dm_residential by midkay

Map Rating

  • 0
  • unrated

Map Download

Map Info

Map Description

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!

Discussion

Posted by Elon Yariv on Thu Jul 27th 2006 at 12:52am

The first thing that I noticed is that most buildings are just blocks with windows. Try to break that feeling and make more buildings less blockish. Look around in a close by city and see how the buildings look in there. Also look in previously made maps, they can be helpfull, even if they haven't got the same theme.

This map has a diffrent city theme, yet it can still give you some ideas for your city.

I'll make a few examples how you can improve the buildings, I will make it in Hl1 though, not in source.
Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Thu Jul 27th 2006 at 12:48am

I really like screen 4 that you posted. I think its the best looking one you've posted in this thread so far, it's gettin' really good.

Also, I think the changes to the playground would look good, also, like GBall said, stairs instead of a ladder there.

I like the inside shot you showed, good texture choice on the walls and nice functional lighting in there.
Posted by midkay on Thu Jul 27th 2006 at 12:24am
[Author]

.. and another example of the reason I love this place. :smile: Stairs... of course. Handrails as well sound great. :biggrin:

@ potential misunderstanding: nah, I said "Going back to flatten it out a bit is a possibility" - not entirely. :smile:

Thanks a lot for those suggestions. :smile: Right now working on a solution to the combine-wallitis.
Posted by midkay on Wed Jul 26th 2006 at 11:16pm
[Author]

Thanks, G -

The combine walls, as discussed earlier (quite a long thread by now, so I doubt you've read the bit on that, no worries) do need to go, for the most part. A few ideas were mentioned and discussed, and that's something I should be getting around to very soon. As soon as I get the map sealed off with other methods I'll begin extending the environment and fleshing out the skybox (I want to wait until I know what's visible from where before I begin placing things around).

As for the hill - iunno, maybe it was just recently built? ;D Going back to flatten it out a bit is a possibility but not something I had planned on (took a long time to sculpt it up to the way it is). Quite possible, though, I appreciate the mention - I'll think about it.

@ playground: Well, maybe the slide and monkeybars need to go then. :smile: Hmm.. maybe if I had walls surround the grass area from the ground up to the sidewalk level all around so it was kind of a flatter area... something like this: http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/8382/parkvl0.jpg

Thoughts?

By the way, I've set two rough goals... I dunno if I'll achieve it but it will at least motivate me to work harder, perhaps. :smile:

1) Be done with the basic map layout within around a week. That includes passages through buildings, entrances and exits, basic geometry...

2) Take it one step at a time. Make a building entrance, create a connecting room, create an exit to another building or to the map, move onto the next building... wash, rinse, repeat, et cetera. :smile:
Posted by midkay on Wed Jul 26th 2006 at 9:30pm
[Author]

Alright, so I did said recompile. Here are a few screens:

1: http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/4899/residential1uw8.jpg
2: http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/6123/residential2jm6.jpg
3, new restaurant area visible (wall is too jagged, I know) :smile: : http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/5774/residential3vs1.jpg
4: http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/4241/residential4hg2.jpg
5: http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/3474/residential5bz6.jpg
6: http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/2899/residential6zh5.jpg
7: http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/2716/residential7ul1.jpg
8: http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/7472/residential8rp3.jpg

I'm quite liking the way it looks, although the sun ought to be slightly darker still, and probably the streetlight beams a bit more focused; as well as a bit more light in darker areas (notably the upper right corner of the park) which will probably come with new interiors (porch lights, light from inside spilling out, etc).
Posted by midkay on Wed Jul 26th 2006 at 12:15pm
[Author]

Yeah, probably not something I'd like to do (custom skybox material).

Sticking with the current sky for now, but darkened the light_env slightly. Also added point_spotlights which should look nice, and added more lighting in a few places (lights outside store/restaurant and another apartment building). Will compile overnight and I hope (even feel slightly confident for once) that it'll look good when it's done. :smile:

Probably some screens tomorrow at least to show the progress...
Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Wed Jul 26th 2006 at 9:42am

Custom skies are also an option, although I don't know where to find any, so you'll have to do some googling, perhaps.
Posted by midkay on Wed Jul 26th 2006 at 9:34am
[Author]

Yeah, maybe a darker skybox. Hmm. I'll have to see what's available.. quite few "dark" ones for HL2. I like the mix of pinkish sky/light with barely-light-blue street lamps.

If Valve would only let us DM mappers use CS/DOD skyboxes. :sad:
Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Wed Jul 26th 2006 at 9:23am

Definitely looks more interesting, but I'm not sure its dark enough for streetlights to be on (or to be as harsh as you want). I personally like the skybox and the color you've chosen, but if you want to go for more lighting contrast using the streetlights, you'll probably have to pick a slightly darker skybox.

Just a thought, if you're going for a destroyed theme, it may be hard to come up with a way to light things, unless there is still power despite the destruction.
Posted by Crono on Wed Jul 26th 2006 at 7:33am

I just want to point out that every road on a hill I've ever come across has been convex. Since a concave road would suffer more damage due to lower vehicles.