the rock

[Sacrifist]

Well, this map looks alot better then warpath imo sniper.

 

[Koei]

Now i hope you are not gonna repeat the warpath quality. If you goal is to make this rock map like this with the original tfc building style, that's just sad.TF2 buildings are more fresh and are just awesome, I think you should aim for badlands quality or other stock maps. Also dark maps JUST DONT WORK for tf2.

Indeed (and I remember your comments about my fun map, but that's totally different to this. Because this is a serious effort). Aim for Valve quality or don't bother. I agree with the dark maps part. At least for the most part. My map will have a darker area with more shadow work, but that's about 1/4th of the map and really needs to be there to get the right feeling for the players.

 

[Vilepickle]

For some positive support, I like the custom team overlays I'm seeing in those shots at least. Those are a nice touch. But it's hard to even see them

 

[Sacrifist]

Will I run into any problems if my entdata is over 90%?

 

[WarMecha]

I have never run a map with this high a percentage before, but I would suggest that maybe the warning in hammer is there for a reason! Possibly it will just make performance more sluggish or maybe cause crashes in some cases? Might be worth spawning a few bots and seeing if anything happens maybe?

 

[Sacrifist]

well its been on the server for 3 days and there arent any dumps and have had 10 players in there without any problems. Just curious if this has anything to do with the amount of entities you can have on a map before it starts crashing because of so many players.

 

[Vilepickle]

No, entdata is pretty irrelevent. I read a quote from Robin Walker or something that it's just the recommended block size for entity data, which is like 384kb or something.

The thing that DOES matter is the information under Map > Show Information. If your solid entities and point entities add up to be above 1800 or so, I'd worry about crashes with a lot of players. You can test it on your own machine with bots, as found in my tutorial at http://tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=426

 

[Sacrifist]

It has 1923 total. I just tested it on my own machine and there didnt seem to be issues other then fps problems with 24 players shooting in the same area lol. But when teams were split the fps was back up. Ill do the same test on my actual server and see what kind of results I get.

 

[l3eeron]

I spent countless hours playing Rock2 on TFC...

this looks like it's going to be a good port. In the developer's commentary about player models theu do say that they wanted player models to be easily seen at all times. TF2 isnt a hiding game. Leave some dark spots for the spies, but other than that I would crank up the sun a little.

 

[Sacrifist]

Just tested it in my server with 30 bots with mimic on and there were no crashes so I guess Its ok.

 

[Vilepickle]

They may have fixed the limitations sometime since I found out my map was crashing, actually.

I'm 95% sure the official maps have MUCH more than 2048 entities in them. I think it may have been a bug that somehow affected custom maps.

 

[Sacrifist]

thats good to hear

 

[grazr]

I dunno if you watched the interview with one of VALVe's staff talking about how the TF2 theme works but it kinda relies on high level lighting for visual aesthetics, especially when characters are rendered ingame. So you're kinda cutting against the grain as it were by choosing to keep to the night theme. It's nice to see someone bother reproducing a classic though and trying something different.

My advice, add some more interesting architexture to the walls, and probably some props would be nice. Rounded corners have become a bit cliché in source in my opinion, just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. I think it would have been more successful if you had chosen to keep to the new TF2 theme but that's just me. Though the archways on the catwalk do look tasty the windows look out of place.

Also that path looks terribly neglected. This is where i'd have said 70% of combat took place on the old map so it'd be sensible to give it the most attention.

 

[Sacrifist]

I dunno if you watched the interview with one of VALVe's staff talking about how the TF2 theme works but it kinda relies on high level lighting for visual aesthetics, especially when characters are rendered ingame. So you're kinda cutting against the grain as it were by choosing to keep to the night theme. It's nice to see someone bother reproducing a classic though and trying something different.

My advice, add some more interesting architexture to the walls, and probably some props would be nice. Rounded corners have become a bit cliché in source in my opinion, just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. I think it would have been more successful if you had chosen to keep to the new TF2 theme but that's just me. Though the archways on the catwalk do look tasty the windows look out of place.

Also that path looks terribly neglected. This is where i'd have said 70% of combat took place on the old map so it'd be sensible to give it the most attention.

What exactly do you think should be on the walkways? That is, what do you think could go there that wouldnt hurt fps any? I have a 8600 gts (not the greatest card) and im getting between 60 and 80 fps in the yard. Id hate to have it drop much lower then that. Im reaching a max on some things so Im getting pretty limited here.

brushes 6975/8192 83700/98304 (85.1%) VERY FULL!
brushsides 56904/65536 455232/524288 (86.8%) VERY FULL!
entdata [variable] 361257/393216 (91.9%) VERY FULL!


As for Valve, cutting against the grain is what I enjoy. Im one of the guys that runs the pwnshop servers

 

[l3eeron]

Brush work looks tight, but the grass in the yard looks like it should be dirt to me, like rock2 from TFC. But thats just because its been burned into my mind from too many hours on rock2-TFC. I have to be honest and say that everything is too dark. I like to have some dark spots in the map, but the whole thing being dark is just too much. Not saying it shouldn't be night time, just find a happier medium, please Seriously, rain and dark lighting is going to frustrate me into not playing the map.

Is there poison gas?

Do the search lights sweep the yard?

 

[Scoobingsthe2nd]

They may have fixed the limitations sometime since I found out my map was crashing, actually.

I'm 95% sure the official maps have MUCH more than 2048 entities in them. I think it may have been a bug that somehow affected custom maps.

I think they did fix that bug. I did a show information on my map today and I have 2736 point entities.:blink:

 

[Vilepickle]

I think they did fix that bug. I did a show information on my map today and I have 2736 point entities.:blink:

boggle

 

[Sacrifist]

Brush work looks tight, but the grass in the yard looks like it should be dirt to me, like rock2 from TFC. But thats just because its been burned into my mind from too many hours on rock2-TFC. I have to be honest and say that everything is too dark. I like to have some dark spots in the map, but the whole thing being dark is just too much. Not saying it shouldn't be night time, just find a happier medium, please Seriously, rain and dark lighting is going to frustrate me into not playing the map.

Is there poison gas?

Do the search lights sweep the yard?

I think you should take an actual look at what the map has to offer before you think its to dark. The light environment has changed a bit since those screens anyways because of a different sky. Its probably a tad bit lighter now.

-gas = ofcourse
-gasmasks = ofcourse
-search lights = ofcourse

 

[grazr]

Wow, what's your map packing to fill up the brush memory that much? I'd suggest compensating area's of needless detail to even your map as a whole and put detail where it is needed elsewhere. Those windows for example, along with the inner curved watch tower walls, they are nice, but needless eyecandy that isn't complimented well by the rest of your map or its theme. You could simply have it a square-ish design with a diagonal corner with a window model in it IE click. It would be appropriate, wouldn't look terrible and would probably consist of about 10% of the original brush and brush face count.

Or perhaps choose a better texture because a brick wall doesn't look right curved like that. Concrete would look less fake.

If i were to have done that yard, i would have made it sandy, doable with 1 displacement and made the path by placing planks of wood in the sand as path guides (either side of path, skewing the angles slightly and leacing a small gap between each plank so they arn't perfect-clean and monotonouse in appearence. The sandy theme has complimentary rock models at hand hand as well to litter your empty yard with.

 

[l3eeron]

-gas = ofcourse
-gasmasks = ofcourse
-search lights = ofcourse

You make me proud! :thumbup:

I checked a different thread on your map, and saw some different screen shots that looked a tad lighter, would still like to see it even brighter... maybe like dawn or late afternoon. Anything but day time would be good enough to bring the feeling from TFC rock2.