Tangent

This level was created as coursework for my Games Engines & Physics
module at Staffordshire University as part of my Computer Games Design
degree. The brief was to create a level in the source engine (we had
created a level in the Unreal engine in the first semester) based
around Staffordshire University, beaconside campus.

The level is set several months before the events of Half-Life 2
and the player is briefed via Text messages recieved on their phone
from various sources.

"From: Student Union

26/03/09 20:15

The combine have been oppressing the students at this university

for several years now. The vast majority of students couldn't be

bothered to get out of bed to fight the overlords, but now they

have reason. The oppresors have denied the sale of alcohol on

the university premises. The time to fight has come.

Fight your way to the Lounge and Legends bars and turn on all

beer taps."

Note that this level is not 100% complete for public release. While
it is completely playable from start to finish, it would be confusing
for anyone who doesn't know the Staffordshire campus. A slightly
updated version with signs and various bug fixes should be released in
a week or so.

Well that's just typical :biggrin: I posted a comment just before you posted this thread! I'll post it again here for the sake of clarity...

A bit heavy on the point spotlight usage for my liking - in the first shot they don't work with the type of light fixture, and while their use in the latter shots isn't too bad they are too obvious and large and come off looking intrusive and unbelievable. It is a nice entity, but shouldn't be used half as often as most people seem to think :smile:

You've got some fairly nice architecture in places, particularly the last two shots of the bar/club area, but I feel your lighting isn't helping you show any of it in the best light (awful pun). The exterior lighting in particular is weak - it doesn't seem to suit the skylight and the shadows are far too strong. The upper halfs of the buildings seem almost pitch black. Give a little bit of ambient light to the exterior regions to soften the contrast in the shadows a bit. It wouldn't hurt to get some light fixtures in areas like that too - introducing other lighting colours (though subtly of course, no bright greens or anything!) and pools of light and dark would help immensely.

How is your course by the way? I'm doing games TECH at Abertay, but I must admit I'm very curious about games design courses. They probably would have been better suited to me than this all this tech stuff :smile:

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

The games design course here is brilliant :smile: Did 3DS Max modelling,
Unreal mapping, games design documentation and photoshop for print in
the first semester, 3DS Max modelling pt2, Source mapping, level design
documentation and Manga drawing (urgh) for the semester 2. They don't
go into much detail and just expect ya to be practising non-stop
outside of lesson. Most people don't do that though :-p I wouldnt
personally recommend Stafford uni though - out of about 700 first year
students (on all courses), there's less than 30 lasses :sad:

Yeah, I should really cut down on the spotlight use :wink: Just tends to be
a bit of an easy effect to boost visual quality. Lighting's certainly
something that I want to learn to play around with a bit more in
source, but unfortunately I know next to nothing about optimisation so
ya know which has a slightly higher priority.

Oh, and nice to see you're still around ReNo - bumped into you a few times years ago with the alias KingNic :smile:

Oh hey bud, good to see you back! Glad to hear you're going into a career in game development too :smile: Sounds like you have had a good first year, I hope every year is that interesting for you. At Abertay, with it being a tech course I'm doing, there are very few modules that I find really interesting :sad: Ah well, almost done now, just a month or so left!

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

Reno is right. Add volumetric lights only in a foggy/dusty areas. After all what you actually see is the fog/dust particles. :wink:

In the last two pics it's really over used and that area doesn't look deserted and/or dirty so it doesn't fit and makes it uglier.

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Elon Yariv

daedle said:
Oh, and nice to see you're still around ReNo - bumped into you a few times years ago with the alias KingNic :smile:

So, are you the same KingNic from here? I noticed that he logged on yesterday as well. If so, why the new account? Gwil can change your name in the old one easy enough.

Either way, welcome, or welcome back.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Yeah the same KingNic. Didnt realise that names could be changed so I just signed up again.

Did the demonstration of the level this morning. People seemed to like
it - many commented that it made them look bad so I took it as a
compliment :wink:

I will work on this level this week to bring it up to scratch so to
speak - gotta finish off a couple of pieces of work then I'm off home
this weekend.

not to be confused by my CTF map that is named the same... :razz:

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f**k Fun maps!

daedle said:
Yeah the same KingNic. Didnt realise that names could be changed so I just signed up again.

Yeah, tis easy enough. I like the old handle better but, its your call. I'd use the old account and have Gwil fix the name. The lower member number and all that.

Welcome home.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I'm inclined to agree, I liked KingNic, I'm warming much less to this new fangled "daedle" character :wink: Do bug Gwil if you want your old account though, as it's a shame to seperate yourself and your work into two profiles.

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

If its based off your university, you could be cunning like me and obtain a CAD map of your university, export it to a model, then import it for use as an HL2 model around which you can build the map to perfect scale. I've never actually done this, but it would work- I just don't have the programs to do it unfortunately, otherwise you'd see me mapping out my buildings all the time (architecture degree, like Duncan I'm almost done)!

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

Being done is sweet, I graduated from a graphic design/new media degree
at the end of last year. Now I commute 4 hours a day to a job I don't
enjoy, its fantastic!

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Ham and Jam Contributor
http://www.hamandjam.org

'Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!'

Sounds like fun Smith...
I like the idea of making your Uni as Coursework...I sent a PM to you Daedle with a few questions about your Course and the Uni...

Replied to your PM habboi :smile:

Well I'm back at home now and after some major problems getting
connected to the internet, I should be able to get on every now and
again to check in. Will be bringing tangent up to scratch for general
public release :smile:

And I much prefer daedle to KingNic :wink:

Almost straight after you come back with the name daedle though, we have another member with then name dewdle. It's painfully similar and confusing :razz:

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

Exactly...Here I thought you were THE Dewdle....

Thanks for replying...

daedle said:
And I much prefer daedle to KingNic :wink:

Well, can you at least pronounce it for me so I can say it correctly in my noggin?

It wouldn't hurt to cap the first letter either. Daedle.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Day-dle. :smile:

I think you might need to elaborate on that last bit for poor Orph - "dle" is still leaving a bit too much pronounciation potential for him :razz:

/runs

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

ReNo said:
I think you might need to elaborate on that last bit for poor Orph - "dle" is still leaving a bit too much pronounciation potential for him :razz:

/runs

I think I can grasp "dle" Duncan. Since I piddle most every day, I am quite familiar with the concept..

grumbles

Silly kids, give'm a career change and their heads swell like bloated bodies.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Thx for the good review Force, Fjorn being a dick and all :]

It needs exp.wad!Make shure you put it in the mirrors!
Mirror 3 and 4 leads to the same page and mirror 5 is dead.