Competition Screens and Comments

Heh :smile: That does look pretty darn good ReNo! If you need a fresh pair of eyes to give it the once over when it's compiled i'd be more than happy to return the favour :smile:

And leave the deadline alone - it's about time the competiton ended...we've had plenty of time and a deadline is a deadline :smile:

Thanks guys, you've spurred me on, so I'll get it done if it takes me all night. Pity I've got some maths work and a pointless little algorithm to do for uni tomorrow too...and a 9am start for some statistics lecture. ARGH, why can't this cold turn into a flu so I can miss out all that crap without feeling guilty :rolleyes:

I can't tell, are they the rock & gravel textures i gave you?

Looks good though. How are the r_speeds, from that shot there it seems like one huge open area not really broken up into seperate small 'arenas'

Lep, Will there be a chance for people to enter their maps late? like a few days after the comp has finished?

Well mine might not be in to later tonight. I was compiling it over night and there was a small error in the VIS so i fixed and now im recompiling believe the compile will take to somewhat of a 10 hour compile not sure so it will probably be done around 5 pm-7pm est time.

Yup those are your textures mate, thanks a lot for them, they really improved the look of the map. Hope you don't mind them being associated with insanely huge r_speeds, but I'm sure you agree that there is nothing that could be done to lower them here.

This is designed as a showpiece rather than a map, so don't expect it to be very good in the gameplay department or performance department. R_speeds peak at about 4000 (while flying over the map) and are normally about 2000+. Its set at night, the bridge goes into a collapsed mine in a little rock outcrop sitting on the water.I'm kinda pleased with how it looks but I'd really like to work on it more. I'll probably release it for the comp near as-is (a lot different to the screenshot here though), and rework it later and release it under a different name.

wow, sound slike high r's there ren. Though my comp is usually fine witht hat, As long as there isnt a high eply or view distance itl run ok. I really look forward to playing it m8.

I'm trying to work on mine but VHE is so slow its like im lagged trying to do anything, Its insane.

No, i'm happy you could make use of them.

Given the fact that your map is |_|_| with a large rock face blocking off your view from the two seperate sides you could probably drop the r_speeds a lot and easily enough by bringing the cliff face right the way out over the path way and adding a corridor which goes

|_|_|

 |_|

out from the side essentially cutting off the view from the two areas. That should really help your r_speeds if you do that kinda thing all over the shop.

I added another corridor at the top just so if it was a DM map then you won't have such a one way route.

http://c4software.net/mrben/compmap1.jpg

So who turned in their competition maps??

Just emailed my map to Lep.  It's 11:32 pm, here.  Last minute error almost ate my lunch...I had turned a clip brush into func_wall, and the error kept pointing me to the wrong brush.

i plan on reviewing all the comp. maps, so anyone whom i have helped, really need to remember to spell my name correctly in the readme :heee:

ReNo said:


 

 

For that rockwork to survive in a map, I would make the textures for you personally. I would also kill the man who made that palm tree and erase all record that it ever existed.

I have a good palm tree model, you can see it in my nordafrika map, just look at the pictures in my profile, if you have the entity allowance I'd be more than happy to send it your way.

Meh, it's taking me hours to download submissions anyway so try and get them to me today... :smile:

Leperous said:
Meh, it's taking me hours to download submissions anyway so try and get them to me today... :smile:

Lep, I'l have to release the map in beta form but it will be playable. Is this allowed? If so, I can try to get you it by tonight. Obviously after the competition il continue it & finish it properly but I wont submit it again, just in 1st beta.

KoRnFlakes said:

Leperous said:
Meh, it's taking me hours to download submissions anyway so try and get them to me today... :smile:

Lep, I'l have to release the map in beta form but it will be playable. Is this allowed? If so, I can try to get you it by tonight. Obviously after the competition il continue it & finish it properly but I wont submit it again, just in 1st beta.

i would hate to see anyone misunderstand, and miss the deadline because of it..

no place in the rules does it say it has to be a playable map, just who is closest to their art picture..

i would consider a beta eligible by this rule alone..

plus the fact that leps map last time was finished afterward..

we would never have seen leps fine entry, if he had not submitted it :smile:

i suggest, anyone who has anything finished pointedly looks at ferret to submit what you have... as long as the finished portion LOOKS LIKE YOUR CONCEPT!!!

/nuff said :smile:

Thank god your allowing that lep, my map has been compiling for hours and hours and VIS never got finished. Strangely enough that was also me using netvis with my flatmates - 4 computers with 1GHz or more CPUs and at least 512mb of ram - and it still only got to 40% odd in 20 hours or something daft. I'll be releasing mine as a beta map also, and will hopefully finish it off in the next few days. It will never be "playable" in the full sense of the word; it is a showpiece map rather than a DM map. There will be no weapons or items in the beta version, although there will be in the final one.

Are the rocks going to be accessible ReNo? If not, stick clipbrushes over them and that'll reduce VIS compile times considerably :smile:

Clip brushes shouldn't effect VIS in any way though should it? I would decrease BSP times as less clipnodes need to be generated, but VIS would still need to work out what is visible from where. HINT brushes could help to an extent I believe, but I've no idea how to use them in complex scenarios such as this.

I had originally planned on the rocks being accessible, but I may limit it like I did in Torrent, with some parts accessible and others clipped off.

I'm pretty sure that if an area is clipped off, the player can't access said area, so VIS doesn't bother calculating for that area.

I may be wrong though :smile:

Test it with noclip, I'm sure vis still calculates within clipped areas.

The world appears to be against me getting this map in. I've tried the CD with my map on it on 3 computers now - the first two couldn't read the CD at all, and then when the third one seems to be fine, it turns out it can't read multiple sessions on a CD, so its only displaying the old UT2K3 patch I put on the CD ages ago! Time to try and find another computer which will hopefully let me copy my damn file!

Wooohoo, at long last I managed to get onto a computer with a CDRW drive that reads my CD, so here are a couple of pics of my entry. It is called Vanguard, although the entered version is only a beta.





I highly regret putting the water in rather than just using the skybox :sad:

ReNo said:
 

I highly regret putting the water in rather than just using the skybox :sad:

its not the water, its the kind of water..

the default cartoon water just looks wrong with all the great custom stuff..

pick something else.. another water i mean :smile:

I tried a fair few, and they all looked terrible - even ones I've used in other situations and found to look great :sad: For the purposes of screenshots, the skybox woulda looked better, but when playing just looking down at the skybox looks highly unrealistic, its a no win situation really. I'm intrigued as to how CJ got his water based map looking so good.

ReNo said:
I tried a fair few, and they all looked terrible - even ones I've used in other situations and found to look great :sad:

what i find more probable is, the compile times are so long, you didn't look at very many, and skipped a lot of choices :razz:

i would use a func_water, since the r's are prolly shot anyways, the cartoon one isnt going to help much..

there are some nice dingy dark waters in HL alone.. but i am betting many others are available..

i bet CJ's was normal HL water set to func as well :smile:

ReN, I love it. thats f'kin excellent. I cant wait for the playable version. Ive finished compiling a beta of my comp map. Gonna send it to orph in a sec hopefully. But I still havent got my ftp pass back so I cant upload.

Glad you like it korn, good luck getting yours done :smile:

Orph - the main problem was that water is flat lit no matter what the lighting conditions. I picked this last one as it didn't have the ! prefix, and so I thought it would act just like a normal texture only look a bit like water. Unfortunately it still acts like water, despite having no ! prefix and not being a func_water. Too late to do anything in time for the contest, but I'll certainly be experimenting for the full release.

ReNo, that looks absolutely stunning.  It's a shame that you say it will never be playable, but I'm sure it's good practice for HL2!

ReNo, that's simply superb.. breathtaking... :smile:

Apart from the water which you already know about my only critique would be the rather large sprites on the antenna.

Does look v.top banana though. :smile:

Well spotted MrBen, I think they look kinda silly too but didn't think anyone would really notice. I think size wise they are ok, but they need to be less intense.

Gollum: I'm gonna use this as a test thing in HL2 whenever it comes out I think, to see how different it looks without changing anything (obviously I'll need to sort out the textures and things but should be interesting).

Mr.NotMrBen said:
Apart from the water which you already know about my only critique would be the rather large sprites on the antenna.

Does look v.top banana though. :smile:

straight from Mr.Antenna

Damn straight :smile:

Now we just have to wait for Mrs Antenna to turn up.

http://www.snarkpit.com/maps.php?map=382

My comptetion map is ready for downloading in my profile. Heres some teaser pics







 

 

Mr.NotMrBen said:
Now we just have to wait for Mrs Antenna to turn up.

RAWR!!1~1oneone
Those things you call "antennas" are still the ugliest things I've ever laid my eyes on. For shame, for shame.

/me mauls MrBen

ANYWAY...

Really nice stuff ReNo, except all the stuff people have already complained about. The water in my map was func_illusionary with an animated (+0, +1, etc.) additive texture on it, with the skybox below.

Oh, and Lep? That auto-sizer doesn't seem to be working; Crackerjack's screen is at 1072 wide for me as of this moment.

Other than the 3 entries linked in this thread, who has entered what, and where can we download? :smile:

EDIT Sorry, ignore that, I just noticed the link on the main page.

Eeek, my entry wasn't on the competition page, does that mean I was too late lep?

And thanks CJ, I'll test out that setup of water for the next version.

I think it's being updated right now as i've looked at it a few times and seen my map as being by Mor7y, a CS map being on the list and slowly but surely a few more entries :smile:

Keep checking it :smile:

yeah t'is just updating. ive dl them all so far bar Fingers. But fingers map dl link doesnt work :/

Edit: Fingers dl link doesnt exist
One Love zip was corrupt for me.

I can't d/l them until I get home from work. Worst thing is my net connection at work is really fast as well, while at home i'll have to sit and wait ages to d/l each map :sad:

Though I guess I don't need to d/l the first one on the list :wink:

I'll probably d/l yours first KoRnFlakes as i'm curious as to how its turned out since those screenshots you showed many moons ago. And I see we have a few 'sleeper' entries too...

ta m8 :smile: btw, Vanguard is f'kin beautiful. You dont half need a beast to run it though. 1st time ive felt a bit of slowdown on lan due to high wpoly & I have a radeon 9600 pro

One love isn't corrupted. It's a rar. Get Winrar

Edit: after dl'ing the other maps, I now see you are quite the rar fan yourself.. heheh. Nevermind.

its fine now. I only have rar m8, Dont have winzip any more. The 1st time I dl'ed it it was dodgy though.

Only one left to dl is fingers broken palace, but the link doesnt work still :/

a few comments

1) holyshit batman this dloaded forking fast :eek:

2) i hope the link to fingers map gets fixed, its nothing short of awesome... best map of its theme i personally have ever seen..

3) i saw maps in the list that i didn't get to critique before hand, so most of you can rest assured, i am not biased :smile:

4) i also saw names i didn't recognize, how many entrants are from outside SP lep????

5) good luck to each and every one, just finishing deserves praise, considering the nearness of HL2, and this tired old games history.. you all deserve a "high five"

/me bows to all, you are all masters in your own rights..

it finished quickly because you already have it m8 :smile:

KoRnFlakes said:
it finished quickly because you already have it m8 :smile:

maybe, but i doubt it, i have a different folder for all the comp maps.. yours was not there, and unless it stored it in my ram from yesterday morning, i really doubt it..

but, its possible :smile:

Coulda been stored in temporary internet files mate.

ReNo said:
Coulda been stored in temporary internet files mate.

really?, even thos i placed it to another folder?

still i guess you are right, becase it happened 2 times, and both maps i had gotten yesterday.. :sad:

still if my PC is storing maps in my temp inet folder, its no damned wonder i am always out of hard drive space