The map takes place in an aquarium facility, home to different species of sea animals.
It has a pretty big size and is better suited for long range weapons.
R_speeds in this scenario are also higher than what I usually do in HL1 because of the detail needed. The r_speed limitation prevented me from making the architecture I originally had in mind. I will probably make a Source map with a similar theme in the future.
The lightmap grid in the outside area is also something I'm not happy with.

The hardest part of making this map was probably setting up the aquariums themselves, because it involved creating a great deal of transparent textures.
While the fishes are func_rotating, I managed to use tracktrains for the mantarays, which makes them seem a bit more alive.

The famous house by Frank Lloyd Wright in Bear Run Pennsylvania. This map is for singleplayer, although there is no combat. It's just an architecture showcase.
This map was done between December 23 2005 and January 23 2006. Most of the credit goes to Frank Lloyd Wright himself. All I had to do was look at floorplans, reference pictures and then map.
A hostage rescue version is in proccess.

I consider the map 99% done, because there are infinite things that could be fixed or changed. The compile times were really long, so I had to consider the map finished.

A hostage rescue map inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Kaufmann House.

This version is a reduced version of the HL2 map (the guest house is not present, for example)

All the artwork in the house was made by the map author and belongs to him. All the textures are either Valve's work or the author's work. The geometry was also built by the author based on information found freely around the world wide web.

There are 4 hostages in the house. CT forces have the advantage of a quicker trip to the hostages, but terrorists can use the many terraces and exits of the house to take out the CTs. Due to the nature of the building, there are multiple ways to approach and defend the house, making each round different.

The performance is still far from optimal, specially when it comes to long-range battles. Hopefully, this map will be more playable as computers become more powerful, who knows. There are several occluders placed to help performance but they don't help as much as we would like... Use HDR only if your computer can handle it. The LDR lighting looks a bit more yellow while the HDR has a prettier orange light. This could be fixed with another 5 hour compile, so I'm sorry if you don't like how the LDR version looks.

A lot of graphical changes were done to the map. Higher-res pictures, more accurate stone textures, better lighting using smoothing groups, HDR and fixed "most" of the lightmap grid problems. Most of the windows and doors now use 2D textures to help with performance. It might not look as good as the HL2 version in that sense, but good performance was seen as more important. The river now uses a new custom material which is refractive, scrolling and mildly reflective. It looks better than the static HL2 water, fits the situation better and also helps with performance.