Commented 17 years ago2006-11-01 23:12:45 UTC
in vault item: VIS freezes (de_theater)Comment #13403
1st, include your textures with your problem map--I loaded the cstrike.wad, but still none of the textures came up--, which wads did you use?
When it seems to stop at "leafthread" it's not frozen, but still compiling. A couple things you could do to make your VIS go faster:
1. Make all the chairs func_walls. You might as well do it anyway, because in an open are like this, they're all visible at once. When you make them func_walls, Vis makes the visible all the time, and does not have to do any calculations including them. Thes chairs and the big open area are what's giving VIS such a headache.
The problem with doing this, is it will probably plunge your wpoys into the 2000-3000 range, which is far too high. This leads to the second option:
2. Transparent textures. make each row of seats ONE brush, with a 2D transparent texture of the seats--for the front, back, and sides. It wont look as realistic, but at least it will be playable from a wpoly perspective.
3. I'm sure there is another option, but I can't think of another one right now
Lastly, to make the VIS part of your compile run faster, in general, try these things:
-Scale up textures a bit. Try a test: Make a big box and scale the wall textures to .25, and notice how long the VIS takes for just an empty box. Scale it up to just 1.00 or @.00 and VIS will run almost instantaniouly!
So make sure your textures are scaled up reasonably, but don't do it too much, or your lightmaps will look bad--when you scale up the textures, the resulting lights in your map will scale up too, which looks bad if they are too high.
-Run on fast VIS all except the final compile. Fast VIS is very fast, but the downside is it doesn't make very efficent visibility calculations, resulting in higher than normal r_speeds.
I run fast VIS every time except right before I release a map. Then I fun with regular VIS to get my wpolys as low as possible.
Commented 17 years ago2006-11-01 22:51:03 UTC
in vault item: LLOD_stalingrad_vsComment #13402
Well I just wrote a big review and lost it, so to quickly recap:
Provide the proper directory structure instead of telling how to do it in a readme file!... I mean really. If you don't know what I mean by this, PM me and I'll elaborate.
+Nice texturing--except the snow was a bit repetative and too squrare imo +Nice general architecture, but it could be more interesting +good detail work in places, but you could use more ++Soviet Flat!! +good performance r_speeds
--Not enough routes between each side. --Not enough "inside"--boring --Layout is too symmetrical, with not enough cool defining differences imo. --Layout is too small
All in all a nice start, but this needs more development imo. Take into account I can't rate the gameplay accruately without playing it on a server, so this is just my limited, general impression.
I just use the -na parameter, but I don't see how any of them would relate to the Outside World errors... and since so many people I talk to that use it never mentioned that error, perhaps you are the odd man out
PM NinjaGrinch maybe--he taught me everything I know about HLFix...
I just don't understand why HLFIX creates Outside World errors. Because when i compile the same map without changes and without HLFIX, there are no errors. So i stopped using it. Perhaps i need some parameters?
Commented 17 years ago2006-11-01 16:44:58 UTC
in vault item: Research ComplexComment #13399
I like you little HEV cordon. Even if it's a little bulky and weird, it's still original and thoughtfully constructed. Having the door controls on there too was also a little weird, but no great deal.
I like dark maps, because it's easier to appreciate the contrast between light and dark, but I think this map is a bit too dark. The dark is ok, just throw some nice bright portions to contrast it.
Not really much to say about the rest because it's so tiny, but very nice work just the same
I've never had that problem with HLFix, so I don't reall know how to comment except are you absolutely sure it's HLFix?
Imo it's an absolutely essential tool for detailed architecture to look right.
Though you do extrordinarily well without it, you're really limiting what you can do in terms of certain types of architecture by not using it.
I'm sure you say to yourself all the time: "this looks great in hammer, but I know how bad the compile will fuck it up, so I'll just do it another way..."
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-30 18:43:12 UTC
in vault item: sc_officeesComment #13391
Pretty hard for one person, but I guess that's why it's called Coop!
I didn't get too far by myself, but what I saw looked ok, if not a little plain.
In those little rooms you have SO much "room" to add nice detail props and other detail work like trims and fixtures. those doors in the first room did look nice though
You streteched some of the textures too much like the walls in the first room. Look at the dimensions of the texture. In most cases--especially for walls--scale them to exactly what the dimensions are to get the right scale.
For example, that fifties_wall you used in the first room's dimensions are 128x128. Set the x scale and y scale to 1.28 and it will look the way it's supposed to.
As you get more experieced, you'll realize when to bend and break this rule for certain cases and effects, but in general it's a pretty good rule to follow imo.
I never played the original Uplink, but this feels very stock HL to me--but nicer--, so I know you held true to the original. Seamless scripting and triggers make this map a lot of fun to play. Visually very nice in parts, but the original architecture still permeates much of the map, which is pretty much my only complaint for the mod. But, your trying to hold true to the original, so this is acceptable.
Though I must say I agree with Captain P about revisiting old ground, I also belive any mapping that you can get exited about doing is good, and of course every new map you make makes you more efficient at the whole process. I'm sure you learned some new stuff/honed your skills on entity setups rebuilding this map!!1(I would love to decompile some of them to see how certain things were done exactly :))
I really need to play the original sometime so I can fully appreciate the differences
++superb scripting of NPCs and monsters (I didn't experience the sripting errors others mentioned) +superb event triggers and sequences ++seamless work, very clean +Nice architecture and Nice detail in places, but still very HLish style
Excellent work!
Misc bugs I noticed:
-Before the Grunt closes the big door in the big room, you can see it intersecting the wall--which is strange becuase the door seems to be much thinner than the wall :puzzled:
-Someone else mentioned the shovels...not the most sophisticated architecture. I can see no reason why they should look that way if you use HLFix--don't you? Not at all a huge deal. Plus you can see empty space behind the little pile of dirt. /nitpick
-If you "save" the grunt from the barnacle--right after under the pipe in the toxic waste--he blocks your path from continuing, and you can't kill him.
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-30 10:45:57 UTC
in vault item: SweetHomeCityComment #13385
yeah The_Challenge is a special map which took me months to create and I think its the map on which I spent most effort ever. So I actually think the same thing, but ^_^! of course theres nothing wrong with this map either I thought I cant just play The_Challenge everytime I start SvenCoop so I made some more maps
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-29 22:35:45 UTC
in vault item: Super Gordon Bros.Comment #13381
Ha that was awesome! I love Mario. One thing I didn't like is you didn't zip the materials or sounds into the bsp. You should get PakRat so people don't have to put each file in each foler.
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-29 20:29:51 UTC
in vault item: Super Gordon Bros.Comment #13380
A gun?! o.O
I didn't get a gun...but I went thru the tunnel, so I didn't have a chance at the 'fire flower'.
My complaint is about the ending. The map didn't quit itself. I was stuck on a black screen w/ an error scrolling in console (didn't think to copy it :P).
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-29 12:00:27 UTC
in vault item: Operation OverlordComment #13376
i'm sure a few have it on, I know 1 has it on rota but its not particularly popular because of the insane download size, only played a few games myself unfortunately!
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-29 11:56:41 UTC
in vault item: Operation OverlordComment #13375
These maps are amazing jobabob.
+Entity work at its very best. +Architecture was realistic +Ambience-Sounds were great +Good tricks like fog effect and normany beach texture(took a screenshot of the beach-smart move) +Lighting was also good
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-29 07:25:23 UTC
in vault item: SweetHomeCityComment #13368
Would have answered you with a PM but your mailbox is full.
"- Stupid, excessive and unnecessary monstermakers." maybe if you play it without any others they seem that way. If you go at it with 10 people they dont seem that way at all.
"- You get your as_intruder and put monsters on it." why is that a negative point? believe me it was much work.
"- The breakable things are too stronger." thats on purpose
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-28 21:27:20 UTC
in vault item: TwoComment #13365
Obviously this is one of your first maps, so there is no point in going too far in depth about this--not that there is so much to talk about!
Your map has no lights. When I first started mapping all my maps were fullbright too, and I thought they looked so good. Well let me tell you your map will look a 100 times better with lights.
Instead of the flat textures, you get nice degrees of shadow and light/dark areas that make your map sooo much more realistic.
Also the map is quite blocky with no fine detail work. While technically ok, this is very boring and also very unrealistic.
All this said, I like the basic layout of your map, and there are no major errors. Play more maps, read tutorials, use reference pictures, and of course keep mapping... and you'll improve quickly
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-28 17:40:26 UTC
in vault item: SweetHomeCityComment #13361
+ Good city theme. + Cool puzzles. + A big playtime. - Stupid, excessive and unnecessary monstermakers. - You get your as_intruder and put monsters on it. - The breakable things are too stronger.
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-28 13:14:31 UTC
in vault item: Zelda - Tile PuzzleComment #13359
Coolest shit ever, I can't believe you made it! Also, when I opened the map in hammer and tried to ungroup the multi_trigger group I got a memory error and hammer crashed! ^^ Extreamly nice job, really
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-27 23:43:54 UTC
in vault item: Just another labComment #13355
Nice Stuff!
+good scritping--random? +good use of ambients +competent but boring textures +Nice but boring, standard HL architecture +decent detail, but you could use more detail work and props imo
Nice work, but if your going to do BM, why not give it a new, or spiced up slant with some fresh architecture and textures--or use of the textures at least... you're not really covering any ground that hasn't already been covered thousands of times before
Commented 17 years ago2006-10-27 23:34:12 UTC
in vault item: fun_rushing2_2Comment #13354
Holy shit! That looks like it would be so fun on a server! It reminds me of the matrix sort of, like neo running towards an agent or something.
The round room was neatly concieved too, but I'll agree with Exos that the whole thing is still quite raw--but the idea is WAY better than one star...jeez.
Superb original idea, decent execution. I'm going 5 to average out the totally unfair 1-star rating.
When it seems to stop at "leafthread" it's not frozen, but still compiling. A couple things you could do to make your VIS go faster:
1. Make all the chairs func_walls. You might as well do it anyway, because in an open are like this, they're all visible at once. When you make them func_walls, Vis makes the visible all the time, and does not have to do any calculations including them. Thes chairs and the big open area are what's giving VIS such a headache.
The problem with doing this, is it will probably plunge your wpoys into the 2000-3000 range, which is far too high. This leads to the second option:
2. Transparent textures. make each row of seats ONE brush, with a 2D transparent texture of the seats--for the front, back, and sides. It wont look as realistic, but at least it will be playable from a wpoly perspective.
3. I'm sure there is another option, but I can't think of another one right now
Lastly, to make the VIS part of your compile run faster, in general, try these things:
-Scale up textures a bit. Try a test: Make a big box and scale the wall textures to .25, and notice how long the VIS takes for just an empty box. Scale it up to just 1.00 or @.00 and VIS will run almost instantaniouly!
So make sure your textures are scaled up reasonably, but don't do it too much, or your lightmaps will look bad--when you scale up the textures, the resulting lights in your map will scale up too, which looks bad if they are too high.
-Run on fast VIS all except the final compile. Fast VIS is very fast, but the downside is it doesn't make very efficent visibility calculations, resulting in higher than normal r_speeds.
I run fast VIS every time except right before I release a map. Then I fun with regular VIS to get my wpolys as low as possible.
Provide the proper directory structure instead of telling how to do it in a readme file!... I mean really. If you don't know what I mean by this, PM me and I'll elaborate.
+Nice texturing--except the snow was a bit repetative and too squrare imo
+Nice general architecture, but it could be more interesting
+good detail work in places, but you could use more
++Soviet Flat!!
+good performance r_speeds
--Not enough routes between each side.
--Not enough "inside"--boring
--Layout is too symmetrical, with not enough cool defining differences imo.
--Layout is too small
All in all a nice start, but this needs more development imo. Take into account I can't rate the gameplay accruately without playing it on a server, so this is just my limited, general impression.
Anywya, superb first DoD map--if it's your first
PM NinjaGrinch maybe--he taught me everything I know about HLFix...
I like dark maps, because it's easier to appreciate the contrast between light and dark, but I think this map is a bit too dark. The dark is ok, just throw some nice bright portions to contrast it.
Not really much to say about the rest because it's so tiny, but very nice work just the same
Imo it's an absolutely essential tool for detailed architecture to look right.
Though you do extrordinarily well without it, you're really limiting what you can do in terms of certain types of architecture by not using it.
I'm sure you say to yourself all the time: "this looks great in hammer, but I know how bad the compile will fuck it up, so I'll just do it another way..."
HLFix ftw!!1
i can't find it anywhere
I was making a garys mod map, and testing it in single player GM, so it worked fine, but when i loaded it up on Habboi's server, no slow-mo :'(
even set the clientcommand to sv_cheats 1 first.
The upcoming version 1.0.1. will contain many little bug fixes and tweaks.
I didn't get too far by myself, but what I saw looked ok, if not a little plain.
In those little rooms you have SO much "room" to add nice detail props and other detail work like trims and fixtures. those doors in the first room did look nice though
You streteched some of the textures too much like the walls in the first room. Look at the dimensions of the texture. In most cases--especially for walls--scale them to exactly what the dimensions are to get the right scale.
For example, that fifties_wall you used in the first room's dimensions are 128x128. Set the x scale and y scale to 1.28 and it will look the way it's supposed to.
As you get more experieced, you'll realize when to bend and break this rule for certain cases and effects, but in general it's a pretty good rule to follow imo.
I never played the original Uplink, but this feels very stock HL to me--but nicer--, so I know you held true to the original. Seamless scripting and triggers make this map a lot of fun to play. Visually very nice in parts, but the original architecture still permeates much of the map, which is pretty much my only complaint for the mod. But, your trying to hold true to the original, so this is acceptable.
Though I must say I agree with Captain P about revisiting old ground, I also belive any mapping that you can get exited about doing is good, and of course every new map you make makes you more efficient at the whole process. I'm sure you learned some new stuff/honed your skills on entity setups rebuilding this map!!1(I would love to decompile some of them to see how certain things were done exactly :))
I really need to play the original sometime so I can fully appreciate the differences
++superb scripting of NPCs and monsters (I didn't experience the sripting errors others mentioned)
+superb event triggers and sequences
++seamless work, very clean
+Nice architecture and Nice detail in places, but still very HLish style
Excellent work!
Misc bugs I noticed:
-Before the Grunt closes the big door in the big room, you can see it intersecting the wall--which is strange becuase the door seems to be much thinner than the wall :puzzled:
-Someone else mentioned the shovels...not the most sophisticated architecture. I can see no reason why they should look that way if you use HLFix--don't you? Not at all a huge deal. Plus you can see empty space behind the little pile of dirt. /nitpick
-If you "save" the grunt from the barnacle--right after under the pipe in the toxic waste--he blocks your path from continuing, and you can't kill him.
Use the powerful engine! Make those pipe cylinders have many more faces.
http://www.habboi.co.uk/mariomap.htm
I thought I cant just play The_Challenge everytime I start SvenCoop so I made some more maps
This map will never have the same fun, architeture, originality than your sc_challenge...
I didn't get a gun...but I went thru the tunnel, so I didn't have a chance at the 'fire flower'.
My complaint is about the ending. The map didn't quit itself. I was stuck on a black screen w/ an error scrolling in console (didn't think to copy it :P).
Overall though, nicely done. Kewl idea.
Just one minus, there was a bug at the point where you get the gun.
One of the guns jumped out of reach outside the movable area.
Funny idea.
+Entity work at its very best.
+Architecture was realistic
+Ambience-Sounds were great
+Good tricks like fog effect and normany beach texture(took a screenshot of the beach-smart move)
+Lighting was also good
Is Operation Overlord playable in any server?
Never bothered updating the link for the new version I made yonks ago
"- Stupid, excessive and unnecessary monstermakers."
maybe if you play it without any others they seem that way.
If you go at it with 10 people they dont seem that way at all.
"- You get your as_intruder and put monsters on it."
why is that a negative point? believe me it was much work.
"- The breakable things are too stronger."
thats on purpose
Not 3 stars btw, but 4 (3.5) mostly because of the cool inside.
The textures look great, and you used them well.
Make a real-sized dm out of this and people will kiss you with 5 stars
Your map has no lights. When I first started mapping all my maps were fullbright too, and I thought they looked so good. Well let me tell you your map will look a 100 times better with lights.
Instead of the flat textures, you get nice degrees of shadow and light/dark areas that make your map sooo much more realistic.
Also the map is quite blocky with no fine detail work. While technically ok, this is very boring and also very unrealistic.
All this said, I like the basic layout of your map, and there are no major errors. Play more maps, read tutorials, use reference pictures, and of course keep mapping... and you'll improve quickly
+ Cool puzzles.
+ A big playtime.
- Stupid, excessive and unnecessary monstermakers.
- You get your as_intruder and put monsters on it.
- The breakable things are too stronger.
Also, when I opened the map in hammer and tried to ungroup the multi_trigger group I got a memory error and hammer crashed! ^^
Extreamly nice job, really
+good scritping--random?
+good use of ambients
+competent but boring textures
+Nice but boring, standard HL architecture
+decent detail, but you could use more detail work and props imo
Nice work, but if your going to do BM, why not give it a new, or spiced up slant with some fresh architecture and textures--or use of the textures at least... you're not really covering any ground that hasn't already been covered thousands of times before
The round room was neatly concieved too, but I'll agree with Exos that the whole thing is still quite raw--but the idea is WAY better than one star...jeez.
Superb original idea, decent execution. I'm going 5 to average out the totally unfair 1-star rating.