Cratesis

Have at it guys. As always harsh crticisim is strongly encouraged :biggrin:

CRATE-TASTIC!

This is the best Half-Life Deathmatch Map Ever Made!!!!!!!!

Not that I mind flattery, but seriously guys. crits, crits crits....

Glass in Half-Life isn't meant to be used so dynamically as to be the surface for a tube or hallway, nor is it very good in broken form, and, in your map, you have both of these, combined into one object no less.

The orangey room looks good, but the greyer room is teh no, mainly because of the side support architecture; it seems like somthing that would fold in on itself; nor is it terribly complex in there.

Triangle roofed- hallways dont exist for a reason, make it an arch.

Noted.

I was already thinking of getting rid of that corridor. the glass is gone, but I rather like that impossibly structured room... It's actualy large enough that I'm hitting my r limit in there already, so there won't be much more detail.

It's too dark! The molten metal looks really good; I hope it scrolls smoothly.

first off, i must complain about my monitor, its too forkin dark.. sighs /me reaches over and turns on better PC

secondly, all i can see is the lava/melted steel room.. very nice idea, but i cannot imagine what is driving the r's past 1000 try "gl_wireframe 2" and lets try to get those below 800.

i will comment more in a few, maybe my other pc will be able to see the shots :smile:

place obligatory warning here

i brightened the shots for my own monitor if they seem wrong, its my fault

orph comes out of semi-retirement for special occation

:smile:



this room seems the most thought out IMO, its suffers from texture choices, but the area very much reminds me of a section i saw in Unreal2.. but whatever the source, the area looks very nice, and should do well when completed.. i highly suggest some alternate textures.. even if you stick to the stock HL ones (which i still love) you need something different that your current choices.

good luck on this one T.B.

cusses and rants

my whole critique just disappeared

i will retype it soonish TB.. but right now i need to vent this anger..

i had a critique of all 5 screens..

stomps off..

I feel your pain Orph. I've taken to writing critiques in MS word and then pasteing them into the post window in order to avoid this very frustration.

I'll be waiting for it. :smile:

In the screen Orph posted there the lighting is very bland. That room not having a roof also doesn't look natural. The sky doesn't suit the lighting either.

In your first screen, those lights in the hallway have no sources.

Nothing else to say that hasn't already been mentioned really. Better textures should be your priority. :smile:

place obligatory warning here
i brightened the shots for my own monitor if they seem wrong, its my fault
orph comes out of semi-retirement for special occasion
:smile:


this hall, although unique in architecture, would not be a design of my choice, the narrowing of the walls, would force the player to stay toward the center to avoid clipping on the walls, also the narrow top would eliminate the need for the girder at the top.. my suggestion, for what its worth, slope the walls the other way, this will increase the illusion of playable area, and possible lead to more interesting architecture. also the alignment is going to be a nightmare, already it is obvious and will prolly only get worse.


this area/room, has much more thought involved, IMO its only shortfall is its textures, the architecture is better but the support columns on the walls look wrong, no real structural support, i suggest a quake approach perhaps, have the support columns angled outward on opposition to the walls shape..


a boiler perhaps? doesn't matter what it is, machinery, even fictional ones add a certain spice to any map, still i suggest other texture choices.. also the r_speeds seem excessive in here, try gl_wireframe 2 to ascertain why, cause what is causing it may not even be in this shot, but still requiring better visblocking.


this area is my favorite, the glass has already been mentioned, so i will leave it alone save the textures.. get more.

[color=tan]this room seems the most thought out IMO, its suffers from texture choices, but the area very much reminds me of a section i saw in Unreal2.. but whatever the source, the area looks very nice, and should do well when completed.. i highly suggest some alternate textures.. even if you stick to the stock HL ones (which i still love) you need something different that your current choices.
good luck on this one T.B.

if this disappears again.. i am NOT posting it again :wink:

edit by Lep, huzzah!

I love some of the architecture in the pics, especially the walkway and the corridor it leads into in the last one. Feels really original. Nothing else to add really, except that I love the lava bit.

The lamps seem really chunky.

The very bowels of hell

And it just had a movement! Zing.

Your not living up to your full potential, I know your better :biggrin: .

Much thanks all around, and in particular to Orph. Glad to see Orphtiques arent dead... next time I find a moment I'll try to implement some these suggestions.

I've just noticed how much this level looks like q2dm8 (er...or maybe 7. Anyway, the one with the crate conveyor!).

Any chance you were inspired by that level?

No. I never really got into quake. every last scrap is purely the product of my imagination.

Love the lava machine thingy.

It needs more crates :razz:

Some textures, especially the crete_ and tnnl_ ones on the floors, are bland, something with more detail and dirty looking will look better.

Control room and stairs leading up to it are too small/narrow and not very nice. Would be more interesting with a bigger control room that overlooked the box machine room.

Scrolling sky fx looks trick but isn't very noticeable.

The corridor at low level between the crate storage and machine rooms is too long IMO.

The rooms are pretty big but the map feels a bit limited in where you can go, could prolly do with more paths between the rooms to give players more options.

The molten metal looks very nice and i like the idea of using a conveyor to get around the map, saves me having to walk :smile:

I should have mentioned this at the beginning, but I have been reminded by all the praise it has recieved. I got the molten metal texture from Money Shot through the SPLA map project. I do not know if he made the texture or if he found it somewhere else. in any case much of the coolness of that feature is due to the texture, and he deserves the credit if it is indeed his... Again I'm sorry I neglected this credit at the outset.

Yes, those boxy stairs and control room will have to go...I canot have the control room over-look the machiene though because my r_s are already at the edge of acceptability due to the size of the room.

There is a third main area planned which will drasticly improove connectivity.

As practicaly everyone has mentioned it, I will definatly look into better textures.

Lots of boxes in this one. The first pic is a bit too /_\ shaped and looks unnatural. The idea about inverting the walls sounded good. Second pic could use some contrasting light coming out of the tunnel with the upper platform. Third pic is very nice and could use some flood lights to show it off, hehe. Perhaps some moving mechanical parts and steam if you don't already have something like that. Not sure if that would lag it tho. The fourth pic is absolutely amazing. I agree about the glass but aside from that this is a great scene. The final pic is nice but it could benefit from something to offset the light. Maybe a row of red lights on the machine's track. All in all the architecture is very clean. Don't forget the cockroaches.

Update

I haven't yet done any revision, only expansion. all of the geometry is basicaly complete, I "just" neeed to retexture everything and light it properly. :smile:

looks really cool. and yes, new textures are a must. especially for that default HL rock texture, which makes me want to vomit every time I see it

That first picture is simply amazing. The lighting and the feel :biggrin:

Agreed - the lighting in pic#1 is very atmospheric; it describes the shapes well.

I concur, and I'd almost go so far as to say the default rock texture suits the room too....almost :wink:

I was pretty suprised by how well that texture fits as well. I guess the orange lighting really helps out.

I'm realizing that the gamma on my computer must be really hihg, because looking at the second two screens form a different computer, I can't see anything at all! how dark do they appear to you guys?

if ti wasnt for the crappy glowing water, that 2nd img would look very good.

I likes the architecture - lots of nice variations on the standard 90 degree angles. The only criticism I have is with all the nice curves and such, the road going up the cliff-side looks a little awkward with 90 degree bends. Curve it up :smile: You know you want to!

The retexture and lighting are as complete as I can make them. I've run out of ideas there so fire away.

I'll have an updated download available later this evening.

I think I actually preferred the rocks as they were before, but otherwise that is an uber improvement, particularly in the first 3 pics. Please change that lava texture (the static one, not the scrolling one) though, it looks s**t imo :biggrin:

The last screenshot is a bit simplistic I reckon, and it uses that brown light texture when none of the surrounding architecture is brown. The inside corner bit also looks odd - I realise it is just the indents clipped to a corner but it looks awkward, I think you should consider revising it.

All in all, looking good :smile:

Damn, double post :sad:

And I meant to say, the floor in that last shot looks bad too, you should try other textures.

That arch in the doorway in the third screen looks bad, vertex manip it.

There we go Tracer :biggrin: , living up to your full potential.

updates to do list

really good, especially hte first screen, really nice except arch doorway, i think it would look better if curvy, but looks like youre goiing with that theme or soemting.. Keep it up :razz:

-BB

Wow! It looks great :biggrin: The only thing I think you should do is scale up the lava btexture a bit, ecause it repeats very obviously. A higher detail texture for the floor of the last shot would be good to, but that's not a big deal to me.

I was really impressed with your first shot, and compared with the other picturs I'd say that the rest totaly lacks. The outside has atmosphere and intereting architecture while the inside has some architecture but is diseased with bland texturing, boring lighting, and little or no atmosphere.

And that lava really needs to go, find a better texture.

I think the second shot is the nicest personally - the first shot isn't as lit up as I would like, too many large areas of darkness. I agree that its the most architecturally interesting, but I think the second has a nice charm about it, and the lighting along the right looks great. Perhaps the left hand side could use some more light though, bit flat over there.

I like the outside bit a good deal but it could use some more lighting. Show off the arcitecture, don't keep it dark. I've got some experience with the meatpack textures you're using there, and I always found them lacking for my needs. A few other textures that work well in combination with them are the Than Industrial wad, textures from the Q3 map Iron Yard, and some of Lunaran's textures. As for that lava, there's a good lava texture in the Deathmatch Classic wad. I'd use that one.

Maybe its a bit too much lava and not enough molten metal for his needs though :sad:

molten metal, always has sparks associated with it, especially while pouring..

might add to the realism..

I agree that particularly in the third shot archatechture is lacking. but the real coolness of it cannot be apreciated from the screens. Most of the work in that area was put into entities, so that machiene has many moveing parts. in many case I used simplistic archatechture because I like large areas, and I am already at or above my r limits (1000-1100).

I don't know why the molten metal texture looks like that. it seems to be scaled down by a factor of five from the in editor apearence :sad:

I'm useing both the texture packs you mention Yak (meatpack, than_industrial) along with some others. the one thing I am really dissatisfied with is the textureing on the big crate-making machiene. at the moment it's all in a grungy dimmond plate texture because I couldn't find anything I liked better. would any of you texture fiends out there like to have a crack at it?

Well, not much has changed, but I have tried to act on some of the comments people have made. this is the last day of my spring break so I am out of time to work on it for the forseable future.

The file is ~6 MB without the sky or the readme... to big for my pit. might someone be willing to host it for me?

huge freaking double post

You still have three days lol.

By the way, it's looking good, I don't really have any suggestions though, not unless I played it for awhile.

Looks good, and TB, if you need hosting, I've got 20mb at Angelfire (I used to have 50 but they downgraded me :sad: )

And there is no upload size limit.

First and last pic look good. Second, the lava tex seems too scaled big. And the wall texture looks kinda repetitive.

Nah. No time at all Crono. I'm leaving for California tomorow morning.

Thanks for the offer WC, but Orph has solved that problem for me.

I'm still calling this a beta, but I really don't forsee much more work going into it.