dm_residential is a map centered around a 3-way intersection in a residential neighborhood, with a hill and seven accessible buildings in the vicinity. It takes place around early morning (or late evening); most of the lighting in the level comes from streetlights and building illumination. All of the accessible buildings have their own interiors and several ways of entry and exit, providing many potential routes around and throughout the map.
Beta 3 was released on August 8, 2007. The final version, assuming all goes well, should be released in a few weeks (almost surely before September) with only some minor tweaks to the beta 2 design.
You can check out some discussion and work-in-progress screenshots in the forum thread (see below). Thanks for looking!
Alright! The beta compile of the map has been put up. I did a lot of work on it last night as well, mostly optimization-related. Also cut it down in size a bit, and rebuilt one of the buildings at the end of the map, and extended the apartment building (the one with the crossbow inside it and all the extrusions). There is one notable small visual thing (aside from being able to constantly see the edge of the map) - some cars sticking into a building. :biggrin:
Kampy:
Ah, you mean normal mapping.. that's just creating the illusion of having all those polygons while not actually having them. So that doesn't really help, it's just like one texture, it'd look basically the same (flat on an angle, just like bump mapping).
I havent worked with the HL2 engine yet, but Ive seen a function
where you can add as many polygones as you like and include them
into a single texture making it 1 polygone. So you might be able to
do that with the windows as well. Making them look real through
3d textures. Ah damn Im a total HL2 mapping n00B
Haha, I thought you might be joking. These trees should be all over HL2, etc.. :smile:
Thanks for your thoughts, though - the buildings do need detailing, I just keep putting it off.. (oh, I have an excuse "Detailing after framework"). :biggrin: I really can't afford - performancewise - to give each window its own model, but I can detail the buildings a bit. None of the buildings are models or prefabs in any way, I'm building them entirely out of brushes...
Guess I made myself look like a total idiot.
I was so fascinated by the trees that I
didnt even take a look at your map. Well
they are actually a bit blocky and plain.
Try to add more details. If you make a big
block with one texture it will have a bad
effect on the atmosphere. i.e. try to make
your own window-prefab and add it to the
houses. Then adjust the texture so it will
fit. ..dude I love the trees <3
(some houses are already pretty good!
hope theyre not prefabs again lol)
I started compiling the map before I left for work. I came back around 10pm, eager to buildcubemaps, check it out, release it, set up a server, play around happily for a few hours and get a good night's sleep. What could go wrong, right?
For the first time in my mapping history, the map compiled alright (or so I thought) - yet it won't run in-game. "Map extents too large". So I go back and check the compile log - turns out those few "Brush has no visible sides" messages were actually pretty important. Then get this: I use Hammer's problem-checker, use it to "fix" (delete) some overlays without assigned brush faces, and the problem fixes itself.
So I've got three options:
1) Release the few-days old build I had as a backup as an "alpha" since it's missing a lot of new stuff, and pump out the beta tomorrow.
2) Release the compile I'm running right now in about two hours when it's done as the beta.
3) Reschedule for the same time tomorrow night, get another 4 hours of work in tonight and a couple in the morning, recompile and release that day (Saturday).
Now, #1 is hardly an option - I did some absolutely major work on this map today and I want that work to show in the beta. #2 is also kind of iffy because then it's late, nobody can play. #3 sounds the best to me, because I get to finish what I started (link the apartments to the Hotel, create some Hotel interiors) and touch everything up overall.
This'd really piss me off, but there doesn't seem to be an overwhelming interest in a playtest, so.. dm_residential_b1 comes out tomorrow, nice and polished.
Very nice thoughts. Residential shouldn't be complicated at all, it's varied but straightforward - not as complex as even swamplight_final, for example. No hidden secrets or anything like that (yet?) :smile:
Anyways, I'm getting a little frustrated with how brushwork is working in this one new interior I'm working on.. plus just all the work to get things done realistically the way I want them (floor of an interior caved into the basement, damaging the wall leading over to another interior.. too hard) and I just had this good idea about knocking down the door into the hall of one apartment and leading over to the other interior that way.
I'll map a lot today (starting now) and if things look like I could get a beta out tomorrow, I'll make a news post (it'll be like 11pm PDT Friday, probably).
That's a wise thought and it is something every mapper should consider.
I played a few killboxes just to see why they are so popular. I think the reason is that they're so big and you always see something happening. If someone explodes anywhere in the map you see it. It gets that party feeling right with an extremely populated centerpoint... and nothing else. I'm not sure how much this has to do with accessibility except for the fact that you never have to search for players.
