Detail Mini-Contest 2014

[PlipPlop]

Yeah, I was definitely caught off-guard. Didn't really pay attention to the timezone though, so it's my fault anyway.

 

[Freyja]

I'm sorry you were all caught off guard.

I will extend the deadline by 24 hours from the time of this post. I've asked Frozen to unlock the submission thread so please don't let your work go wasted.

In the future though, please read the post thoroughly. The deadline was written there in 5 timzeones with a link to a countdown and every other timezone on the planet. It says 31st for the american timezones listed.

 

[HQDefault]

Hey, so, I looked at the contest entry that was just one closet. I believe TMP made it.

First thing I did was this:

I iz compact engineer

 

[Vel0city]

Hey, so, I looked at the contest entry that was just one closet. I believe TMP made it.

First thing I did was this:

I iz compact engineer

Now try to fit the teleporters in there too.


Oh, and when will the voting thread be up?

 

[Fantaboi]

So as anyone whos anyone knows, i'm making an sfm showcase of each map, however some of you didn't add hdr (looking at you, Cubemap, Drsasha, Hqdefault, Johnraveneye, Killohurtz, Lamplanplem, Prettyboy, Taka, Tech, Alex) therefore it wont load in hammer

So, i'm asking permission from any of these users if I can recompile their maps with: Hdr, textureshadows, staticproppolys, staticproplighting.

Thanks in advance for all those who respond

 

[Vel0city]

So as anyone whos anyone knows, i'm making an sfm showcase of each map, however some of you didn't add hdr (looking at you, Cubemap, Drsasha, Hqdefault, Johnraveneye, Killohurtz, Lamplanplem, Prettyboy, Taka, Tech, Alex) therefore it wont load in hammer

So, i'm asking permission from any of these users if I can recompile their maps with: Hdr, textureshadows, staticproppolys, staticproplighting.

Thanks in advance for all those who respond

Yes you can. I didn't do it because VRAD became very unstable after it ran for more than 10 minutes (still have to figure out what's going on there) and the LDR compile alone (the standard lighting) took over 15 minutes so I didn't wanna risk having to compile again after 30 minutes of waiting for VRAD to suddenly quit calculating lighting for me. I believe I compiled with textureshadows and staticproppolys. Don't know about staticproplighting. Prepare for a pretty long compile time though, there are a lot of surfaces with the lowest lightmap grid possible (1) to get the sharpest shadows possible (FU blocky and blurry shadows. Nobody likes you).

But yeah, you can recompile the map. Once I've figured out why VRAD doesn't like me I'm going to expand the map greatly and add a whole lot more detail in here that simply wasn't possible within the 4096x4096 boundaries and compile it with HDR so SFM will accept it properly.

Oh and when you've compiled my map, mind uploading it to Dropbox and give me a link? I'd like to have the map with HDR but as I said I'm unable to compile with HDR right now due to VRAD barfing and saying F U M8 when I try to compile with HDR.

 

[Lampenpam]

So as anyone whos anyone knows, i'm making an sfm showcase of each map, however some of you didn't add hdr (looking at you, Cubemap, Drsasha, Hqdefault, Johnraveneye, Killohurtz, Lamplanplem, Prettyboy, Taka, Tech, Alex) therefore it wont load in hammer

So, i'm asking permission from any of these users if I can recompile their maps with: Hdr, textureshadows, staticproppolys, staticproplighting.

Thanks in advance for all those who respond

Go ahead.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Yes you can. I didn't do it because VRAD became very unstable after it ran for more than 10 minutes (still have to figure out what's going on there) and the LDR compile alone (the standard lighting) took over 15 minutes so I didn't wanna risk having to compile again after 30 minutes of waiting for VRAD to suddenly quit calculating lighting for me. I believe I compiled with textureshadows and staticproppolys. Don't know about staticproplighting. Prepare for a pretty long compile time though, there are a lot of surfaces with the lowest lightmap grid possible (1) to get the sharpest shadows possible (FU blocky and blurry shadows. Nobody likes you).

But yeah, you can recompile the map. Once I've figured out why VRAD doesn't like me I'm going to expand the map greatly and add a whole lot more detail in here that simply wasn't possible within the 4096x4096 boundaries and compile it with HDR so SFM will accept it properly.

Oh and when you've compiled my map, mind uploading it to Dropbox and give me a link? I'd like to have the map with HDR but as I said I'm unable to compile with HDR right now due to VRAD barfing and saying F U M8 when I try to compile with HDR.

Are you using VBCT or the hammer compiler when doing LDR/HDR compiles?

 

[Vel0city]

Are you using VBCT or the hammer compiler when doing LDR/HDR compiles?

Yes, but it seems the problem is already solved, which had nothing to do with VRAD at all. Somehow VBTC launched a second VRAD.exe when it neared the end of compiling with LDR so there were 2 VRAD.exe's running at the same time which then crashed them both. Reinstalling VBTC fixed that issue completely. I don't know what caused it in the first place but it's solved now.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Yes, but it seems the problem is already solved, which had nothing to do with VRAD at all. Somehow VBTC launched a second VRAD.exe when it neared the end of compiling with LDR so there were 2 VRAD.exe's running at the same time which then crashed them both. Reinstalling VBTC fixed that issue completely. I don't know what caused it in the first place but it's solved now.

Yea, if you use VBCT and set LDR/HDR together, older versions will use the -ldr -hdr AND -both commands, which will do as you described. If anyone finds that they have this issues, just compile the map normally with VBSP, VVIS and LDR VRAD. When that is done, disable the VBSP and VVIS modules, set HDR and disable LDR.... compile again. This will compile your map in LDR and HDR and you won't have the out-o-memory bug.

 

[killohurtz]

So as anyone whos anyone knows, i'm making an sfm showcase of each map, however some of you didn't add hdr (looking at you, Cubemap, Drsasha, Hqdefault, Johnraveneye, Killohurtz, Lamplanplem, Prettyboy, Taka, Tech, Alex) therefore it wont load in hammer

So, i'm asking permission from any of these users if I can recompile their maps with: Hdr, textureshadows, staticproppolys, staticproplighting.

Thanks in advance for all those who respond

Please do!

 

[HQDefault]

So as anyone whos anyone knows, i'm making an sfm showcase of each map, however some of you didn't add hdr (looking at you, Cubemap, Drsasha, Hqdefault, Johnraveneye, Killohurtz, Lamplanplem, Prettyboy, Taka, Tech, Alex) therefore it wont load in hammer

So, i'm asking permission from any of these users if I can recompile their maps with: Hdr, textureshadows, staticproppolys, staticproplighting.

Thanks in advance for all those who respond

... but I checked off HDR...

Someone even complained about cubemaps not working on LDR

But if you insist:
http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=5970

 

[takabuschik]

So as anyone whos anyone knows, i'm making an sfm showcase of each map, however some of you didn't add hdr (looking at you, Cubemap, Drsasha, Hqdefault, Johnraveneye, Killohurtz, Lamplanplem, Prettyboy, Taka, Tech, Alex) therefore it wont load in hammer

So, i'm asking permission from any of these users if I can recompile their maps with: Hdr, textureshadows, staticproppolys, staticproplighting.

Thanks in advance for all those who respond

I made a full LDR compile (textureshadows, staticproppolys, staticproplighting) but didn't go for HDR. Obviously you can, but don't blame me for any temporary or permanent eye damage this may cause.

 

[Vel0city]

... but I checked off HDR...

Someone even complained about cubemaps not working on LDR

But if you insist:
http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=5970

If people get checkerboard textures for reflections you haven't made cubemaps for either HDR or LDR. If you compile with HDR you must build the corresponding cubemaps for it. To do this, simply build cubemaps with HDR turned off in the game for LDR cubemaps, disconnect form the map, enable HDR and then build them again after loading the map. After that disable HDR again (if it was disabled in the first place. If HDR is on by default inverse the progress. Turn off HDR for LDR cubemaps and then turn HDR back on again for HDR cubemaps). The console command for this is mat_hdr_enabled.


Here's a good wiki page from the VDC: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/HDR_Lighting_Basics

 

[HQDefault]

If people get checkerboard textures for reflections you haven't made cubemaps for either HDR or LDR. If you compile with HDR you must build the corresponding cubemaps for it. To do this, simply build cubemaps with HDR turned off in the game for LDR cubemaps, disconnect form the map, enable HDR and then build them again after loading the map. After that disable HDR again (if it was disabled in the first place. If HDR is on by default inverse the progress. Turn off HDR for LDR cubemaps and then turn HDR back on again for HDR cubemaps). The console command for this is mat_hdr_enabled.


Here's a good wiki page from the VDC: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/HDR_Lighting_Basics

...

I'm afraid I have to say you're wrong on that one. Cubemaps only showed up as checkerboards when LDR was on.

But you're the expert I guess.

 

[Vel0city]

...

I'm afraid I have to say you're wrong on that one. Cubemaps only showed up as checkerboards when LDR was on.

But you're the expert I guess.

If you have HDR turned on by default (if you're playing the game with HDR) and you build cubemaps it won't do it for LDR so people with LDR on (and thus HDR off) won't see the reflections. However, the material does have reflections from the HDR cubemap but since it's turned off it'll load the default black/purple checkerboard texture. How many times did you use the buildcubemaps command on the final map? If the answer is once you haven't build cubemaps for either HDR or LDR, in your case LDR. If the answer is twice I have no clue what happened. I couldn't build cubemaps because VBTC somehow gives default cubemaps to reflective surfaces which I have to remove with VIDE's pack lump editor and then build cubemaps in-game to see the actual cubemaps to get them to work. If I'd compile for HDR I'd do it twice.

Oh, and I'm by no means an expert. Heck I've never done anything serious with Hammer besides this contest. I know some technical things about Source but that's all thanks to the wiki.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

If you build with HDR and LDR, you have to build cubemaps for them. It is possible to build cubemaps for one, THINK you switched, then rebuild. There is also a bug with either Hammer or VBCT (or both) where some cubemaps will remain black, until you rip them out with PakRat (or VIDE if you're silly) and rebuild them.

There was also a bug that's popped up I have heard recently where it has trouble finding file paths because of and the .vpk compression system and/or steampipe.

Oh oh oh, the BEST cubemap bug is when you build the cubemaps, and they show up for you on your machine, but they aren't actually packed into the .bsp, so you don't realize that until you ship and it's fine

Either way and point is: It's source, so weird things aren't uncommon. Just be careful next time

 

[Dr. Sasha]

So as anyone whos anyone knows, i'm making an sfm showcase of each map, however some of you didn't add hdr (looking at you, Cubemap, Drsasha, Hqdefault, Johnraveneye, Killohurtz, Lamplanplem, Prettyboy, Taka, Tech, Alex) therefore it wont load in hammer

So, i'm asking permission from any of these users if I can recompile their maps with: Hdr, textureshadows, staticproppolys, staticproplighting.

Go ahead, thanks.

And by Hammer, do you mean SFM?

 

[Vel0city]

There is also a bug with either Hammer or VBCT (or both) where some cubemaps will remain black, until you rip them out with PakRat (or VIDE if you're silly) and rebuild them.

I had this problem. Exactly this problem. I couldn't figure it out until I browsed TopHattWaffle's YouTube channel where he did come across exactly this. He figured out that cubemaps were build when the map was compiled, but since it wasn't done in game the cubemaps just toke 6 black pictures and applied them to the reflective surfaces. That's why you won't see results if you build them in-game: the game thinks they're already there, and in fact they are, but they're broken.

Also a good note: don't pack your custom materials before you remove the broken cubemaps from the .bsp. It removes all the custom textures and makes the sounds in your map a highly pitched continuous beep. First delete the cubemaps, then build them in-game, then pack custom content.


why are people using VIDE silly?

 

[Fruity Snacks]

why are people using VIDE silly?

PakRat master-race (and PakRat is argueably much better)