artpass_draco18s

[tyler]

I don't think the mist works, and pretty sure that rock texture next to the goldrush fences are from HL. Otherwise really digging the vines.

 

[Beamos]

It's looking interesting so far.

One little tip though: The mist in the first new screenshot looks odd as a particle effect. Do you have L4D2? Perhaps what you can try doing is creating a func_brush over the ground where the mist is, and set it to no collide. Then, put some kind of TF2-esque fog texture with some transform proxies to fake an animated look. It'll probably look better as well as run better than the particle you have right now.

 

[Draco18s]

I don't think the mist works, and pretty sure that rock texture next to the goldrush fences are from HL. Otherwise really digging the vines.

I've been fooling around with the mist trying to get it to "feel" right (as well as not suddenly stop producing particles long enough for all of the existing ones to die).

As for the texture, that one is mine, actually. I suppose I could fiddle around with it to look more cartoony though. But I lost the original image that went into it, so...

One little tip though: The mist in the first new screenshot looks odd as a particle effect. Do you have L4D2? Perhaps what you can try doing is creating a func_brush over the ground where the mist is, and set it to no collide. Then, put some kind of TF2-esque fog texture with some transform proxies to fake an animated look. It'll probably look better as well as run better than the particle you have right now.

I will look into that...

Edit: what the heck is a transform proxy?

 

[Draco18s]

So someone complained that my rock texture was too HL2-y and not TF2-y. So I fiddled around with it and looking for some opinions.

First up, the original. Then a "middle" between the simplified one I did, and then the very posterized version.

I'm inclined to go with the middle one, as it has a more simplified base texture, but still has some of the color and texture variation.

Any suggestions?

 

[Acumen]

Don't use it, i'd say. it says photoshop/alternative gfx program filter all over...
I don't know why you even need new rock textures. There's like 1 million great tf2 rocks to choose from. Grey ones just like the ones you tried to create there.
Better use the tf2 ones that have fitting rock props and all. I'd say it doesn't improve your chances if you use some 10 minutes texture job just for the sake of using it
I know it's harsh, but there's no visible reason for me to make such a grey rock texture when tf2 already has a great pool of rock resources to choose from. And on top Rexy even did some more that you may be able to use.
Using that selfmade rock texture does your map no good, that's my cruel honest opinion. I'm sorry :/

 

[Draco18s]

I don't know why you even need new rock textures. There's like 1 million great tf2 rocks to choose from. Grey ones just like the ones you tried to create there.

Where? Because I certainly can't find them.

Lets see, we have:

coalmines/rockwall012 which is the wrong color

16 blend textures that blend between a "rock" texture I can't find singly and some ground textures. I'm already using the one that is the right color (nature/blendrockgroundwallforest).

nature/rockwall001
Through
nature/rockwall013
All of which are the wrong color (brown/red) and some that don't tile vertically

Two textures from the swamp pack ("Karst_rock" which while it has very nice looking props, I have been unable to make use of them due to their size) one of which doesn't tile vertically.

and
winter/rockwall014
Which doesn't tile vertically.

The only two I might be able to use are nature/rockwall010b and nature/rockwall010c
Both of which look like HL2 textures.

1 "cave" texture (looks HL2ish).

And many "stone" textures which are not natural rock, but things constructed from rough stones.

 

[Acumen]

Ok, then obviously there can't be enough resources
I just feel it's better to use the existing resources and make some compromise than to make a new texture that doesn't really fit into the world of tf2. I mean you just have to put it next to another terrain texture to notice that that's a huge style-clash.
I don't wanna bring you down or anything, just my thoughts on this texture :/


and if only the color bothers you, you can always just recolor that specific existing texture but still be within the boundaries of the tf2 world.

 

[Draco18s]

Ok, then obviously there can't be enough resources

Then stop using words like "million" to describe the texture count. I'm not even sure there are a "million" textures across all styles for TF2.

Anyway, my point is, none of them have the right feel. When I created the custom texture I did it because I'd already run through every TF2 rock texture that there was and was unhappy with all of them.

When there ARE NOT TEXTURES that match nature/blendrockgroundwallforest, it gets really damn annoying. I think I even had to extract the grass texture in it and create a VMF for it so I could use it without turning an entire surface into a displacement just to texture it as grass.

Nothing matches color wise or texture wise except nature/rockwall001, which is the same texture but brown.

 

[Acumen]

got your point

 

[Draco18s]

Another image.

I really like how that came out, though it needs a little tweaking (the boards aren't laying on each other properly and the top one is a little long).

On the other hand, what is up with this sky texture?

 

[Draco18s]

Many many more screenshots

And been playing with water textures. Can't really decide between these two:

I like the blue in the first one (and it is supposed to be an underground lake/river), but the second one is more "murky swamp" in fitting with the outdoorsy theme.

 

[lucky]

Why do you have a socket... connecting to another socket? :S

 

[Godslayer57]

Because it doesn't make sense! Or it could be a loop ...of some...sort

 

[KarmaPolice]

Why do you have a socket... connecting to another socket? :S

There's actually an official prop that does the same.

 

[Void]

On the other hand, what is up with this sky texture?

You aren't supposed to see that part of the sky anyways, if you can there is obviously something missing, which is quite clearly the case in that screenshot.

 

[Draco18s]

There's actually an official prop that does the same.

Said model doesn't fit in my map (not large enough), so I BSd something similar with brushes and--probably a HL2--texture. Valve didn't have just the outlet available as a prop.

You aren't supposed to see that part of the sky anyways, if you can there is obviously something missing, which is quite clearly the case in that screenshot.

We were no-clipping at the time. But the messed up part is that that side of the skybox has two moons.

 

[Draco18s]

RAIN! Just what my map was missing. It stays outdoors, appropriately, though there are a few drippy leaks around making a mess.

Added some of the leak-drip splash particles to the death pit's water surface to get an appropriately "rain like" pitter-patter. Screenshot didn't capture it too well, but there's two near the post in the center (looks like 4, the second one from the left is a rain drop, the one just above it could be a splash, could be a rain drop).

And a shot from under the surface because it looks cool. Rain particles do continue to fall down here, but I think that's because water isn't considered "solid" so the particles aren't killed. You can see a drop middle right between the two lights. A few pitter-patter splashes can also be seen in the upper left.

 

[Pocket]

For zark's sake, don't use PNG for this. It loads just as slowly as BMP for stuff like this.

 

[Draco18s]

For zark's sake, don't use PNG for this. It loads just as slowly as BMP for stuff like this.

I had no idea. I'll make sure they're jpgs next time.

 

[MangyCarface]

tbh I think you'd do a lot better if you left the environmental fine detail stuff for later and worked on your geometry Then when you apply these little final details it'll look even better