From a mapper

malcommalcom Join Date: 2008-03-28 Member: 63983Members
in NS2 General Discussion
I can not express how blown away I was just yesterday when I revisited NS, only to see that NS2 was well on its way to being finished. At first i was definitely skeptical with everything (as I always am) so I poked around your website a bit and found the NS2 Promo site. I looked at it and thought 20$? Alright. But 40$? Nah... So I decided to see what podcasts, youtube videos, official trailers I could scrounge up. And needless to say, I will be purchasing NS2 Special edition shortly. I was absolutely sold by the dynamic infestation, dynamic lighting and how even in your editor lighting is done. You have no clue (Though you probably do) how frustrated I was when I had to recompile a source-based engine level, only to find the light is ridiculously far from what I had wanted.

So from a mapper to the developers. I love you guys. Keep up the work and I think I will always be willing to toss a few bucks at you.

So, what pushed you over the line, and made you decide to donate? Was it just out of charity, or did something wow you?

Also here some of my source work, but i feel it will fail in comparison with what can be done on your engine.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/malcom347/Me/sa_alphacentauri0033.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/malcom347/Me/sa_alphacentauri0036.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/malcom347/map_is_shiny0007.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/malcom347/sci_garden0002.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/malcom347/test0007.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/malcom347/secretcity0009.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

For the nostalgic people
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/malcom347/Black%20Mesa-%20Training/hallway1.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/malcom347/Black%20Mesa-%20Training/spawn3.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
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Comments

  • weclockweclock Join Date: 2009-05-28 Member: 67506Members
    Yes, lighting is ridiculously stupid in the source engine, but maybe it's not the lighting system.. but me.. oh well, I really should get back into mapping.. too busy playing/testing/music making to focus on such a small thing.
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  • malcommalcom Join Date: 2008-03-28 Member: 63983Members
    It truly is. it is 100% direct lighting, the only way to get a dynamic light is to combine multiple entities, but in turn it also used a lot of system resources to draw the dynamic shadows.
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  • Fang_XianfuFang_Xianfu Join Date: 2004-09-04 Member: 31344Members
    Firstly, I really love some of the elements of that map. What mod's it for, and is there thread on some forums somewhere with more info/downloads? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />

    A few things sold me on NS2. For starters, the game itself is going to be great if NS1 is anything to go by. That alone is going to be worth $20, if not $40.

    But the real draw of the game, IMO, is all the content we'll be able to create for it. Valve is always going on about how great their iterative process is, but it's been really difficult for prosumers, if I can borrow that word, to apply those same techniques. Prosumers have very limited time and extremely limited resources - they can't afford to iterate on a single thing for months and months to get it right.

    And UWE has managed to see these problems and do their utmost to get past them. Writing mods is now simpler than ever before, using Lua (which a chimpanzee could learn in a weekend) for the game code/mods, using an engine and toolset that allows very fast prototypes, feedback, and changes. I absolutely <i>love</i> that they've done this, because it'll increase the number of people that're able to make content, and increase the amount and quality of content you can make in a set period of time. There is absolutely nothing bad about this scenario.

    Plus, you get a Lua debugger for free! What more could you want!?
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  • ThaldarinThaldarin Alonzi&#33; Join Date: 2003-07-15 Member: 18173Members, Constellation
    I think we shall find the development team have made their editor as simple as possible, as 'hammery' as possible for old mappers converting across to make it easier for us to design custom content for the game. As after all, NS1 was all about custom content addition.
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  • StinkyStinky Join Date: 2007-12-16 Member: 63182Members
    Yup, no more overnight VIS and RAD rendering! This will streamline everything very well, and will very likely result in higher-quality custom maps. This makes me a happy gorge.
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  • Dalin SeivewrightDalin Seivewright 0x0000221E Join Date: 2007-10-20 Member: 62685Members, Constellation
    edited June 2009
    <!--quoteo(post=1708933:date=May 31 2009, 01:43 PM:name=Fang_Xianfu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Fang_Xianfu @ May 31 2009, 01:43 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1708933"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Plus, you get a Lua debugger for free! What more could you want!?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    <strike>Are you sure they'll be bundling Decoda with it (assuming that's the debugger they would be bundling)? I would think at the very least there would be an interpreter in the engine that'll spit out errors when needed, but I'm not sure about an actual debugger.</strike>

    So it is true! Very nice. I haven't tried Decoda myself (assuming that is the actual debugger they add... can't see why it wouldn't be) but it looks very nice.
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