Artpass_Equinoxo

Equinoxo

L2: Junior Member
Feb 1, 2009
79
51
After taking a week to consider the imaginative, new and totally original theme, I finally came up with one that is not any of those things.

Instead, I came came to a conclusion that what TF2 needed was a map in a quiet, idyllic countryside setting. With green grass, bright sunshine, deciduous trees and gently rolling hills.

And a giant base carved into one of those gently rolling hills.

So here is my entry, just that.

Ignore the poor texturing and terrible displacements for now, they are but placeholders while I spend some time figuring out how to restructure the existing and surprisingly disorganised geometry.

I'll be creating a number of models and textures for this, so if anybody sees anything they like let me know and I'll share generously.
 
Last edited:

Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
5,813
Looking good. The monotonous brink in the first picture is a bit :|, and the whole map could use some pretty grass/tree props to break up the boringness, but other than that it's looking good!
 

Equinoxo

L2: Junior Member
Feb 1, 2009
79
51
This is very true, the majority of the textures right now are placeholders to help me define what will be terrain and what will be a structure.

Hang in there, variety will come soon enough :)
 

Jetti

L5: Dapper Member
May 2, 2010
226
111
I'm really liking the waterwheel. Does it have motion?
I quite like your entry. It is unique... Unique to Tf2 I mean. It looks good.
 

Equinoxo

L2: Junior Member
Feb 1, 2009
79
51
Thanks :)
My skills lie more in modelling and texturing rather than mapping, so I decided to make a map with plenty of custom content potential.

The water wheel does not currently have any motion, but it will eventually rotate.
I've haven't attempted to create animated models for Source yet, but when I have a spare half hour I'll sit down and work out the Maya>Source pipeline. Static meshes are easy enough, but I need to find a suitable format to bring the model into Mod Tool.

I guess I could animate in Mod Tool itself, but I don't entirely fancy learning another software package right now...
 

Draco18s

L9: Fashionable Member
Sep 19, 2009
622
136
I guess I could animate in Mod Tool itself, but I don't entirely fancy learning another software package right now...

I know how that is. I won't be making any custom models because 1) I suck at it and 2) I refuse to deal with XSI.
 

Equinoxo

L2: Junior Member
Feb 1, 2009
79
51
Right. I'm trying to create a static prop with an animated water texture on it, but I'm failing to get the texture to animate or scale down.

Any ideas where I'm going wrong here?

Code:
"VertexlitGeneric"
{

	"$basetexture" "models/props_equinoxo/eq_ocean_skybox"	

	"$bumpmap" "water/tfwater001_normal"
	"$bumpframe" "0"
	"$translucent" "1"
	"$envmap" "env_cubemap"
	"$envmaptint" "[0.2 0.2 0.4]"
	"$envmapcontrast" "0.2"

	"Proxies"
	{

		"AnimatedTexture"
		{
			"animatedtexturevar" "$basetexture"
			"animatedtextureframenumvar" "$bumpframe"
			"animatedtextureframerate" "21"
		}
		"AnimatedTexture"
		{
			"animatedtexturevar" "$bumpmap"
			"animatedtextureframenumvar" "$bumpframe"
			"animatedtextureframerate" "21"
		}

		"TextureScroll"
		{
			"textureScrollVar" "$bumpmap"
			"textureScrollRate" "100"
			"textureScrollAngle" "180"

		}
	}
}
 

Equinoxo

L2: Junior Member
Feb 1, 2009
79
51
Still whittling away on all that red brick and spending far too much time in the skybox, but here's how it's going.
attachment.php

This area has become (yet another) mine entrance, I'm considering making a few of the raised areas displacements unless I can find a justifiable reason for the constructed, raised areas.
attachment.php


attachment.php
 

Pie Cake

L1: Registered
Jul 31, 2010
8
4
Looking pretty awesome but still a bit blocky and plain, IMO.. You might try changing the lighting to add more light to the scene. It's pretty dark.
 

Equinoxo

L2: Junior Member
Feb 1, 2009
79
51
The map started to feel a little stale, and I've been getting bored of detailing it, so I've decided to freshen it up by tearing down chunks of it and redoing them.

A lot of the cliffs felt pointless, so they have gone, albeit I haven't replaced them with anything yet, and the block between A and B has been rejigged.

attachment.php

attachment.php

attachment.php


It might look like there are a few layout changes, but anything particularly outstanding will be blocked off with a few props.
Besides, I'm willing to take a few risks for the sake of aesthetics.
 

Equinoxo

L2: Junior Member
Feb 1, 2009
79
51
Haha! Don't I know it. I'm doing a lot of reconstruction and vertex manipulation right now so it's not really worth it.

Any opinions on my drystone wall texture? I know for one the normal map is far too clean and inverted.
I did initially model it, but it proved far too difficult to keep the polycount down so I baked it instead.
Might model a few bricks to use in areas where more detail would be noticed.

How gameplay changing would environmental deaths be? I've got a lot of cliffs, would be a shame not to use them...
 
Mar 23, 2010
1,872
1,696
I like the idea for a theme you had. One thing i absolutely hate is how im seeing cobblestone buildings with brick buildings next to them with wood around/on said brick building. plus you have concrete buildings too and i bet there some wood and metal somewhere.

look at badlands: all wood with a metal roof texture at mid/house/2nd, and then concrete at last/2-1. with desert landscape and the exact same type of rock.
gorge is all concrete, with grass/dirt blend as its landscape.

what is up with the roof on blue spawn too?

i would say to simplify it to: lumberyard-like wood buildings with a metal roof i guess, well's white brick texture (the one on blu's spawn), and then make C all concrete. my .02. dont know much about detailing though.
 

Equinoxo

L2: Junior Member
Feb 1, 2009
79
51
Ignore most of the pictures in the title post, Prestige, I haven't updated those in a while.
Thanks for the tips though, I'm still working on unifying the look and making it work.

Anyway, progress:
attachment.php

attachment.php

attachment.php