More tips
As with my last instalment, this is not so much a tutorial as a series of suggestions and hints. In it I will try to suggest some ways to add detail to a level's architecture in an attempt to increase its visual appeal.
You can download a couple of example maps showing the before and after versions. By all means edit them, tear them apart, study them, etc..., but do NOT try and release them as proper maps or include them in your own work. They can be downloaded here...
http://www.snarkpit.net/pits/reno/files/detail_tut.zip
Just as a disclaimer - I am by no means a perfect mapper, and so if you find parts of the level you think could be made neater or more effectively, then you may well be correct. Please post any suggestions below or in the forums, and I will let you know what I think of them. Also please notice that this is not a complete self-containing area. The ends have been left covered by sky brushes rather than making them into some walls or something. Feel free to edit this and try to seal the area properly if wish, but this is purely up to you.
Now then, on with the guide. Below is a screenshot of a man-made "valley" type corridor cut into some outdoors area. If you have followed my 2 previous guides on architecture in worldcraft, then you should be perfectly capable of understanding how it was made. If you don't know how to make something such as this, then this tutorial is probably outwith your limits, and you should go back and look over my last 2 tutorials before you attempt this.
While the area above is a perfectly average looking construction, and isn't UGLY, it could certainly do with a little more in the way of visual flair. I will do this in four or five main steps. The ideas below are purely some ideas I plucked from my head, but the options are endless and limited only by your own creativity.
It is very easy to create a flat, single brush floor for your players to run along on, but hardly interesting. Too add some variety to it, it is useful to add depth. This can be done in various ways, using masked textures with pipes/wires/water/etc... underneath, or perhaps a small dip/rise with a few stairs or a ramp down or up. I cannot attempt to cover all possibilities in this tutorial, so I will go through a relatively complex example.
To give your map an aged, abandoned, or war-torn look, damaged flooring is a great and easy to do effect. The first step in creating this is to clip a rectangular section of your floor out, and lower it slightly (8 units looks good, although it varies to taste I suppose). Now create and clip/vertex manipulate some blocks at the height of your floor to give a smashed up look, as below. It can also be good to create another block or two in the centre of the hole, and clip those into smashed out sections of the floor. Now select all parts of the damaged section (including any centre parts I just mentioned) and tie them to a func_wall entity. That way they will not split the face of the ground below and cause higher polycounts. Finally texture the ground below to look like mud/sand/grass/etc... and admire your creation
As a final precautionary step, it is often wise to fill in your hole with a clip brush to prevent players getting snagged on the edges. This is esspecially true if your are making a deathmatch map, where speed is essential.
Putting in detail outside of the reachable area can really help to convince a player that the area they are playing in is part of a greater world. Obviously what you can use is greatly determined by what you wish to convey to the player - for example if the level is set in an house in a jungle, you could put in see-through windows with views to the areas outside, even if the player can never reach them (with noclipping out of course). In the example map, I have put in two tower type constructions that really serve no purpose (I don't even know what they are supposed to be!) yet add a lot to the atmosphere of the map.
There is little to teach here in way of mapping technique, as what you make is purely up to you. As a suggestion, I would say to keep whatever you make low in r_speeds and ensure it is quite confined. Don't go designing some extravagant exterior to some building you are designing if the player can never even GET to it. Lighting up your little details with subtle lighting is also very effective when used in the right places. Note the lights at the top of my towers for example. Also remember that if the player can only see part of the objects (eg. the player cannot see the base of my towers) then you can use this to your advantage. My towers do not touch the floor below them since the player cannot see there, and so face splitting is stopped. I have also covered the entire construction in a large clip brush, as this will reduce the amount of clipnodes which can become a problem in complex maps.
The first example map is a little plain as far as overhead detail is concerned. Sure there are some support beams holding up the light fixtures, but its still a bit lacking. As usual, what you put in above the player's head is purely upto you and your decided theme. In my example map I felt a couple of supported old pipes would fit well. Before you get started, it would be wise to delete all the overhead lights and the beams holding them up, as well as the wall on the right hand side as it may get in the way.
Using all the skills you have learnt so far, it is possible to craft just about anything. I chose to integrate the pipe supports with the left hand wall, with one support going down to the ground on the right of the path. I will not go over exactly how the object was built, as you can probably figure it out by yourself by now. One thing that is worth mentioning however is that brushes can overlap with no disadvantages, provided that ONE OF THEM is an entity brush. For example I have the rusty supports overlap the pipes, as to do make them not do so would cause many more brushes. Normally this would slow compile times, as well as increasing r_speeds due to face splitting. It is also generally considered as sloppy mapping. Since the pipes are func_walls though, all the downsides are nullified, and the number of brushes is kept to a minimum. In the second example map, and places you see func_walls or func_illusionaries, try to figure out why they have been made into what they have. I don't do it for the fun of it!
Overhead detail can also often be used as light fittings, as in my example map. It looks much more impressive if light fixtures are part of the architecture rather than brushes that are "tagged on" to the ceiling.
I really covered this in my last couple of tutorials, but I feel it has a place in here as well. To stop your walls becoming repetitive boundaries to the player, try to vary them with little details. You can put in alcoves with pipes or wires in them, windows showing other areas, damaged sections, and so on. I chose to put some simple rusty-metal reinforcements on my upper pillars to break up the repeated use of the texture. These are simply 1 brush func_walls which overlap the pillar. Nothing breakthrough, and certainly nothing that will make or break a map, but for a few polys each I figure they add a nice little detail.
If you use recesses or alcoves in your walls, then it can look great if you put in some subtle lights to bring attention to them. I have put some blue lights above the rock indents on the wall to provide some light colour variation. As with the main lights on the level, they are integrated into the architecture rather than looking like last minute additions.
People very frequently make corridors or rooms that are symmetrical to some extent (if not entirely). While at times this can be good, it is normally better to break this. My initial corridor had one wall basically identical to the opposite - except for the stairwell. I have decided to scrap the right hand wall and replace it with a cliff to continue the outdoors theme.
I have a tutorial on building cliff faces here at the Snarkpit, but the technique I have used in this map is slightly more refined. Once you have made a cliff like the one in my tutorial, to modify it further use the clip tool on the front view to slice each brush into 2 triangles as below. This will allow you to modify the shape of your cliff to an even greater degree, and it is very hard to screw is up and get invalid solids. I textured the top brushes of my cliff to look like the outdoors ground texture I chose to use, and this gives a much more realistic look. Another noteworthy addition to my early tutorial is that the cliffs here are raised 1 unit from the ground in order to prevent face splitting. Behind the cliff there is a 1 unit thick brush running along its length between it and floor, which plugs the gap to prevent a leak. It is always worth doing this on all but the shortest of rock faces, although unfortunately it allows players to throw satchels or snarks underneath which can cause problems at times.
Of course a cliff face is not the only thing that could be used in place of the wall. A different wall design would have been just as effective at providing variety. As usual, this is all down to creativity and theme fitting - use symmetry or break it when it suits your map.
I hope this guide has given you ideas and inspiration to go and design better looking levels! Let me know what you think by posting here or in the forums. Suggestions and feedback are more than welcome
You can download a couple of example maps showing the before and after versions. By all means edit them, tear them apart, study them, etc..., but do NOT try and release them as proper maps or include them in your own work. They can be downloaded here...
http://www.snarkpit.net/pits/reno/files/detail_tut.zip
Just as a disclaimer - I am by no means a perfect mapper, and so if you find parts of the level you think could be made neater or more effectively, then you may well be correct. Please post any suggestions below or in the forums, and I will let you know what I think of them. Also please notice that this is not a complete self-containing area. The ends have been left covered by sky brushes rather than making them into some walls or something. Feel free to edit this and try to seal the area properly if wish, but this is purely up to you.
Now then, on with the guide. Below is a screenshot of a man-made "valley" type corridor cut into some outdoors area. If you have followed my 2 previous guides on architecture in worldcraft, then you should be perfectly capable of understanding how it was made. If you don't know how to make something such as this, then this tutorial is probably outwith your limits, and you should go back and look over my last 2 tutorials before you attempt this.
While the area above is a perfectly average looking construction, and isn't UGLY, it could certainly do with a little more in the way of visual flair. I will do this in four or five main steps. The ideas below are purely some ideas I plucked from my head, but the options are endless and limited only by your own creativity.
Floor Detail
It is very easy to create a flat, single brush floor for your players to run along on, but hardly interesting. Too add some variety to it, it is useful to add depth. This can be done in various ways, using masked textures with pipes/wires/water/etc... underneath, or perhaps a small dip/rise with a few stairs or a ramp down or up. I cannot attempt to cover all possibilities in this tutorial, so I will go through a relatively complex example.
To give your map an aged, abandoned, or war-torn look, damaged flooring is a great and easy to do effect. The first step in creating this is to clip a rectangular section of your floor out, and lower it slightly (8 units looks good, although it varies to taste I suppose). Now create and clip/vertex manipulate some blocks at the height of your floor to give a smashed up look, as below. It can also be good to create another block or two in the centre of the hole, and clip those into smashed out sections of the floor. Now select all parts of the damaged section (including any centre parts I just mentioned) and tie them to a func_wall entity. That way they will not split the face of the ground below and cause higher polycounts. Finally texture the ground below to look like mud/sand/grass/etc... and admire your creation
As a final precautionary step, it is often wise to fill in your hole with a clip brush to prevent players getting snagged on the edges. This is esspecially true if your are making a deathmatch map, where speed is essential.Unreachable areas
Putting in detail outside of the reachable area can really help to convince a player that the area they are playing in is part of a greater world. Obviously what you can use is greatly determined by what you wish to convey to the player - for example if the level is set in an house in a jungle, you could put in see-through windows with views to the areas outside, even if the player can never reach them (with noclipping out of course). In the example map, I have put in two tower type constructions that really serve no purpose (I don't even know what they are supposed to be!) yet add a lot to the atmosphere of the map.
There is little to teach here in way of mapping technique, as what you make is purely up to you. As a suggestion, I would say to keep whatever you make low in r_speeds and ensure it is quite confined. Don't go designing some extravagant exterior to some building you are designing if the player can never even GET to it. Lighting up your little details with subtle lighting is also very effective when used in the right places. Note the lights at the top of my towers for example. Also remember that if the player can only see part of the objects (eg. the player cannot see the base of my towers) then you can use this to your advantage. My towers do not touch the floor below them since the player cannot see there, and so face splitting is stopped. I have also covered the entire construction in a large clip brush, as this will reduce the amount of clipnodes which can become a problem in complex maps.
Overhead detail
The first example map is a little plain as far as overhead detail is concerned. Sure there are some support beams holding up the light fixtures, but its still a bit lacking. As usual, what you put in above the player's head is purely upto you and your decided theme. In my example map I felt a couple of supported old pipes would fit well. Before you get started, it would be wise to delete all the overhead lights and the beams holding them up, as well as the wall on the right hand side as it may get in the way.
Using all the skills you have learnt so far, it is possible to craft just about anything. I chose to integrate the pipe supports with the left hand wall, with one support going down to the ground on the right of the path. I will not go over exactly how the object was built, as you can probably figure it out by yourself by now. One thing that is worth mentioning however is that brushes can overlap with no disadvantages, provided that ONE OF THEM is an entity brush. For example I have the rusty supports overlap the pipes, as to do make them not do so would cause many more brushes. Normally this would slow compile times, as well as increasing r_speeds due to face splitting. It is also generally considered as sloppy mapping. Since the pipes are func_walls though, all the downsides are nullified, and the number of brushes is kept to a minimum. In the second example map, and places you see func_walls or func_illusionaries, try to figure out why they have been made into what they have. I don't do it for the fun of it!
Overhead detail can also often be used as light fittings, as in my example map. It looks much more impressive if light fixtures are part of the architecture rather than brushes that are "tagged on" to the ceiling.
Wall detailing
I really covered this in my last couple of tutorials, but I feel it has a place in here as well. To stop your walls becoming repetitive boundaries to the player, try to vary them with little details. You can put in alcoves with pipes or wires in them, windows showing other areas, damaged sections, and so on. I chose to put some simple rusty-metal reinforcements on my upper pillars to break up the repeated use of the texture. These are simply 1 brush func_walls which overlap the pillar. Nothing breakthrough, and certainly nothing that will make or break a map, but for a few polys each I figure they add a nice little detail.
If you use recesses or alcoves in your walls, then it can look great if you put in some subtle lights to bring attention to them. I have put some blue lights above the rock indents on the wall to provide some light colour variation. As with the main lights on the level, they are integrated into the architecture rather than looking like last minute additions.
Symmetry breaking
People very frequently make corridors or rooms that are symmetrical to some extent (if not entirely). While at times this can be good, it is normally better to break this. My initial corridor had one wall basically identical to the opposite - except for the stairwell. I have decided to scrap the right hand wall and replace it with a cliff to continue the outdoors theme.
I have a tutorial on building cliff faces here at the Snarkpit, but the technique I have used in this map is slightly more refined. Once you have made a cliff like the one in my tutorial, to modify it further use the clip tool on the front view to slice each brush into 2 triangles as below. This will allow you to modify the shape of your cliff to an even greater degree, and it is very hard to screw is up and get invalid solids. I textured the top brushes of my cliff to look like the outdoors ground texture I chose to use, and this gives a much more realistic look. Another noteworthy addition to my early tutorial is that the cliffs here are raised 1 unit from the ground in order to prevent face splitting. Behind the cliff there is a 1 unit thick brush running along its length between it and floor, which plugs the gap to prevent a leak. It is always worth doing this on all but the shortest of rock faces, although unfortunately it allows players to throw satchels or snarks underneath which can cause problems at times.
Of course a cliff face is not the only thing that could be used in place of the wall. A different wall design would have been just as effective at providing variety. As usual, this is all down to creativity and theme fitting - use symmetry or break it when it suits your map.
I hope this guide has given you ideas and inspiration to go and design better looking levels! Let me know what you think by posting here or in the forums. Suggestions and feedback are more than welcome
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