dm_district 33

Hey guys, Finally releasing my level dm_district33 to the public. It has not been tested online, but I would imagine its best suited to 6-8 players. This was my first serious attempt at a hammer map. More info included with the .rar file.

Hope you like it !! It was a pleasure working with this engine !:D

Screens:

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/9311/ultranewbdistrict3303.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/9703/ultranewbdistrict3314.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/5743/ultranewbdistrict3301.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/3092/ultranewbdistrict3302.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/4873/ultranewbdistrict3304.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/1931/ultranewbdistrict3305.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/5716/ultranewbdistrict3306.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/994/ultranewbdistrict3308.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/1295/ultranewbdistrict3307.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/4700/ultranewbdistrict3309.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/7260/ultranewbdistrict3310.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/362/ultranewbdistrict3312.jpg

http://img156.exs.cx/img156/2449/ultranewbdistrict3313.jpg

Download Courtesy of PAF:

http://downloads.punkassfraggers.com/index.php?direction=&order=&directory=HL2DM%20Files/Official%20Valve%20Map%20Contest%20Entries&

:smile:

WOW, nice map dude, i really like the atmopshere of the thrown stuff on the ground so we can pick it up with the G-Gun or phys0-gun, and i dont know about this, but is the train moving??...Nice map and really cool...
Keep up the good work buddy

Not bad, i really like it from the images lol, i will be able to play it after i get back home, becuase im in a net cafe..and cant play it there :heee:

Cya, and good luck :smile:

Very nice

While the camera angles ham it up a bit, it looks very populated and
real. For the most part it doesn't look like a bunch of props placed
for the sake of it. I'll have to check this out.

Wow that looks class, it's a shame you can't submit to the contest anymore , you would have had a good chance i think :), it beats the crap outa all the other maps i've seen (avalon etc.)

Best custommap I've EVER seen in HL2!

If I ever get the Steam ports unblocked then I'll play this straight away! Looks fantastic- though the insides look quite a lot less detailed, especially you're sewer- could do with some nice sprites on the lights or some grates in the road letting light in.

Looks awesome!!!

Need fps optimasations though.. My fps drops below 25 in some area's walking arround on my own..

It looks great and if i was in an experiment then i could'nt tell the difference between a real city and a game city!

FPS is not as good as I would like it to be unfortunatly. I did utilize occluders, hint brushes,model fade and detail brushes. This is my first map with hammer, so it was a learning experience. So if anyone has some suggestions to seriously boost performance, I'm all ears. :smile:

Looks awesome judging by the screenshots, and for your first map with
hammer this is an exceptional piece of work. What other editors are you
experienced in, out of curiousity?

I mapped with the Unreal engine extensively. I have made maps for Strike Force 2004 and UnWheel (a driving mod for UT2004). So the transition to hammer was very easy for me. I really enjoy working with hammer, cause the lighting is so superior to Unreal, imo, but I still think Unreal Ed 3 is the most superior editor. RT lighting being the biggest perk. :smile:

Everyone seems to like their first / main editor the best - you won't
find too many UnrealEd fans around these parts :smile: I didn't notice any
mention of this being for the contest - did you enter it?

looks good, I'm going to fire it up now and take a look.

[edit] d/l dosnt' seem to be working for me.

Likewise, but I'm not sure if thats a surprise which such an extraordinarily long URL :razz:

This map owns. I also like your screenshot style, it kinds of adds to the theme in a way.

ATM i'm looking for another host, should have this remedied shortly. Will post a link very soon, sorry 'bout this. PAF seems to be having some troubles atm. :smile:

Reno, this was entered into the contest. I paid a small fortune to have it shipped via courier. :smile:

Download from PAF :

http://downloads.punkassfraggers.com/index.php?direction=&order=&directory=HL2DM%20Files/Official%20Valve%20Map%20Contest%20Entries&

G'ah! The city quality of this belongs in a swat game, like Rainbow Six 3 or something!

It looks spectacular for a city map :smile:

First thing, if the Source engine were just designed for artistic creation, your map would be one of the best works of art I've ever seen. It is really quite well done. The thing is, HL2DM maps are for deathmatch, and your map has no guns! Just like a lot of other maps released on this site, if people played your map it would just turn into a SMG and gravgun brawl which gets old fast. A more signifigant error in your map, however, and I believe you must already know this, is the fact that you only have one spawn point. I did this too in my map I submitted to the contest because I put down info_player_start where I needed info_player_deathmatch, maybe that was your mistake too? Anyway if you fix the spawn problem and put in some more guns, your map would really kick ass. Good job.

Have you tried to actually test it with people yet? I think you only
have one spawn point, which needless to say is a problem. Oh and
ReNo, have you ever actually used UnrealEd? It rocks Hammer into
the stone age, which is about when Hammer was developed...

LOL ham I have used it though not very much. I applied for a job
in my uni a couple of years ago and the project was using the original
unreal engine, so I learnt the basics in UT2003. In many ways it is
superior to hammer, but personally, being far better versed in hammer,
I find that more to my liking. If I had learnt UnrealEd first, I would
almost certainly prefer that.

It's pretty good, but has a few problems-

• As already stated it seems like there's only one player start? Though maybe that's my maxplayers 1 setup...
• Weapon & item placement is, quite frankly, crap- there's very little of it around!
• The layout needs some working on. Too many fiddly roof ledges, and the sewers seem pointless.
• The ambient busy city sound is wrong for your empty, quiet map. It should either be a quiet, windy, deserted sound, or there should be "life" visible outside- e.g. the train should be running
• One of your cars can be picked up with the grav gun, and the others can't be pushed by it (ragdoll stylee, like in all the other Valve maps)

I agree with hambeater.. Things that need fixing:

1. spawnpoints
2. more weapons
3. fps performance optimasation
4. hole in map that allows people to go off the map (see screenies)

http://www.bigbear.cistron.nl/dm_district330000.jpg
http://www.bigbear.cistron.nl/dm_district330001.jpg

Fix these things, and you have a winner.. Atm I give it an 8 because of the things that need fixing..

Damn dude good job.Lol for a second i thought it wasnt a game cause it looked so good Very nice job

Hambeater, I was wondering why i always spawned in the same spot. :/ Thanks for your solution. I wish i had known earlier of this error.

As for fps, i attempted to insert area portals , to block off the sewer, but they failed to work . Someone on another forum mentioned using area portals hidden in buildings to "section" off the map, i have no idea how this would work. Occluders do work in the map, but because of my design (wide openness), I fear optimizing will be nigh impossible.

Thanks for your great comments, I appreciate it very much. To this day i have not played the map with anyone . Which really sucks. Because of the very short deadline in this contest (and my late start), it just wasn't possible for me to sufficiently beta test this map thoroughly. :/ I made this map in about 2.5 weeks, nevr touched hammer before this. I'm happy with its looks, not happy about fps problems.

/end rant

Thank you for taking the time to point out these issues, i appreciate it very much. I just answered a bunch of questions here.

http://www.snarkpit.com/maps.php?map=1621

I'm debating whether or not to abandoned this map and just start another one, I feel optimising this baby will be almost impossible, simply because of the design. Live and learn. :biggrin:

Have you tried to actually test it with people yet? I think you only
have one spawn point, which needless to say is a problem. Oh and
ReNo, have you ever actually used UnrealEd? It rocks Hammer into
the stone age, which is about when Hammer was developed...

Used both. I like Hammre better. Even though its lacking some of the finer advantages of UnrealEd, the style of editing in Hammre is more in tune with the way I think about mapping.

Ignoring the low FPS, the single DM spawnpoint, and the (seemingly) nonexistent weapon placement, you've still got a bunch of connectivity and layout problems. It looks really cool, but as a DM map it really doesn't work. You've got a bunch of wide open streets with little to no cover, a bunch of dead ends on the roofs (unless you just swan dive off the top), and a ton of ladders everywhere. The map is too expansive and open for a good game, especially given the slow movement speeds and ease of death in HL2DM.

You've got the right ideas (multiple levels, a combination of close combat and open areas) and the obvious ability to make complex and sweet looking areas, so I'm certain you're next maps will be knockouts. Until then...

As an aside, I am stunned by the number of really good looking contest maps that have little-to-zero gameplay. Each contest map I've downloaded except island17 and rebar has failed the most important aspect of mapping, and it's rather stunning that people would put so much effort into creating an architecturally beautiful map with all the bells and whistles when the basic layout would never work as a good map.

This is a classic case of lack of beta testing. All these problems you mentioned can be fixed. Unfortunatly, I had no way to test this level due to time constraints. This is literally (beta 1) your playing. :smile: I hate when ppl label maps with b1...b2, etc. When i update the level, all you have to do is simply overwrite the old level.

:smile:

Just like to add, this map managed to get in the UK's top5 PC gamer
maps and was included on the march 2005 DVD edition, nice work man! i
gotta play this yet though!

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Dred_furst</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Just like to add, this map managed to get in the UK's top5 PC gamer maps and was included on the march 2005 DVD edition, nice work man! i gotta play this yet though!
</DIV></DIV>

WOW !!! Awesome ! I wish the magazine would of informed in some way, though. However, if my name is with the map, i'm happy.

Any chance you could scan the magazine article and post the pic here Dred_furst? I live in Canada and have no access to this magazine unfortunatly. It would be much appreciated, Thanks for the heads up !! :biggrin:

If you need a free image host, you can use http://imageshack.us/. !! :smile:

Awesome map man, very pretty! The only thing that I saw that looked
very strange is the buildings in the background of pic 1. If you go up
to the fence and look at the buildings they look very strange. This is
probably because these were not meant to be seen up close and meant to
be used as filler for scenery. OH and one more thing, when you are
using grav gun you can pull street sign polls out of the ground but the
sign itself will be left floating in the air. You should change the
cars in here to prop_physics_multiplayer so you can shoot em around,
and maybe take out that car that you can pick up and throw with the
grav gun. Not sure about that though, its kinda cool to be able to just
whip a car around like that :smile: I pray to see this on some god damn
servers soon. What kinda world do we live in where killbox is on more
then 10 servers. That gay map shouldnt even be on 1 server. Keep up the
great work man!

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting ultranew_b</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext> I hate when ppl label maps with b1...b2, etc. When i update the level, all you have to do is simply overwrite the old level. </DIV></DIV>

I've commented on this map before in the steampowered forums and remember pretty much giving the same comments as Lep and Yak Fighter; basically it looks a heck of a lot better than it plays, and for a first time effort it's a sterling attempt.
But I'm writing here about your policy of overwriting bsp files with new versions - seriously, revise your policy! Consider this; a client downloads a version of your map and happily plays it on a server. Then a new version of your map is released with the same filename and the server admin overwrites it on his server. Now the client tries to connect to the server but is kicked because the file differs. Other map authors use the _b1 _b2 etc suffixes for a very good reason; to prevent file conflicts like this.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting keved</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

But I'm writing here about your policy of overwriting bsp files with new versions - seriously, revise your policy! Consider this; a client downloads a version of your map and happily plays it on a server. Then a new version of your map is released with the same filename and the server admin overwrites it on his server. Now the client tries to connect to the server but is kicked because the file differs. Other map authors use the _b1 _b2 etc suffixes for a very good reason; to prevent file conflicts like this.

</DIV></DIV>

now you've warned him.. lets see if he can absorb the logic or not :biggrin:
my guess, his maps will not be played much after the first or second server borkage sadly, we will never know, i doubt he will come back and tell us.