CP artpass_beamos

Beamos

L2: Junior Member
May 14, 2008
80
43
Unfortunately, I'm a few weeks late to the game as I was in Australia the grand majority of July.

The theme is a fun one, loaded with custom textures: Arctic on the outside, lava on the inside. Aaaaaaaw yeeeeeeeah. The exterior architectural style will be fairly industrial. On the inside? I still have yet to decide. Most likely a tasteful combo of industrial and spytech. Or maybe I'll just stick everyone inside a giant lava-based reactor and call it a night. One of the two.

Anyways, not much has been done. Right now I'm working on the ice cave you see in screenshots 1 & 2. It's lacking lighting atm. The displacements need fine tuning. You can't tell from this screenshot, but there are garish placeholder wooden planks making a makeshift second floor in the cave. The custom rope texture (to make it frosty!) hasn't been made yet. Not a pretty sight.

But it's getting done.

And that's what matters, right?
Update: Screenshots! (Thanks for reminding me, Grazr ^^)

Point C building (please note the last pic is mildly outdated):
1yYIO.jpg

alSJa.jpg

bff5T.jpg

F6UjR.jpg


Point A area (Note: The ice cavern area has been lit up; it's not so blindingly dark in there anymore):
2B8qi.jpg

o9ETh.jpg

oSCGW.jpg


Point B area:
GSaCU.jpg


Lack of point B screenshots is due to my laziness.
 
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Nov 14, 2009
1,257
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WOW. Dont even know what do say. Looks like a great start! Although, your textures dont really fit TF2. Looks quite interesting, though.
 

Beamos

L2: Junior Member
May 14, 2008
80
43
Yeah, that's the thing. I put up some comparison pictures regarding the texture on a community forum I attend, and the feedback was fairly interesting. What seems to be happening is the specular lighting used is making the texture feel un-TF2, which makes sense. But I'm hesitant to remove it. The specular lighting also received a lot of comments, stating that it gives the ice wall a nice icy feel.

I'm really not sure what to do with the texture- I'm just so split right now! Keep specular, remove it, tweak it, or is the problem even the specular lighting to begin with?!

If anyone's interested in comparison shots, I've taken two. One with specular on, one with it off. Just see the attachments for them!
 
Apr 13, 2009
728
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Well, that's a visually original style (yeah, not the first ever, but still rare enoughthat it counts as original, I think) and potentially great. I can't tell what parts of the original map those screens are refering to, though. Can you show a comparison ?
 

Goombac

L4: Comfortable Member
Mar 27, 2010
172
84
Looking good. I'd also like some comparison before and after shots, just to see how much it's changed. But yeah, I'd say that you need the specular on for it to look like ice.
 

timberghost_paintball

L2: Junior Member
Dec 19, 2007
77
200
After seeing your comment on my thread I wanted to check out your icy textures. It's funny that we chose the same one of Valve's textures to modify. Even with that similar of a start they still look unique. At least to my eye, granted I've spent a lot of time looking at ice textures recently. Also I noticed you went for a softer more diffuse fluffy snow which looks quite nice. As you no doubt have noticed specular surfaces in source vary dramatically based on whether they are in full light or shadow. I noticed on my ice cliffs that the spec is nearly imperceptible in full light will very noticeable in the shadow. This worked out well for my purposes because the icy look is still there but not omnipresent.
Also I'd recommend looking at some of valve's props that include spec to see some of the more unusual shader attributes you can use to make the shine and reflection behave differently. I just noticed something new to me the other day which I'm planning to try out on my ice textures soon.

Best of luck, I'll look forward to seeing where you take this. Its cool how we both have arctic themes that are quite different.
 

Beamos

L2: Junior Member
May 14, 2008
80
43
Thanks for the prop vmf advice, Timberghost. I'll have to try that.

TBH, what I'd really like to see is a compilation pack from this artpass contest with a bunch of the various new custom textures/models/particles/etc that were introduced by the different mappers, with their permission. It'd help flesh out various themes lacking a variety of textures/models/etc.

Anyways, I went ahead and took 2 before/after screenshots of the area outside of BLU spawn, where the glacier is located. BLU spawn has yet to be worked out, so keep that in mind. Things are pretty much the same as the valve artpass base. I've also attached a picture of the new second floor (kinda) of that first building outside of blu spawn. Kinda bored of working on the glacier cave for now, so I'll go back later and fine tune the lighting, displacements, etc at a later date.
 

Beamos

L2: Junior Member
May 14, 2008
80
43
Little update.

Working on cap A at the moment. Trying to balance out such large monolithic walls is a PITA! :O

Various changes are down the line, ranging from a new interior texture, as well as new pipe models. The area above the window will be reduced by 25%, and a few tiny windows will be added to the right side to give it some tasteful detail.
 

Boylee

pew pew pew
aa
Apr 29, 2008
1,068
709
Wow, this is great. Looks unique and fresh. I like the fact that your styling appears different to most winter map styling I've seen, yet still feels like tf2. Keep up the good work. :)

EDIT: Just noticed that those concrete textures on the internal walls at A look way to big.
 
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Keonyn

L2: Junior Member
Mar 27, 2010
56
17
Definitely looks damn sexy. I love the icy theme and it's a shame it doesn't get used more.

I don't really think the specular texture looks all that out of place, if anything it's just a bit too pronounced is all, at least in the first screenshot in that dark cave space.
 

Beamos

L2: Junior Member
May 14, 2008
80
43
I've got point A's generic aesthetic up to something I'm satisfied with (with the exception of outdoor flooring- yes, the actual cap point will be reverted back to the original layout), and am now messing around with point C aesthetics.

So far, I'm *aiming* for a grungy metal/lava feel.

I'm thinking of replacing the windows with pipes, then take the slots between the beams and expanding them upwards with blocklights in them, so it'd be quite dark up there. But then again, I'm also thinking of punching some between the beams and turning them into skylights... :blushing: I just don't know what to do with this room!

On a side note, minecraft = crack. Wasted a good week on building stuff in that game...
 

Keonyn

L2: Junior Member
Mar 27, 2010
56
17
I really like it without the skylights, but that's me. It gives the room an interesting atmosphere that you don't get when the skylights are present. They both look good however and the third screenshot area is looking really good.
 

Beamos

L2: Junior Member
May 14, 2008
80
43
Yeah, I ended up keeping the skylights. The top area of that room has yet to be developed further, but the bottom section is slowly coming along, although I'm working on the side rooms at the moment :3
 

Beamos

L2: Junior Member
May 14, 2008
80
43
Some small updates:

odGER.jpg


F3gKb.jpg


I'm iffy if the first image needs more detailing; on one hand, it feels somewhat barren, but on the other hand, I don't want it to be too visually busy. It'd distract the players from any enemies, otherwise. Maybe a second spotlight, slightly to the right of the first? Reduce the current spotlight strength by a little less than half, tighten the light cone by 25%-50%, add in a second spotlight with focus about 10% to the right of the first... that'd look interesting.

For the second image, I'll be working on the columns more to make them more visually interesting. Maybe I'll move the lights to the sides of the columns, since they're kinda dark right now, but that would make the right too visually heavy... maybe some decorative spotlights shining upwards from the base of each column? This will be tricky.
 
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Beamos

L2: Junior Member
May 14, 2008
80
43
Oh wow!!!! How did you- ?! :O :O

That is absolutely stunning. I'll go with that or something inspired by that. Thank you!!

Update:
ndA3z.jpg


I'll need to work with the lighting values more as well as make light_environment workarounds for that hall to lower the natural light intensity, which shouldn't be hard. Outside of that, the left area needs to be tweaked minorly to match the aesthetic of the rest of red base. It's a definite *massive* leap in the right direction. Thanks again, Gooba!
 
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IrishTaxIDriver

L6: Sharp Member
Sep 27, 2008
271
149
While the area looks great, I'm having a little trouble figuring out what it'd be for. Consider some wall computers buzzing away in a bank below the lights on the left, or if you can get away with it (and they're wide enough) what about putting a wall computer on the arches?

On the subject of the arches, I'm not sure about that tiled concrete texture. What about making them that red metal and keeping the shape consistent through the arch?

Anyway, your entry looks great and I love your style.