KotH Despair Heights rc0c_w

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b1

- Added detailing to the spawn areas
- Added more cover around the map
- Adjusted the shutter door wall at mid to create a little crevice
- Added some pipes as a little ledge players can walk on in the deathpit area
- Other smaller adjustments were made across the map
- Added rain
- Added cubemaps
- Added hdr
- Added fog
- Added spectator cameras
- Tweaked lighting
- Made the size of most stairs more consistent
- Clipping fixes
- Other minor changes

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[bb Mr. b anana]

yes, you took my advice on the fence texture.

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b1a

- Added experimental cover around mid
- Lowered the highest wall covering the mid point a bit and removed the clipping from it
- Made the map very slightly brighter, and tried to make the lighting a bit less boring
- Made it more obvious that the shutter doors below the point are usable
- Added a skull sign to the deathpit area
- Fixed the rain not being flagged as a weather effect
- Clipping fixes

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b2

- Removed the experimental cover around mid and added the previous one back
- Made the stair case next to the shutter door at mid less narrow
- Closed off the route below the point for the time being until I can cope and come up with a "solution" to make it better
- Added detailing to the area before mid
- Added a few directional arrows
- Changed the texture of the shutter doors at mid
- Clipping fixes
- Other minor changes

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b2a

- Slightly elevated capture area
- Removed the shutter doors at mid
- Made the map slightly brighter
- Removed top down view spectator camera at mid

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b3

- Partially detailed mid and red's deathpit
- Added detailing to the right most route out of spawn
- Adjusted detailing across the map
- Increased the overall light sources around the map to reduce the amount of shadowy spots
- Made most of the light in red's side of the map slightly yellower
- Split the floor displacement in the courtyard into multiple power 3 displacements, which used to be one power 4 displacement
- Clipping fixes

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Katsu! :3]

I was feeling kinda skeptical about this map at first but honestly this is turning out really cool! Keep at it <3

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b3a

- Fixed blu's death pit missing a trigger_hurt

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b3b

- Added some extra walkable space on the walls covering the control point
- Lowered the respawn wave time of the winning team slightly (Same as cascade's winning team respawn wave now)
- Slightly detailed mid
- Adjusted some displacements to make them easier to walk on
- Added some missing light props
- Fixed some light props being solid
- Clipping fixes

I was going to say this in b3 but I forgot:
I tried out brighter skyboxes, but they just don't fit into my vision for the map; I will...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b3c

- Opened up the route below the point again, containing a medium health pack
- Added a one sided door near the route below the point, which makes it so that people can't bypass mid if they use the route
- Increased the respawn wave time of the winning team back to its previous value
- Reduced the cover around the point; buildings can now be outranged from both left and right if they're placed in the middle of the cover
- Hid the transition between the water fall displacement and the water...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b4

- Added an angled wall above the point in order to block sightlines
- Removed the stairs which allowed you to get back up to the rightmost route outside of spawn, the route was mostly used by the opposing flankers rather than the team that owned the area
- Moved the small health pack at the rightmost route outside of spawn to be closer to the exit of said route
- Reduced the winning team's respawn wave time from 10 to 9
- Adjusted the rain particles; they're now much more cleanly placed...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b4a

- Changed the skybox
- Changed the light_env and adjusted blu's lighting
- Slightly adjusted detailing in spawns
- Slightly reduced the opening and closing speed of the two doors at mid
- Slightly reduced the reflectivity of metal surfaces
- Clipping fixes
- Other minor changes

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b4b

- Slightly made the light_env brighter and adjusted its angles

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Katsu! :3]

Please god no go back to the original sky

 

[a freakin' knight]

Please god no go back to the original sky

Oh god, is it that unfitting? An often complaint was that it's too hard too see other players sometimes,I tried to make the map brighter but the complain still persisted. And other people just said that they don't like the lighting at all, so I just gave up and decided to ditch the skybox and the lighting. If too many people in the play test dislike it compared to the last one I'll change it back

 

[Tiftid]

It's not specifically that it's unfitting, it's that in my opinion that skybox is way overused and people who use it unwittingly commit bad practice.

For one thing, it's purplish-pinkish-yellow, which in theory makes for a nice sunrise/sunset, but it encourages purplish-pinkish light_environment sunlight, which in my opinion does not look good in the source engine ever.
sky_yuki_01 also has lots of internal contrast, so instead of being a backdrop for your map's detailing like the sky should be, it steals all the spotlight. The skybox it's based off - sky_trainyard_01 - doesn't have this problem as much because it's all restricted to a very slim palette of blues and whites.

Here's a case where the pink sunlight makes a rock clash with the skybox in a way which I think is really ugly:

There's also cases like this, where you have all this cool overhead detailing that should be beautifully silhouetted against the sky but it instead blends in:

In my opinion, if you want a sunset theme, it can be much better done with cp_well's skybox and its lighting or similar.
Here's a quick conversion of cp_standin as an example:

There, isn't that cozy? Doesn't that make you wanna go straight to sleep?

If just "rainy alpine" is what you want to go for, I'd recommend using sky_alpinestorm_01, a relatively subdued yellow for the sunlight (e.g. 249 234 182 250) and a really dark ambient light (e.g. 79 70 80 100).
This is similar to what pl_thundermountain uses, but way way way less bright. Funnily enough, pl_thundermountain copied its light_environment settings from cp_well, the only change being adjusting the brightness upwards!

Fun fact: I haven't tampered with this pl_thundermountain VMF at all. It just uses really low SunSpreadAngle (literally 0!) and a luxel size of 8 on those walls. Pretty based!

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b4c

- Changed the skybox and light_env (Temporary(Probably))
- Removed the staircase that led to the route that is to the right of spawns; it made it too easy for flankers to go to the enemy spawn
- Removed the small health kits at the rightmost route
- Reduced the size of the ammo packs below the point from medium to small
- Slightly moved the pickups at the death pit
- Optimized the map; frames should be much higher at mid
- Added more light sources around the map
- Slightly detailed blu's...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b4d

- Improved optimization
- Slightly adjusted hdr to be brighter
- Fixed a funky displacement
- Fixed missing overlays

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b5

- Improved optimization
- Changed the skybox and light_env
- Detailed the cover at mid
- Reworked the mountains at red's death pit
- Adjusted the location of the pick ups at the death pit
- Added soundscapes
- Adjusted the fog
- Detail adjustments across the map
- Fixed some unintended areas you could stand on top of
- Other minor changes

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[a freakin' knight]

*Confused Cat Noises* updated Despair Heights with a new update entry:

b5a

- Slowly starting to make the detailing asymmetrical
- Adjusted detailing at mid
- Adjusted 3d skybox
- Detail adjustments across the map
- Clipping fixes

Read the rest of this update entry...