@Rudy.cz Any thoughts about how to fix your see through portion? It's not as obvious. Also I just noticed - you removed the cel shading?
Yep, it was causing shadow artifacts. I will reintroduce them later as separate models. To fix the hole you can just simply put there a face with black texture (included with my room), probably extrude it a bit outside to not clip with green portal cinematic.
@Braw It's in the map now, it just needs a name! If anyone has any suggestions let me know. The first suggestion is "Transit" - anyone have anything better?
@Rudy it's fixed, let me know if it should be changed. I've also turned down the sound from .5 to .4 to see how that works. It's still loud but not as blaring.
So Caboose will be unable to finish his portion for the ready room due to life - luckily I did not take on a room because I planned on this happening to someone. He has a good start on the alien team join. I will work with what he has and continue from there. Unless anyone has a better idea I think I'll just create two rooms with one set of portals in between. Alien side will look like infested cave and will use the portal entrance from lava cave. Marine side will be clean looking and the portal will use one of the entrances in Transit. Each room will have their own spectate & random. I think the team joins will also look like portals; this way later I can make the teams look like they exit in their base, and randoms look like they exit into circus etc. I'm happy to take suggestions on before I get started!
Edit: I got some ideas from Caboose. The one I liked best that he tried was Alice in Wonderland, with huge props - but he ended up with clipping issues. I wonder if there is a good workaround.
Not sure if it's better to create my own theme or just incorporate ones already used in the level and have the ready room give a sense of what the level is.
Yea, sorry guys, I did pick the only room non-essential to game play for a reason... The props I tried to scale up were a Mac, a few Babblers, the plant props, some rocks floating in the air where I had spawn points positioned. The random join was a Rabbit Hole with a long free-fall and varying colored lights along the fall.
I can't seem to find that particular scrapped version on my hard drive any where even a "*.level" search turned up nothing.
@Caboose I really like the idea and if it were a normal room I'd steal it and even create collisiongeo for it separately, but I think I'm going to have the ready room give people an idea of what the map is all about, like an introduction.
This is the alien join: inspiration & most work by Caboose.
I shifted things around a little and used cinematics & dynamic props so they move like the ones in the gorge tunnels. The rest of this room will look like lava cave without the lava, which I hope I can have up for Sunday's playtest. The marine room I think I will split between transit & gravity hub look, borrowing parts from each.
Depending on what other rooms are using the skybox I'll move it around to align the planet a bit better. At this point I'd just put it in gravity but I think others will use it; we'll see.
Last note: I'll add a ladder to Transit so marines can exit from down below.
I have been unable to contact @ritualsacrifice and @draktok however both seem to still be posting on the forums recently, so hopefully they can contact me and let me know how far along they are.
That leaves the two last rooms which are still in progress by Flat & Howser.
Also please let me know if you have any suggestions for the RR - the alien side is mostly finished and I'll start putting together the marine side soon.
I've updated the ready room, this time with the marine half. Special thanks go to Worthy & Braw who's work I used for parts of the room. The biggest issue with the marine half is if an exo falls down below they are stuck - I made sure anyone else stuck down there can use the random join, but would it be better to just block off the lower area to avoid exo fall? Please let me know if you have any suggestions for the ready room.
Hopefully we can start getting the rest of the rooms completed - I'd love to add them in! I'm going to start on the texture creation for the 'portal view' - my first test is the ready room from alien to marine side and I'll start work on that soon.
Oh Jesus, that looks like a sexy map! Very creative!
Thanks Jones! Hoping we can finish it up soon.
I need texture help!
I have uploaded the latest version where I have tried to create the first portal effect in the ready room. Very simple just one portal pair for now.
The screenshot to texture creation is easy, but my alpha/opacity map isn't showing up at all! I expected to have to adjust it a bit to fit the portals, but I can't adjust it if I can't see how it looks. The concept should be obvious - the outer edges slightly opaque.
I'm also trying to share one portal_alpha.dds for all portals. I hope this doesn't cause issues, as it would lower download times compared to one for each.
To be fair I'm not even sure the opacity is needed - the portal effect seems to block a lot of the visibility of this idea (see above). You can barely tell what is in that image, other than a big yellow dot (the join thing). Please check it out and give me your thoughts!
Transparency is a bit pants on spark unfortunately. It seems to be the emmisive map that gives most shaders their transparency.
Your best bet for the portals is overlaying several different materials (using different shaders) a unit apart, one for the image of the other side, a refract to animate it, and another for the glow, cover it with a cinematic and you've got a lovely effect :P
The screenshot to texture creation is easy, but my alpha/opacity map isn't showing up at all! I expected to have to adjust it a bit to fit the portals, but I can't adjust it if I can't see how it looks. The concept should be obvious - the outer edges slightly opaque.
Well you have probably missed this thread about shader by Insane. Yes the proper transparency is not yet implemented, it works only as alpha-test (0/1). The transparency can be faked using emissivity maps (see the glass materials).
I'm also trying to share one portal_alpha.dds for all portals. I hope this doesn't cause issues, as it would lower download times compared to one for each.
Thats not a problem at all, I am also using one normal and specular map for all my materials in Circus.
To be fair I'm not even sure the opacity is needed - the portal effect seems to block a lot of the visibility of this idea (see above). You can barely tell what is in that image, other than a big yellow dot (the join thing). Please check it out and give me your thoughts!
Well maybe you can leave a hole behind the portal and put there the screenshot few units behind to create subtle parallax effect. The portal effect could be tuned down in cinematic editor.
Your best bet for the portals is overlaying several different materials (using different shaders) a unit apart, one for the image of the other side, a refract to animate it, and another for the glow, cover it with a cinematic and you've got a lovely effect :P
I am no good with texturing and barely know what you're talking about, but it sounds like it would look cool. I'm not really sure how to create a 'refract to animate it' or a material for glow (just emissive map?).
Well maybe you can leave a hole behind the portal and put there the screenshot few units behind to create subtle parallax effect. The portal effect could be tuned down in cinematic editor.
In some cases there is a model there used for the outer ring to give a stargate feel and the screenshot can't be moved back too much. The above screenshot is one of those situations where I can only move the screenshot further back by maybe 1-2 units.
If we can turn down the portal effect a bit and do Howser's suggestion for the texture the result could be very cool.
Ok, have tuned down the portal effect to 1/4, so it should be more transparent now. Also you have probably overlooked my collision geometry (it was in the first layer), so I have moved it to separate layer for you to have it at hand. Next I have made the circus music loop sound more "loopy". Last thing, I have extruded the circus roof hole a bit more to not clip with portal cinematic.
Well, all the stuff is downloadable here. Better to paste it in the main file all over again, I made slight adjustments there and there.
About the texture magic, Howser is proposing, I don't have hell of a clue what he is talking about :-). I can help you with the materials however. Also have looked at the portals and you are right, that "parallax effect" wont be possible. But those screenshots alone will do fine too.
I don't mind having a go at making a test for the portals with the method I explained? Unless you wanted to do them yourself that is. I'd be happy do it.
I don't mind having a go at making a test for the portals with the method I explained? Unless you wanted to do them yourself that is. I'd be happy do it.
Of course that would be awesome - I'm not sure I know what to do. Please use whatever I've published so far to test - the current alpha might make a decent emissive map. I think I understand what effect you mean by a refraction animation but have no idea how to do it.
The one thing I might change is to change the texture to 512x512 instead of 1024x1024 to save download time. My 1024 materials are 1.3MB and the file is already 20 MB - at this rate it would end up at 40+MB. Unless there is a way to compress the 1024 DDS to a smaller filesize? I've been using the nvidia photoshop plugin, not sure if that makes a difference.
Well, it is already looking good, but you are right that it could use a glow. Maybe if the screenshot material will be made all emissive, it will be better recognizable trough the portal effect.
Thanks for your help guys! Just a quick note that I'll be out of town for a few days and won't be able to update the map, but I should still be able to check the forums.
Is there a trick to getting out of the gravity well after teleporting from marine side? Every time I use that portal I'm bobbing in mid air and struggling to gain traction.
Is there a trick to getting out of the gravity well after teleporting from marine side? Every time I use that portal I'm bobbing in mid air and struggling to gain traction.
It's OK as a marine, but as an EXO I've decided it's impossible. Gravity hub for EXO or onos seems like a death trap. No real trick that I know of, you can slowly move in the direction you are facing if you try.
edit: I tried again just now and was kinda able to move as exo. I remember once I got stuck though
Early prototype of the alien portal. Still needs a lot of tweaking on the shaders and the .dds files. Getting there.
Its esentially 4 models (dont ask) but I'll make it so you just switch out the background model for each room/exit.
I'd like todo the marine portals with a digital effect- as opposed to the organic fire alien ones. Crits welcome. Thanks
Evil_bOb1Join Date: 2002-07-13Member: 938Members, Squad Five Blue
Yeah! That's looking really good. My only suggestion would be on the contrast between the alien portals and the marine ones. A polarity should be visually communicated between the two. Something I don't get with fire, even organic fire, opposed to digital. Except if its like digital water or something. I trust you're on to that in some way or another though.
You don't know what organic fire is!?!? :P yeah i probably shouldn't make stuff like that up sorry. I wont have the marines done till next weekend I need to do some mapping.
I've attached the files to this post. Test map, materials and all that jazz. The shader is a modified gravity ceiling one from descent so credit to other made that. I just stopped it scrolling on the X axis.
BEHOLD, ORGANIC FIRE!
Thanks man. its the same basic model, or just offset slight. There are 3 different UV layouts, everything else is done through the shaders really. It took a lot of the fiddling, was around 12 hours work to get it where i wanted Apart from tweaking the colours a bit It's pretty much final.
What I need from everyone is a screenshot of their level where players come through the portal and enter your map. Make sure you have all the visual options turned up and FOV set to make. No need to edit the images I'll do the rest. Please wait until you are finished with the area.
Marines portal next week!
We had another game on co_portals last night, was really good fun, with a couple of issues found.
The gravity well is really hard for marines to use and most just avoided the area because of that. The other thing is that, though I love 'Cirque De Rudy', the music might be a little loud... I couldn't hear my gun or other aliens over it. I'd brace myself everytime I entered the room and it would still overpower me.
Comments
Yep, it was causing shadow artifacts. I will reintroduce them later as separate models. To fix the hole you can just simply put there a face with black texture (included with my room), probably extrude it a bit outside to not clip with green portal cinematic.
@Rudy it's fixed, let me know if it should be changed. I've also turned down the sound from .5 to .4 to see how that works. It's still loud but not as blaring.
Edit: I got some ideas from Caboose. The one I liked best that he tried was Alice in Wonderland, with huge props - but he ended up with clipping issues. I wonder if there is a good workaround.
Not sure if it's better to create my own theme or just incorporate ones already used in the level and have the ready room give a sense of what the level is.
I can't seem to find that particular scrapped version on my hard drive any where even a "*.level" search turned up nothing.
This is the alien join: inspiration & most work by Caboose.
I shifted things around a little and used cinematics & dynamic props so they move like the ones in the gorge tunnels. The rest of this room will look like lava cave without the lava, which I hope I can have up for Sunday's playtest. The marine room I think I will split between transit & gravity hub look, borrowing parts from each.
Depending on what other rooms are using the skybox I'll move it around to align the planet a bit better. At this point I'd just put it in gravity but I think others will use it; we'll see.
Last note: I'll add a ladder to Transit so marines can exit from down below.
That leaves the two last rooms which are still in progress by Flat & Howser.
Also please let me know if you have any suggestions for the RR - the alien side is mostly finished and I'll start putting together the marine side soon.
Hopefully we can start getting the rest of the rooms completed - I'd love to add them in! I'm going to start on the texture creation for the 'portal view' - my first test is the ready room from alien to marine side and I'll start work on that soon.
I need texture help!
I have uploaded the latest version where I have tried to create the first portal effect in the ready room. Very simple just one portal pair for now.
The screenshot to texture creation is easy, but my alpha/opacity map isn't showing up at all! I expected to have to adjust it a bit to fit the portals, but I can't adjust it if I can't see how it looks. The concept should be obvious - the outer edges slightly opaque.
I'm also trying to share one portal_alpha.dds for all portals. I hope this doesn't cause issues, as it would lower download times compared to one for each.
To be fair I'm not even sure the opacity is needed - the portal effect seems to block a lot of the visibility of this idea (see above). You can barely tell what is in that image, other than a big yellow dot (the join thing). Please check it out and give me your thoughts!
Your best bet for the portals is overlaying several different materials (using different shaders) a unit apart, one for the image of the other side, a refract to animate it, and another for the glow, cover it with a cinematic and you've got a lovely effect :P
Well you have probably missed this thread about shader by Insane. Yes the proper transparency is not yet implemented, it works only as alpha-test (0/1). The transparency can be faked using emissivity maps (see the glass materials).
Thats not a problem at all, I am also using one normal and specular map for all my materials in Circus.
Well maybe you can leave a hole behind the portal and put there the screenshot few units behind to create subtle parallax effect. The portal effect could be tuned down in cinematic editor.
I am no good with texturing and barely know what you're talking about, but it sounds like it would look cool. I'm not really sure how to create a 'refract to animate it' or a material for glow (just emissive map?).
In some cases there is a model there used for the outer ring to give a stargate feel and the screenshot can't be moved back too much. The above screenshot is one of those situations where I can only move the screenshot further back by maybe 1-2 units.
If we can turn down the portal effect a bit and do Howser's suggestion for the texture the result could be very cool.
Well, all the stuff is downloadable here. Better to paste it in the main file all over again, I made slight adjustments there and there.
About the texture magic, Howser is proposing, I don't have hell of a clue what he is talking about :-). I can help you with the materials however. Also have looked at the portals and you are right, that "parallax effect" wont be possible. But those screenshots alone will do fine too.
You can now mostly see the texture just from the effect change - though it would be better or more obvious if it had some glow to it.
Of course that would be awesome - I'm not sure I know what to do. Please use whatever I've published so far to test - the current alpha might make a decent emissive map. I think I understand what effect you mean by a refraction animation but have no idea how to do it.
The one thing I might change is to change the texture to 512x512 instead of 1024x1024 to save download time. My 1024 materials are 1.3MB and the file is already 20 MB - at this rate it would end up at 40+MB. Unless there is a way to compress the 1024 DDS to a smaller filesize? I've been using the nvidia photoshop plugin, not sure if that makes a difference.
It's OK as a marine, but as an EXO I've decided it's impossible. Gravity hub for EXO or onos seems like a death trap. No real trick that I know of, you can slowly move in the direction you are facing if you try.
edit: I tried again just now and was kinda able to move as exo. I remember once I got stuck though
Early prototype of the alien portal. Still needs a lot of tweaking on the shaders and the .dds files. Getting there.
Its esentially 4 models (dont ask) but I'll make it so you just switch out the background model for each room/exit.
I'd like todo the marine portals with a digital effect- as opposed to the organic fire alien ones. Crits welcome. Thanks
I've attached the files to this post. Test map, materials and all that jazz. The shader is a modified gravity ceiling one from descent so credit to other made that. I just stopped it scrolling on the X axis.
BEHOLD, ORGANIC FIRE!
What I need from everyone is a screenshot of their level where players come through the portal and enter your map. Make sure you have all the visual options turned up and FOV set to make. No need to edit the images I'll do the rest. Please wait until you are finished with the area.
Marines portal next week!
The gravity well is really hard for marines to use and most just avoided the area because of that. The other thing is that, though I love 'Cirque De Rudy', the music might be a little loud... I couldn't hear my gun or other aliens over it. I'd brace myself everytime I entered the room and it would still overpower me.