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Coming to a map night near you?


turnbullTeRRoR

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Hey guys, first of all let me say thanks for playing my map de_Canyonbeta. I always enjoy games on your server, and custom night is fun despite the grumbling. hum bugs don't be discouraged :) They can't all be winners :P

 

Anyways I was wandering if you can remove de_canyonbeta and replace it with the much better version de_canyon.

 

Also just released de_Utility_Beta and I think it may be fun to play. The idea is not as original as the Canyon map, but the game play and routing is a little more complex.

 

Here are the shortcuts if you'd like to check them out or Download

 

http://gamebanana.com/css/maps/167006 de_canyon

 

http://gamebanana.com/css/maps/167291 de_Utility_Beta

 

see you on the servers

 

ps LUNK you didn't get that AK back BTW :ignore:

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Thanks

 

I was going to also mention that the Canyon map and Utility Map are polar opposites as far as layout goes. de_ Canyon is a very open map while de_Utility_Beta is much more closed in with more routing possibilities via mid area( there are some long narrow shots though). The thing I'm most interested in seeing is if people think the bombsites are just a little to close. Opinions, Ideas, or Criticism are welcome concerning either map.

 

I'm not familiar with photo shop yet to make a radar and I've not tried a 3d skybox but I'm looking into both of these for the final version of de_utility

 

ps I've only had SDK since May so I'm still making mistakes out of ignorance. ie- Canyon maps displacements the textures too large / on brushes too big / so they looked stretched in some places/ I'm being schooled right now on game banana :P

Edited by turnbullTeRRoR
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Canyon

 

The timing on Canyon seems about right, but the layout of the map and some small details make it look very hard to defend (without having played it). A looks very easy to rush and win; if CTs go into the site to defend, they're completely trapped there, and preventing a plant there from outside the site looks difficult because there is a lot of large cover in and around the site, and anywhere you would shoot into it from leaves you in an exposed position (from left and below). B seems balanced, but the area around it seems very easy to overrun (climbing on top of building or running across the ledge in front of the windows) so that supporting A from here will be difficult.

 

In terms of finishing, there are several things that stand out.

 

(1) No NAV file. Because of the displacements on the map, generating the navigation mesh will take a long time; this is more reason to do it yourself once and include the file with the map. This comes with the extra benefit that you can add place names if you want to do so.

 

(2) Clipping. A boost off the generator near B gives access to about a quarter of the perimeter of the map. An area that can only be boosted to would be an interesting addition to a lot of maps if done right, but in this case it looks unintentional since this area is completely unfinished (you can fall off the edge of the map). A player up here could be very difficult to deal with, since the displacement slopes back away from the map in several places. I can't decide if a boost out of T spawn is feasible or not; if it is, a player can walk from here directly onto the dam. Any areas where a player absolutely should not be able to go should be protected by straight-vertical walls made from toolsplayerclip (this material can also be used to block the bomb from going into areas too small for a player). Don't be overzealous, since some servers may want to play a map with low gravity, or spawn players in odd locations (deathmatch), or teleport, so allowing access to areas that are finished enough to be usable may be a good thing, even if normally they'd be impossible to boost.

 

(3) Optimization. Displacement areas that are large enough to block off a large area visually should have a solid brush of toolsnodraw behind them. The engine considers displacements to be non-solid when computing visibility, so they need solid brushes in order to form a real barrier for optimization. It doesn't have to be a tight fit, but they should fill up most of the space below the displacement. This is mainly for walls; floors can just have a flat brush underneath them, and things like archways can't really use anything. Once that's done, you can add ceilings to the walkable areas of the map, textured with toolsskip on the irrelevant sides, and toolshint on the relevant side. The hint face should be below the height of the adjacent walls, and above the maximum height someone could jump. These two should cut down enormously on the time VVIS runs, and make the map run faster. This site may help quite a bit (http://www.optimization.interlopers.net/), if you keep in mind that the principles work vertically as well as horizontally.

 

(4) Texturing. As you mentioned, the textures on the displacements are stretched and too large. You can help yourself out here by using a face that's already closer to the shape you want. This could mean building your rock walls out of brushes very roughly and then turning the visible sides into displacements, or using a combination of vertical and horizontal faces to begin with. Keep in mind that vertical displacements that go straight north-south or east-west may be much easier to work with than slanted, since you only have to move them in one direction. If two faces touched at an edge originally, you should be able to use 'sew' in Hammer to automatically match the edges of their displacements back up once you're done adjusting the vertices. Using blended textures on your displacements may be a lot better than overlapping displacements of different textures, in most situations. Small details in texturing can sometimes get you a meaningful effect with very little effort. One would be to change the x or y offset on each step in a stairway (whichever runs along the stair).

 

(5) Water. Cheap water doesn't look very good. Usually, selectively using expensive water in a few places looks better than using a huge brush of cheap water everywhere. When using water as a puddle, take extra care with the displacement in that area to give it more natural-looking edges. Keep in mind if you use more than one brush of expensive water that, if two are rendered on the screen at the same time, only one will render correctly.

 

Interlopers might be a more worthwhile place to post than CSBanana. You'll get less volume of posts, but they actually know something.

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thoroughly enjoyed both maps tonight :) so glad i didn't miss it. came in late for customs, but right before canyon. and when the map creator is actually in game too, it makes playing all the more special. then i'm paying more attention to every corner and object. "Oh look! turnbull placed this boxes for cover here"

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Thanks for your input. I've noted and will most likely be returning here to re-read it again. I've actually been invited to do some work in udk which is something I have a little more experience in. So while I' m not abandoning these CSS maps my attentions gonna be mostly on catching up with the unreal engine.

 

Had fun tonight guys and as always thanks!

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