Neon: Final Release

[jitspoe]

Uploaded to the beta server. I still think the map is too dark.  Make sure you're testing it with the stock brightness settings (temporarily rename your config.cfg if you're unsure).  This area in particular, I find to be a bit straining (1st shot).  On a side note, the textures on that angled bit look misaligned (in the area behind the shot as well).

2nd shot is just about completely black.

3rd shot looks like a messed up brush.  Also, the texture on some of those ladders needs to be rotated 90 degrees (though it's kind of minor - I doubt most people would look close enough to see).

In all honesty, I'd just compile the whole thing with -scale 2 on the lighting, then make the lighting in the middle darker.

[BASEBALLDUDE]

What does -scale 2 do, and where do you enter it?

[jitspoe]

So looking at these screenshots at work, I came to the realization that the near-black areas could be seen just fine on this crappy, uncalibrated monitor.

I'll have to check when I get home to see if my monitor is properly calibrated, but I feel it's probably closer than this one.  I've adjusted the screenshots to look like what they looked like on my monitor on this one.

In the first screenshot, it's almost impossible to tell where the metal ends and the sky starts.

In the second screenshot, the metal wall looked almost completely black, and you couldn't easily tell where the wall ended and the floor and ceiling started.

You should attempt to calibrate your monitor and/or game to match sRGB as closely as possible.  That's what Paintball2 is designed for.  Also keep in mind that some people will have monitors that are darker than sRGB, so you might want to try cranking down your gamma and playing the map.

As for the -scale parameter, that goes in the lighting process.  The easiest way to do this would be to find the .bat file you're using to compile (probably one of the final compile ones), make a copy of it, then on the rad line, (where it has -extra -chop, etc.), add -scale 2.  Then compile your map using the copy batch file.

[BASEBALLDUDE]

Yeah your screenshots look a lot different than my computer.

[jitspoe]

In this post (the one at the top of page 7), how difficult is it for you to see the difference between the wall and the ceiling on the left side?

[BASEBALLDUDE]

In this post (the one at the top of page 7), how difficult is it for you to see the difference between the wall and the ceiling on the left side?

It's not too difficult.

Jitspoe: You need to update your baseballdude/hr4/neonblue.jpg to the current file. The entire blue side looks so much better.

Edit: The neonblue file is bad so I will give a new download link.

[jitspoe]

Just out of curiosity, what are these textures supposed to emulate?  They seem awfully large for the amount of detail they have, and what are the bumps supposed to be?  When they emit light and are fully bright, you can't really see any of the detail, anyway, so why not just have a solid-color 8x8 texture.  It'll use a lot less memory.

[BASEBALLDUDE]

They are not bumps; merely, they are slight changes in color so that the texture is overall less boring. If you're talking about the small circular rivets, those are supposed to represent tiny bubbles of air in the neon tube.

As for the large and hr4 tendencies of the neon textures, that just because if you have anything more detailed than solid, monochromatic textures, HD is always better:)

And why not save memory by using 8 by 8 solid colors? Because I thought I just heard you say that texture memory doesn't make a huge difference in terms of lagginess.

[jitspoe]

It depends on your video card.  On my laptop with a crapy integrated video card, the highres textures cause it to lag terribly, because it doesn't have enough memory.  I was referring more to the file sizes and just the fact that you can't really see those details when the surface is lit.  It just looks solid blue with a few weird marks.

Also, I think the purple texture needed more adjusting than the blue one, as it is a different color from the default team color textures.

[BASEBALLDUDE]

It depends on your video card.  On my laptop with a crapy integrated video card, the highres textures cause it to lag terribly, because it doesn't have enough memory.  I was referring more to the file sizes and just the fact that you can't really see those details when the surface is lit.  It just looks solid blue with a few weird marks.

Also, I think the purple texture needed more adjusting than the blue one, as it is a different color from the default team color textures.

It's weird like that, the rest of the purple textures tend to be much closer to blue than to red. I don't think the texture itself needs to be changed; as long as the wal file has the correct hue, it will show up correctly in-game.

I've been busy lately but I'll try to get beta 12 up soon with the scale 2 set, the neon purple fixed, the chainlink problem fixed, and the neonmag wal texture fixed.

[BASEBALLDUDE]

Neon Beta 12 is now here!

There have been a few minor changes. The map is now brighter overall, there is a chainlink fence behind the waterfall, a bug was fixed, and the barrel textures are all aligned.

I also changed the message: "The NEON Maze (c)2013 BASEBALLDUDE". I think the "maze" idea will help newbies to understand that it is indeed pretty challenging to navigate. Plus, I think "A relatively new PB2 map" is pretty boring. Let me know what you think!

As of now there are zero problems that I know need to be fixed, so if the only feedback I receive is positive, this is going final!

This is part of my combo release that also includes new york, beta 3. Feel fee to give me feedback on both maps, I'd really appreciate it!

Also, everyone needs to download two "fixed" textures and the recent "strobe" texture. This is especially important if you're planning on putting Neon on your server because remember what I said, servers with bad textures are bulls hit.

Here is the download link. Make sure you "copy and replace" hr4/metal_02.jpg and hr4/neonblue.jpg.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByutPv2Z36izcWstcmotWWx2aHM/edit?usp=sharing

[jitspoe]

I've uploaded it to the beta server.  Good job.  The lighting is much easier on the eyes.  Only things I see now are some minor texture alignment issues:

- Textures on some of the ladders should be rotated.
- Some of the crate and barrel textures don't line up quite right.

There were a couple other little ones.  I'll try to put together a demo when I have some more time, but I may not be able to before I go out of town.  Also, I'd like to play test it again to give some better feedback.

[BASEBALLDUDE]

I'll test it on the beta server when I have the time but I think this is pretty much ready for final.

[Ace]

Played a small 3v3 lan game. Biggest issue I see is that I can consistently go from flag to flag in <10sec with the ice jump from the base, and then using the enemy ice jumps to get to enemy flag. It wouldn't be an issue if any other path didn't take 20+ seconds. I could cap on people before they even made it to my flag, which seems kinda questionable for a map of this size.

On a positive, it's completely different than most other maps being played right now. I think the pubs would love it. Matching would probably be impossible, there's just too many small passages and options. Overall, one of the more creative maps made in a while. Good luck with the final.

[BASEBALLDUDE]

Played a small 3v3 lan game. Biggest issue I see is that I can consistently go from flag to flag in <10sec with the ice jump from the base, and then using the enemy ice jumps to get to enemy flag. It wouldn't be an issue if any other path didn't take 20+ seconds. I could cap on people before they even made it to my flag, which seems kinda questionable for a map of this size.

On a positive, it's completely different than most other maps being played right now. I think the pubs would love it. Matching would probably be impossible, there's just too many small passages and options. Overall, one of the more creative maps made in a while. Good luck with the final.

Could you please give me a demo of ice jumping from flag to flag in under 10 seconds? I'd like to know so I can somehow alter that path.

I designed this map and New York primarily for the pubs.

[Ace]

Could you please give me a demo of ice jumping from flag to flag in under 10 seconds? I'd like to know so I can somehow alter that path.

I designed this map and New York primarily for the pubs.

Sure, I'll do it later tonight.

Edit: Well, didn't get a clean run on either of the two fast options. But here's two of different really fast methods. One uses the ice. The other uses the ramps. I think one of them was about 11 seconds.

[BASEBALLDUDE]

Thanks Ace! Fortunately most people on the pubs don't have those kinds of jumping skills, so this likely will not be too much of a problem.

[jitspoe]

Thanks Ace! Fortunately most people on the pubs don't have those kinds of jumping skills, so this likely will not be too much of a problem.

Shouldn't that be even more of an incentive to fix it, though?  If most people can't do it, that means when one player that can do those jumps gets on, he'll completely "break" the game and make it not fun for everybody else.

[Ace]

Shouldn't that be even more of an incentive to fix it, though?  If most people can't do it, that means when one player that can do those jumps gets on, he'll completely "break" the game and make it not fun for everybody else.

My though process as well. Could add a few small walls to just break up some of the extremely fast routes.

[jitspoe]

Attached a demo with some more suggestions.  Just minor things.

After watching Ace's demo, I don't think those paths are as bad as I imagined them being.  I can take other routes that are within a couple seconds of those, so it doesn't seem super unbalanced.