[map] dm_rain

This is a a discussion topic for the map "dm_rain" by popcornjake which can be found here

Map description:

This is my second map, which took everything I had learnt from the first and put it into another bread and butter Half Life 2: Deathmatch map, developed in less than half the time of the first.

It is a relatively small map, which has been designed to play nice and tight and fast, with sull support for teamplay.

This is the first beta version, hopefully it will be the only one. I'm working this in my spare-spare time so while I do enjoy creating it, I'd like it to be done as soon as possible really. If you are a real champ and do give it a download, I'd be very grateful for any feedback you might have at all.

Map screenshots:

I'm getting a really weird effect when I try to play the map.

However from what I saw so far this is a really nice map. In particular I like the way how you made the spaces look noisy (detailed).

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Aaron's Stuff

aaron_da_killa said:
I'm getting a really weird effect when I try to play the map.

However from what I saw so far this is a really nice map. In particular I like the way how you made the spaces look noisy (detailed).

Looks like the fog is thoroughly botched on anybody's rig other than my own. As you would expect, on my rig it renders just as it looks in the screenshots, so I suspect it might have something to do my GPU or the likes.

Do you mind if I ask as to what rig you are running?

I'd say it's something on your end in that case. What graphics card do you have? What settings did you use for the fog?

I have an nvidia 9800 gt.

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Aaron's Stuff

I uploaded another version that I'm calling beta 2, it's identical to the first only with the fog removed.(the new version will appear only as a filefront mirror for the next few hours, I do not have enough bandwidth at the moment to upload it twice)

The env_fog_controller was configured as follows:

Fog Blend: Yes
Fog Start: -400
Fog End: 5000
Fog Max Density: 0.3

Just popping in to let you guys know, beta 2 is now on the snarkpit servers too.

fog and rain showed up fine on my machine, hd4850

Really nice authoring here, you have a good handle on the hl2 ethic. I should urge you to consider other games to map for though, as you are flogging a dead horse with really expensive stick here.

Also I have to say that although this is an excellent production it suffers from a great many gameplay flaws, which is unfortunate. I've ran around css maps with similar designs, maybe this would be better off ported to that?

"popcornjake" said:
Fog Start: -400

This could be your problem, you're not supposed to have a negative number here. Fog Start specifies the distance from the player in hammer units (roughly an inch) where the fog starts.

In reality, if you were surrounded by fog then this number would be 0 and you would only specify the Fog End distance (visibility- assuming Fog Max Density is set to 1). So perhaps you might like to set this to 20 000 or 30 000 for light fog and maybe 5000 or less for heavy fog.

However, specifying a Fog Start distance of say 500, you are creating a little barrier around the player where everything within a 500 unit radius around the player is unaffected by fog. This ofcourse doesn't happen in reality but it can be useful if you don't want things close to the player to be effected by fog.

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Aaron's Stuff

This is a visually impressive map for sure. I think though that the layout is a bit too basic and not at all deserving of the visuals. Adding a second level to the center building would be good, as would paths between the outside and center second levels. The level is mainly flat with little height variation which makes for boring extended play. More paths between areas would be good. I would also widen some of the doorways, as the normal width doorways are not conducive to smooth deathmatch.

I would reduce the amount of props in places, as 4 barrels and 2 palettes or a stack of 6 tires is a little too generous. I would remove some of the less useful props that serve as decor more than grav gun ammunition such as the wooden chairs and tables. I would also turn some of the breakable props into respawners.

You need to take a close look at snag points. I noticed some clipped off areas and some non-solid static props which is a start, but there's still plenty to do. For example nearly every door blocked by wood planks needs clipping. I would be careful with the non-solid props though, as they won't block bullets or thrown objects and would look strange to observing players.

Here's some smaller things I noticed: Texture error. Inset door needs to be clipped off. Those cones probably get annoying in a real deathmatch. I got stuck here with no way out but suicide. I would suggest not making these func_illusionary, instead clip them because of what can happen in the second picture. Bed's broken. I wouldn't use this prop in deathmatch; at least make it static. Big prop isn't solid but the smaller prop is. Prop placement error. Paint cans and cinder blocks are prime gravgun material in deathmatch, and setting them as debris is not ideal. This looks bad and not at all realistic. Snag point.

Nice looking map! I will give it a playtest in the next week or so and then run it on our [FF] servers if all is well! Despite what was said earlier, there are still plenty of HL2 DM players who appreciate your efforts!

Gah I hate to do this.. but I agree with YAK. Another thing is in that garage the door ends at the ceiling, and it just does not look right. If you can fix some of the things mentioned and it would be a much better map, I so agree with the second floor idea.. that would be awesome!

I uploaded a final bsp with a new name and a score of new changes.

I didn't add the second floor for various reasons, but there have been a lot of bugs squashed in the final version.

Grab it and enjoy!

It is very disappointing that you did not post an updated beta for us to take another look at, as a cursory glance of the finalized map I had last night revealed at least 15 issues that would take ten minutes total to fix that would improve the flow even more. Also, the lack of a proper readme is puzzling, as that too takes about ten minutes to make.

As for not improving the layout... well that's a big mistake, but I can understand the difficulty of having to tear up all your visual work and not wanting to go through that. That is why it is important to have a solid, well-tested layout in place before going into the details, so you don't have to change large swaths of your map and dump hours of hard work.

A layout is what makes a map, not the pretty architecture. That can be a bonus on top of a good layout, not a replacement for it. That is something to keep in mind for your next map.