de_altitude

This is my first map ive released, it took a few months to make. :rolleyes:
Over the next week[or 2] i will release 2 other CS maps aswell

some feedback would be nice :biggrin:

It's better if you post semi complete maps so you can fix problems and incorporate others suggestions before they're released.

Looks nice for a first map, but there's plenty of room for improvement.

First off, check out this cliff tutorial:
http://www.snarkpit.com/editing.php?page=tutorials&game=HL&id=14

Then read this:
http://www.snarkpit.com/editing.php?page=tutorials&id=10

Where did Reno's other tuts go btw?

Keep up the mapping bud. :smile:

Thanx AS, theyre some gd tuts, both of them.

as master dave said, it is best if you post incomplete maps, its far easier for you to incorporate anything we might tell you that way.

your improvement may, or may not be dependant on our advice, but it is a fact that a few of our members do not post many beta's and their progress has been slow indeed, a few have never advanced at all, sadly.

snarkpit doesn't really concern itself with completed versions near as much as work-in-progress maps, it shows us ( the ones who care ) that you are more apt to be receptive of our advice if a map is unfinished, the alternative is a map already done and, well our collective experience will pick it to pieces, and usually ends up with the new mapper leaving in a huff.

looking at the screens, i see potential, but i also see extreme n00bism.. the details are in place, but poorly executed so to speak.

anywho's, a great 1st map none the less, far superior to mine.. the difference is, i had none of the advantages the snarkpit allows you 5 years ago.. use your resources wisely.

thanks for those great words of wisdom orph, but what do u exactly mean by [quote]
but poorly executed so to speak.
[/quote]

? so that i can improve up on in my next map

lemme see if i can do this again, i am a bit out of practice in my critiquing.. my advice, for what its worth, dig up some of my old critiques.. they are numerous and pretty indepth, some might answer a few of your questions.



this room/area.. its a box, with stuff tacked to the inside walls, not Incorporated into the room, but glued to the walls ans such.

make alcoved for the valves, make indentations in the ceiling for the door.. make the floor multiple elevations, in other words, don't just attach everything to the pre-existing walls.. make them look like they belong, not added to fill in space.

hope that made sense..

"Build the room around the contents" I think is the gist, rather than building big rooms and putting things inside :smile:

cool, thanks, a bit puzzling but thanks anyway :smile:

It feels a bit too HLDM-like, try using more CS textures as they usually look better than HL tex's.

The lighting in the orange corridor near bomb site B is extreme, for light_spots set the Inner Angle to less than the Outer Angle to get a fade at the light edges, try 24/96.

The env_beam rain sprites aren't too noticeable. Replacing them with an animated rain sprite would prolly look a lot better and take less time to do. Jinx has a nice one on his site - http://www.cryotank.net/

Try and make the next map a bit more realistic as the better CS maps seem to have more real world type buildings, vehicles, layouts etc.

Leperous said:
"Build the room around the contents" I think is the gist, rather than building big rooms and putting things inside :smile:

yeah, what he said :smile:

its a fairly simple concept, but kinda hard to make a reality..

thanks for those great words of wisdom orph, but what do u exactly mean by :quote:but poorly executed so to speak.:unquote:? so that i can improve up on in my next map

It's [*quote] and [*/quote] without the stars to get the quote box. :smile:

lol okies, thanx,

/face goes red with n00bieness

ok...so i have taken all of ur comments into thought and changed my mind, i have taken the download link off [well just about to ] and will edit the map over the next few weeks.

TBH Mapping is harder than it looks as i have now found out.

Orpheus said:
this room/area.. its a box, with stuff tacked to the inside walls, not Incorporated into the room, but glued to the walls ans such.

make alcoved for the valves, make indentations in the ceiling for the door.. make the floor multiple elevations, in other words, don't just attach everything to the pre-existing walls.. make them look like they belong, not added to fill in space.

Totally true! The space should be more animated. But I like the ambiance in the images, your choice of textures, and the lighting. Good work! :smile:

In the 1st pic is there a hole between the rock cliff edge and the building which is seeping light?

Myrk- said:
In the 1st pic is there a hole between the rock cliff edge and the building which is seeping light?

i dont think that there is, the enviroment light is directly above the first pic

There's some lighting bugs in there, could be due to a poorly constructed map or the result of enclosing the map in a big box to solve a leak - not a good idea.

or the result of enclosing the map in a big box to solve a leak - not a good idea.

if you mean that the sky is a big hollow box around the map then yes it is me hides in shame of being noobed at

/slaps you for being naughty :smile:

Don't get too hung up on it, its prolly one of the easiest fixes to
get a map to compile and i can understand why peeps do it. Just try not to use it again as it can kill a map - bigger file size, increased compile times, usually higher r_speeds etc.

beer hunter said:
/slaps you for being naughty :smile:

Don't get too hung up on it, its prolly one of the easiest fixes to
get a map to compile and i can understand why peeps do it. Just try not to use it again as it can kill a map - bigger file size, increased compile times, usually higher r_speeds etc.

/me rubs self where been slapped

Thanks BH, so would it be better just to put a sky above the outside areas just upto the rocks?-in pic 1
[did that sound right?]

yes that is correct. Simply build the sky as if it were the "ceiling" to your outdoor areas.

Yeah :smile:

the big block method is a good accepted way of finding leaks beerhunter... but not for creating skyboxes. As JFry said, build a brush textured sky (on all sides!) which acts as the "ceiling".

oh, and dont forget to put ~CLIP brushes on cliff edges/the sky as well, just in case.. (they stop people falling out of the level by creating an "invisible wall")

Thanks BH, so would it be better just to put a sky above the outside areas just upto the rocks?-in pic 1
[did that sound right?]

Yeah, that sounds about right and i would go with what other peeps said - texture the ceiling with the sky brush on all faces.

But if you remove the big box i suspect that there may be a lot of compile errors from leaks and entities that are outside the world. It could take a while to fix them and may be easier to leave the big box for this map.

beer hunter said:

Thanks BH, so would it be better just to put a sky above the outside areas just upto the rocks?-in pic 1
[did that sound right?]

Yeah, that sounds about right and i would go with what other peeps said - texture the ceiling with the sky brush on all faces.

But if you remove the big box i suspect that there may be a lot of compile errors from leaks and entities that are outside the world. It could take a while to fix them and may be easier to leave the big box for this map.

or a complicated many sided box ?

Yup, its just called a big box method but can have more than 4 side walls.

ok...ive updated my map, the 1st screen shot is the updated version, the 2nd is the old version, and as for the third, its the other bomb site

the one thing i dont like is the opening in the roof, the lighting across it is really dodgy

any comments will be accepted [within reason :biggrin: ]

looking great for first release. Try to steer away from hl texes. You have potential, keep it up mate! :smile:

-BB

Ive just updated the screen shots, theres a new one of the lab [Bomb site b] with a cylindrical computer in the centre, i just started making it so its not all that gd atm

I'va updated the screen shots once again.If any ideas pop into your mind about this map and how i can improve please reply
me gets down on knees and begs

Errr, its kind of hard to see whats been changed just from screenshots, its even harder if there's only small differences.

Ummm, Netscape seems to be borked, cant view any of those images now. /edit, d'oh ! fixed it.

You should post a download link sloth. that way we can give you some truely valuable feedback.

TB........i shall put a download link, it will be up tonite after i get my map off my other machine.

there you lot go, ive got the download ready for you to....download

Tried to pick out as much stuff as possible.



1 - Myrk had a point about light leaking in, these 2 brushes along the white line may not be joined together, could also be more leaks in other rocks.

2 - light coming in from 1 is creating these lighting glitches

3 - the top of the rocks are flat all the way round and it feels like a big box, they need height variation. Read up on the SP rock tutorials, it'll improve your maps.

4 - overscaled crates don't look good.

5 - terrain looks better when its not flat. A simple way of improving it is to put a few spike brushes in - make them cover a big area, 5/6 sided and 8 to 16 units high.

6 - that wall will prolly look better with a few lights on it.

7 - very bright lighting in tunnels has killed the shadows and these areas look bland.



1 - very chunky handrailing, try it with 4 unit thick (or smaller) brushwork.

2 - steps are a bit weird with the very thin step edge joining the next one.

3 - some frames around the smaller doors and windows are too thick. Nice lighting fx through the windows tho'

4 - big areas need something to break them up - beam going across the roof, column up the wall etc.

5 - floors a bit empty.

6 - would look better if the columns cast some shadows, like they are in 3 with the windows.

Each ceiling light is held up with 2 cylinder brushes which chop the ceiling into quite a few polys - positioning the cylinders 1 unit away from the ceiling so they're not touching the ceiling will stop this and lower the r_speeds.



1 - toilets in a missile silo, lol. Come to think of it, having a nuke launch in the next room would want to make me go :smile:
A realistic layout usually helps to make CS maps more believable, the toilets might fit better somewhere near the big computer room.

2 - theres a sewer coming thru the ladies toilet, making it into some sort of maintenance room may suit that area better.

3 - the pipe and bit around the roof opening don't work too well imo.

4 - narrow gantrys/corridors can be a pain in CS because of players blocking each other.

Theres a lot of detail touches in there - door frames, gas bottles, signs etc. that shows promise, if you can refine those mapping skills then your next maps will be way better.

And now i'm off to try and fix one of my crappy maps :sad:

It didn't work; it is requesting a missing "chateau.wad"; I downloaded that file, now it's asking for another wad. You should have used "wad include" to embed the textures in the map, or stick to the standard wads (cs_italy, cs_assault, etc..,). You probably downloaded a lot of maps and you forgot what were the original ones.

All the wads are standard cs wads, from the 1.5 mod, sorry i took so long to answer

ah 1.5! i believe i still have 1.3

Wow, beer hunter, thats a kick ass commenting there. Im jelous. lol

that might explain it :rolleyes:

wow 17 Downloads, now im happy! :biggrin: , plz dont comment on that

$loth, my only comment, is that I think you overused that explosive crate texture in the second pic.

Wow, beer hunter, thats a kick ass commenting there. Im jelous. lol

Thx :smile: it helps if you've played CS from beta 2 tho', after a while you kind of pick up on all the stuff that makes a map work.

I've only been playing since 1.3 :eek:

beer hunter said:

Wow, beer hunter, thats a kick ass commenting there. Im jelous. lol

Thx :smile: it helps if you've played CS from beta 2 tho', after a while you kind of pick up on all the stuff that makes a map work.

Sweet. Another old-school CS player. High five!

Another old-school CS player. High five!

High 5 to you.

/quickly knifes ya while busy high 5-ing and steals the dropped AWP :smile:

Wild Card said:
$loth, my only comment, is that I think you overused that explosive crate texture in the second pic.

ahhh, okies kewl, ill find some other textures for them and delete some of them, i was thinking of adding something else elsewell but not sure what, mabe some sorta water thing?

i played from 1.0, in the days where there was no bomb model on the back of the terrorist. And when i used to play with android bot, lol! Ahh those were the days

-BB