Dev Texturing Tips?

[mistertilapia]

Hello all,
I've tried to make a few maps but on each one I've had trouble refraining from doing art passes before the layout is proven.
This is mainly due to the fact that my usual orange/gray dev textures are painful to look at and don't distinguish landscape and structures very well.
I was wondering which colors/textures everyone else is using when they are working in alpha.

 

[MaccyF]

most people use the dev/reflectivity_#% but use different reflectivities to differentiate surfaces, as well as dev/dev_greygrid for floors and ceilings

 

[Yrr]

Try using team coloured devs and basic detailing (rooves, windows, railings, maybe clutter) like i did on bagel

 

[zahndah]

Making an alpha look nice is quite an interesting thing actually.
Often when I am playing a map I can sort of judge how experienced the mapper who made it is by how nice the geometry is / the consistency of texturing. Its interesting as if you are playing a map that feels really messy and poorly made, you are likely to think worse of the map and have less fun on it because you know its not made that well.
For example, Bagel (screenshot above) had a very consistent dev_texture pallet and looking at it you can tell it had effort put into it. Therefore when you run around on it, it feels like it has effort put into it and feels nicer than a very blocky, badly looking alpha map.

 

[Diva Dan]

Also, if you have trouble discerning depth in hammer, you can click the camera view in the top left of each viewport and change it to "3D textured and shaded" or something like that. It gives shadows to different faces but doesn't actually reflect the light environment in your map. Think Mario 64 shading.

 

[Crowbar]

It darkens the brush faces depending on their normal (basically, where the face is oriented at), and nothing more. Still huge help seeing depth.

 

[mistertilapia]

Try using team coloured devs and basic detailing (rooves, windows, railings, maybe clutter) like i did on bagel

I really like that look. So you just use the reflective textures like Maccy but add team coloring?
Also, your image implies that you include landscape displacements in your alphas - do you recommend this?

Also, if you have trouble discerning depth in hammer, you can click the camera view in the top left of each viewport and change it to "3D textured and shaded" or something like that. It gives shadows to different faces but doesn't actually reflect the light environment in your map. Think Mario 64 shading.

I've got that enabled.
I still hate how orange/gray looks, but I'd agree that it looks somewhat better shaded.

Thanks for all the help, everyone.

 

[Etasus]

I still hate how orange/gray looks

I personally love the grey texture!!!

your image implies that you include landscape displacements in your alphas - do you recommend this?

yes... none of my maps have displacements, but i will be doing this when i make some more advanced maps...

 

[Idolon]

Also, your image implies that you include landscape displacements in your alphas - do you recommend this?

Some levels (for example, Badlands) have such complex geometry on the ground that making them out of brushes in alpha just doesn't make sense. Even if the geometry isn't complex, some mappers will still use terrain textures just to denote what is nature and what is building because it's easier to look at.

 

[mistertilapia]

I personally love the grey texture!!!

I've no problem with the gray texture itself, but in combination with the orange it makes it extremely ugly (see cp_orange)

Even if the geometry isn't complex, some mappers will still use terrain textures just to denote what is nature and what is building because it's easier to look at.

OK. I guess I was under the impression that including anything other than dev textures and brushes in alpha was a cardinal sin - I stand corrected!

 

[RodionJenga]

I still hate how orange/gray looks

Also since nobody's mentioned it, players tend to dislike the orange dev textures, something about them being quite bright. I'd only use them sparingly for objectives (cap zones, tracks) or inaccessible roofs.

Still my favorite color tho

 

[obodobear]

don't be like me and put in too much detail during early stages of the map... this is a bad habit I have and it's very difficult to make changes and things when there's a lot of detail

 

[IrishTaxIDriver]

Detail to the level you're comfortable iterating at.

For me I find dev textures to be too abstract. They let you focus on the design purely, but you might end up with a lot of buildings or shapes that don't make sense once you get to the point of start figuring out what they are.

I try to pick around 10 textures that really give the feel that I'm looking for in the level, and that sometimes ends up informing areas and helps me figure out cool wrinkles in the level that I wouldn't have seen with dev textures.

 

[Idolon]

Detail to the level you're comfortable iterating at.

A good point that I want to elaborate a bit on.

The level to which you detail an alpha can have a lot to do with what you want to get out of the map. If you want a nice finished product at the end, then concerning yourself with plausible architecture in layout stages is a must.

If you don't have confidence in the layout or your understanding of theory, it's probably more worth your time to work on a map with no intent of ever detailing it. Just worrying about geometry means you don't have as many rules to follow.

Another way of looking at it is deciding when you iron out the architectural wrinkles. Ironing them out at the end of an alpha stage probably means a shorter alpha stage overall, but you run the risk of wrinkles that refuse to disappear. Ironing them out on the fly means you don't run that risk, but it can also get you stuck spinning your wheels if you aren't confident in your layout (this is one of the main reasons I haven't produced much work in the last year).

 

[Pocket]

I recommend having at least a basic idea of what you want your map to be. What sort of place you want this to be perceived as. This way you'll have a good idea how far you can tweak your layout before it ceases to resemble anything. You do have a lot of leeway with interiors, since all of the bases are meant to be fronts for the fighting that goes on and only have to fool outside observers, but consider how closely Foundry looks like a real steel mill, or Well looks like a pair of distilleries with a freight train station in between, or Kong King looks like Soho. That sort of thing isn't likely to come from throwing together a random arrangement of corridors and doorways. You don't have to detail the map to match the image in your head, but it's a good idea to at least have one.