dm_Void

After a month and 5 days, I've finally completed my entry. I've waited
until now to show screenshots because I wanted it to be as unique as
possible. Even if just one person said "Hey, I should use a blue
laser", that was enough of a reason for me to not show screens.

It's the difference between the judges saying "wow, we haven't seen
that yet!" and "Cool, another blue laser" (That's just an example,
obviously blue laseres are nothing too innovative..)

My plan was to create something that can't be overlooked. The first
thing I decided on was to use the citadel textures, since they would
probably be the least used. Something that catches their eye gives me
that much more of an advantage than yet another urban setting.

I come from the Quake3 community, so obviously the design is inspired
by a lot of amateur q3 maps I've seen. Not really the design itself,
but the whole "floating in the void" thing.

One of my main concerns was the blue. I thought it might just have too
much blue. I tried changing the fog colour, but blue looked the best. I
tried changing the light colours to orange, multiple shades of green,
and white..but blue still looked best. There really was nothing I could
do about the monotonous colour scheme without making it look worse
overall. Everything blue really does look the best.

It took about three days to perfect the lightning. And when I say three
days, I mean doing nothing but working on that. It was hard to find the
right sounds, since the only lightning sounds in HL2 are backround
global sounds, but I ended up finding something, and I think it turned
out pretty well.

As for gameplay, I probably spent just as much time working on the item
layout as I did constructing the brushes (and as you can tell, the
brush work isn't exactly something that could be whipped up in a few
hours, especially when it's coming straight from my brain to the
computer without any reference). It's pretty balanced. Should be a good
competitive 1v1 map, and good for small team matches. 8 player DM will
probably feel crowded.

So tell me what you think. Comments and constructive critisizm are
always welcome, though don't expect to see your suggestions make it to
the map (unless it's something genius) since it's already burned on CD
and ready to go.

And by the way, thanks to all who have helped me with my problems along
the way. Specifically the lightning. Being new to Hammer and all, I
don't think this would have been possible without help from you guys.

Woah

That looks pretty damn cool. I seriously doubt you'll have a chance of winning the contest given that it really doesn't follow the HL2 theme, but still, way to go.

Like I said on mapcore, it looks awesome. Resize the screenshots though, they're way too big. Even for my 1152 x 768 res.

nice map =) very nice archetechture ! =)

I agre with Yak - the map looks very eye-catching, unique, and
well...cool - but I don't think you have a chance of winning with it.
I'm in the camp that thinks Valve are looking for HL2 themed maps, and
this certainly isn't that. Best of luck anyway, it looks like a nice
piece of work :smile:

Indeed, a well done map!

And perhaps they judge it as a a good combine-themed map. It has definitely something alien over it...

Yeah too big but a very mysterious map :O

Wow this is looking great!, you should add some more shots (smaller
too) also, were you able to to get the objects to respawn? I was
never able to fix that problem (though I didn't work on it much)

Thanks for the replies :smile:

Yeah after about 15 days into construction I came to realize that I
probably wasn't going to win the contest for the simple fact that it
isn't your basic HL2 map, which is what they're probably looking for :/
Ah well, I can always hope.

To get the items to respawn I just put a bunch of teleporter brushes on
the "floor" and made them all spawn to different parts of the map.
After a very long time trying to figure out a better way, I don't think
one exists.

Looks fantasmo! BUT i also think that they are going to be biased towards HL2 themed maps. Unfortunately, my map is NOT HL2 themed. I hope they're not prejudiced against it.

Looks like a kinda 'Xen meets Combine' kinda thing, I love it! I have no criticisms, based on what I've seen. It's very unique and I wouldn't change anything about it.

Good luck with any future projects :smile:

You saw my comments on the Steam forums.

I dunno, the contest rules say that maps will be judged three things,
one of which is artistic merit. You may have a chance at winning
if your map plays as well as it looks.

Also, for god's sake release the thing already!!

sweet

Ok, I think I'm going to release it on the 15th.

I'm a little worried that they might be prejudice against maps that have already been released though..

The fact that the rules explicity state it is NOT to have been released before kinda gives that vibe, yeah!

I can see how you've spent three days perfecting lighting. Your hard work shows, and it really paid off.

I commend you for being unique and create a map that's not the typical HL2 theme. There are so many other maps along that line already, and it's refreshing to see something completely different.

It takes courage and individuality to accomplish a feat like this (plus lots of talent).

Not sure about the gameplay, but it sure -looks- interesting. a more detailed skybox, and more interesting textures could help bring it to life a little, though. oh, and if you haven't already be sure to add some eerie wind or other ambient sounds

I sooooo love that fog effect on that bridge. It looks a bit like the prison bridge in Resident Evil Code Veronica!

The fact that the rules explicity state it is NOT to have been released before kinda gives that vibe, yeah!

The rules state that it can't have been released before December 1st.

satchmo, thanks a lot man :smile: Comments like that are part of why I love mapping.

Aye, the maps can be submitted if they are released after December 1st.

I don't feel that Valve would be prejudiced towards maps that are
released before the contest, a good map is a good map. Plus, the
fact that there are so few good maps out there (althought this has
changed a little over the last week with a whole slew of map releases)
brings a need for the release of these maps. I released my map on
the 1st of January, sent it in the mail on the 5th. I'm glad I
did it, because it is a great feeling to see it on multiple servers at
a time.

One of the best parts about mapping is being able to play your map with
other people afterwards. I don't understand how people can sit on
a map, especially one that looks as good as yours. It would drive
me nuts.

If you don't want to release it, you could always send me a copy
because I really want to look through it (I love artcore style maps).

:biggrin:

How are you going to keep physical objects on the structure?

WOW, Nice map, I really like the atmosphere of this map..Awsome dude...Good luck in ur map and the contest :smile: :smile: :smile:

Doesn't look like theres any physbox items to chuck about the place tbh. Looks like a classic Quake 3 map for HL2.

Thanks again for the comments :smile:

Mouse, I'll be releasing it in less than a week..be patient :wink:
And believe me, no one wants to play my map online more than me..(which
is surprising, you'd think I would get sick at the sight of my map
after staring at it for hours every day for an entire month...but nope.
can't wait to try some TDM on it.

As for physics objects, there are only a few in the map. Any more and
you would be tripping over them constantly, which is no fun. They do
come back after falling off the edge...I used sort of a trick for that.

Whats the trick??!!! I have a similar problem with my map.

Finger said:
Whats the trick??!!! I have a similar problem with my map.

http://www.snarkpit.com/editing.php?page=tutorials&game=HL2&id=153

This is the method I used a while back when I thought that my map would
need it. I changed the layout slightly so that it isn't required
now, but it works just fine.

Ugh.. what a hassle. I think I would rather just teleport the props back to a few different locations, using the !activator method. Damnit, why cant the break/respawn thing work properly...Rarrrr!

Mirror: http://www.kain-9.com/maps/HL2-maps/dm_void.zip

Alright, I'm releasing this a day early because I'm going to be busy
tommorow. Everything you need to know should be in the Readme. If not
I'd be happy to answer any questions.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about the map, specifically the
gameplay. I did put a lot of thought into the (small) layout, and tried
to place all the weapons/items as strategically as possible. So let me
know how I did in that aspect, and let me know what I could have
improved.

Right now it's only up on one server, with an 8 player max (which might
actually be too many...but we'll see) Feel free to put it up on your
own server.

IP: 66.148.239.44:27015 (Edit: I forgot to mention that for some reason
some of the map sounds don't work on this server..and that kinda takes
away from the atmosphere...all the more reason to start putting it up
on other servers :biggrin: )

Screens: (I was too lazy to take new screens so these ones are old)

http://www.infosprite.com/members/W01f/dm_void0009.jpg

http://www.infosprite.com/members/W01f/dm_void0230.jpg

http://www.infosprite.com/members/W01f/dm_void_2.jpg

http://www.infosprite.com/members/W01f/dm_void_1.jpg

Cool

Looks awesome but not so good gameplay though

Looks nice, great sound, all around great envroment. I didn't get to play with anyone really but seems like a good small group layout.

Very Halo style brushwork (looks good), nice sounds, good weapon placement, the portal could have tranported you to different places (but not a big deal)l, overall I give it a 9/10

Very good

This map looks nice, and the gameplay isn't half bad imo. You seem to have thought about where you put everything, which is more than can be said for many mappers. And there is a lack of physics objects, which is inevitable since they can be thrown into the void, so I won't hold it against you. But there is no place in this map that runs above 21fps for me, and who cares how beautiful a map is if it's unplayable?

A quick look at the budget and mat_wireframe revealed why:

• You are using way too much dynamic light. Make sure all your point_spotlights have the dynamic light flag turned OFF. This might also fix the shadow rendering budget.

• There is a huge box around your level that is being rendered at all times. This won't work. Experiment with the fog z clipping plane or change the walls and ceiling to skybox.

4 for unplayable but fairly coherent artistic presentation. I think you'll do better with a more conventional level.

No feedback? Hows the layout/gameplay?

Just had a quick look; how in blue blazes did you keep swapbuffers so low?! :sad: It's quite small, probably comfortable for ~4 players and I imagine it would be quite fun, though I really don't like that glass tunnel :/

I think you could have benefitted from making it symmetrical so that
both sides took you up to the top floor. I also agree with Lep that the
glass tunnel looks a bit out of place. Not a bad little map though.

First custom HL2DM map I downloaded! Not a bad effort at all! Bit small for my likeing, but as lep said, would be good map for about 4 people.

Just had a quick look; how in blue blazes did you keep swapbuffers so low?! :sad:
It's quite small, probably comfortable for ~4 players and I imagine it
would be quite fun, though I really don't like that glass tunnel
:/

I'm not sure how I kept it so low. Back during the betas,they were
skyrocketed..but for some reason now they're not. I don't recall making
any effort to lower them (aside from removing a few cubemaps)...just
kinda fixed itself.

thanks for all the comments.

oooh, the lighting, the lightning, the sounds, the effects, the sexy... I felt like i was really there. I will be joining a server with this on it tonight... definitely.

-Zeek

Personnaly, I kinda like the athmosphere. I'm not a player.. but a mapper/texturer. You only use few textures... and there's no real.. goal to your map. I mean.. Why did they even built this building? That's the kind of detail I look to. However.. It's good and well done. Good luck for your futur maps.