Another newbie mapper

The_Scapegoat · October 2002

<div class="IPBDescription">Need help with details.</div>Yeah This is the spawn for my Map NS_Midas. Its an airlock that the marines have used to board the space station.

I would like some ideas of how to spruce it up a bit. I have a light that doesn't work(not on this screenie) and one that flashes a bit, but it needs more, just don't want it to cluttered.

Criticism to! Cause the only way to build a master is to step all over a n00b!

Woggy · October 2002

The textured look very blurry and stretched, might want to fix that.

CrouchingHamster · October 2002

Hello, from a fellow map n00b..

First, those textures look a bit stretched, scale them down a little. second, use an env_gamma in your map.

They look cool..

More contrast, more spotlamps, more shadows...

That looks a bit small, is there room for all the team starts ( or whatever it is..) in there?

( feel free to ignore this btw, just an opinion. I'm neither a PT nor a map ninja..)

The_Scapegoat · October 2002

Env_Gamma... heard bout this many times, whats it actually do.

As for it being small, it is, and i kinda didnt like that, so im going actually open the spawn up into a room next to as well so that some mariens will spawn inside the airlock and some right outside of it, this will hopefully also keep Llamas from ruining the game.

Textures being stretched yeah i need to fix that, any suggestions on texutres for floor and ceiling in that ones place, because UN-streching it will show some other parts of the texture that i didn't want to be there.

-Don't need to be a Map Ninja, but its easier to beat down with the kung-foo mapper skillz tho! haha. Thanks both so far.

CrouchingHamster · October 2002

First, Env_gamma, rather than explain it, chuck one into yer map , set it to , say 1.6, then recompile, you'll see what it does....

( basically, it intensifies your light sources but leaves the shadows dark..oh just try it..if you don't like it just delete that entity and all will be back to normal..)

As for the size, I mentioned it cause you don't want someone spawning inside a wall or another player..but you seem to have that covered..

Well, good luck man.

PS: Wait till ya try and get the particles running....fiddly, but oh so cool.. <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'>

Fam · October 2002

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (The Scapegoat @ Oct. 20 2002,02:21)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Textures being stretched yeah i need to fix that, any suggestions on texutres for floor and ceiling in that ones place, because UN-streching it will show some other parts of the texture that i didn't want to be there.</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
Make the brush that the texture is on smaller, and scale the texture down. Add other brushes with different textures to fill in the gap.

Insane · October 2002

Nice start. You need to mask that corner. Put a pillar there or something. Here is an example of what I mean:

<img src="http://www.valve-erc.com/gfx/resources/hl-tips-fig3.gif" border="0">

As for the lighting, I would reccomend using a couple of light_spots to break things up and get a little contrast.

ChromeAngel · October 2002

Please use different textures for floor and ceiling, otherwise wall climbers get confused as to which way is up.

Hazard stripes where there is no hazard spoils the credabilty for me. Please keep them only for sudden drops, low doorways, electrical, hot or moving things

The_Scapegoat · October 2002

Actually i thought the hazard stripes worked considering its (while not in game in, function) a pressurizing airlock, but maybe in the future they arn't worried about that kinda stuff since they do it all the time anways.

The_Scapegoat · October 2002

Well here is an update using much of the suggestions everyone has given. Some of the light spots gotta go cause R_speeds are to high.

Also anyone know a place with a tut on light spots cause i see in all these maps them done REALLY well and mine kinda suck. Or if no tut help here is nice.

Pic:

Terawatt_99 · October 2002

<img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'> looks really nice, but one thing, if it's supposed to be the marine start, you should probably make the lighting a bit more consistant, this hallway with this lighting would look really good closer to a hive i would imagine...

RhoadsToNowhere · October 2002

Your second shot is a definite improvement over the first. Still, it looks a little bit cramped, especially since the ceiling looks pretty low. Also, your texturing is a bit repetitive, and I don't think that the concrete texture fits that well. Metal textures tend to fit in NS maps better, so maybe you should try using a bit more metal. Other than that, I think it's an excellent start, definitely looking forward to what you come up with.

Dragonfly · October 2002

pillars look medieval :)

Res1 · October 2002

Fam says it's the pillars that are causing the r_speeds problems not the spot lights.

Insane · October 2002

Yes, only w_polys really need be considered. W_polys refers to all world objects, so light_spots do not come under that. In fact, they have no impact on r_speeds at all, as they are not e_polys (enitiy polys) either <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

The_Scapegoat · October 2002

Actually the pillars are textured with a metal texture, dont know why they came out looking stone, ill have to try and find a better one to change it with.

As for the r_speeds, thats good to know. Could grouping the 3 parts of each pillar into 1 reduce the r_speeds at all? Cause its genearly at 500-600 but if you look from the farthest door it jumps to 1000 so i gotta do something to bring it down.

Lastly the lighting. Shoud it be brighter or what? Im kind of confused on how its not consistant( cause out of the 8 lights they are all the same lighting and brighnes except 2, 1 flashes a bit and 1 is off) dont know how more consistant i can get then that, so maybe im just not understand what exactly you ment.

Thanks so far from everybuddy, it does look a bunch betters with the changes.

CrouchingHamster · October 2002

That looks loads better already..

You asked for tutorials earlier, try Handy Vandals or VERC, links are in the mapping FAQ thread..

Also Snarkpit and Countermap have some good tutorials ( no links to hand, sorry, just google them..)

btw, those r_speeds sound rather high? When you compile are you running vis at normal? It's just I noticed "fast vis" sends r_speeds through the roof..your r_speeds shouldn't be that high from what I have seen...

DISCLAIMER: Me new at mapping, this may be lunacy..

What happens if you run the VIS at fast is it just roughly sketches a playable map, normal or full VIS strips away the polygons the engine doesn't need to render, therefore reducing r_speeds..or do I have the wrong end of the stick again..?

/me must sleep..

/me awaits Hanz's post which will no doubt have a much better explanation of all this..

The_Scapegoat · October 2002

Well here is the latest, thought i would post it before i went to bed (dirty stinking work at 6 in the morning&#33<img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'>. Anywho, i took out parts of the pillars to make em look less roman and fit, the lights i lessened in length -this dropped my highest r_speed from 1015 to about 550- w00t!

I hope the pillars and floor trim look more metaly, this time i was sure to use a texture that was called METALsomething lol!

The pic is a bit darker then in gameplay and if someone knows how i can make my screenies look more like gameplay please let me know.

Here:

Dragonfly · October 2002

looking good, now all it needs is maybe a few crates sitting around or a computer terminal built into a wall somewhere.. or maybe a few small lights near the doors or something
i think theres something about brightening screenshots in the mapping faq or mapping guidelines thread.. cant remember which or where
that doesnt look so dark tho

Battousaix · October 2002

r_speeds 1015?!?!?!
You should check if you have a leak in there or something......

Tarky · October 2002

looking good
but needs work <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

The_Scapegoat · October 2002

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">r_speeds 1015?!?!?!
You should check if you have a leak in there or something...... </td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>

Thats what it WAS before i reduced the size of the light fixtures. Now the highest i get is around 550.

Tzarcon · October 2002

remember to use your func_walls to reduce polygon counts. I would direct you to a tutorial I wrote, but I'm not allowed to post the link anymore until we're hosted somewhere else <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

Zazi · October 2002

Ok, here's what I see. Scapegoat: Do you have any intersecting brushes? In particular, are those corner pillar things intersecting with the walls at all? By intersecting, I mean are the walls going into the pillar? It sure looks that way. I replicated this hall in WC just to see what the r speeds would be. They were generally around 200 or so. So this leads me to believe that you have an intersecting brush, textures scaled down to a fraction of their original size, or a leak (which, if you had a leak you wouldn't even get any lighting at all, so you can rule out a leak).

Check into this, man. The best time to learn is right away, and if you do things right the first time, you're destined for greatness... or something. <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

The_Scapegoat · October 2002

Zazi, you are ooooo so great!

I went in removed a few brushes that where unneeded and clipped off a few that had parts going into other brushes, this reduced my highest r_speed form 550 to 500. Not a big diffrence but a start.

Then i went threw and set all my textures to 1.0 realigned some to fit corretely and BAM! Highes r_speed is not 215! w00T! w00T!

Thanks sooooo much, now i can add some computer termails or something to give the room some detail.

In sort, ZAZI does OWN me. lol nice little quote.

TinMan · October 2002

Thanks Zazi, I didn't know that about scaled-down textures... I think this will be useful in my map, too, so I'll keep it in mind...

Zazi · October 2002

Yay! I'm appreciated! <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'> lol... Scapegoat, ask more questions and I'm sure we'll all be more than happy to give you answers and advice.

The_Scapegoat · October 2002

How does one do that Texutre overlay stuff you was talking about on Hanz post about shadows. Sound neat, looks good, and just didnt understand 1 lick of what you guys where talking about.

either post here or you can email me if easier:
<a href="mailto:bobscapegoat@aol.com">bobscapegoat@aol.com</a> or AIM me at bobscapegoat.

CrouchingHamster · October 2002

Aint it great when you suddenly understand r_speeds?

I chopped a few polys into bits ( they were intersecting, my bad...) and my r_speeds were halved....Raaar!!!!

It's like juggling innnit?

/me stuggles to include dropship with working doors...

Damn You R_speeds!!!!!

Another newbie mapper

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