suggestions in there. Of course, i can only implement them if i solve this FinalLightFace error :/

[Polaris]

I dig it. The style would work well in Portal, mind if I steal it?

I especially like that floor texture in the first shot.

[MJ]

loookks... interesting