HiddenTomb

Micnax

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Apr 25, 2009
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I personally find that those shadows around the control point look pretty bad. They look like they should be more dispersed.

It's a problem I've been trying to find a way to fix. Someone suggested having the sand already down, and come up before the game starts so that it wouldn't happen, but I haven't tried that yet.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Well he generally needs more light sources within his map anyway. A lot of his light seems to come from nowhere.

Add in more torches, particularly the ones that stand up off the ground that you have at the bottom surrounding the CP. This will hopefully elliviate the darkest of shadows, detail up your map a bit and provide visual sources for your lighting.

(Although it's pretty weird that the torches around the CP are on fire considering they've just been under sand).
 

SharpDagger

L1: Registered
Jun 7, 2009
12
0
If you havent fixed the shadow problem then i'll tell you
Instead of light or light_spot use a light_dynamic

looks like a cool map =]
 

Micnax

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Lighting is starting to increase now into more of a sunset style:

arena_hiddentomb0058.jpg


Good? Bad? I'm also adding the props for lights now for the realistic look.
 

Sgt Frag

L14: Epic Member
May 20, 2008
1,443
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I think you can fix those shadows around the point by upping the brightness of your ambient light in your env_ambient. Should be slightly bluish not black also. It'll be a little more realistic and add some much needed color to the egypt theme.
You can also add some light entities with a small inner radius and large outer to help diffuse the shadows but not be obvious.

Sunset would be great, most egypt maps I have seen seem to be at high noon and very bright/yellow. But I think that last shot might be too saturated. toned down the color a bit.

The problem with dynamic lights is even a few of them have a pretty substancial hit to fps. So it's better to have regular lights. Only use a few dynamic lights in spots that will really benefit from them if at all.
If you added one to each torch your framerate would be like 0.
A better way to get that effect would be to add one dynamic light in between the torchs in above shot, make it bright enough so the flickering could be seen on the walls around the torchs. With one light you could give the effect of several of them flickering. And leave regular light sources in each torch flame.
But put the dynamic lower than the torches so you get some flickering on that ceiling too.
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I see your fps is 16. Are you using dynamic lights? You really don't want that to drop below 30 fps, if it does you need to optimize and the first thing would be to delete the dynamics.
 

Micnax

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Apr 25, 2009
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I think you can fix those shadows around the point by upping the brightness of your ambient light in your env_ambient. Should be slightly bluish not black also. It'll be a little more realistic and add some much needed color to the egypt theme.
You can also add some light entities with a small inner radius and large outer to help diffuse the shadows but not be obvious.

Sunset would be great, most egypt maps I have seen seem to be at high noon and very bright/yellow. But I think that last shot might be too saturated. toned down the color a bit.

The problem with dynamic lights is even a few of them have a pretty substancial hit to fps. So it's better to have regular lights. Only use a few dynamic lights in spots that will really benefit from them if at all.
If you added one to each torch your framerate would be like 0.
A better way to get that effect would be to add one dynamic light in between the torchs in above shot, make it bright enough so the flickering could be seen on the walls around the torchs. With one light you could give the effect of several of them flickering. And leave regular light sources in each torch flame.
But put the dynamic lower than the torches so you get some flickering on that ceiling too.
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I see your fps is 16. Are you using dynamic lights? You really don't want that to drop below 30 fps, if it does you need to optimize and the first thing would be to delete the dynamics.

The shadows might just be because the sand is inside the other brushes (walkways, capture point roof ect.) that's causing the shadows, but I'll try the ambient too.

I agree it looks a tad too saturated. I could revert back to the other yellow possibly?

Dynamic lights sound nice too. So it'll give the impression that the torches are flickering? I liiike.

Oh, and the framerate is just my crappy laptop. People have played it just fine with their normal framerate's before :laugh: All the lights are just light entities.
 

captainAngry

L420: High Member
Feb 1, 2009
434
247
We played this last night. Had a good time.

The only real problem we had is that we never got anywhere near the end. We were playing about 12 v 12 and the map was a bit small for that many people.

Seems solid though. With less people it probably would have received better ratings.



Edit: It looks like I got a demo from earlier in the day with less people as well.
 
Last edited:

santoriin

L1: Registered
Jun 11, 2008
20
7
I just downloaded this to use on my server, and I still get the 4 error models?

Also i think the roof or something maybe a bit too low on the ramps that open up once the sand descends. If you try running through there as a scout for instance, you get oddly slowed down at two points on the ramp, as if you were crouching.

Also, I actually really like the look of the last screenshot you posted
 

Micnax

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Apr 25, 2009
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I just downloaded this to use on my server, and I still get the 4 error models?

Also i think the roof or something maybe a bit too low on the ramps that open up once the sand descends. If you try running through there as a scout for instance, you get oddly slowed down at two points on the ramp, as if you were crouching.

Also, I actually really like the look of the last screenshot you posted

Yes, The error models were a bad Pakrat, I'll update it now :p

And I'll fix the roof for the next update, which is going to be pretty soon.
 

Micnax

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KOTH Edition Update

Version Alpha 5 (Non-Complete Final)

This is the final 'non-complete' version, as it is being temporarily abandoned, so I thought I'll just get this one out with some minor improvements for the first map gameday so the map ACTUALLY WORKS.

Alpha5 (KOTH) (09/06/10)
Adjusted lighting
Fixed texture errors in places
Sand will now allow Engineer buildings after being fully lowered
Reduced cap time to 8 seconds
Added paint overlays for health kits
Changed torch hurt settings to IGNITE from BURN to set players alight
Changed skybox to an appropriate texture