Mapping Time

[y00tz]

It takes me a long time to produce maps, as a matter of fact, I've never technically released one.  I spend weeks working on detailed concepts, and make several test-maps to see if it plays well, than I spend time creating customs textures or models, and finally I work on the detail, of all my maps, which I've been working on for months now, most are in the detail phase.

What about you guys?  How long does it take to do your process?

-y00tz

[Spook]

I lose interest over time, so i would say 3 months to a year for me to actually finish something.

[DrRickDaglessMD]

it took me and reed a week to make KungFu_b1, and about 2 weeks to make Zen_b1. Zen is taking some polishing, so its taken us a while. From sketching out the layouts and ideas on paper to making a proof of concept is about 2 days, then refining and redesign about another 2/3 days, detail probably another day or two (which is really more about polish than populating the maps), other refinements a day or two. Thats with 2 of us working on it similtanously though, swapping maps and concepts between us all the time.

- Dagless

[y00tz]

How many hours/day do you work?

[Apocalypse]

1-3 months if I actually work on it although if I lose interest it and/or I'm too busy and don't have much time it can take up to a year.

[Eiii]

1-4 weeks. In my opinion, mapping is kind of hit-and-miss. You can put tons of time and work into a really good looking map, release it, and have no one play it. On the other hand, the more designs you pump out, the higher chance you have of one being played.

That's not to say that you shouldn't put work into them, I just think that fast mapping is the way to go.

[lekky]

If every mapper took as long as y00tz, we'd all be stuck in oddjob right now

[DrRickDaglessMD]

if me and reed have time, a couple hours a day, or so.

I don't mind spending time on making a detailed map, we can usually do it fast and without particularly large amounts of effort. I don't think you should make loads of quick maps in the hope some get played - its practically impossible to force maps into the public eye and have it played on servers so I would prefer to let your well honed map stand for itself and if it gets played then great, if not - what can you do? newer players will always favour simple, fast and easy to understand maps that dont take forever to download (a problem hopefully to be commuted by the high-speed downloading feature in the next release) simply because a) they don't value more skilled aspects of the game yet and b) its a darn sight more convenient to do that in order to get some quick fun out of the game.

I'd simply prefer to make a map that I was proud of and acheive something approximating the original concept and vision than make a simple and not very fulfilling map that gets played to death by people who don't really appreciate the finer points of the game (in my opinion). Having said that, this only stands if the timescales we are talking about are reasonable! I'd never work on a map that took even close to a year to complete.

[/essay]

- Dagless

[y00tz]

if me and reed have time, a couple hours a day, or so.

[sk89q]

I never release real maps, since I only spend a few hours or a few days on a map. I don't have enough time to work on all the small details on the map, so I stick to custom DMs for my website's Paintball players. Also, I have to take lighting rendering into consideration when I make maps.

[Eiii]

I offer my computer as a compiling service if anyone wants to use it.

[y00tz]

I offer my computer as a compiling service if anyone wants to use it.

Hmm interesting, I have some fast machine around here, maybe sk89q could rig up a service that lets users upload .maps, compile on our machines, then return as .bsps via email or link, or something.

[Eiii]

I think someone tried to do that, but sk89q could definitely do that. I'd be glad to donate my machine when it's on. :3

[sk89q]

Well, the lighting rendering is so I can test it, so it's not a matter of CPU but time.

As for y00tz's idea, it's very doable. Even more doable than ViciouZ's demo converter, since that thing's a little hacky =/. By the way, GGC offered to host the demo converter, that is, until they learned that you needed a graphics card. Think they'll offer it for this too?

[y00tz]

Haha, couldn't hurt to ask.  It could help anyone who just wants compile a map while still playing or whatever..

[FourthX]

Maps I equate to pizza...

You can have it cooked or you can have it now, but you can't have it cooked now.

I like to take my time and occasionally I will delete hours of work if I'm not happy with it so maps take a while. Occasionally if my vision is clear I can make a map rather fast, roundup was like this. It took 2 saturdays and then a few days of tweaking to finish because I had a clear idea of what i was doing before I started.

FtX

[ViciouZ]

1-3 months if I actually work on it although if I lose interest it and/or I'm too busy and don't have much time it can take up to a year.

How do you know it takes up to a year?

Date Registered:     March 29, 2007, 09:31:31 PM



BTW, GGC will probably host it if there are compatable compilers native to linux. qbsp3 and qvis yes, but you'll probably have to use standard qrad for lighting as opposed to arghrad.

[blaa]

So, did I get thsi right - I upload .map and I get fully compiled .bsp ? GREAT, having comp up for ~10hours is not good for electrical bill and makes too much noise :p

[sk89q]

You've got that right. Eiii and I are working on it, time providing.

[ViciouZ]

Are you basing it on the dp2demo2aviweb code? That should take a while off the wait.