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 Re: The Hive
Posted by Smoke on Thu Mar 11th at 4:43pm 2004

? posted by fraggard

Okay, A few more things I could think of to help:

  • The recessed lights along the wall could probably be done better with textures
  • The textures mostly seem like default HL textures. You could get much higher detail from some newer ones. You might find what you need if you look around.
  • The crates seem terribly boring. Unless you really need them, you might want to get rid of them
  • Defintely reduce the number of polygons on those pillar tops. 8 usually does just fine. You could mask the blockiness with some proper textures.
  • The boxy rooms. Try modifiying the actual layout of the room itself, so it looks less like a box full of pillars :/

Those are some great idea's, I think 8 polygons is a bit low for the top of the pillars but should work fine for the pillars themselves, and the textures aren't default HL. I got them from a fairly good site. You should check it out.

P.S. Broadband internet would be recommended for this site. Along with some basic french, although I think it has some english subtitles.

http://perso.club-internet.fr/lemog/lemog_textures/acc_textures01.html





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 Re: The Hive
Posted by Smoke on Thu Mar 11th at 4:47pm 2004

Here's one of the concept images that I have based the trainstation on. It was the actual subway station that Resident Evil was filmed on.





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 Re: The Hive
Posted by 7dk2h4md720ih on Thu Mar 11th at 7:49pm 2004

If you're not doing any of the above ground parts you could create a pure white sky and use that to texture the those lights about the pillars. It'd mean you have no texture lights being split up and increasing poly's. Just a thought. [addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by ReNo on Sun Mar 14th at 6:48pm 2004

Well I think most of the comments here have been incredibly harsh - I must say as a map at the beginning of your level design life its extremely impressive.

1500 w_poly however, is much too high for what you have here. 24 sided cylinders, is miles more than you will ever need, 16 is the most you should ever go for in normal circumstances.

While most people have criticised your choice of limited textures, I think it works to your advantage. What I found striking about that particular set in the film was the material simplicity. The stylised architecture complete with clean materials is extremely atmospheric and personally I think you have done a reasonable job of capturing that. Rather than just use texture lights I suggest you play around with light_spots to achieve the pools of light below the pillars like in that photo. Get new crate textures, vary your concrete textures *slightly*, get your extra details in (handrails etc...) and I think you will be doing yourself proud at your current experience level.

DO try and lower w_poly to below 1000 though, what you have here does not merit higher.

[addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by Vash on Sun Mar 14th at 7:44pm 2004

? quote:

Like Vash said: "Welcome to the snarkpit. We'll eat your legs"

Finally, someone realizes my infinite knowledge!!!11

/runs off into woods without pants

Like the others said, you are not even close to HL2. Did you forgot about static mesh's? Half-Life2 is heavy on them. Once your done actually retexturing your map, you'll find ALOT of static mesh's that'll replace objects you already have, and will cut down on r`s. And dont think for a second HL2 is some superb, r-speed-killer. Sure, it is REALLY powerful, and true in most case's R_speeds wont even be in your mind, but HL2 isnt a PERFECT engine. It still has its limits as well...

Dont forgot about lighting

[addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by ReNo on Sun Mar 14th at 7:53pm 2004

I just noticed you are using hi-res textures, above 256x256. Generally this isn't recommended, as it could cause issues on older systems, so you might want to consider resizing them in Photoshop / PSP / paint / wally.

[addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by scary_jeff on Sun Mar 14th at 9:15pm 2004

I say well done Smoky. I think your map looks very nice, and considering you want to release it for HL2, I don't see how it's overly ambitious for that engine (based on the hl2 video clips). It looks like you have spent a lot of time on it, when I saw your concept picture my first thought was 'wow', because I thought that was taken in game! haha It doesn't look like a box full of pilars to me at all.



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by 7dk2h4md720ih on Mon Mar 15th at 5:26pm 2004

Anyone else really like the stairwell? [addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by ReNo on Tue Mar 16th at 12:34pm 2004

The stairwell is probably the most impressive shot actually, I forgot to mention it as I was looking at the posted screenshots rather than those ones. It is really nice in terms of brushwork, though I must admit I don't recall the area from the film. Is it just an area you designed yourself smoke? [addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by Smoke on Tue Mar 16th at 7:41pm 2004

The stairwell is an area that I designed myself to fill in some of the gaps. It is intended to connect some of the office zones in the upper levels of the Hive. The movie gives me some good areas to work with, but the bulk of the Hive wasn't shown in the movie and will have to be designed and built. This project gives me a lot of sets that will be based from the movie, as well as a lot more that will have to be designed from scratch.



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by Smoke on Wed Mar 17th at 7:03pm 2004

I just finished tweaking the pillar lights to turn on in sequence as the train enters the station. It is only availiable in Spirit. I ran into the "too many direct light styles" error and was forced to have three seperate portions turn on as you pull in. I would have liked to have each row seperately turn on like in the movie, but I am forced to group a couple rows together due to the engine limitations. I have wondered wether there is any way to increase the light style limitation? In any case its beginning to come together, I cut the w_polies in half with more efficient pillar and wall accent lighting designs and reworked the subway tunnel entrances to look better and eat up less w_polies. I should have an example map to download soon.



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by Smoke on Wed Mar 17th at 7:03pm 2004

Does anybody know where to get good detailed crate and barrel models, I have very few spare w_polies and I want to put a lot of supplies and whatnot for the atmosphere of the supply bay. To do it with regular world brushs would just add to the r-speeds that are already pushing 1400 to 1500 w_polies.





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 Re: The Hive
Posted by 7dk2h4md720ih on Thu Mar 18th at 1:23pm 2004

Not sure where you'd pick up some public crate and barrel models.

Ask your light styles question in the editing forum though, you'll be sure to get a response then. [addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by ReNo on Thu Mar 18th at 4:14pm 2004

Search for "the doener king", I don't know the exact URL but he has a lot of models on his website. Not sure if there will be anything of use for this particular need but as far as I know its the largest repository of world models for HL around. Oh and the website is mostly in german, so finding models may take some trial and error

Once you get a beta version of the map online I'm sure a lot of folks will be able to offer advice on lowering w_poly without changing much in the way of appearance.

[addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by 7dk2h4md720ih on Thu Mar 18th at 4:25pm 2004

Here is his site:

http://thedoenerking.myexp.de/models.php

You'll have no trouble finding the models you need, and there are definately some nice ones there that you can use. [addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by Myrk- on Thu Mar 18th at 4:27pm 2004

Theres links to his stuff on this website in the prefab section or model section or something... I know theres links and stuff on this site. [addsig]



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by Perin on Sat Mar 6th at 3:04pm 2004

Ooo! I'm a RE freak (as you can tell from my profile) so keep up the good work man and make this map nice smiley



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by R@lph VViggum on Sat Mar 6th at 8:26pm 2004

OMG! This looks really nice. The first and third pictures just look sweet. Only thing I'd suggest is adding those metal crates from the movie to screenshot 2. Good job. smiley



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by Crono on Sat Mar 6th at 11:45pm 2004

Oh man. Nice. I think ralph has a good suggestion there. I'd suggest to have the Umbrella Corps train travel by every once in awhile smiley



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 Re: The Hive
Posted by 7dk2h4md720ih on Sun Mar 7th at 12:11am 2004

If you're serious about this as a project, I'd suggest getting a texture artist to help you out. Your architecture is fine, but the bland textures let it down. Nice work so far, hope you see it through. <br> <br>If done nicely, that laser room from the film would make a nice puzzle-esque thing or even a cool scripted sequence.




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