[WIP]Cs_big_city2 Created 17 years ago2006-06-02 23:14:10 UTC by Soup Miner

A recreation of my first map ever. Why? 3 main reasons:
-The original cs_big_city has amazing gameplay
-I'm trying to get back into my older maps
-Its amazingly fun to make
Kinda early in the map so there's still a lot of touching up to do with what i have thus far, but whatever. The big red brick building isn't anywhere close to being done, so please understand why it is so blocky.
(I'm hoping I linked straight to the images, and not the php files this time)

Hostage room. Needs plants or something.

First one is nice, but will you be adding painted arrows, stop bars, "STOP", crosswalks, and other things like signs, traffic lights, mailboxes, etc.?

Second looks ok. I like the detail in the lights and the table. The fan looks sort of weird.

Street lights, I knew I missed something.

lol, didn't notice the fire hydrant first time around...sweet.

Here's a closer picture of le hydrant.

Most hydrants I've seen have the square nut on top for turning it on/off, but wahtever, it looks great.

Also as a rule, hydrants are usually painted a very bright color like red, yellow, or white.

Very nice prop brushwork btw...a man after my own brush-based prop heart ^_^ !

Nothing much to show here, but I wanted to show something.
I wish I could have made this room less barren, but I really can't see anything else that I could put in it that wouldn't get in the player's way or be repetitive.

Old(eww):

New:

On a more negative note, the r_speeds are beginning to take their toll. they are already beginning to reach 1300 wploy in corners Hopefully I will be able to optimize for the finished map.

I would change the supports for the lights in the second pic. They look strange.
As for the barren room, you could add some beams in the celing. They would break the repetitiveness of the ceiling and wouldn't get in the player's way. You could use them to put more fluorescent lights instead of using one point light for the whole room.
For example. Imagine that instead of one light, you have a sequence of three fluorescent lights. 2 of them have white light, and the last one is red. That would give players the sense that they will be entering a different area. Just an idea.

Edit:
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/2862/wcdude2lh.jpg

You're giving me advice on my old map . The map I'm working on is the 2nd picture. They are comparison screenshots to show which area has been recreated. its understandable if you don't really see the similarities in those two screenshots though, the room is completely different even though in the grand scheme of things its the same area of the map.

Lol sorry.
Then my advice would be to change the light supports and use even more different textures for the crates.

make a more elaborate doorframe in the crate room

Same for the ladder hole too imo, and possibly make it a different shape, like a semicircle, octagonal, or half octagonal lol

If you're going to optimize the map - the best way to do it is null textures. Trust me. I lost ~300+ wpolies with them in awp_farmstead.
And since most of your buildings are square- hint brushes shouldn't be too hard to apply too.

If you're going to optimize the map - the best way to do it is null textures.

O RLY?! NO WAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!! I DUN BELEEVE ETTTTTT!
Sorry to sound like an ass, but you should know that I've known how to use null textures for a very long time now and that I have already begun to usr them everywhere I can.
Edit: Sorry, its just my biggest pet-peve for people to tell me things I already know or things that I think are obvious.

Extremely late response for the win. How's this look?

Doorway(because you can't see it from far away)

PS: Not4Source only source model.

Ladder and ladder frame look great.

The light supports are blocky and weird imo.

Door frame looks fine but texture it differently--rusty metal, different colored wood, etc.

Heh.. Actually - farmstead was the 1st map I made, that was actually optimized. I was amazed by the results myself, so I just posted them.

Blocky, dull. Also, keep an eye on R_Speeds in big, open areas.

Traffic lights. I've got some serious optimizing to do on these babies but it should be fairly simple. Something about them just doesn't look right to me, though. Could be that they are too close together, but the road isn't that wide so I can't space them too far apart.

PS, all the long cylinders(the pole and the two cylinders making up the support) are world brushes because if they don't cast shadows then it looks like crap. So far I've seen no face splitting from them, let's hope it stays that way in future compiles(yes, I know I could raise them of the ground).

Beautiful brushwork.

The poles in the first picture are cool as hell, but they look strange somehow...

Maybe one four way in the middle of the inter section would be better, strung between two poles with a cable; you could func_pendulum it a little too maybe.

Can't wait to see the finished product!

They're too high and the cable on the lights is too short and that's why it looks too weird. Additionally those things are only that high on big streets and when they're tall they extend a ways out too (over 4 lanes of traffic or so).

Maybe one four way in the middle of the inter section would be better, strung between two poles with a cable; you could func_pendulum it a little too maybe.

This sounds like a good idea actually. It wouldn't look as crowded, it would conserve r_speeds, and it would probably look better for such a small street. but I don't kow how I would go about making something like this. If you could post a picture of what this looks like that'd be great.

And Rabid, you are probably right considering that this was my reference. But I really don't want it to look anything like one of those little stubby ones on the far right of the picture, I want to stick with the pole-light.

LOL that is a huge span for such a seemingly small pole!!!

Clicky

Couldn't find any really good pics of what I'm talking about, but really all it is is two poles, some cables strung between them, and the four-way light suspended from the middle.

That link shows a bunch of different ways you can tackle the 4-way light problem.

I'm debating on whether to try this
http://home.att.net/~trafficlights/unioncity05.jpg
or this
http://home.att.net/~njsignals/asb01.jpg

I guess I'll try both and post which one you guys think fits better.

Edit: I don't know why the rest of the text got sucked into the link.

Haha that text thing is weird, didn't work with me editing it either X(

They're both kinda the same thing in principle, one just has a pole and one has the cables. I think the cables might look good if you add enough bend to them, cause those things weigh a fair deal.

Updated the traffic lights. They don't look as good as the old ones, but they certainly fit better. Also, the beginning of the gas station. Go ahead and laugh at the pumps, I know they lok like crap.

Old:

New:

Cities are always blocky and boring to map.(imo)
Try something else

Bah, urban environments for the win.
I did poltergeist, that was something other than a city. I also did two maps for CS Deathmatch: cf_xendm and cf_mottherboarddm both of which are block-tastic because the only reason I made them was to have some maps for csdm(so I didn't spend much time on them).

Screen 1
Traffic lights look fine, but maybe try a transparent texture for the cable--a low-poly way to give it more appropriate "droopiness", or maybe a model too.

The lights themselves look fine, but could look much better with texturing to make them look like only 1 light is illuminated for each traffic direction. I would probably just make the light you want illuminated a textlight, or you could go nuts and add blinking red or yellow point lights.

You might also consider "skinnying up" that hydrant

2nd
Dreadfully dreadfull. Looks very undetailed and very blocky.

3rd
This is my favourite...looks great despite your self deprecation!

I hope there will be turbo dogs and cherry slushies inside! ^_^

Nice silenced Ruger model btw