Kasperg Projects! Created 18 years ago2006-04-25 18:24:30 UTC by Kasperg

I do like the sort of bright look to anything space-based. It reminds me of all that white panneling that space ships use, or perhaps the space station in one of those hundreds of Bond movies (Moonraker?). But then, on the other hand, you have the infinite darkness of space, and the limitted light that the sun emits (Doom 3?). I suppose that in this case, either usage of lighting would result in a good looking map, but is still something to heavily consider.

Unfortunately for Star Trek fans, each time I find it more difficult to make any progress in the minimod. It seems I get stuck if a project is too big or if I know I will have to map non-interesting and transitory places.

On the other hand, I have gone back to another SP theme, and I'm quite happy with how things are going. Expect another SP map, this time with more thinking involved and a longer duration.

Teaser screenshot http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/772/bigjc2.jpg

Wow very Rimrookish! I'm pretty sure that's a compliment!!

Rimrookish? You fail.

Looks nice Kasperg, it's in the same style as vilcabamba I assume?

Correct!

Wow, that is very nice!

But that support structure with the pebble one it is kinda weird. Neat easthetic, but it just feels off.

I'll say its Kaspergish.

It's not really a support structure, and you will find out why it has that texture once you play it
r_speeds are a bit high in that scene (around 1000), but this time I don't really care. I'd rather have players see more detail than reading a little number.

Yesterday I decided that even though the Tomb Raider textures by Matthew Hill work very well for this map, I should remake them on my own. Some of them might look worse than the originals, while others are a bit better now. I made a sample screenshot with both versions.

With old texture set
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/2006/matthill0ll.jpg

With my own version of those textures
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9858/kasperg0he.jpg

I will also say it in the map description, but it is important to NOT play this map directly after Vilcabamba, since the textures loaded into memory having the same name would stay the same (at least in WON HL). It also works the other way around. After loading this map, I can go back to Vilcabamba and automatically look at it with the new texture set, even though I wadincluded!

The only screenshots I have are those two and the one before. I would post more, but It might really spoil the experience. I never manage to make long SP maps, and if people see screenshots of many areas, playing through the map might be unsatisfying...

Not going count to ten Orpheus?

Much nicer but the middle blue part looked better in the old picture.

Those textures are like bumpmapping without bumpmapping.

Mipmapping makes the pebbles in the second pic look worse. The older version looks too cartoony IMO. I'll post a close-up screenshot as soon as I make another complete compile (I was currently testing my first monster_grunt_repel )

I agree. But the sharper pebbles (at least from the angle that the screenshots were taken) looked just a little better. The new texture looks more like marble, or that anisotropic filtering has been turned off.

Here is another view. The original texture has a mosaic look which I overlooked while making the new texture. I might give it another try.

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3569/both1pz.jpg

Top one...if you add a few broken tiles...Then it will look great.

The thing is, the top texture is the one made by Matt Hill for the Tomb Raider Xtra pack. The idea is to remake that top texture on my own.
The place seen in the pics was supposedly for animal caretaking. Some sort of drain is missing in the center of the floor (it is slightly slanted towards the center). In a way, the material needed would be more like a mosaic and not just some pebble floor.

9 mini-screenshots. They are a bit of a spoiler.
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/342/idol97hr.jpg

The idea now is to make three maps. These screenshots would belong to the first, which takes place outside the sacred city. Next would be a map of the city itself, and finally the main temple and escape. Vilcabamba would be the fourth or rather "zeroth" map, representing another entrance to the city along with a sacrificial altar, one of the Gargantua keeping places and an idol shrine to which Gman got first, as those who have played it know.
Remember this is not a minimod, so I'm not considering music or voice acting at this point.

The architecture style I'm going for is rather blocky, that's true (It's not like I haven't done different things many times before, used curves and other shapes.This has nothing to do with a habit).
This thing is built literaly putting one rock on top of another. If you notice, those rocks are quite big, so I'm not sure doing certain operations will work.
I can try to isolate some of them and make them stick out a bit more, making the surfaces more imperfect. If I do that somewhere in the map, I would have to do it all around the level to keep it consistent. That would mean a lot of extra work which wouldn't make the experience significantly better. You can understand my dilemma.

As for the mix of nice and blah architecture, I think "blah" makes "nice" look nicer. For example, the second map (which I haven't started yet) will be prettier than this one, more colorful.

Edit: after seeing my Floating Surface map, you should know I don't rely on texturing to bring the art to life. Lighting was the tool in that one.

The texture set looks beautifuls! Can't wait

looks superb, as per.

9 new spoiler mini-screenshots. All of these are new and belong to the second map. There are still some details to add, specially in what concerns the little houses, which are window-less atm.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/7548/idol10ns6.jpg

I was also thinking I could include a retextured Vilcabamba map with these maps and linking them with a level change, since they are part of the same story. It would give me the chance to improve it based on the MV comments and other reviews. It would also increase the size of the zip file...

I only got one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The
long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the
rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering
experience?I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh, never mind; you will not
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust
me, in 20 years you?ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you
can?t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you
really looked?.You?re not as fat as you imagine.

Don?t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective
as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles
in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the
kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don?t be reckless with other people?s hearts, don?t put up with people who are
reckless with yours.

Floss

Don?t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you?re ahead, sometimes you?re
behind?the race is long, and in the end, it?s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in
doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don?t feel guilty if you don?t know what you want to do with your life?the
most interesting people I know didn?t know at 22 what they wanted to do with
their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don?t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you?ll miss them when they?re gone.

Maybe you?ll marry, maybe you won?t, maybe you?ll have children, maybe you
won?t, maybe you?ll divorce at 40, maybe you?ll dance the funky chicken on
your 75th wedding anniversary?what ever you do, don?t congratulate yourself
too much or berate yourself either ? your choices are half chance, so are
everybody else?s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can?don?t be afraid of
it, or what other people think of it, it?s the greatest instrument you?ll ever
own.

Dance?even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don?t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they?ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people
most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold
on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older
you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in
Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will
philander, you too will get old, and when you do you?ll fantasize that when
you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children
respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don?t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe
you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don?t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from
the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it?s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen?

What

Looks awesome.

damn. i could never do anything creative with round rooms.

Looks authentic and very kaspergish to me!

I've decided to expand the maps to 4 instead of 3. I'm having trouble with the inside-temple architecture and lighting, so I've just kept working on more outside areas.
Here's a wireframe view of the first map:
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/4263/guairfreimok9.jpg
It's very compact but there are no real performance problems. This map also tries to shape the gameplay around the geometry, with logical structures that could have actually been something thousands of years ago.

@Orph: yeah, I'm one of those n00bs who still has the scrollbars

Okay, after more than a day waiting, youtube finally decided to make my video available. It looks much darker than the original wmv file, but I can do little about it right now. Anyway, I hope you are able to see something.
It's my first non-continuous trailer and I've added a music track!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTZ_lEvD62k

Everything seen in the video belongs to the first three maps. The fourth one will have a different look and will include some surprises.

Edit: the weapons seen in the video might not be available in the final product

Nice video, kinda cheesy use of music though. ;O

One day you have to combine all your temple style map packs into one giant mod. Would rock.

A good thing about this project is that it takes me more than 15 minutes to run through everything I have done so far. Since the last map will be much more puzzle-oriented and will have harder combat, It will be even longer.
If you are dissapointed with that number, the comparison is that it takes me 5 minutes to run through Sandscroll. All things considered, I think it's a positive fact.

Video looks interesting

A new effect/entity setup for HL1. Burning oil!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LW5Dbpik_dY

A question for those who use Spirit: Would it be possible to parent a bunch of sprites, a trigger_hurt and a button_target to a func_pushable?

hehe. cool.

Get a better fire sprite

I might just use one sprite and make it bigger, it will probably look better.

More information.
I have just played through the six maps I have done so far, and it takes me 28 minutes, knowing the puzzles and having died only once.
I'm working on the very last part of the minimod, so you will soon see it in the map vault.

The Vilcabamba map will go through some changes, although most will be just visual.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7924/compare2rl5.jpg

Looks a whole lot better. Decals or a nice re-texture?

Also just out of curiosity I suppose this has been asked a hundred times but how exactly do you make your maps? You seem to be a machine that has a unique technique to making SP maps...

Full re-texture. I made a lot of blended textures following Rimrook's advice.

I actually consider myself a better deathmatch mapper than singleplayer. Surprisingly, I find it harder to make a singleplayer map even though you don't need to concentrate on things like having no dead-ends in the layout or making a correct combination of weapon+spawn placement.
For singleplayer mapping, you usually need to add more detail and make the world more coherent, since players will be looking around and exploring much more, instead of fragging and being fragged around.

Minimod to be released tonight or tomorrow morning.

I look forward to it.

I came.

lol, custom snark model

Crap. A series of unexplained leaks have shown up in the first map (the remake of Vilcabamba) so it's going to take a little more time until it's done.
I absolutely hate it when that happens. You add a single isolated room in the map and a leak magically appears somewhere else.
That's one of the reasons why I'll probably won't make any more HLSP maps. Source's Hammer4 shows you a proper pointfile when you request it.

Yeah that was a reason why I couldn't go back but in a way HL makes you map more carefully.

So how long do we have to wait?