dm_Stonehouse

This map is based on where I live. My House and surrounding area.

The Main Building is 4 levels & an attic. Since each floor is (almost) identical, I spent a lot of time perfecting just one floor before I duplicate/alternate to make the rest of the building.

I'm working on this map daily. squashed almost every bug. Thankfully I have a bunch of friends who are more than willing to help me brute test each update.

IMAGES UPDATED! (30/01/06)
All are between 20-30k in size with no real loss in quality.
IMAGES UPDATED, Again! (31/01/06)
Changed all 5 images to show latest progress. Old Images saved below.

Current Build



Concept Renders



[b]
[color=red]Old Build[/b][/color]

Real world is nice. It gives you good practical experience. Learning scale and how light comes into play is always good. That said, damned few real world maps succeed. Yeah, there are good examples of real world maps being made, but I cannot think of one thats stood out.

I say, go for it, as long as you realize that your real world is of no real interest to anyone but you. If you can accept that your a winner.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

The interiors look good, though to be fair they mainly look good due to intelligent prop and texture use as opposed to intricate lighting or architecture. Then again real world interiors are rarely masterful feats of architecture and do rely on functional lighting, so if you are aiming for realism you are going about it the right way :smile: The exterior suffers from the obviously repeating vertically stacked texture - try and use something that tiles less obviously vertically (eg. one without such an obvious mark at the top or bottom).

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Good point. Sadly I cannot think of any textures that scroll well up and down. :sad:

The very thing that makes them look good on a single story structure usually ruins them on multiple ones.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I had some good looking textures that seam well in all directions, but the texture in the screens is closest to the actual color of the building. I plan on either recolouring a standard texture or creating my own from scratch.

I've always known it would take a lot of work to make this map fun to outsiders also, but if my Vision can become reality, this will be an excellent deathmatch.

I think some players would enjoy its authentic familiar feel. The other space-age, surreal fantasy maps are fine, but the thing that set HL2 ahead was the realism, and I cant think of a single map I've played that concentrated so heavily on reality. Even the Valve singleplayer maps lack the reality I know the engine is capable of.

A lot of thought has been put into making this map Believable, Functional & Fun. It's just a lot of work, and I'm not sure at this point if the source engine will be able to handle it all. Or if I will even have the time to complete it.

Nothing Ventured...

But its all being built very carefully & cleanly and atm compile times & fps are very pleasing. Seems theres still plenty of room for expansion. maybe this map will also give me a fair idea of the limitations in the source engine.

Its also ideal to have all the texture/reference material I need on my doorstep. :wink:

The house itself looks nice! Can you leave the building? If so you should really think about the outside area.

You mentioned the layout of all floors being almost identical. This
strikes me as a mapper because geometry that is symmetrical in so many
direction can get repetitive soon. Make sure you add some variety to
the interiors. I don't want to run through 4 floors seeing one and the
same room over and over again.

Nice lighting in the last pic.

reaper47 said:
Can you leave the building? If so you should really think about the outside area.

I did have a concept render showing the area I want to cover. I will re-add the image to the main post. Behind the Main building is an Industrial Estate with a Glazing company, Car Workshops etc. A Building Site on the side. These give excellent opportunities for using glass & physics. Remember the Zombie Crushing Car in HL2SP?

reaper47 said:
You mentioned the layout of all floors being almost identical. This strikes me as a mapper because geometry that is symmetrical in so many direction can get repetitive soon. Make sure you add some variety to the interiors. I don't want to run through 4 floors seeing one and the same room over and over again.

each floor is identical in shape, but the interior is different in every room, according to how they are in reality. Im currently looking into making custom textures & models, although the latter will take a LOT of time. I am a profficient modeler in Maya/XSi though.

reaper47 said:
Nice lighting in the last pic.

Thanks man, its almost a shame I have to add the roof, which will block out the sunlight from the trapdoor.