After about 14 months, the map is finally "finished".
For you guys who havent heard about the map before:
The map takes place in a futuristic city high enough to reach above the clouds.
One thing that i really miss is that very few people actually write stuff about how they did their maps, and how they thought when they did them. So I wrote one myself called "the story behind dm_cloudcity"
The textures is partially made by me, partially by Skurmedel, partially by Teddybear, partially by Valve, and partially by IZaNaGI.
Discussion
Posted by MisterBister on
Tue Feb 14th 2006 at 12:41pm
[Author]
Some images in this post have been automatically down-sized, click on them to view the full sized versions:
Progress:
I havent done anywhing to the map since the last week because of s**tty school work which me and my group had to present, and it went straight to hell.. Anyways, ill hopefully be alble to give you some updates next week.
Much better inside.
Those offices with lights on?
You need more variations. Executives have big windows, peons tend to have none, or very
small ones.
Offices have mainly florescent lighting so I would try to stick with blue tinted varieties
of light.
Another thing to consider. Floors average 10-15 feet apart (if you add in ventilation and
plumbing and such). Each floor having some sort of a window.
IMO, you have to many windows.
Thanks for the feedback about the big windows. Ill look into that.
Interiors are looking much better, good work on that. Watch the alignment of the tiled floor in the last picture though - looks a bit awkward as it is. You may want to put a trim or something around the edge of the floor holes to cap off the transition a bit better. I'm not too keen on that shot of the exterior for some reason - probably because it is less "busy" than the other shots and the lighting is a bit bland - but I think the windows are probably an improvement. Would be nice to see them in one of areas you had shown shots of before to do a comparison.
The indoor levels are still WIP, thanks for the heads up anyway. The pic is only showing the 3D-sky. Heres a pic for easier comparison:
textures dont show up for me
Do they go in half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2mp\materials\dm_cloudcity?
The materials should be in half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2mp\materials\maps\dm_cloudcity.
However the old alpha version that is available is almost completely covered with the grey dev textures.
Interiors are looking much better, good work on that. Watch the alignment of the tiled floor in the last picture though - looks a bit awkward as it is. You may want to put a trim or something around the edge of the floor holes to cap off the transition a bit better. I'm not too keen on that shot of the exterior for some reason - probably because it is less "busy" than the other shots and the lighting is a bit bland - but I think the windows are probably an improvement. Would be nice to see them in one of areas you had shown shots of before to do a comparison :smile:
You need more variations. Executives have big windows, peons tend to have none, or very small ones.
Offices have mainly florescent lighting so I would try to stick with blue tinted varieties of light.
Another thing to consider. Floors average 10-15 feet apart (if you add in ventilation and plumbing and such). Each floor having some sort of a window.
IMO, you have to many windows.
/ 2 cents.
Posted by MisterBister on
Sun Feb 5th 2006 at 5:32pm
[Author]
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Some images in this post have been automatically down-sized, click on them to view the full sized versions:
Some images in this post have been automatically down-sized, click on them to view the full sized versions:
Time for a small update.
Ive had lots of great feedback from all over the place, thanks alot for that everyone. This week ive been working on the indoor environments, a good friend made a new texture for the windows on the skyskrapers. The texture is not final, but much better than the one before i think.
Heres a pic of the new warehouse. I started with chopping a hole in the floor and continued from there, personally i think it looks pretty cool, however its not done yet. Feedback would be very helpful =).
Heres a pic of the new windows. (Yes i know about the texture alinment, im workong in that).
Heres a pic of the new lab. The area felt a bit claustophobic, and i didnt have very much space to build on, so I added windows to make it feel less tight.
I really like the outside areas, because I can't even tell where the
3Dskybox begins and where the level ends, because it seems legitimately
alive, and because its got so much depth.
The indoor areas can't compare right now... seems like corridors and crates, just judging from the shots.
Also, I don't really like the light texture (the big white spot with
the little white spots around it) that you've got in the hallway.
You might be better served using a model.
I agree with Orph entirely. Your exteriors are visually astounding -
there is so much to look at and the architecture spans such a large
area, that its hard not to be impressed. The interiors however are
almost entirely unremarkable. Get some depth to your interior
architecture and bring it up to par. Take a look at this thread one
mapcore, as I3yG-MaK posted a far better demonstration of doing so than
I have to hand :smile:
1st off, the maps progression is phenomenal. You advancement from your earlier works is obvious.
That said, I am getting the distinct impression that you are centering your concerns on vista's again. Your earlier works did this. You seem overly concerned with long lines of sight. I think/feel that you should concentrate a tad bit more on your inside, short line areas more. The outside looks so good that I would (just looking at the images) say its on par with many of the big gaming title releases. However, the inside areas look as if they were added begrudgingly. I realize that that sounds a bit harsh, but as I said, I can only judge by the screens.
Look at all the screens that are less grand in distance seen. They are all bland, or nearly bland in comparison to "The Fifth Element" scenes of the outside section. The outside has architecture to spare. The inside has... boxes. The outside has colors and moving/animated scenes, the inside has boxes.
At the very least, add some color inside and many of the animated scenes, possibly via televisions or monitors. It has been my experience that movies and maps of this theme that are successful have inside areas full of advertisements with flashy bits and bobs.
I feel that this map will fall short of the expectations if all of its areas are not equally addressed. A picture may have launched a thousand ships, but many more pictures have sunk to the depths of obscurity because of short sightedness.
