How Long Does It Take You To Make A Map?
Uh-Oh
Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6917Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Speed mapping, or crawling along?</div> Well, since I've put alot of time in my first ever map, and seeing as how I'm not even close to finishing, I was thinking... am I too slow for this?
I've put... I dunno... let's say 10 mapping sessions of 2 hours each.. no, more then that... ... at least.. well I'm guessing between 20 to 45 hours (eheh rough guess).
Maybe my technique is wrong...
I started by making a square room (for the ready room). Then I added basic lighting. Then I added detail, and more sophisticated lighting and brush work. I tweaked my texturing and I was done.
Next up, marine spawn. Start off with an idea, make the basice brush work. Put basic textures and lighting. Add detail. Add detail. Compile. Look at r_speed. Fix lighting, create missing textures. Compile. Add, compile. Add compile. Look up r_speed. Play as marine, skulk and onos. Put entities for weldables and breakables. Put entities for lighting. Work for 4 hours to understand how multi_manager and triggers work. Compile. ****! didn't work. Rework entities, compile. **** ****!. Rework, recompile, loop those actions 20 times.
15-20 hours later, The marine spawn is done! (for beta 1 at least).
Wow. That is alot of time for 1 room, or is it?
What do you guys think? Too slow, too quick, doesn't matter, wrong method?
I'm a patient person, so that doesn't bother me. So far, I have about 3 rooms done. I'm guessing I'm gonna have about 8 in all (+ 4 vents) (it's a co_map. I thought it'd be easier to start).
I also have the habbit of compiling ALOT. I work for 5-30 minutes, and I'm gonna compile at least once! When fixing small detail like texture alignment and lighting, I compile maybe once every 5 minutes. So far, compiling only takes about 3-7 minutes. I'm worried that it'll get much longer as I progress.
Also, is there a magic way of aligning textures on octogonal brushes (pipes). I noticed that sometimes, I need to put a -1 in the X or Y axis. But I still align them by hand, and it takes alot of time <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Also, is there a good way to work with angled brushes (not in a 90 degree angle). I'm having trouble figuring out what angle I need to use to align my textures in these angled corridors. Aligning brushes is also hell if my corridors are not right angles. Enough of me rantng in ignorance.
I thank ye all for letting me bask in your glory.
I've put... I dunno... let's say 10 mapping sessions of 2 hours each.. no, more then that... ... at least.. well I'm guessing between 20 to 45 hours (eheh rough guess).
Maybe my technique is wrong...
I started by making a square room (for the ready room). Then I added basic lighting. Then I added detail, and more sophisticated lighting and brush work. I tweaked my texturing and I was done.
Next up, marine spawn. Start off with an idea, make the basice brush work. Put basic textures and lighting. Add detail. Add detail. Compile. Look at r_speed. Fix lighting, create missing textures. Compile. Add, compile. Add compile. Look up r_speed. Play as marine, skulk and onos. Put entities for weldables and breakables. Put entities for lighting. Work for 4 hours to understand how multi_manager and triggers work. Compile. ****! didn't work. Rework entities, compile. **** ****!. Rework, recompile, loop those actions 20 times.
15-20 hours later, The marine spawn is done! (for beta 1 at least).
Wow. That is alot of time for 1 room, or is it?
What do you guys think? Too slow, too quick, doesn't matter, wrong method?
I'm a patient person, so that doesn't bother me. So far, I have about 3 rooms done. I'm guessing I'm gonna have about 8 in all (+ 4 vents) (it's a co_map. I thought it'd be easier to start).
I also have the habbit of compiling ALOT. I work for 5-30 minutes, and I'm gonna compile at least once! When fixing small detail like texture alignment and lighting, I compile maybe once every 5 minutes. So far, compiling only takes about 3-7 minutes. I'm worried that it'll get much longer as I progress.
Also, is there a magic way of aligning textures on octogonal brushes (pipes). I noticed that sometimes, I need to put a -1 in the X or Y axis. But I still align them by hand, and it takes alot of time <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Also, is there a good way to work with angled brushes (not in a 90 degree angle). I'm having trouble figuring out what angle I need to use to align my textures in these angled corridors. Aligning brushes is also hell if my corridors are not right angles. Enough of me rantng in ignorance.
I thank ye all for letting me bask in your glory.
Comments
If your taking a long time, your either too much of a perfectionist, or too lazy to continue (I got stuck decorating a room because I didnt want to have to move on). Or you're doing a really good job. And you can usually tell when thats the case.
I've got a nice long holiday coming up, so maybe I'll progress slightly faster...
on some days i did nothing on the map.. on some other days i sat in front of my pc for about 6 or 7 hours... on one day i constructed ca 1/3 of the map <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Uh-oh</b> - It's strange seeing some of the responses here.. My general philosophy with mapping is that if you stick to one area of the map for longer than 2 hours (in one sitting) you are wasting time. I can generally pump out a playable level in a week .... each person is different.. some people start making a map based on a layout on paper or in their head...others work it out as they go.. some people go as far as to be able to see the way the map should look in their head before they even begin.. I tend to be the third which lets me map quite quickly...
Each to their own, I guess...
In short: I'm a kinda fast builder, but finishing a map takes lots of time <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I'm still kind of slow when finishing maps, but that's because I can make room in 1-2 hours and then do nothing but looking around with the 3d camera, and then close hammer until the next week <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
btw, I make all the detail/lighting the first, and then keep compiling and tweaking until it's perfect (or the way I think it's the best looking one, there are exceptions with this, but... well, heh). I just can't think of the room without detail :S
It really depends on the mapper, as you can see <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
i'll finish a whole room (architecturally) first, then move onto the next one. I'll try and do about one room a week, depending on its size :S
I don't mean a map that is entirely self-similar, but you are going to keep a general theme in your map, might as well flesh out a few basic geometrys that you will need on many occasions and do minor modifications to fit them in place. Corridors, crossings, res node alcoves and stuff like that could well be instanced several times and rotated/mirrored/chopped/vertex edited into a snugg fit. It's gameplay you want, not just a good looking map.
Everythin depends on how much you want to work on the map.
Sometimes is it very boring so i listen to music when mapping.
Well..it can be fun with mapping.
Im slow with Level Design and need to think much.
On another subject.
Thanks for the input guys.
Well, since I'm making a combat map, I'm guessing it only takes 1/2 the time it would require for a ns_classic map.
I'm thinking, if everything goes smoothly, and I get a bit of slack from work, I could have a finished beta version of my map by september 30th... <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I dont plan beforehand, only make an idea in my head then work on it, but generally get most of the detail in straight away and add the lights, Compiling about 2 to 3 times an hour. unless im working on entities, when its every few mins.
Heh, that's the approach that I've chosen.
i changed things around (eg ventholes etc). but i always used the floor-method described above. trust me, its best <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
my problem was, just as recoup posted: textures, textures, textures... they never let you sleep ^^
other than that, i changed the map around many times so its well balanced now <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
the furthest ive ever gotten was a dbl res room and a couple of corridors. the r_speeds were to high and i made it too detailed.
<img src='http://www.socalledpride.com/mapping/pics/hammer.gif' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
and im nearing completion, just got the hive to make, and a few more access points to it
/edit - sorry to anyone that uses 800*600 res or less, for messing up there forum view
Good lord yes, texturing is the worst part easily. Maybe it's just because i suck at it. I look at a wad of textures and think 'how the hell am i meant to use these??'.
thats by far the most time consuming...
<span style='color:gray'>sidenote:
achio at the moment near 9 months constuction time, darn school projects keep comming in between the progress <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> </span>
OffTopic: What is this HL2 instant lighting preview facility thing? Not sure that I've heard of that. I know Doom III is supposed to let you view the lighting in editor but I didn't think there was something like that for HL2.