Parralaxion

Well here is my highly rushed entry into the comp. It's not really up to my usually high standard but I always miss out on entering, but not this time. Not that I'll win with maps like dm_fairytale to compete with (top stuff Ferret, by the way), but I've decided to give it a go. Its a fast paced, have no mercy type of map, and a move away from the standard HLDM map, that is a map with walls :smile: . It's a bit of a fun experiment for me and probabaly the last HLDM map I'll do with HL2 coming soon and other better DM games to map for.

Any brief details of the map are above in the profile if you want an idea what the setting is, etc. I just wanted to get some peoples opinions on this rush job of a map. take into account that it is still being worked on, lighting and stuff, while the main structure is finished. thanks for your time.

I think it looks pretty cool! Nice, unique setting, and good textures make it look the part. I'm a little concerned about r_speeds with all those floating bits though, there are a whole lot of faces on show here.

I have to agree...it does like kinda cool :smile: Could maybe benefit from an extra wall here and there for cover but other than that I like it a lot! Of course, i'd be crap on it as i'd just keep falling off every time someone shoots at me :wink:

Awesome, a staggering improvement over your previous work.

It looks cool, no doubt about that.

Cassius said:
Awesome, a staggering improvement over your previous work.

I was thinking much the same actually, I don't know why you said it isn't up to your usual standard when in my eyes, this looks to exceed your prior works. I admit I haven't seen all of them, such as your DoD maps however.

oh wow. This room is f'ing awesome! God I wish I had a place for that type of an area in my map. And fairytales isn't THAT good. With some neat little lighting effects you could really make yours like better than mine! Top notch like campaign junkie's persion letters map.

thwacks Ferret

Anyway, this map looks great. Got me thinking about a possible cool
effect - make all the background-pieces (I'm assuming they're brushes)
part of a func_rotating or something, and have it constantly rotating
around and around the central arena. Would make for a really
disorienting effect and give the illusion of the arena spinning around.
:smile:

Looks like a talented mapper had the balls to try suppin` completely different! Nice!

But I miss teleporters. On a platform map like this , I think teleporters are kind of a "must have" :smile:

But the spinning effect is a great idea too. But anyway , good BW!

then rig a simple 6 or 7 sided cylinder and do a func_scroll or something and make something ELSE disorrient you. LIke clouds or race cars or CJ's face.

Well first of all thanks for your comments, I really appreciate the input everyone gives.

The reason i was saying it doesn't seem up to my usual standard is because it usually takes me a lot longer to get a map up to a high quality. But don't get me wrong, I'm loving how this map has turned out, it just feels a little rushed.

Anyway, like I said before its a bit of an experiment outside of the usual bounds of HLDM. Like you Reno, I though the R's would be huge, considering you can see lots of the map at anytime, and the whole map is in one area. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the R's were a lot lower than expected. The highest they get is 1500, but only when you noclip up into the air and can see the entire map at once. The highest it gets at any point on the map is 1200, which is a little bit high, but well worth the sacrifice for the spinning rubble vortex.

And, thanks for the suggestion Campaignjunkie, but the rubble already spins. It's all divided into six func rotates that spin the same way but at slightly varied speeds, making it look a lot less uniform than one would expect, considering each func rotate is constructed using the exact same brushes.

I was a bit worried about the lighting, but the nature of the map makes fixed/visible light sources a problem, they would also cause a significant jump in R's. The current effect at the moment gives the impression of lots of downlights shining from above, and it looks ok. Also the jump pads have some problems (see profile for description), but theres not much else I can do with them. I had thought about replacing them with teleporters, like you suggested KIIIA, but bounces suit it a bit better I think.

Looks very Escher-esque. Great architecture, looks differnet from anyting else I've seen.

looks cool, reminds me of diablo 2 a bit.

Omg, looks sweet! If filesize isn't too much I'm going to put this on my friend's server :biggrin:

I was slightly wrong regarding the r_speeds in game, they get to about 1350, which I'll admit is a bit high. I might reduce it a bit by deleting some of the rubble vortex, which should take it down to about 1200. Even so it might be alright as it is.

Is the rubble solid, and can therefore be used as part of the map if you gauss jump around?

Don't forget the 'null' texture. Apply it to any brush-faces that won't be visible to the player at any point. That might save you a few r's - but other than that I don't see how you can really reduce them without removing brushes, which would be a shame as you've obviously put a lot of effort into realising your idea.

The rubble isn't solid at this stage Reno. While it would be fairly cool if it was, it would give the players a chance to see even more of the map at once. while those R's wouldn't go higher than about 1500, it adds some problems as well. the illusion of the vortex would be somewhat destroyed, as the player would be able to see no other pieces beyond the ones already there. Also the chance of actually landing on one of pieces, which are spinning at speeds between 40 and 50, are pretty slim. I figured the problems outweighed the small increase in game play.

Thanks for the suggestion of the null texture Adam, I had completly forgotten about that, and will give it a go tonight.

Tried converting the rubbe to models?

I don't know what you could null here that would be of much use to be honest. The only ones I can think of would be the outside faces of the spinning rubble, and those won't be rendered from anywhere but around the outside of the rubble, where frame rates really don't matter and it would be more important to have a good look for screenshot purposes.

gauss jump?! what is this nonesence you speak of!

Never heard of it? Clearly not an HLDM player :razz:

you telling me you can't null a s**t ton of those faces? cmon yes you can! Also I"d suggest using maybe a sprite+lightpoint combo to get some light differences in there.

Looks quite swell. Can't wait until I see the last release of it.

As far as I can tell, everything being rendered here, is on show, and therefore nulling it would make the scene look daft. You can null all you want, but you won't get the same looking scene. I think the only faces you could null without noticing, would be the outside faces of the rubble, and that isn't being rendered from anywhere that frame rates matter anyway.

Woah! Nice mapping there! This is definitely one for me and my brother to play on LAN! Good work.

As for polygon reduction, it should be alright - but I'm only saying
that because I've no idea how you would reduce the r's there!

maybe use 5 sided platforms rather than 6 or something? just little reductions like that an help.

I think you can probably NULL the background-platform things, but
anything else would look silly or only affect compile time. I think you
would probably benefit from 5-sided platforms too; maybe only use those
on the areas that aren't used as much.

As far as I can tell, everything being rendered here, is on
show, and therefore nulling it would make the scene look daft. You can
null all you want, but you won't get the same looking scene. I think
the only faces you could null without noticing, would be the outside
faces of the rubble, and that isn't being rendered from anywhere that
frame rates matter anyway.

surely you can't null the faces if the func_rotating has been implemented?

I think you can probably NULL the background-platform things, but
anything else would look silly or only affect compile time. I think you
would probably benefit from 5-sided platforms too; maybe only use those
on the areas that aren't used as much.

the underside of the non rotating platforms could probably be nulled.

weapon balance has a lot more to play in this map - ie, make the gauss the only power weapon..

The undersides will never be visible/rendered though, so they will have
no effect on r_speeds. Maybe reduce the compile time a little, but
that's it.

new screens!now!!!!!

Campaignjunkie said:
The undersides will never be visible/rendered though, so they will have no effect on r_speeds. Maybe reduce the compile time a little, but that's it.

I'm pretty damn sure they would be rendered...they are not sealed away by VIS in any way so the majority of the map would be rendered at all times. I'm with Reno in the thought that only the furthest and outer most edges of the chunks could be NULLed. Why not vary the sizes of the platforms? so some 3,4,5,6 sided ones to mix it up.

I'm agreeing with Reno on this one. The only real places available for nulling would be the outside faces of the rubble, which wouldn't matter because you don't see them anyway. I can't null the undersides of the platforms because most can be seen from other places in the map, making it look stupid.

I could cut down some of the faces on the pieces, but that would seriously reduce the variation in them, making them look less like rubble and more like tiles. I could do it to some though.

Also the screens show the entire map, just in case anyone wasn't clear on that.

But be aware I dont have much time to do any major changes before the competition deadline, having started back at uni this week. Apart from some minor tweaking and weapon placement it'll have to do. Thanks for the suggestions though. :smile:

I'm pretty damn sure they would be rendered...they are not sealed away
by VIS in any way so the majority of the map would be rendered at all
times. I'm with Reno in the thought that only the furthest and outer
most edges of the chunks could be NULLed. Why not vary the sizes of the
platforms? so some 3,4,5,6 sided ones to mix it up.

All backfaces (or bottomfaces I should say) are culled during rendering. Maybe if you fell down into the abyss you
would see them, but most of the time you wouldn't see them. Except the
2^nd story platforms and such.

Want to save polys? Use regular sized steps instead of the littly girly ones you have now. :smile:

By regular sized steps Alien_Sniper, I'm assuming you mean the jumbo steps used in most DM maps, ones designed for clowns, with extra length to allow for the big shoes :biggrin: .

On a serious note that would likely make more polys and also require serious altering of the map. So thanks for the wonderful suggestion, but perhaps not :smile: .

I highly doubt doubling your step height would INCREASE polycounts, and while it does look a bit daft in some maps, it could be worth checking out. Perhaps not double them up anyway, just go for 12 unit height or something (the BIG ones in maps are normally 16, typically the small one people use are :cool: .

I'd be incredibly surprised if it required more than 10 minutes work to alter the size of the stairs also :razz:

Its not hard to change the stairs, but they are currently at the right combined height, width and length. If I was to change that, I would then have to alter the parts of the map they are connected to, to ensure that things lined up. Then the spacing between the parts would have to be changed to suit the new sized segments. Its just a bit of a hassle I don't have time for, particularly when the stairs are fine and its not really going to make a noticeable difference in the R's.

Anyway, I have deleted some of the smaller debri which has decreases the R's to no higher than 1250, which I figure is acceptable, without ruining the effect.

I know this ain't the editing forum, but to save time I'll ask it here. The jump pads are causing some trouble. Most are directional, as opposed to the standard straight up in the air jump pad. But as some might know it causes problems. I use two pushes, one that pushes you up and into the other that pushes in the right direction. This means they only work if you jump at them from the right spot. I you jump from above you hit the directional push which throws you off the map. Does anyone know how to get them to work without the need for two pushes, as its the only remaining major flaw in the map. Thanks

it's done with the pitch/roll/yaw property. i dont remember exactly, but i tthink you would use a combination of changing the middle 0, (of the 0 0 0 in the p/r/y), and the compass tool thingy.

experiment a little and you'll get it.

Apart from the bounce pads everything is ready to rock and roll. I tried what you suggested Fishy, but it didn't work. no matter how much fiddling around I did it would only push up, down, or 360 on the x axis. The bounces as they are a bit buggy, not always delivering you to the desired location. I'm still using the method of two pushes, one that pushes you up and into the other that pushes in the right direction. If anyone knows exactly how to do it, or a tut that could tell me how, I'd be forever grateful. Thanks.

There's a tutorial here, but it's probably no use to you:
http://www.game-edit.org/tutorials/halflife/generic/bounce_pad/bounce_pad.html

We gonna get a look at this before the competition deadline? :smile:

Did you try making the first push trigger the second one so you have to pass through that first?

thanks for the tut alien_sniper, its atually the one I used to get a basic idea of how to set them up. The idea of the triggers is a great idea though, one I didn't consider, so I'll give it a go. Thanks a lot. :smile:

If I can that idea to work I'll try and post a copy of the map tomorrow, otherwise it'll be up sometime before the deadline.

No problem, hopefully you'll get it working ok. Looking forward to playing it. :smile:

package it up! gogogo

Here's a beta version of the map, just a few small things to finish and do a full compile and its ready to rock and roll.

Good news is I fixed the bounce pad problems, thanks to Alien_Sniper's sugestion of the trigger. I rigged up some triggers and multi_managers and they work about perfect. The beta is only a fast VIS compile, as a full VIS compile takes about 8 hours which I didn't have time for today.

Anyway, check it out and give me any suggestions if you have them, I might have a chance to implement them. I was wondering if anyone knew how to get a text message to pop up at the start, once for each player individually. At the moment one just pops up at the start for everyone. Thanks and Enjoy.

Awsome. reminds me too much of a map i experimented once with. very simliar. i like origional content.

rocks bud.

A bit too easy to fall off imo, it does look trick tho' with all the rotating stuff and its an interesting concept. And jump pads caused me problems in my map as well

Great theme, maybe some more weapons would have been cool

It looks quite simple, yet it looks amazing too. I love it. Very unique.