General WIP thread

[Axel_m3sh]

Tysn, do you have an example of said method? I also got a huge underground displacement thing and I'm wondering how I can at least box it in.

If no example then could I get a picture or screenshot? thanks

[Tysn]

Not exactly a complex technique, but here:

Cave section in oc_wildfire:


Cave section in oc_fireteam_2. No brushes unfortunately, vmex butchered them. However, you can see how I pretty much used the displacement translate tool to shove the tunnels around every which way.



You'll also notice how I stuck prop rocks all over the place. The jagged shape of the props as part of the walls helps reduce that "smooth" look that displacement caves tend to have.

The technique I used in wildfire and fireteam is pretty old though; the main advantage is that it can be done very fast. A better way to use the props is to make stalactites. as seen in my empires map emp_coast:

[Axel_m3sh]

Wow! thanks man, your caves are supreme. At least I get the idea on how to make areas like that.

Do you also use $seamless (or something along that line) for the displacements that stretch out too much?

Also what is the huge trigger brush over the area in the first pic? Vis_cluster or something?

[Tysn]

Haven't tried using a $seamless texture yet, mainly because rock textures have strong normal maps which allow them to be scaled up considerably while still looking good. This tends to solve the texture stretching issue well enough most of the time.

Also yes, the huge trigger brush is a viscluster.

[fug4life]

I've always enjoyed the cave sections of your maps.

As for the construction:
Yeah thats pretty much what I'm doing, though because the level layout alot of the corridors run next to, above and below each other I've had to try keep the nodraw areas as small as possible.



I'm a big fan of hint brushes, I really like hinting around corners in the above method.
I've toyed with func_vis_cluster in the past, perhaps I'll stick some in the bigger rooms.

The reason I went subdivide crazy is because I really want a 'burrowed' look to the whole hive, If I do any geo painting it will be vey subtle. I know people moan about caves looking too subdivided, but I really think it suites hive maps more.

As for stalactites, although the ep2 ones look well made, I thought they reall stood out too much in ep2, and contrasted with the surrounding texture pallet.

Your emp_coast map the stalictites I'd say blend to the cave texture better than ep2 did with theirs, though the ep2s look higher poly. I guess the ones in the new dear esther look good, but they look too 'detail' sprite/2d.

I'm having no water in my map so will probably not use any stalictites,
instead I'm going to fill the map with static prop antlion web meshes, I'll make with 'Propper'.

Here's a look at the shape I'm going for, and imagine webs running across the ceilings etc.

[fug4life]

Well, today is a good day, I've been mapping hard past few days.
(Well I've actually been trying to sort oc_deathball out, what I thought would be a small amount of work, but I've come to the conclusion, I gotta rebuild that bitch)

So back to the hive map and I managed to nodraw it all and guess what first compile a success! Well almost (That not show stoppers):

warning: overflowed 2 displacement corner-neighbor lists.

Description:
There seems to be a fixed amount of displacement-sides allowed that touch other displacements, and you seem to have reached the limit. I've seen this warning show up more and more, mostly with mappers trying to create large tracks of landscapes with lots and lots of displacements. This may be the cause of occasionally reported lighting errors, but that may not be the case in your map.

Solution:
The only (theoretically) fix i can think of is to reduce the amount of displacements touching other displacements. You *only* need to fix about 2 displacements, so... I'd only fix this error if you do experience problems in your map.


The affected object may not work/appear properly

found a displacement edge abutting multiple other edges

Description:
A displacement is touching more than one other displacements at the same point along one of its edges; in other words: at some point, three displacements are touching each other along an entire edge. This may cause lighting errors, as vrad doesn't know which displacements need to have their light smoothed out, if you know what i mean. I guess it can also be a wanted situation, in which cause this 'error' can be ignored.

Solution:
The usual cause i can think of is the accidental non-deletion of displacements along the sides of brushes. Eg, if you have two brushes next to each other, and their tops displaced, and you accidentally also displaced the vertical brushsides between these two, you get a T-shaped intersection of three.


This is no real error, but it could be the cause of lighting anomalies. There is no easy way to find the displacement either, the fastest way would be to go through your displacements one by one.

Generally, this error may be ignored

And after a quick run around in the dark I've found the offending disps I think?



& matfullbright:



I kind of guessed I might of double duplicated, somewhere along the line.

The reason the map is so dark is because I only have a light_enviroment in at the moment, and that's outside where you escape:



Yep, that's the end of the map, saviour it as that gonna be the last screenshot I show ya'll!

I doubt Im gonna make a WIP thread as I'm starting to be superstitous, that whenever I create a thread I never get to releasing the map.

Maybe Ill start the thread but just with the gameplay details so people can input ideas??

Edit: Lmao at the current map name as seen in screen shots:
'sub_2048_build_nodrawed_6_compile0001'

[Gary]

Made out of boredom, more info on video page.

[fug4life]

loving the door kick!

[Datastream]

That door kick is indeed fraking brutal!

[Miss Eleksin]

That's really cool and great idea actually. Busting down doors seems fun~

[Gary]

Thanks guys, it is cooler ingame though, because it goes into slow-mo during the kicking.

[MaestraFénix]

It´s good. For a second remember me CODMW2.

[Gary]

Heh, I should leave it in slow-mo for like 4 seconds so it would exactly like MW2.

Again, thanks for the input, glad you guys like it. Now all I need to do is put all my skill into a real map or mod.

[Axel_m3sh]

Next up, breach and plant c4 lol

[Gary]

That would be easy, but I still like my kicking breach method.