Thanks reaper. Point by point...

That drawing is useful. Rubble around that are is an important to-do and would be good for gameplay as an alternate way to access the destroyed pirtion of that building as shown in your sketch. So that's something I'll work on before a beta 2.

Construction site... good idea. some unfinished, uneven beams etc... sounds good. Thanks - would not have thought of that. :smile:

And gameplaywise... thanks for the beta 1 comment, but I think you'll enjoy beta 2 much more. :smile: Much more flow and variation.

Thanks reaper. Point by point...

That drawing is useful. Rubble around that are is an important to-do and would be good for gameplay as an alternate way to access the destroyed pirtion of that building as shown in your sketch. So that's something I'll work on before a beta 2.

Construction site... good idea. some unfinished, uneven beams etc... sounds good. Thanks - would not have thought of that. :smile:

And gameplaywise... thanks for the beta 1 comment, but I think you'll enjoy beta 2 much more. :smile: Much more flow and variation.

I like the new, clean look. But I still think you should try and move a bit outside the rectangle shape of this destroyed building to add some rubble and debris on the street beneath it. Considering the building still burns (and even if it doesn't) it looks odd that the street beneath it is completely clean. The material from the destruction has to go somewhere outside the building also. Here's a sketch of what I mean:



The wooden construction site could need some asymmetry, too. It's too boxy. Maybe the top part could be bit more "unfinished"?

Higher Lightmap resolution create some nice, sharp shadows. I had to learn the hard way, though, that they also create megabytes of additional BSP filesize. Make sure to keep brushfaces with high resolution as small as possible.

PS: I got to play the former version of this map yesterday and it was fun. I can see the changes you did really pay of in gameplay.

Hi guys. Here's a not-quite-brief update on this map...

Over the past few days I've managed to get quite some touch-up work done on this map. All sorts of little things that were bugging me and that were on the to-do list got done. I did a lot of adjustment to the lighting and lightmapping as well in order to take the visual quality up a bit. :smile: I'll let a few images show some of what the map looks like as of right now:

Screen 1; a little bit of the lightmapping and lighting work I've done. It's still sunrise, but a brighter one, and the streetlights are a bit brighter as well. Sharper, clearer shadows from streetlights and buildings fall across the ground and walls.

Screen 2; a bit more lighting work. HDR is a must for this map or else you'll miss out on the soft orange glows of the sun.

Screen 3; the destroyed building a bit more refined. Shrunk most of the fires, there are just a couple larger ones now. Lots of interior work you can't see here.. I'll show that off soon. In the background: more work on the construction building...

Screen 5; not too much to see here. This is just how everything looks back here right now...

Screen 5; some very important work done here. :smile: Lots more woodwork going on with the construction building - easier to kill anyone up there with a rocket. Also a little harder to navigate up there if you're running around. Lightmapping is crucial to this area, so I took it up quite a bit - especially on the flat wooden surface to the left. Again, HDR is important - the brighter sunlight creates some really great-looking orange/pink glows.

That's all the screenshots for now. I really feel like I'm getting a lot of work done and I really really really want to push out a beta 2 within a few days or a week, if I can stay focused on fixes and necessary improvements rather than additions. The todo list is shrinking. :smile: Also want to let you know that I've uploaded an archive of all of the old images I've used in these posts at http://www.midkay.net/dm_residential - the numbered folders are "groups" of shots used in single-post updates. Promo folders are "dm_residential by midkay"-stamped. Enjoy some earlier shots if you wish. :smile:

Any thoughts/suggestions at all are welcome as always. Talk to you again very soon. :smile:

Hi Orph, it's been a while.

I guess that's true with about any fire in a game.. but I think you're right, I can definitely resize them and I'll try them out much smaller (1/2 to even 1/4 size of that) and see how it looks.

Thanks.

-edit-

And Stadric :smile: It's in the works...

Needs some rubble, either with displacements or with props.

midkay said:
Any thoughts? :smile:

Fires that big would either:

1)consume their fuel quickly.
2)burn the building down to the ground.

Is there no way t scale them to mere flickers?

Ok, I rubbled it up a bit!

Shot 1 - From the ground looking up. Added lots of decals for scorchmarks, plus scattered some fires around and just a little bit of rebar sticking out in places (to be improved). Still need a bunch more chunks all over the place, but it's getting better.

Shot 2, from afar.

Shot 3, from above, so you can see my delicious decalwork.

Any thoughts? :smile:

Hey reaper. :smile:

You're right about the upper floors. I was originally going to try to keep them intact (because the player won't have access to them) but it's gonna be way harder to do in a visually-correct way. I'll demolish them. :smile: Rubble.. the ground on each level is covered in rubble (decalwise) but looking up from below doesn't show that, I need to do the ceilings too :smile: Plus all sorts of hanging/falling crap. Gimme a few days. :smile:

Nice to hear from you, stay tuned. :smile:

The way the building is collapsed looks very artificial. First, why is the upper floor still intact? Bombs of this size mostly fall from the sky. Secondly, why is the lower part nearly without a scratch and no rubble ect?

I see you'll add more but these are very basic, logical things that irritate me.

Oh, and it's good to see the map's still alive. :wink: