[WIP] cp_scalpel

[Guyovick]

This is my first TF2 map.

Design theory: Most of the design inspiration of the valve maps is cold war and abandoned cold war espionage settings. They are mainly American, missiles hidden in farms and what not. I thought it might be interesting to design a map from the other side. One of the developments the USSR produced was the train based nukes. The train based missile was called the Scalpel by NATO, hence the map name.

The map is a stalinist style building in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fake buildings(yet to be added to 3d skybox). There is an underground train station where the missiles are loaded onto trains.

Middle capture point

Overhead view

View of Satelite dish control point

Sniper view of Fuel control point

Scout path

The spawn is at the top and the last control point is on the ground floor.

Red Base front

 

[Guyovick]

displacement lighting errors!?

I originally had used hl2 pipe props, but since that is a 'no no' I followed the guide on how to make displacement pipes. These work great! They allow a lot more flexibility in where the pipes go. The only problem that I've found so far is that the lighting is off.

I created a pipe by putting 4 brushes in a rectangle creating a displacement on each of the outside faces. Then I used the "subdivide" button to round the displacements into a tube. See tutorial in link above. The problem is that I think the lighting is calculated on the pre-displacement face rather than on each of the polygons of the displacement. this results in some lighting glitches of rather abrupt shading changes. It is a little hard to tell in this image.

I used the same technique except a little different to create the missile. It also has shading error, except these are a little more noticeable.

I think I will see if the smoothing group does anything for the abrupt shading changes.

Plus, one of the displacements does not stay put. It will always "curl up" as seen in the photo above. Any suggestions?

 

[Sgt Frag]

I think one of the verts in the displacement that 'surls up' is not on the grid. I'd try resnapping them.

 

[Guyovick]

fixed displacement

Yeah it looks like all of the vertexes were not-aligned with the grid. I had grouped the brushes together to move them. My hypothesis is that grouped items are snapped to the grid based on the center of the group, rather than the individual vertexes being snapped to the grid. Also one of the non-displacement faces wasn't exactly the same as its neighbor, which meant it couldn't be sewn together. I have fixed that but the lighting still remains off.

I've tried changing the luxel size and using smoothing groups (which I'm not sure exactly what they are supposed to do) but I have yet to find a solution.

 

[Sgt Frag]

Well, at least you got the displacement issue fixed.

I haven't figured out the smoothing groups yet either and haven't found any tuts on that.

At least it's in a fairly unnoticable spot and could probably be lived with like that if you don't find an answer before release.

(it might be that all the light is below and that displacement on top is just not getting any light. I wonder if rotating it 45* in that view would help, I bet it would. You'd probably need to resnap all verts just to be sure.

 

[Guyovick]

I will be abandoning displacement pipes

The problem is that the pipe is long enough so that the only indication that the pipe is round is the shading on the textures. even with the displacement pipes mentioned above the shading is still calculated on the pre-displaced face basis. Which makes the pipe look square. This is what I mean.

the prop has a smooth gradient shading transition from light to shadow. The displacement pipe has an abrupt jump. (it is a lot clearer in game)

I've tried dividing each face of the pipe up a little more. to make the pre-displaced brushes more cylindrical, the problem there is that a 16 sided pipe has a face that is smaller than the smallest luxel, and as such the lighting is weird.

I've been working with smoothing groups but I don't think they work in Team Fortress 2 (similar to how ladders don't work). Here is a comparison of octagonal pipes with and without smoothing groups. Each face is 4 units across and each face has a luxel size of 2. I can't tell the difference between smoothing groups and no smoothing groups.

I wanted to use displacement pipes because they could be dynamically resized(within certain limits) while props cannot. Although, this lighting issues is a deal breaker for me. I will giving up on the displacement pipes and will be looking to create some prop pipes. (as well as a prop bomb/missile).