Author Topic: New Map = Field  (Read 3559 times)

Smokey

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New Map = Field
« on: February 21, 2006, 04:07:25 PM »
K i dont plan on releasing this.. i just want to know what to improve on



download it here - http://multiterra.mooload.com/file.php?file=files/210206/1140561168/field_beta.bsp


ill post some screens in a few.
no flaming.. just feedback,






jitspoe

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2006, 07:22:01 PM »
Just going by the screenshots:

- It looks like the map wasn't vised.  There's no reflected light (that or my monitor here is just too dark - but some areas look pitch black, like the bunker in the first shot).  Maps MUST be vised before being released, even as beta.
- The light texture is misaligned in the second shot.  Also, the side of the light has light textures on it, too, which looks bad.  Typically what I do is create a brush with the metal texture aligned on the 32x32 grid, then apply the light texture to just the bottom face.  It will already be aligned since I used the grid.  Press alt-l to lock it, and move it wherever needed.
- The barrels aren't phong shaded.  If you grab the latest BSP pack, they should be automatically.  This helps them look less blocky.
- The map itself is very blocky/square.  If you're using rock textures for walls, the walls should look like rocks.  Clipping planes are your friend here.  You can whip up some convincing rock surfaces pretty quickly by adding some brushes and slicing chunks off of them.  For large areas, it's probably better to make the map less square, too.  Even some slight variation can make a big difference in the visual appearance.
- Bunkers are unrealistically big and thick.  Pretty much every paintball2 map suffers from this.  Try to give your map realistic proportions and believable environments.  Would you see 10-foot tall bunker made out of a 3ft thick solid block of wood with a hole cut out of the middle on a real paintball field?  Probably not.  It would be made out of some cheap plywood and 2x4's or something.
- The lighting is rather random and unsourced.  There are just splotches of light scattered around the map coming from some mysterious, unseen location.

Smokey

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2006, 08:56:45 PM »
eh... see i used worldcraft :/

i did however use bsp for flags and bases... confusing


I know it sounds new, whats phong shading and vis?

jitspoe

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2006, 09:23:41 PM »
Phong shading: http://dpball.com/forums/index.php?topic=1217.0

If you set the "value" on a surface, without setting the "light" flag, all surfaces of the same value will shade together, so the lighting looks smooth -- like curved surfaces -- rather than blocky.

As for vis, it's a compile stage that determines what's visible from where, so you aren't rendering parts of the map you can't even see.  The map has to be completely sealed in order for this to work.  If there are any leaks, it won't work.  You can do a leak check in BSP by going to | File | Leak Check | Load .pts |.  It will draw a line from the nearest entity to the leak in the map.

Smokey

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2006, 10:38:01 PM »
yea i did a leak check halfway into the map. Im waiting on DT to expand the tutorial.


i dunno... bsp just  is hard to manuver and make objects.. took me a hour to do 1 flag

jitspoe

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2006, 01:13:07 PM »
Hit "E", select "flag" click "make entity".  It shouldn't take that long. :)  Sure, it's got a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's much more powerful that WC is.

Smokey

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2006, 02:02:12 PM »
yaeh.. iv noticed that. I think i have improved the map alot. a few more things to do!


also, i cant find the .pil file for leak check!

Smokey

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #7 on: February 22, 2006, 04:21:17 PM »

nXe

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2006, 06:54:54 PM »
Quote
Sure, it's got a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's much more powerful that WC is.

I highly agree with that statement.

Smokey

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2006, 07:53:39 PM »
i can tell. i try to fiddle with it :)

jitspoe

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #10 on: February 23, 2006, 11:14:54 PM »
I took a look at the map.  Here are some of the main issues with it:

- The overall layout is a giant box.  We already have 300+ maps like that.
- One whole wall is set as a ladder.
- The smaller crate textures are misaligned.  When you use smaller crate sizes, you need to scale the textures and align them to fit.
- Did you phong shade the crates on the blue side?  They look all funky.
- The lighting looks blocky.  Did you run "final compile"?
- It's a box.
- You have a centerflag in regular ctf mode.  Is this intentional?
- Only one path to the center flag.
- It's a box.
- The ledge up to the center flag looks very unrealistic.  It's made out of rock, but it's a perfectly clean-cut angle.  Also, it doesn't line up right with the rock sitting on top of the crate, both the texture and the brush itself are misaligned.  Textures like rocks should have the texture alignment left alone so they always line up, though worldcraft locks texture alignment by default, I think, so as soon as you move a brush, you've screwed up your alignment and you can see a nice seam where your wall textures don't line up properly.  Also, it makes no sense to have a rock wall sitting on top of a box, does it?
- As mentioned before, the lights need sources, and the lights that do have sources are misaligned.
- It's a box.

Smokey

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2006, 11:34:08 PM »
yeah.. i really know the layout sucks.. for that reason i dont find it really worth making "perfect"

Shreds

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #12 on: February 24, 2006, 07:20:54 AM »
yeah.. i really know the layout sucks.. for that reason i dont find it really worth making "perfect"


Jit isnt asking to make it perfect! Those are the minimal things EVERY mapper should do and be aware of.
Mapping takes time, lots of time. And early on, I would encourage experimenting with different things, such as resizing and rotating of textures to make them fire properly, understanding how water works with flow on angles, entities and spawn facings (too many maps have people facing wrong way at start. its in the entity properties to reface them). etc...
Also, experiement with lighting. Make some small test maps to compile and see how different lighting works. Good  light placement, avoiding big areas of too dark shadows, and overall other lighting tricks you learn as you go.


Remember, jit told you the MINIMUM of things that NEED to be done.

Smokey

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #13 on: February 24, 2006, 01:22:13 PM »
cant rotate , move textures... just dunno how. lighting is a pain.. i like the dark parts, yes 1 flag supposed to.. make it so you dont just sit and spray , i cant even make them spawn with the right guns... and i tried to make them facing right way.. not working

jitspoe

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #14 on: February 24, 2006, 02:02:35 PM »
In BSP, just hit the angle buttons to change the way an entity faces.  It will show an arrow on the entity indicating which way it's facing..  Hit "S" to bring up the surface window and adjust the surface properties, such as texture scale and rotation.  R is the rotation, SX and SY are the scales, TX and TY are the texture coordinates.

Termin8oR

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Re: New Map = Field
« Reply #15 on: February 25, 2006, 06:28:07 PM »
looks to big and not enough stuff in the field