[WIP] space something or another.

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
Updated picture. This is where i am now.

dot3.jpg


Not much has changed on the first level. Most all my work the last day was Texturing, Elevator, Bio-dome

and yes.....thats HL2 grass which to be honest.. looks very good in the game. the TF2 grass didn't look right even though its TF2. I can add some comparison shots later for the grass in the same picture.

ToDo:

Re-texture the door. i LOVE it.. well, i love the door/decal look, i need to make a new, or wish it from someone else <3

Re-build the capture point. Currently there are no cp's in the map anymore. Haven't gotten to them.

Add Love to the Bio-Dome. Props, models etc.

Add some work to Level One. ATM its a clear shot, nothing to hide behind.

Rework the Elevator.

Fix my water cage *IE picture 2* <-- looking for help or a work around for this.
 

henda

L1: Registered
Mar 3, 2008
11
1
im no expert in mapping, and i dont really know enough about mapping to be able to crit your work. but from what i see you know what your doing and the brush work looks sweet. keep up the good work look forward to seeing the finished result ^.^
 

poopster101

L4: Comfortable Member
Jan 28, 2008
155
5
do we get to see an update soon?
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
=p

Not to much has changed, i put this on the back burner for the last 10 days. I just picked it up 3 days ago.

Things I've done with it really wouldn't show in the screenshots.

Elevation reworking/lighting/lighting effects/little optimizations/working on the CP for the forward spawn.

Total compile ATM is 63% full, which is a bummer, leaves me only 30% or so to build the rest of the whole map =/

Maybe in short time I'll upload the latest version here, it wont be any type of really playable game type, but at least it will allow people to run around and check it out.

Ty for the interest =)
 

MangyCarface

Mapper
aa
Feb 26, 2008
1,626
1,325
Got a chance to fool around with you in here.

Brushwork is awesome.

Couple things I said ingame:

Investigate for water:
Cheap Water
Env_ember brush entity

Maptype options:
1 flag ctf with captures in enemy bases
2 way escort rover cars

Style:
Foliage up top obviously :)
Respawn rooms more livable in

Technical:
Nodraw in bad places, notably in the "ponds" (look for it)
Fix door- issue with trying to close, set delay to -1

Hope I helped
 

Half-Life_Maniac

L3: Member
Nov 30, 2007
122
89
Looking very nice so far. Sadly, the textures are letting it down at the moment, which is completely understandable due to TF2's complete lack of texture variety.

I think what you need is a lot more metal rather than concrete. Plenty of shiny stuff too, and more RED/BLU.

Have you done any brush optimisation at all yet? Func_detailing, vertex manipulating, making sure everything is neat and tidy? I know the chances of you handing over your map are slim, but I'm now very interested at taking a look behind the scenes to see if anything can be improved!

Last thing- did you get references from anywhere when making the architecture?
 

ryodoan

Resident Bum
Nov 2, 2007
409
117
Good lord.... how did I miss this thread? DJive if you dont finish this I am going to smack you around, that looks unbelievably awesome.
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
Investigate for water:
Cheap Water
Env_ember brush entity

Maptype options:
1 flag ctf with captures in enemy bases
2 way escort rover cars

Style:
Foliage up top obviously :)
Respawn rooms more livable in

Technical:
Nodraw in bad places, notably in the "ponds" (look for it)
Fix door- issue with trying to close, set delay to -1

Alright. Water Didn't work =( I may just un-glass the middle area's and allow the top part to still swim.,
Working on Foliage, damn TF2 stock stuff urgh.
I'll prolly go 1 CTF due to brush count limit. ='(
Fixed Elev and added doors that open/close depending on elevators positioning.

Thanks a Ton =)

Looking very nice so far. Sadly, the textures are letting it down at the moment, which is completely understandable due to TF2's complete lack of texture variety.

I think what you need is a lot more metal rather than concrete. Plenty of shiny stuff too, and more RED/BLU.

Have you done any brush optimisation at all yet? Func_detailing, vertex manipulating, making sure everything is neat and tidy? I know the chances of you handing over your map are slim, but I'm now very interested at taking a look behind the scenes to see if anything can be improved!
Last thing- did you get references from anywhere when making the architecture?

Ya the textures are a bit rough. The middle area of the map *the space station* will be a team-less. I havent started the team area's yet =) outside on the moon.

Depends what you mean on Optimizations. a little func detail, avg FPS everyone was getting was 60. and my vertex manips are *brags* pristine.. Its what i set out to do with the map heh.

And nope, no references at all. I was bored one day and started to fool around in hammer thinking "i wonder what kinda of weird shapes i can make"

Good lord.... how did I miss this thread? DJive if you dont finish this I am going to smack you around, that looks unbelievably awesome.

I'll finish it.. in time.. time..time.. I do a bunch of run testing though, if you ever want to check it out, hop in steam chat =p which you always are anyways heh.


Thanks for all the comments/help/advice guys. Everything is taken into consideration.

/cheers
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
K, those who have been following thread and in steam chat *which you should all always be =p * I took some SS's of the crater with theskybox.

Both the moon texture and skybox are created by Youme.

You will need to break the glass to capture the point.

dot6.jpg


Not to much changed. I still need to build the outside bases like a said.. Also you noticed there are no legs yet! its floating, working on that as well..

Ya a lot of "working on that" going on.

Anyways a question.

In this SS.

change.jpg


I'm thinking im going to remove the "water" out of the bio-dome.. add another "grass" area with foliage in time. The reason why is i can-not find a work around for allowing water from 5 sides. I want the lower lvl to see in the water tank, but i also want people to be able to swim in there which i cant have. So im thinking of taking that out.

on the plus side it will save a good far bit of brushes and a tiny bit of fps.
on the down side i really do like the glass look from the bottom floor and the water look from the bio-dome *even though the water isn't functional*

Idea's? Advice?
 

Vilepickle

Banned
Oct 25, 2007
372
199
Some of those white/red spytech towers outside in the space part might look good.
 

Half-Life_Maniac

L3: Member
Nov 30, 2007
122
89
I've an idea for that water bit (just going from that screenshot and how you described it)- keep it as a tank of sorts with glass walls on the lower levels, but have it house a large tree, which will rise up and flow in the biodome.

My other suggestion is to lower the lighting outside a lot. Afterall, it is space, and I don't see any visable sun. Since you won't actually be walking about outside (..will you?) the darkness shouldn't cause a problem. You can of course add spotlights to provide light where needed.

PS. Any chance of a download link? I'm very interested in this map!
 
Last edited:

Scotland Tom

L6: Sharp Member
Jan 19, 2008
332
64
Idea's? Advice?

My only idea would be to not use an apostrophe when you're simply looking for the plural form of a word. :tongue_smilie:

Seriously, things are looking really good. It looks like you've got an excellent start on an outside terrain. Regarding your water problems, right now the water provides a nice counterpoint for the grassy areas. If you got rid of the water I'd at least find some way to keep that contrast, otherwise the area will seem even more flat and repetitious. If you did change them into grassy areas I'd certainly add some kind of foliage. Otherwise I'd keep looking at other ways you could fill in those spots without just making more grass.

As for Half-Life_Maniac's post, if that's Earth in the background then the sunlight should be as bright or brighter (due to the lack of atmosphere) than what we see every day. Though something does seem to bother me about the sunlight I see in the current screenshots. I think it's the blueish shadows. Again, with a lack of atmosphere the only ambient light reflecting from shaded areas should match the color of the material it's bouncing off of. If that's gray moon rock, then the ambient light should be relatively colorless. From the look of the bright areas it actually looks like the rock and dust might be more yellow-gray. In which case the ambient light from the shadows should be a bit more on the yellow side.
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
Some of those white/red spytech towers outside in the space part might look good.

Ya, im going to start to work on my skybox in a little bit. I need to try to get the "curve" horizion to work, which i think is goign to be hard with skyboxes.

I've an idea for that water bit (just going from that screenshot and how you described it)- keep it as a tank of sorts with glass walls on the lower levels, but have it house a large tree, which will rise up and flow in the biodome.
My other suggestion is to lower the lighting outside a lot. Afterall, it is space, and I don't see any visable sun. Since you won't actually be walking about outside (..will you?) the darkness shouldn't cause a problem. You can of course add spotlights to provide light where needed.
PS. Any chance of a download link? I'm very interested in this map!

Ya thats actually what i made at first, was a nature middle and it looked great, but without being able to model a custom TF2 tree, nothing goes that high and / or the way i need it to.

Seriously, things are looking really good. It looks like you've got an excellent start on an outside terrain. Regarding your water problems, right now the water provides a nice counterpoint for the grassy areas. If you got rid of the water I'd at least find some way to keep that contrast, otherwise the area will seem even more flat and repetitious. If you did change them into grassy areas I'd certainly add some kind of foliage. Otherwise I'd keep looking at other ways you could fill in those spots without just making more grass.

Hmm true, i really want to keep away from making it look flat. Maybe the nature way is the way to go, in the middle. Foliage is to come as well, but lack of models =(

@Maniac. You will be able to moon walk and the spawning points will be outside on small bio-domes. Lower grav of course. The sun is there, but higher in the sky and not in the SS's.
Currently there is no download. Adding to much each day it really wouldn't have a point, as its still not a "playable" map. No objectives set yet.
 

oxy

L5: Dapper Member
Nov 27, 2007
208
30
Wow... I am glad I am finally done with my project so I can comment on other stuff.
This is looking great! If you need any modeling done just let me know. :p
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
DJ take him up on his offer!!!! It will save your map from the brink of over use of brushes!
You'l be able to simplify your brushwork loads and optimise it tenfold
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
!?!? how did i miss this reply!?

Oxy i would REALLY love to take you up on that.
 

kimangroo

L3: Member
Mar 15, 2008
111
6
That is looking absolutely amazing. Very impressed.

BTW what exactly did you want to do with the water? 5 sides, glass lower level... I didn't quite get your problem.
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
i fixed the problem with water_analog however i cant seem to get the water to be viewed 2 ways.

IE i can see from the top to the bottom, however in the water i cant seem to see out of the top.