AH BUGGER!

I wrote an amazing critique almost Orph stylee but accidently pressed back button! My advice summed up (before it was an epic novel). I like this map and I reckon it could be amazing, so thats why I write this nice critique.

Ok...

Your architecture is fine- its your texture usage and lighting thats bad. Use trims on the textures you have, use a different ground conrete to the one used on pillars and such. Make it on a sunny day to give the level more contrast to bring out the architecture.

More dirt- its a school, not a sanitary centre. Kids are messy and never put stuff in bins and never ever put all the chairs under the desks.

Read the Cube Map and displacement alpha tutorials. Use them.

Put in some wires and stuff.

Lastly (there was more but im lazy) take a photo or 2 of your actual School. Use it as reference and also show us so we can see how you can make your map look better.

I think your main problem with sucessfully releasing this map will be the thickness of the rooftops. Your map is pretty nice, but some of the roofs look about the same height as the player... if you scaled the roofs down a bit, it would look a bit more realistic. :smile:

my highschool looks too much like a prison... but the gameplay would be awesome for mine = D a bit too open though. i think my highschool would definently be quite ugly

D nice idea though, it would be fun if it were just you and your friends but on a large scale it would kinda suck. nobody would have anything to relate to your highschool unless they went there. its only cool if you actually know the place

i do guess though it would be a nice inspiration though =)

ugly or not, its good practice, just learn from it, do NOT release it and you will be leagues ahead of your peers. strong advice i know, you are thinking about how much effort you put into this thing, but the point is its only a thing, not a map.. at least not in the sense of any decent map.

use this map for what it truly is, a stepping stone from where you were, to where you will be.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting satchmo</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>I know you've obviously modeled the map after some building in the real world, but everything appears blocky to me.

I am in the process of adapting a real-life building into a map currently, and I have to make significant changes to the architecture (deviating from the real building) because I think the real one doesn't look good enough.

You are the architect now, so do not be afraid to try new things if they make your map better looking. We have a different purpose when we build maps--to play deathmatches and make it pretty. In real life, there are financial and architectural constraints (not to mention a real function other than having people shoot each other). So it only makes sense to change the real building to suit the new function.
</DIV></DIV>
This is pretty much how I feel about this map. On the one hand, it looks like a real place, but on the other, the first word that comes to mind is UGLY. Just because your school looks like a child's block set doesn't mean your map has to.

I know you've obviously modeled the map after some building in the real world, but everything appears blocky to me.

I am in the process of adapting a real-life building into a map
currently, and I have to make significant changes to the architecture
(deviating from the real building) because I think the real one doesn't
look good enough.

You are the architect now, so do not be afraid to try new things if
they make your map better looking. We have a different purpose
when we build maps--to play deathmatches and make it pretty. In
real life, there are financial and architectural constraints (not to
mention a real function other than having people shoot each
other). So it only makes sense to change the real building to
suit the new function.

Looking a bit.. blocky. You could make some round corners too, its not a HL1 your making these maps now :wink: . Some props and stuff would look nice at the outside. I like the indoor setting you made, looking pretty good. And oh yeah, some buildings or something outside of the school area would look nice.

Hey, the buildings are to scale as to the size of the roofs.
Everyone thinks it looks weird but I don't cuz I went there for 4 years
:-/. Anyways, I have a lot of "desquarifying" to do and detail to
add.

Looks ok but the roofs look bigger than the walls and would collapse!

The indoors looks ok but the lights in one room are placed inside the light texture (make them lower)

Apart from that i dont know what your school looks like so i cant make comparison , oh and the last pic shows textures misaligned but apart from that not bad so far

P.S if its not 95% then what percentage is it? im guessing 60%?

Ok well i looked at it and first thought that it was too bright
Then i noticed that your outdoors looks too blocky and boring textures
The indoor pic looks ok but it could do with much more detialed stuff

Tip use models as they are more detailed and take up less space!