Some wires dangling around the place from the tops of buildings would be good.[/quote]
dm_torque had wired telephone poles but I deleted them cause I felt intact wires amongst a bunch of shattered buildings looked silly. However I think I've got a better solution than just cutting them out.
More signage such as advertisements, warnings, notices etc around the spaces are always a nice touch and give areas more character and depth, plus players might want to read them.[/quote]
Hmm... I felt there was already enough of this stuff in the map but I can always add more.
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Imagine these spaces in real life at night. There would probably be street lights and some other lights around the place to light up the area, you might want to add some light fixtures where you think they would be in real life such as some street lights. Even though they won't be in use, they still contribute to the depth of the environment and make it contribute to the sense of live being present here at some point.
That was an oversight on my part, something so obvious and so easy to do.
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I mentioned that the level design gameplay wise is pretty non linear, but the actual architecture itself is quite linear, everything is at 90 degree angles. See if you can make some of the existing things in the level face other angles. Just a few things at a 45 degree angle would be enough to make the architecture appear alot less linear.
Also, some arbitrary quirks in the environment is nice. Maybe a surface is slightly angled for some reason or there is a pillar embedded in the side of a wall for no particular reason.
I'm not gonna make any promises, but we'll see.
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I'd perhaps also like to see a little more variation in the textures. It appears the map uses a very narrow pallet of the same type of textures (plaster/concrete, orange/white)...
That is definitely an issue that can be remedied.
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Also, it seems alot of the maps depth/detail come from the textures themselves and I think I'd like to see more depth from the brushwork and other things you place in the map as opposed to the various patterns and variations in the textures themselves.
That's the point of the textures. Obviously I could carve out every window, have it set in a few units, make a trim, add breakable glass, and give an interior, but there has to be some concessions for performance. If this were still a deathmatch map I'd dismiss this entirely, but since it's single player I'll look to add a little more building detail outside.
Maybe it is silly of me to still take design and performance cues from Half-Life 2, given that it is 5 years old and many people's computers are more powerful (not mine :P). Perhaps it's kinda like making a HL1 map today that'll still run in software mode, a pointless exercise that nobody cares about :/
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...not to mention that the ones with the embedded doors/windows I've always found quite unappealing and this level seems to use alot of them, plus the player can walk right up to them as opposed to keeping them away from the player. I think you should try to add some more brick/metal textures in there.
I'm assuming you're talking about the area in the second picture. I know that pretty much nobody likes the windows as is, but what is the alternative? Every window I knock out adds to the brushwork and probably adds another room the player can get into. It also reduces the 'scanability' of the map, where it is less obvious where you are supposed to go and less obvious what spots should be ignored and what spots explored. If I were to remove every single window from just the bottom level and make rooms there that would be 16 additional rooms the player can enter to pretty much no purpose.
Some of those windows are slated to go, especially the broken ones that are almost totally black, but replacing every single one of them is a very tall order.
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As for the lighting, I think sharper and more defined lighting (more contrast between light and shade) is more attractive than a relatively evenly lit map with very diffuse looking shadows which is what I see in the exterior spaces (it is a cloudy day I suppose). Increase the lightmap scale where you can to sharpen up those shadows.
This is surprising because I'm pretty sure the light_environment is set to have its shadows as sharp as possible. Maybe I changed it on accident or something.
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As for light colours, I think subtlety is the key. Most of the lights in the level shouldn't be too far away from white. Don't make most of your lights too yellow, or too green or too blue, lights mostly white with slight shades of colour look nicer in my opinion but remember, don't do that to all of your lights, having some stronger coloured lights occasionally is nice.
Of course. Nobody wants colored lighting vomited all over a map, though I'm pretty sure that all of the light colors in the map are taken from Valve City 17 maps so I dunno :/
[quote]Your spot lights I think should be quite bright and have a relatively narrowish range so the rest of the room is darker.
Hmm, I can try that and see how it goes.
[quote]Lighting is pretty important because it's like a visual overlay ontop of everything else and regardless a poorly lit space never really looks good, you could get the most beautiful environment and light it like shit and it would look terrible.
I've never made a single player map of any sort, and I haven't worked on a map this far to completion since 2005, so I'm assuming there's going to be some issues. All criticism is welcome and encouraged. Just note that the enemy placement is very basic. I want the brushwork to be as finished as it can be before I slog through that.
