Persian Letters [updated x Final]
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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Gwil on Sat Jul 24th at 11:22am 2004


http://www.seapyramid.net/articles/images/persia/mithra.jpg


kinda like that, CJ - if you see what I mean. usually depicting folks doing something historic (attacking people, being led by their God etc). just poke around and look on Iranian/Iraqi websites or use the ever wonderful google image tool with a few choice words - tis always good for inspiration.

BTW the hanging gardens were made of mud bricks I believe, if that helps develop them. and they didnt hang at all, they just sat

heres another good one of (i presume) some ruins from the location of Persepolis -
http://www.hory.applet.cz/iran/perseopolis_chram_sm.jpg
[addsig]




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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by ReNo on Sat Jul 24th at 7:49pm 2004


Its looking pretty epic, bigger than I expected for some reason. I'd really need to see it compiled to pass judgement, there are lots of awkward parts in the texturing that are obvious in hammer but may be hidden better in game, and together with the lack of lighting, I feel it would be unfair to say anything about it without seeing compiled shots. [addsig]



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Sun Jul 25th at 12:02am 2004


Yeah, heheh, got carried away. I'll also work on clearing some texture space for those stone-image things.

So, I'm going to do a major overhaul of the map right now (~1 week away from the deadline?! eep) I'm removing all the weaker areas, cannibalizing parts from them, and going to adapt it to a new multi-tiered semi-Stalkyard type layout. Going to work on getting more cover / close-quarters in too. Thanks for all the feedback, probably would have just kept blindly working on all of this without it. Going to be a challenge balancing epic/tight feel, but I can try, right?
[addsig]




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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Crackerjack on Sun Jul 25th at 1:01am 2004


no you can't.. its impossible [addsig]



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Sun Jul 25th at 2:16am 2004


Crackerjack: I shall break you, then proceed to ruin your family.
[addsig]




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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Ferret on Sun Jul 25th at 3:56am 2004


break me! break me!



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Tue Jul 27th at 3:16am 2004


Updated.
Finally compiled. Woohoo. Lighting indoors is sketchy at best - just threw torches and such everywhere. Could use suggestions anyway. r_speeds peak at 1000 in little corner areas, but for the most part the average is somewhere around 600.
















(obligatory Tron 2.0 Glow screenshot...)


[addsig]




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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Cassius on Tue Jul 27th at 3:21am 2004


I'd hit it.



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by 7dk2h4md720ih on Tue Jul 27th at 3:26am 2004


A little texture strangeness in the top of screenshot four, but other than that It looks awesome. Might want to add some torches outside too, it looks a little grey.




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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Ferret on Tue Jul 27th at 4:29am 2004


pure sexy. I'd say more orange/yellows outside and more blues inside to balance your lighting. Also I'd like to see some of your weapon placements ;P



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Crackerjack on Tue Jul 27th at 4:48am 2004


The first pic looks quite empty and boring compared to rest of the map. Than your windows really need to lose the cross hatching.. HL is rendering them in a way that appears that if its more of a bug then just detail added to the texture. Other than that its looking pretty nice [addsig]



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by ReNo on Tue Jul 27th at 12:05pm 2004


I second all three of those suggestions - particularly the last as I've never been too fond of your windows Otherwise this is looking really cool, particularly screenshot 7 (second last one) which just owns. [addsig]



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by -Stratesiz- on Tue Jul 27th at 12:54pm 2004


Agreed. The first shot does not do justice to the rest of the map. The ceiling feels artificial somehow. Why not make it similar to the other hallway shots?



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Tue Jul 27th at 6:02pm 2004


That part is rather undetailed for a reason - high-traffic area (although it doesn't look like it) and it's connected directly to the Library portion. But I'll see what I can do anyways, you're all right.

About the windows - if I lose the crosshatching, it looks almost worse (it's more of a "hole in the wall" rather than a window) Kind of at a loss of how to do this. Most of the windows in PoP had the grating too, except it looked okay. I'm thinking of maybe getting a circular-grating, making the glow 512x512, and scaling it down so it looks sharper or whatever. Basically they need to stay recognizable as windows and also match PoP's style of windows, so I'll pretty much need some form of grating. Blargh.
[addsig]




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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Mon Aug 9th at 9:28am 2004


Persian Letters is done.
(well, kind of)

Had to remove a lot of detail to get this baby to compile properly. Lighting is very iffy, and I'm not happy with a lot of areas. But I guess that's the price you pay for putting everything off until the last minute, right? R_speeds are generally okay, except at certain corners. Weapon placement is chaotic, I think. I'm not a very experienced HLDM player to begin with, so I can't really figure out placement too well. Should have had ReNo do it for me, eh?

Also made a bunch of cool ambient sounds, but forgot to use some of them. Crap!

I've done a fairly drastic remodel and retexture since the last update. Not sure if it's better or worse. Though I'd like to think the hours I slaved away at Photoshop were productive. Anyway, here are some screens:


Atrium redone for better r_speeds and flow. Don't like the lighting too much. I think it's okay considering I did it in 2 hours.


Slightly remodeled Library. Better, more recognizable windows.


Gardens. I think this is one of the more polished areas.


The "Zoo". But I forgot to make a sign for it in the .wad! Oh well. The doors are interactive, with levers at the top that control whether they're open or closed. When open, people can pass underneath and people can run across the top of the gate to get goodies.


Courtyard. Really too dark. The top area is fine, but the bottom area really needs some torches. Was going for a nice "sieged palace" kind of look, but I quickly realized I was running out of clipnodes and such. So, I only did ruined-areas in 2 parts of the map. Oops.



Redone Patio area. Hurrah?


Another shot of the Library. Notice the pages on the floor. The books are func_breakable, and you can shoot them apart and have book gibs fly around. Desks and chairs in the Library are also destructable. I was going to have more destructables throughout the map... But again, I could barely get the map to compile as is.


The overview for the map. Center atrium is messed up. Oops.

I'm probably going to polish this up later and re-release this at my convenience. There's so many little errors and stuff plaguing the map... Damn the 5 hours compiles!
[addsig]




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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Hugh on Mon Aug 9th at 11:01am 2004


Well, I like the garden. The rest is pretty good but not up to my elevated Campaignjunkie standard, so yeah, good thing you want to spend more time on it.



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Crackerjack on Mon Aug 9th at 1:10pm 2004


Huge improvment on the windows, look alot better. But like Hugh said.. I expected more. But you did a real good job with what you have. [addsig]



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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Ferret on Mon Aug 9th at 3:02pm 2004


prettttyyyyyy

its got my vote





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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Forceflow on Mon Aug 9th at 7:24pm 2004


this looks great ... so many good maps in compo this year ... decisions, decisions ...
[addsig]




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Re: Persian Letters [updated x Final]
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Mon Aug 9th at 8:32pm 2004


A list of cutout content due to constraints / BSP limits:

- Dynamic King of the Hill gameplay; each area had a pad, and the hill would randomly move every 30 seconds. Had to remove due to allocblock:full error. Also conveniently solves the problem of finding other players to fight in the giant map.

- Water reflections in the Baths area; had to remove to conserve leaves. Looks pretty damn cool though.

- Traps within the palace. Spikes, crushing walls, swinging axes of doom, etc. Cut out for allocblock:full and to conserve leaves. But would have added an interesting dynamic to the gameplay, or quite possibly become incredibly annoying. Never had time for a playtest though.

- Lots of other cool details and cliff-brushes, deleted to save clipnodes and leaves. Damn map limits!

Assuming I did do a more polished version, I don't think I can add the detail back in, considering the BSP limits. Maybe I'll chop up parts of this map to use in a mini-Singleplayer pack, who knows.
[addsig]





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