Author Topic: New Map: Zen (Read 6991 times)

DrRickDaglessMD · « **on:** August 31, 2007, 02:40:42 PM »

Hey all,

Right, Reed and I have put together a new map in the vein of Kung Fu with the intention of it being played in the europaint league. Predictably, it grew somewhat in detail and is now rather large in filesize.

It is based on an idea that Reed and I had when discussing thematic ideas for Kung Fu, with Zen being an emphasis on tranquility of a Japanese hot spring and ornamental garden. We have mixed the influences a little in this one too, so please forgive us any cultural misrepresentations that you might notice!

The map is intended 2 vs 2 but supports much more, up to 12 discreet spawns. It has 1 base flag worth 5 points and a centre white flag worth 1 point. Not all spawns give you your equipment immediately, those closest to exits require you to pick up your items after spawning.

Warning: This map is medium-sized in terms of play, however the level of detail throughout means the filesize is frankly huge and R_Speeds are not particularly favourable for those on lower end systems. While it might look pretty with it on, please turn off reflective water if you have anything less than a high-end system as it will ruin your FPS, not to mention the strange rendering issues we've seen when using it. Short of the r_speeds, the level of detail was an intentional decision by us as we wanted to produce a map with the sort of detail seen on other online games and still try and preserve the faster gameplay DP fans seem to prefer. The filesize of the BSP alone is 5.3mb. Roll on faster downloading implementation, huh?

Screenshots:

Birds Eye View:

Our pure natural hot spring:

Our world-class spa facilities:

The tranquil ornamental gardens:

A close up of the indoor waterfeature:

and my favourite screenshot of all:

Downloads:

here - Just the BSP file and Kungfu textures (1.9mb)
here - BSP and High-Res textures inc ctp (5.5mb)
here - BSP and Low-Res textures (for servers)(2.1mb)

Our aim for this first beta is for people to check it out and get the feel of the map, and most importantly see how playable it is for most users. It comes as little surprise that some people we have given the map to initially have had serious problems with FPS in some areas, which needs to be addressed. If any experienced mappers can help us with suggestions and things to do with how we can improve the VIS, etc... then they would be MOST welcome.

- Dr Rick Dagless M.D and Reed

FlaMe · « **Reply #1 on:** August 31, 2007, 02:43:45 PM »

I love you two.
No homo

Garrett · « **Reply #2 on:** August 31, 2007, 03:19:10 PM »

HOLY #%$&! Again, you two amazed me beyond comprehension... B--E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!

ViciouZ · « **Reply #3 on:** August 31, 2007, 03:22:09 PM »

iEATnoobs · « **Reply #4 on:** August 31, 2007, 03:53:39 PM »

NICE. The detail is amazing, but sometimes maps that look real nice don't mean they have good gameplay. Can't wait to try this one out.

nightryder · « **Reply #5 on:** August 31, 2007, 03:54:41 PM »

i think am missing textures

lekky · « **Reply #6 on:** August 31, 2007, 04:06:38 PM »

This map is beautiful, just gorgeous. Not sexy, thats too slu*ty a word, this is like a chinese porcelain doll you just want to touch, but not too hard incase you hurt it.

DrRickDaglessMD · « **Reply #7 on:** August 31, 2007, 04:12:28 PM »

Haha, make sure you get the version with the CTP textures included, if you dont already have the CTP1.

Yeah, we tried to make it play well and we have practiced a load of good speedy lines on it so we hope it plays smoothly. FPS is a big problem though, if people could post what FPS they tend to get it would help us out a lot. (if you dont know how to do this, press tilde to open the console and type 'cl_drawfps 1').

- Rick

p.s Lekky I <3 U.

FlaMe · « **Reply #8 on:** August 31, 2007, 04:12:54 PM »

waterfall ftl

nightryder · « **Reply #9 on:** August 31, 2007, 04:22:00 PM »

thx i fixed it..

how do make rocks like those...when ever i try i just get effed up squares

Magical-Tree · « **Reply #10 on:** August 31, 2007, 06:37:14 PM »

It just gets better and better.

Are you some kind of mapping god?

~MT

Reed · « **Reply #11 on:** August 31, 2007, 06:50:44 PM »

Half human (Dagless), half god (Reed), to be precise.

DrRickDaglessMD · « **Reply #12 on:** August 31, 2007, 06:54:19 PM »

WEYYYY.

well last time i checked, God aligned pretty much all of his own wood textures.

- Rick

iEATnoobs · « **Reply #13 on:** August 31, 2007, 08:04:09 PM »

Well ill inform you on my comp first... i have a nvidea 8800 GTS and core 2 duo. And around mid i hit 270-400 fps which were my lowest framerates without reflective water. The sad part was when I turned reflective water on and hit 90 fps... i was about to slit my wrists when i saw that number on dp... I never even hit 90 fps on counter strike source. Other than that i get an average of 500-600 Hope that helps.

Edit: found a spot where i hit 64 fps comming from that tunnel to mid.

KiLo · « **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2007, 08:16:14 PM »

When I am at mid I get around 80 and the rest of the time it goes anywhere from 170-220. This is all with reflective water too.

Dirty_Taco · « **Reply #15 on:** August 31, 2007, 08:20:14 PM »

Post removed

DrRickDaglessMD · « **Reply #16 on:** August 31, 2007, 08:34:14 PM »

yeah, we're thinking about how to solve the waterfall slowness problem. Any suggestions would be nice!

As for it being bottlenecky, we don't think that in 2 vs 2 play it can be effectively camped because a skilled team rushing dry in co-ordination will be harder to stop and not to mention the middle flag.

Reflective water will probably always be a no-no on this map, im afraid. We've got a couple ideas of how to alter the layout to get a more effective VIS going, but we're unsure of how this will affect the gameplay - we want it to be fast. If anyone has any thoughts, we'd love to hear them.

One of the worst places is when you are stood on the big rock on the dry route with the plant on it, and look at the opposite wall, to the left of the 'door' to mid, as it draws the base and the mid similtaneously. I imagine people's fps will be lowest there.

- Dagless

Gamabunta · « **Reply #17 on:** September 01, 2007, 02:56:09 AM »

I just checked this map out - lovely. I appreciate cliffs idea, altough it is hard for me to get there, because of my weak computer (for your information, I'm very happy when I have above 100 fps, at mid I have 30-45, and in water even less, making jumping really hard thing, especially waterfall-rocks-roof jump [which I yet haven't done]). I think I should let you know about some details I found on your map.

First one is dry way from mid to both bases - this wooden thing isn't long enough to stick to this rocky wall.
Second - also both bases, these barriers are not holding together, which seemed a little strange as I had passed them.
And last one I found - in red base this part of wall is kind of blue, in blue base it's normal, white/cream colour. (that's dry balcony in picture).

ViciouZ · « **Reply #18 on:** September 01, 2007, 05:31:11 AM »

If the 1st one touched the cliff, it would split it up, resulting in another 50 to the r_speeds or so (it is a big cliff), but the second one was an accident. Maybe if the first brush was detailed, there wouldn't be the telltale shadow?

DrRickDaglessMD · « **Reply #19 on:** September 01, 2007, 07:42:40 AM »

ahh thanks for the screenies, yeah viciouz is right - the wooden struts were meant to be 1 unit out from the wall, but that one we forgot to change it seems when we realigned that cliff wall! As for the bannister in the base, we did the 1 unit trick to try and cut down r_speeds, which is why they are slightly seperated. is it really noticable? I know it was a risk doing it on something so visible to the player up close. Viciouz - they ARE detailed!

As for the weird blue shadowy thing, I think its an artifact of having to raise the -chop on arghrad to 128 so to avoid the Max_Patches error, Im afraid theres not a lot I can do about it! Ill try and tweak things and see if it goes away.

- Dagless