Contest Rules

We have seen that its fairly unanimous people want a contest, but its less clear what the rules should be. As we are split into various opinions, I guess a poll would be a good way to find out what the most popular contest would be. Now obviously the winning vote won't necessarily be the selected contest, as its really down to Lep I guess, but I'm sure he would be sensible and at least take the people's opinions into account, so get voting!

If you vote for "other", please state what you have in mind also.

I couldn't really decide, so I just voted for themed.

#5....

so, sue me :rolleyes:

I voted team mapping but I would like it to be teams and flatshaded.

how about a 1536x1024x768 area with only 2 rooms, a limit of 5 flatshaded textures, done in teams, in a black mesa style? ooh, and gerbils.

ReNo said:
Now obviously the winning vote won't necessarily be the selected contest, as its really down to Lep I guess, but I'm sure he would be sensible and at least take the people's opinions into account

Heh. Well whatever you plebs try to force on me, the team idea is ghai and won't be done. :razz:

damn.. :biggrin: Guess I'll just have to grab my "persuave-o-matic 3000"

picks up shotgun :biggrin:

Oh come on, who voted other and didn't say what their "other" was?!

Aint me.

Ok so why clutter the thread with the pointless post! Seriously, lets keep this topic free from spam, just say what you voted for, why if you feel the need, and EXPLAIN "OTHER" SELECTIONS

Flat-Shaded.

If it's anything else, I guarantee that there will be a distinct lack of entries. Flat-Shaded is faster, more convenient, and takes less time/commitment/resources than, say, a "themed" contest. It's essential that the contest be kept simple and easily understood.

LOL

I think the entries will be greater in number. I voted for #1 but in all fairness and reality this poll was made by a moron. There is only really 2 choices, 1,2,4,5,6 and 3 :razz:

Count the votes. It's 9 - 6 in favour of not flat shading.

I'm not following you here - in no way is choosing, for instance, number 1, meaning you do not want flat shading, it simply means you do want size limitation. In the same vein, just because you vote flat shaded, doesn't mean you don't want size limitation.

Take Wild Card's vote, has stated he voted for teams, but WANTS flat shaded as well. So make that 8-7 assuming all others want non-flatshaded, which isn't proven sucker :razz:

ReNo said:
Take Wild Card's vote, has stated he voted for teams, but WANTS flat shaded as well. So make that 8-7 assuming all others want non-flatshaded, which isn't proven sucker :razz:

Yea Nya :biggrin:

So its 7 who want a common goal, and 8 who will be at each others throaths wanting something different each.

Well I wanted to vote for everything but flatshading... I think thats the main debate in this contest tbh.

To flatshade, or not to flatshade... That is the question!

Point of this thread? To determine what is the most popular theme for a contest. Answer thus far? Flatshading.

Pretty simple concept, to be honest. The poll isn't "should we have flatshading" - its just the major suggestions from the other thread, put into a poll.

I voted flat-shaded, simply because with the wonders of flat-shading, I was able to give this little piece of magic to the world.

Yes but you fail to see the point. The highest voting is for flatshading, but more people voted otherwise :razz:

Thats wonderful, but the fact remains, it would be silly to do team mapping, when only one person wants it. It would be wise to do the one most people want to do.

But all this is academic, the choice is really down to Lep - and if its not flatshading then thats fine, I'll just do flatshading for a laugh anyway.

mental image of two kids pulling on same toy screaming "MINE,MINE"

as i said once already, each side seems bent on alienating the other, if you must limit something, limit something all agree on.. size,r_speeds and time of construction possibly..

/ I'm done with this debate..

shuffles back to good book

I voted for themed because... I like it.

Orpheus said:
shuffles back to good book

English French dictionary opened on page 397 and with a highlighter in hand, Orph marks Goat.

KungFuSquirrel said:
how about a 1536x1024x768 area with only 2 rooms, a limit of 5 flatshaded textures, done in teams, in a black mesa style? ooh, and gerbils.

LOL!

OTHER:
you draw the map and i make the map in VHE... i don't have imagination for maps....

asterix_vader said:
OTHER:
you draw the map and i make the map in VHE... i don't have imagination for maps....

hey aster, shut up, that is a stuppid idea!

shutup please Aster, you're spamming the thread :smile:

I voted for Themed, while flatshaded looks interesting, it doesnt seem very interesting to me. I would rather what Mr. Ben proposed - ridiculously high r_speeds to create something as beautiful as possible :smile: But themed stuff would be fun too. I personally would like to do something non-multiplayer.

-BB

Guess what I voted for?

Themed of course.

Not that you WANT a themed contest right, just so flatshaded doesnt win yeah?

I liked the gerbil idea TBH, but it just might be considered bestiality so I decided on themed instead.

Okay a themed map, I can handle that (since I already have one) but whats the limit on r_speeds?
800-900?
900-1000?
1000-1100?

I must undoubtly voted for the flatshading, its not only a great challenge but fun and quick. Yes theme maps is the same everyday mapping you could do with any other map, but would it be as much as a learning experiece then it would be with Flatshading.

Personally, I feel that Flatshading is another study that could improve all of us. How we could use enities and brushes together with a limited textures to care a wonderful effect. You can deff see an example of this in Adam's map.

But for the theme'd people, go ahead and do something that you and others have done over and over again.

And that is exactly why I like themed, general lack of originality on my part. Perhaps having two contests? It'll make more people happy and the number of participants in each contest will be more manageable (as there are 2 contests).

My votes are themed and teamed - me and A_S were going to make a map a whiiile back and drew up a layout. I would like to finish it.

Now, here's my loudly stated bolded opinion on flatshading.

I just want to say that untextured hunks of polygons are THE WORST thing you can do for EVERY ASPECT of a contest. At first, of course, you will frighten half the contestants away - it's hard enough to crank out a good looking map when you have a full texture set. I doubt that in the end, even the more skilled among us will create something worth giving two glances. Sure, ReNo's architecture looked awesome, but wait a second - it's just architechture. It would look a thousand times better with even the most basic set of real textures slapped on it. While a 'handicap' is good for improving your skills, my ever-so-selfish opinion is that I would not throw away my time for this, even on a win.

The concept art contest gave us several gems, a score of failures, yawning lulls in enthusiasm and a weak finish. I didn't like that one either. Few of the final entries had bore much resemblance at all to the concept art.

Here's what I think: this is a contest about mapping, lets make it about mapping. Not about architecture, not about texturing, not about how well you can reconstruct a picture, but about mapping. There should be a reference for comparison - which is why I support the theme mapping - but little else. Screw flatshading, screw texture limitations. No handicaps, just skill.

My main reason for wanting to go with flat-shading is the ability to get fast, reasonably good-looking results. Of course if you use textures, the map will look much better. But all of this takes time - time a lot of people don't have. Finding textures, aligning them, matching textures... Time-consuming. Along with textures, you have to pay more attention to the lighting to accent and complement these textures. Whereas, making a flatshaded entry can take as little as a few hours.

Many people are moving on to other things, have newly found jobs, or simply don't have time for a real commitment/project now. Yes, a themed contest might sound more appealing in theory, but both the quality and the quantity of the entries are going to drastically suffer as a result. Flatshading offers a chance to just do anything you want without worrying about whether you have textures to match the setting or prop models - I consider it to be quite possibly the purest form of "mapping" and "skill" existing as of a few days ago.

I voted flatshaded, although, I see the points of the anti-flatshaded camp. I personally, like the spin, simplicity, and uniqueness of the idea. After a dozen or so 'real' maps, and a few years of doing this...I think this would be a nice, fresh, change. Of course, you can't please everyone...yadayadayada...

I guess the polls will speak for themselves.

it seems like its half and half, i suggest we have two simultaneous competitions. A Themed and a Flatshaded. Double the excitement! Double the winners! Double the fun! :biggrin:

-BB

Remake Black Mesa, but flatshaded! YES!

Or... not...

KungFuSquirrel said:
how about a 1536x1024x768 area with only 2 rooms, a limit of 5 flatshaded textures, done in teams, in a black mesa style? ooh, and gerbils.

I vote for this, but no black mesa and no gerbils!

Well why not do 'themed', and flat-shader people can make it their theme?

That sounds fair - as it seems the concensus is equally split.

im all for that! Because id love to see what these guys can do flat shaded, Adam and ReNos maps already looking stunning. I hope its a relatively small competition though, my time is already spread thin :smile:

-BB

When you say flat shaded, does it have to be fullbright like the two examples posted seem to be? For once I am quite interested in this competition, because texturing is what I suck most at, but I would like it if shadows and spotlights etc were still allowed.

I don't see why shadows shouldn't be used. Part of the reason I didn't have shadows on dm_pulse was simply because I was attempting to have a big contrasting difference between the black and white - and I feel shadows would have spoilt this.

Also, I have noticed that shadows tend to look a little odd on flat-shaded surfaces - though I could be doing something wrong :smile:

Looks terrible on mine too, I copied your technique of giving every used texture a texture light value in order to make it appear full bright. Before hand I just wasn't running RAD, and that was resulting in some frame rate drops even though r_speeds were still perfectly fine. Fullbright works really well for my map though as its a cartoony theme, and my manual shading by varying the textures seems to be having a pretty nice effect.

I guess I'll probably enter whatever the contest is, but I dont think Lep's suggestion can work. By the "themed" section I didn't mean a contest in which each contestant chooses a theme, I meant there would be a set theme. But I guess whatever that set theme is, it can probably still be achieved in flat shaded, if thats what the mapper wants to do.

Competition or not, i'm going to have a go at another flat-shaded map (as soon as i've moved house). Also, as I said before, if anyone else wants to have a go at flat-shading, i'm willing to put together a map pack of the final offerings :smile:

I'll also gladly give anyone a helping hand, and i'll see what I can do about making a wad with a larger range of colour scales :smile:

Leperous said:
Well why not do 'themed', and flat-shader people can make it their theme?

Themes could be:

[*] Flat-shaded
[*] Black Mesa remake
[*] Original texture usage
Etc. Unno :rolleyes:

I guess I'll probably enter whatever the contest is, but I dont think Lep's suggestion can work. By the "themed" section I didn't mean a contest in which each contestant chooses a theme, I meant there would be a set theme. But I guess whatever that set theme is, it can probably still be achieved in flat shaded, if thats what the mapper wants to do.

The whole idea of having each person choose a theme, and make a map for that theme is absurd, in my opinion. What map DOESN'T have a theme? I mean honestly- that's a bit too open-ended.

But if people were to decide on a theme, such as Flat-shaded, then that's a different story.

Number 2 and 3 are pretty identical there Wildcard... :rolleyes:

The third should just be a size restriction, but I agree with what esechre was saying earlier... Screw limitations go for all out ridiculous r_speeds and great graphics!

Myrk- said:
Number 2 and 3 are pretty identical there Wildcard... :rolleyes:

Shut up shut up shut up! :biggrin:

voted for 'themed' And what the hell is 'flat shaded' exactley?