host some texture-making minicompos

- Captain Terror
OK.

READ THE RULES CAREFULLY. YOU WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO WIN THE PRIZE IF YOU FAIL TO COMPLY TO THE RULES.

This is a minicompo open to both GldSrc and Source. I provide the base map and you must texture and light it.
However, you are not allowed to use any stock textures/materials at all. This must be 100% custom content made by you.

This will be a really good exercise in making textures to fit a specific purpose and despite the map being quite small, you'll probably still have to make upwards of 15 textures just to cover the space.

You also need to consider textures to be used as light sources, doors and windows.

A non-flexible rule is that the brushwork can not be changed, even slightly. The only change you can make to brushwork is tying to entities.

You are free to place whatever point-based entities you choose. Source users, this includes models, but keep in mind that the competition is about your textures. Source users, you may also change the lightmap grid. There are no rules regarding texture resolution.

Competition ends August 1st 2012.

GoldSrc RMF - Download

Source VMF - Download

Feel free to post WIPs and you are welcome to ask me any questions regarding texture creation.

Submit by making a post beginning with "FINAL" in bold, followed by at least 4 screenshots, but preferably a link to the playable BSP.
You should also consider displaying your flat textures seperately as well. Make sure you clearly state which game your map will run in.

Winner will be decided by me. There will be a prize of £15 worth of Steam Games of your choice.

OMG yes! Me in muthafffffffffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Question
Are using custom overlays consider cheating at all?

Overlays and decals are encouraged

I would so be in if I had any image editing skills whatsoever. Unfortunately, I can't to anything more useful that one-shot signs and graffiti.

Maybe it's time to get some practice modeling textures...

ya jeff, improving your skills is the whole point of this imo, i.e., something to get you practicing

Arch you should maybs advertize this on the banana too?

Interesting. If I can think of a theme, I may give this a shot.

EDIT: what's the policy on adding effect layers to the scene? Like an additive layer for small lights or scrolling effects? I suppose it's a brush, so against the rules?

This ends on Sunday, you can expect the floating city compo on Sunday too.

Perfect, heh.

Ah well, I did enjoy eating at lunchtime but never mind eh?

P

I have to be honest i only plan on spending a couple days on this, but who knows, maybe i'll haz bumpmapping or some other crazy quazy stuff?

God, this is such a breath of fresh air to focus on something besides brushwork for a change =)))

Hm. Tough call, Strider.

I think I'ma be strict about this, however and stick to the no brushwork whatsoever rule.

You may use existing sprite textures, or try making your own.

do u mind if I use ur map as part of my mod?

Yes, I mind. Sorry. It's a very early iteration of a section in The Core. Only took 30 mins to make, though, and it's pretty lazily done. You can do much better!

Edit:

Just for clarity, by the way, models can use vanilla materials.

I think I'ma be strict about this, however and stick to the no brushwork whatsoever rule.

Right-o. Makes things interesting. I'll come up with some devious alternative to suit my idea!

strideh, are you talking about using textures like gel sheets, or plx explain what you mean by the "additve layer" thingie :plx sir some more:

It's an old technique used to add things like glows to make brushwork more interesting - submerged.wad was the first thing to really well implement the effect.
You add a 1-unit deep brush nulled on all faces except the front face which has a glow-version of the texture of the brush beneath it. In goldsource, this would be a totally black texture with the glow on it to be used with Rendermode: Additive (removes the black).

In Source, you're better using alpha channels in the texture itself and then setting up the vmt to self-illuminate specific parts of the material you want to glow.
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$selfillum

Uuugh, I would love to do this but going on a holiday in 4 days, plus I haven't gotten around to learning how to import textures to source yet

That's 4 days of texturing. Easy peasy!

Importing textures into source:
Steam steamapps Skals half-life 2 episode two ep2 materials SkalsMaterials

Put them there. Job done.

Ugh, fuck you TWHL. Stop deleting my forward slashes.

Ah ok, well I was going through the process of exporting models from 3ds max to source, and adding textures to them, and that looked like rocket science to me.

Yes, I mind. Sorry. It's a very early iteration of a section in The Core.

Oh I see, you're slacking on the texture work so you can get this month's review done right?

Outsource, outsource, outsource.

Check this shit out... emphasis on SHIT

Still, it's what you get for 50 minutes work. Obviously the hideous yellow tiles and the hideous blue lights are stock textures and will be replaced so the final map will look NOTHING like this. The point of posting this image?...

I'm not sure. HOWEVER, I am really happy with the crate texture I made which is barely visible here.

Yeah.

Holy mother of strawberry sauce. This could be a lot of fun. I have very little experience from making textures (close to none) and I flipping flip out on Wally at times. But I think I wanna join this one and see what I can learn.

On the back side I'm gonna be working on a sailing camp for the next 6 weeks so I don't think I'll have much time over... But damn, this looks like fun, great idea.

You made that in 50 minutes?? How in the waaat? What program do you use? All I have is Wally, MSpaint and some open source crap that I almost never used... :S

Urby uses Photoshop.
Free alternative is GIMP.

Query from Lopers:

Can brushes be cut to divide their surfaces into two or more textures?

No. Part of the challenge.

Yo Artsh E,

I take it I am allowed to un-group some of these things in order to make texturing and the tying of entities less fucky? (Mainly talking about the walkway railing type things.)

Ta,
Erb 'n' Ebyouluh

I'm taking my own shot of this, only I'm using the method I think is used to get editable textures in the first place:

I'm taking pictures of floors and walls, cleaning them up a bit, and using them.

Can you use your own models in GoldSrc too?

un-group some of these things in order to make texturing and the tying of entities less fucky?

Obviously, but only for the ents part. The only reason you'd need to for texture application is if you're using the apply current texture button which I have told you repeatedly to never use because it textures all the unseen faces of the brush as well. Use the face edit tool (shift + a) and only texture the faces you see. That way you can tie to entity and still have your unseen faces unrendered.

Can you use your own models in GoldSrc too?

Sure, but I don't see why you'd bother. It won't affect the judging.

The only reason you'd need to for texture application is if you're using the apply current texture button which I have told you repeatedly to never use because it textures all the unseen faces of the brush as well.

I think you're confusing me with someone else there mate... You've never told me not to use that because I never use it.

Sure, but I don't see why you'd bother

Well tho the base map is RAELLY well built, it's also very bare. It's only natrual you'd want to add some models to help pull off your intended theme, e.g., a little desk in the little office room. (yes i know models will not effect the judging)

zeratus: thanks man!(and thanks to Rimrook of course) Downloading! =)

question
Concerning resolution/dpi, what should we be using for source, and why when i try to shrink any of my textures(even a little) they look just horrid? (and is this even related to dpi?)

512 x 512 @ 72dpi is pretty standard.

I know it's just a small map without much detail, but wouldn't 512x512 barely be an improvement over goldsource?

yes, but in source the default texture scale is .25. so it goes a lot further, i.e., try scaling all your textures to to .25 in a goldsource mp aand see what happens(20 years later when your compile finishes)

Also 512 isn't the limit, you can go way bigger.

Question
When you click on a material and click the "View Source" button, is it supposed to show you the vmt? (does nothing when i click)

512x512 barely be an improvement over goldsource

as a standard image dimension, it's four times larger than goldsource's standard. That's certainly more than "barely" an improvement.

Also 512 isn't the limit, you can go way bigger.

Wisdom.

When you click on a material and click the "View Source" button, is it supposed to show you the vmt? (does nothing when i click)

In what context? In Hammer? NFI.

Some Questions from Lopers:

Can brushes be cut to divide their surfaces into two or more textures?

Absolutely not, that'd detract from the challenge. Textures will need to tile well over some quite expansive brushes.

Can I export it with propper, texture it in blender and then reimport it as a staticmesh?

No.

I don't have a great eye for designing textures by hand, so I would use a single projection from a model in XSI to generate my outline and use that as my foundation. Is this allowed?

Yes, but you'll save a lot of time by simply using gridlines in Photoshop to achieve the same reference foundation.

Can we use photos as a base for our textures. I have a thing for realism and am not the most skilled hand painter.

Photos are absolutely allowed, but you'll get more points for only using them as a base or overlay for your textures. Try to be a bit more creative than just slapping a tiled photo into a .vtf!

Also are their any restrictions on what game engine we use

Any Source or Goldsource game. I have them all including CSGO.

For a moment I thought "wait, what, I must have posted in the future! :O".

Then I noticed it's Collapse. At least you could have put something significant there...

This competition is not for me. Being that I get my textures mostly from google images...

Nice Archie that answers many questions for me =)

Also about my previous one, i meant "view source" in the material browser, i thought you could view(and possibly edit) the vmt on-the-fly

How is it that so many mappers don't know about cgtextures.com?

Because it's the industry's best kept secret. If everyone knew about it we'd have to do a lot more to be a step above the crowd.

My "from scratch" textures are turning out pretty bad so far; this is gonna take longer than i thought.

Thanks Archie for hosting this, it's just what i needed to kick my but into texturing

I wanna see more WIPs from people.

Not much to show for me since i've mostly been doing lighting tests(and making hoorible-looking textures). Right now I'm having a problem with a particular texture showing up pink-and-black checkerboard no matter what i do:

Killed the image link because there's a goatse texture. -- Grim
Download

edit
wow that was fast, and i apologize. I thought since you couldn't see the one part it would be a pc image(that's my story and haz sticking to it).

I wanna see more WIPs from people.

This.

I'm gonna see what I can do today at lunch, then that's my cut off point so I will have to just upload what I've got.

FINAL

This was a lunchtime project so this only represents about 1 hour and 30 minutes worth of work. Would have loved to spend more time on it but I need to start removing my shit off the work PC's before we close FOREVER!Get 'IT' here.

I'd fuck that.

Not bad. And fix the bug in shot #3

No can do. Files are gone. Not that I see any bug.

The more i look at this the more I like it; just really bloody beautiful urby

Thanks.

I want to see what everyone else is working on. :rly: