[WIP] aim_sniper_skyscraper

polly-pocket

polly-pocket

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This is the first version of this map. It is almost complete, just need your views and what I could add and take away and of course critism and comments are welcome. I may improve this map by making a corridor thing between the two different buildings like in this picture:
http://www.avatara.com/merogallery/Goldman/bridge2.jpg
or this one:
http://www.lookingatbuildings.org.uk/img_hr/manchestercorporationstreetfootbridge2.jpg

But anyway back on topic...


Here is some screenshots of my map:








Comments and Critism?
 
Pretty neat actually, I like the idea of the 2 buildings. ;)
 
xombine said:
Pretty neat actually, I like the idea of the 2 buildings. ;)
Click to expand...

why were you expecting something really crap from someone like me and with a crap name of a map?

Although my map isn't brilliant its better than the stuff I have posted on here!
 
No...just that the idea of 2 opposing buildings is pretty neat. Unless you're being sarcastic, I can't tell without smilies. :p
 
Hmm, The portal flow eitehr take ages or crashes on "1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9." Which does get irritating!
 
Thought so, but I was more interested in how much is rendered when ingame. A lot of useless stuf rendered often, or mainly just relevant stuff rendered?
 
Unarmed said:
Thought so, but I was more interested in how much is rendered when ingame. A lot of useless stuf rendered often, or mainly just relevant stuff rendered?
Click to expand...

Depends what you mean. YOu talking about nodraw optimizing?

I just foudn out.... it isnt my portal flow that takes years!!!!

Its my face lights!


Any thoughts why?
 
Unarmed, what you are witnessing here, is someone who has little experience of Hammer and doesn't understand what you posted.

Sadman, he would like to know what kind of average FPS you are getting and if you have done optimisation to hide props, brushes and func_details when they are not in view.
 
Thats what I said, right?

And even though I didnt get an answer. The fact that he doesn't really know what I mean suggest that it is something which hasn't been emphasized in the map, and that means it can be good but probably is average or maybe below. Its a "dangerous" map conceringing VIS.
 
Unarmed said:
Thats what I said, right?

And even though I didnt get an answer. The fact that he doesn't really know what I mean suggest that it is something which hasn't been emphasized in the map, and that means it can be good but probably is average or maybe below. Its a "dangerous" map conceringing VIS.
Click to expand...


Listen, i understood you. Thats why I said ... "If you mean optimizing then yes"
I havn't place occulours yet, but its stil la WIP!

And why do you assume Im a noob. FFS its a WIP!
When otehr peopel have wips you don't call them noobs.

EDIT:


My FPS is liek that because when I take screenshots it always freezes for about a second and a half so my fps goes really low. But I know it is also because of VIS.

Oh and my VIS really isn't that bad, why assume so? It isnt my portal flow that take ages its my "Face lights" .... My portal flow/ vis compiel takes liek 10 seconds.

But I will do more optimizing later!

Oh and I have compiled this map in HDR now!
It looks ok apart from its very bright/white ... but I know how to sort that.
I will add Occulours and stuff at the end before final compile!
 
Do you have any sort of bridge connecting them? You don't want a one on one camp out for the round time limit, that would get boring fast and no one would like your map. With a bridge you wouldn't want to run across becaused you'd be open, but you could go after the last guy if necessary. Also, a mild compaint; how would one go about putting graffiti that high up on a building? It's not a big deal, just something to ponder plausibility wise.
 
Ok. Seems I need to explain my post (again).

I never read the actual FPS on your screens, because the FPS on one single frame tells me nothing. You need to know what the average FPS on that machine is before making any kind of judgement on that. (FPS on my maps is generaly 10 FPS lower than average)

The question "How's it on VIS?" simply asks the mapper (in this case YOU) state how this map runs as far as smoothness goes and how "good" the map is at hiding things that are not in the players view since this is VERY hard to judge from screens.

If the mapper in this case has no idea of what I am talking about then usually the conclusion is that VIS has been disregarded for this map and then it's usually quite bad. I'm not saying your map is, I'm just making a general assumption.

However since you said

"YOu talking about nodraw optimizing?"

I can only come to the conlusion that you have begun to grasp what optimization is all about but have not fully comprehended it. Optimizing is a lot more then just NODRAW. But maybe I am way off here.

So I ask the question once more:

How is it on VIS? Are props hidden? Have you used HINT/SKIP brushes to hide unneeded geography? Was the layout made concidering VIS?

And for gods sakes, I know this is WIP. I was just wondering if this was implemented yet. If yes, then good. If no, then implement it godsdamnit.

And I never even suggested that you were a noob. And I know that I started out as the biggest mapping noob ever (It took me a long time to realize that players were outside brushes instead of inside them) so I just tend to explain thingts as well as I can.

If thats how you felt then you have my sincerest apologies.

//Unarmed
 
No I havnt put any occulours or any of that in yet. I will do on final release. My vis is pretty smooth, but it lags abit so I will need more optimizing. I know what you mean ... Ive just never heard it in that form. No ones ever said "hows your vis" ... they usually say "what optimizing have yu done and how does it run ingame?" ... but thanks and I do appoligize for Im not quite shore what but it seems you and phycho freak don't really like "noobs" like me. And I know you didnt call me a noob but I have upset you both somehow so Im just gonna keep my trap shut from now on!
 
I'm not upset but I am somewhat concerned by the way you replied to Unarmed's post =/
 
PsychoFreak said:
I'm not upset but I am somewhat concerned by the way you replied to Unarmed's post =/
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to come across aggressive or ungrateful or childish. I really didn't so I am sorry.

Can we just go back on topic?

EDIT:

Sorry, it was late and I probally came across ungrateful. Please forgive....
 
K. get us back on topic.

You need to get more detail in there. I would recommend trying to make your brushwork more interesting and not adding more props because you have enough of that already.

Also you need to work on your lights a lot. It looks like you are using the light entity to light up entire rooms. And by doing that you get those over-bright halos around all of your lights. I would say that you use light_spot to light your room and then combine them with a light entityt to create a nicer ambient because what you have now is ugly IMO.

Oh, and whenever I tyr to help people I tend to assume that they know nothing so that in case that is right they will still grasp what I am saying. If the person in fact knows a lot it might seem as though I'm making them look dumb. Thats never the intention tho.
 
Unarmed said:
K. get us back on topic.

You need to get more detail in there. I would recommend trying to make your brushwork more interesting and not adding more props because you have enough of that already.

Also you need to work on your lights a lot. It looks like you are using the light entity to light up entire rooms. And by doing that you get those over-bright halos around all of your lights. I would say that you use light_spot to light your room and then combine them with a light entityt to create a nicer ambient because what you have now is ugly IMO.

Oh, and whenever I tyr to help people I tend to assume that they know nothing so that in case that is right they will still grasp what I am saying. If the person in fact knows a lot it might seem as though I'm making them look dumb. Thats never the intention tho.
Click to expand...

I am using light_spotlight and light entitys together. I think there just to high up, there to near the light. And the textures are ugly because its an ugly office block...

But I undertsand what your saying, I will try and add more detail.

I will have update screenshots in afew mins! My build light face compile area takes ages though. It just took me 2 hours to compile, all I have done is changed the coffee tables to desks, I have aligned some of the texture better and afew other stuff but not alot. I will sort the lights in my next update and then on my last update I will do lots of optimizing and perhaps add that bridge everyone is asking me for on other forums!

Thanks for the advise!!!! :cheese:


EDIT:

Oh and how could I get more intresting brushwork in there? I have looked at office blocks on google and there all ugly like myn. And I don't want to do a WTC remake like alot of people have asked me to do cause I think its sick and is over done! But back on topic, could you expand what you mean on more exciting brushwork, I know that its poretty simple and boring, do you mean like door frames and skirting boards because if so thats a good idea, I wil ladd that on my next update.
 
If you are using a combo of entities then I suggest that you lower the brightness on your light entities a lot.

As far as the exiting brushwork goes, it seems you have hit a bit of a strange problem which I have encountered many times. Offices in real life tend to be quite ugly and dull but CSS players tend to want the opposite. So you sort of need to balance that a bit. What I do is do real luxurious offices with big arse windows and whatnot but I can see thats not what you are after here.

However try to experiment as much as you can. Add some pillars maybe? Some "bumps" in the walls? Spice up the lighting a tad and maybe let a few lights be broken? maybe some alternate ceiling heights perhaps? Little tings like that.

Also, have you been messing about with your lightmap scales? Setting them to odd values has been known to create some really really long compiles. If you havent try selecting your entire map, press texture application tool and set lightmap scale to 16 (if it doesnt already show that) and see how that affects your compile.
 
2 Hours?

WTF?

How many lights have you got?
 
Something must be borked. It doesn't like that should take 2 hours to compile. More like 15 minutes.
 
It is already at 16 :(

Oh and I might cordon of areas to see if its just afew lights that are messed up :(
 
Are any of those dynamic by any chance?

And try nodraw optimizing all you can and otimize your VIS as much as you can too, this should hopefully give RAD a lot less faces to perform lighting on.
 
Unarmed said:
Are any of those dynamic by any chance?

And try nodraw optimizing all you can and otimize your VIS as much as you can too, this should hopefully give RAD a lot less faces to perform lighting on.
Click to expand...

Would occulours and area portals help on vis?

If so, I need to ad lots of them, I have never done lots of optimizing in a map simply because I have never needed to!

But this is pretty laggy, Ill sort it out. Its only a tad bit lag though.
 
Occluders and areaportals will help you with ingame FPS.

I think you might be getting porblems because VIS cuts up your brushes into lots and lots of faces. And then RAD gets many many faces to perform it's lighting on, and therefore using a lot of time.

But I'd suggesting starting off by running glview and then adding some HINT brushes and func_detailing stuff so that you are sure that you get a decent VIS.
 
every single brush apart from the displacements and the skybox is/are func_details. I did that ages ago. My leafs are fine. In teh compile they take literally 15 seconds!
 
Wtf?

You only make brushes that aren't going to block visibility func_details.
 
My Oh My. This a joke? I'm assuming not.

That was truly someting. If a brush that is not a func_detail = lag did you ever start to wonder what the normal bruishes were for?

http://www.student***.nl/rvanhoorn/optimization.php?chapter=visleafs

Anything in a visleaf or anything that can be seen from any given point in a visleaf will be rendered ingame. World brushes (not entities, including func_detail) will block VIS as you say. This causes small VIS leafs.

What you've done is basically told Source that "In this map everything will be visible from any point in the map at all times so dont even bother hiding stuff."

So the engine renders everything. Always. Turning off VIS will give very much the same effect.

Turn any brushes that should be blocking VIS back into world brushes NOW!
 
Why is everyone so aggresive, gosh. I am a noob at optimizing, I am new to it. But why be so intimidate. Oh well, thanks for the info though, I needed it cheers.:stare:

But know Physcho is going to say "Hes not being aggresive and he's helping you so..." and so on. But oh well, I look like a dick anyway so why not carry it on...
 
I still say that if there is no way to get at each other, it could come out as a one vs one camping match in which everyone leaves do to shear boredom.
 
Penguin929 said:
I still say that if there is no way to get at each other, it could come out as a one vs one camping match in which everyone leaves do to shear boredom.
Click to expand...

No, I took your advice mate, I am going to build the glass bridge thing, Im just thinking were to put oh and I will upload these update screenshots iwth "what I think" better lighting and better alligned things and so pshycho and unarmed can stop having to tell me basics, I have read a tut and I have made world brushes in the right places ect so there is 0 lag when i play with bots. I will have to make my own nav which might take a while seeing as all I know how to do is add sniper spots (which is handi on a ssniper aim map :D) but I wanna know other stuff. I cant find any tuts on google ;( ... but Ill keep trieing. Thanks for everyone! :thumbs: oh and the cubemaps all work good!

Like the reflection in the scope etc!

SCREENIES:











Heres one last pic to kinda show the slight variaty of lighting in the floors:






I know it looks the same, but I have optimized alot and I have also aligned textures better, placed cubemaps better and I have made better lighting.

Please constructive critism of ALL kinds is welcome!


Oh and Im going to do this:

dragonfliet said:
Ok, keeping in mind this is an AIM map...

1) Get over yourself--putting your name in brushes on top of the map is... ugh.

2) Don't copy-paste. I know that skyscrapers can look alot alike, but for the most part, they are significantly different. Even buildings that are twins have mildly different layouts on the floors (as is needed by who is leasing that floor) and they'll definately have different furniture layouts. Play around with different structure a little bit.

3) Don't face them exactly opposite. Why not try something different? Why not angle the buildings from each other? Not only is it more aesthetically pleasing, it puts a mild twist on the gameplay. AIM maps may be simple, but that doesn't mean they all have to be boring.

4) More appropriate furniture. The desks you have currently. Yeck! Also, change things up a bit, add a file cabinet that's been knocked over through a window, add different desks, add a knocked over table that can be used as cover. Use what you have available! Find custom models that are offered for anyone and use them!

5) Surrounding environment-- I like your idea of having the telephone wires connecting the buildings, but it's sloppy and looks bad. Add some more(more interesting) pieces like that. A bit farther down have a few telephone poles with the wires coming into the building for example. You really should also add a 3D skybox. Yeah, it'll bump up your compile time, but do your work and compile when you sleep. BadaBing.

6)Bars on Windows: Where do these people work? Jeebus! It looks like a skyscraper/maximum security facility. Make the windows look more corporate!

That's it. It's not bad, but it has a long way to go before it gets more than your friends to play it (and them for 10 minutes)

~Jason
Click to expand...


EDIT:

BETA TEST SERVER NOW UP AND RUNNING:

Name: Sadman CSS Server
IP: 86.6.198.123:27015
Map: aim_sniper_skyscraper_betatest

For any more details or if the server is offline then contact me on this forum by PM'ing me or my xfire: sadman666.

Happy gaming.
 
Good to see that you have got some different lighting styles although that yellow one is really too yellow. No real lights give off that color.

You are still lacking little details. I see some more interesting brushwork here now, but what I am talking about are smaller things now. For instance the rail in the first picture does not have a properly alligned texture and just ends istead of ending with a "pole". Little things like that

For more info on bots read this thread:

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=114888&page=3

Its near the bottom.
 
Unarmed said:
Good to see that you have got some different lighting styles although that yellow one is really too yellow. No real lights give off that color.

You are still lacking little details. I see some more interesting brushwork here now, but what I am talking about are smaller things now. For instance the rail in the first picture does not have a properly alligned texture and just ends istead of ending with a "pole". Little things like that

For more info on bots read this thread:

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=114888&page=3

Its near the bottom.
Click to expand...

Cheers, you and psycho are like the guides to my mapping :D

I will probrly add skirting boards and door frames ect!

EDIT:

oh and wrong link, that link is to this page :D
 
I move to Australia for some time.

Going to be doing the whole backpacking thing for some six months or so. So then you will have to map on your own I guess :p
 
Unarmed said:
I move to Australia for some time.

Going to be doing the whole backpacking thing for some six months or so. So then you will have to map on your own I guess :p
Click to expand...

Hehe, will you be back in a years time or so?
 
Welll, hard to say really. My ultimate deadline is April sometime so that I can get home in time to go to university and all of that.

But say I meet the girl of my dreams or sometyhing like that then Uni can go screw itself IMO. Also there is the problem that I only have the ticket to go there, not back. So if I run out of money and dont haven't bought a ticket back then I am in some trouble... But yeah, I should be back in a year. Thats how long I have before they litteraly throw me out of OZ.
 
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