Post your screenshots! WIP thread

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 15:44:33 UTC Post #335159

I replaced the mechanism which unlocks Easter Egg doors, with a new one:

Basically, there's a bomb inside, and you need to shoot it, after you pull the lever to move the picture.

@Windawz

Not "it's", that means "it is". Instead, use "its". It's correct to use its correct form: its; but incorrect to use it's incorrect form. (see what I did there? XD)

So, "suka" should be "bitch" in English, and "piÄka" (or "kuÄka") in south-Slavic. Well, that's not such a bad word when used that way.
Did you know that south-Slavic has a verb "sukati"? XD
It has multiple meanings:
sukati pitu - to roll a pie (the crust of the pie)
zasukati rukave - to roll up sleeves
And so on...

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 16:03:37 UTC Post #335160

@Trempler

Wow, I have never been good at making industrial/sci-fi maps. Nice "curves" on the last screenie btw. Did you use jackhammer?

@Snehk

If you really want to, you can copy anything from my screenshots. And if I don't finish this map, I will send you the map sources so you will find a better use for it. I have also an another temple map where I used custom textures the first time. I don't need it at the moment, so I can throw it to you later.
Deadlands... Can I use it as the name of the map? "masonry" sounds so stupid.

@Admer456

I see what you did here. I'll keep that in mind.

In russian you can say "zasuchit' rukava". It has nothing in common with "suka" though. There's a similar word in belarussian "shukat' " which means "to find", "to look for". Belarussian is, in fact, like russian but it's 3 times funnier.

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 16:47:04 UTC Post #335161

@Windawz
I think he used Worldcraft.

Or maybe Notepad, only God and he know...

Hmm, "zasuchit rukava". Well, if south-Slavic didn't have this "a" in "zasukati", but instead had "i", then it would be "zasuÄiti".
Hmm... First Palatalisation - K, G, H into C, Z, S when they're in front of E and I.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Snehk

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 17:49:32 UTC Post #335162

Thanks for the offer Windawz, but I'll either be modelling my levels out and giving them collision through q3shaders, or mapping them fully curved (since q3bsp supports curved terrain).

You can freely use that name for your map. You may want to add some darker ornaments in a few places to make it really seem like lands of the dead, but it should fit in without them too.

There's a similar word in belarussian "shukat' " which means "to find", "to look for"

Replace t in shukat with Ä‡ and h with z, and then you've got to seek/look for in polish. If rukava means sleeve, then it quite easily changes to polish rÄ™kaw.

Snehk

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 18:05:52 UTC Post #335163

@Snehk

Ok, I'll find an another use to that temple then.

"Rukava" is plural. "Rukav" is singular.

@Admer456

You can make curved arched staircases (I hope I called it right) with Jackhammer. So I suppose he used it. Or maybe it's entirely handmade...

@Trempler

"I even made a hollowed Ball DM Map but never released it."

Is it like "killbox" but "killball"?

Windawz

Snehk

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 18:40:37 UTC Post #335164

"Rukava" is plural. "Rukav" is singular.

Kinda expected that it was plural, but written the polish one singular just to be sure.

Snehk

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 19:03:23 UTC Post #335165

@Windawz

Ah, spiral ramps? Or curved spiral stairs? That's easy. I'll even cover that in my tutorial, The Big One. I'm 100% sure that CS 1.6 vehicles will hate those ramps. xd

Also, hollowing out a ball would be good for low-gravity Tau Cannon maps.
I can't wait to make my first hollowed ball.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 19:10:26 UTC Post #335166

@Admer456

Well, I think you're right. I'll later try to create a spiral ramp manually, without any help of the advanced arch tool.

If you can manually make a spiral ramp or a curved pipe, making a hollow sphere should be easy. And then you can turn the sphere into func_rotating...

Windawz

Snehk

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 19:27:35 UTC Post #335167

Texturework on boner mostly done, though there are a few misperfections that I'd fix later. He's made of aged bonemeal that cast itself into rock during reanimation.

Snehk

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 19:37:42 UTC Post #335168

@Snehk

Oh, you know what does it all remind me of? There's a game called Enclave, I played it when I was little. You should try it if you haven't already or at least watch the playthrough. Enclave has very nice and beautiful levels.
I have many good memories about that game.

Here's a screenshot for you:

Windawz

Snehk

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 19:48:03 UTC Post #335169

Enclave screenshot looks cool, I'll check it later.

Since the monster is supposed to be met in dark places like crypts, here's how it looks like in shadows (much better than in daylight):

Snehk

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-30 21:33:21 UTC Post #335170

Reminds me of those annoying zombies from Quake. Hate them so much.

EDIT: It looks like other terrain creation techniques are useful too:

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 07:33:12 UTC Post #335173

@Windawz
Well, my approach to hollowing a ball might be more mathematically incorrect, so I'll not have such an easy time if I want to make a correct one.

But hey, I don't have A's in geometry for nothing! I can make it.

Edit: I know! I'll construct it with pyramids instead of 4-sided blocks.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 07:45:07 UTC Post #335174

@Admer456

Does it matter if it's mathematically incorrect? It must be fun to play, not mathematically correct.

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 08:01:09 UTC Post #335175

@Windawz
My first approach:

1. Make an inverted cube
2. Cut each side into a grid of tetrahedrons

See? This is the problem because this wouldn't resemble a ball. OK, maybe it would, but still, it's more like faking it. Hmm, but GoldSRC basically fakes a lot of it, so it shouldn't really matter.

3. Smooth out, i.e. subdivide, the "displacements".

Then, the other way is much more manageable and more time-saving:

1. Put a flat 360Â° arch
2. Put some squares on the arch pieces (OR MAYBE, cut the squares into the arch, but that wouldn't be so easy...)
3. Elevate the edges accordingly
4. Duplicate the first hemisphere and flip it upside-down or leftside-right, however you started out.

Yeah, I'll try out both methods.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 09:25:46 UTC Post #335176

@Admer456

The second method may be useful for me because I'm trying to make something resembling a dome right now.

EDIT:

EDIT 2: And it didn't work.

Windawz

Jessie

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 12:12:09 UTC Post #335177

A lot of nice stuff being posted in here lately. Keep up the good work, y'all.

JessieTrans Rights <3

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 12:44:12 UTC Post #335178

@Windawz
You were supposed to do it from the inside, not the outside. Or maybe both sides, if that's what you needed.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 12:52:36 UTC Post #335181

@Admer456

I figured out that I don't need that dome anymore. I found a simple alternative to it:

@Jessie

Thank you. More nice stuff will come up soon.

Windawz

Dr. Orange

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 14:18:37 UTC Post #335182

Optical illusion using displacements

Dr. OrangeSource good.

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 14:21:27 UTC Post #335184

Oh, displacements... How do those Source mappers do that?

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 14:24:29 UTC Post #335185

Pretty easily, actually. Place a brush, press Shift+A and select one surface. Then go to the Displacements tab and hit Create.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 14:35:42 UTC Post #335186

@Admer456

Dude, I know how to create displacements (got a pira... a source SDK working with my HL2, finally). The other thing is how he used them. That's why I will never try to make something cool for source - you have to start learning all over again.

Windawz

Tetsu0

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 15:43:46 UTC Post #335187

In texture application mode, select a face and press "create displacement". It divides the face into triangles and you move them around.

Easy, but there's a bit of a learning curve.

They don't seal the world so you gotta put nodraws behind them (sources version of null)

Tetsu0Positive Chaos

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 16:21:55 UTC Post #335188

@Windawz
I am 99% sure that Dr. Orange used (or could've used) the Vertex Manipulation tool for that room. :3
You don't need to use the actual displacement tools provided in Hammer 4, just make the displacements and then move the edges. I've VM-ed displacements before, so I definitely know.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Dr. Orange

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 16:35:07 UTC Post #335189

Well, I had to use displacements not becuase of the warped geometry (that could very easily be done with vertex manipulation) but rather becuase of texture mapping.
When you move a displacement point, the UV doesn't change and the texture moves with it. This can be a curse if you want to create something like a seamless cave or cylinder, but a blessing if you want to have warped surfaces where the texture stays in place, like that room.

Dr. OrangeSource good.

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 16:58:26 UTC Post #335190

@Dr. Orange

"When you move a displacement point, the UV doesn't change and the texture moves with it."

Oh, something I didn't know. So UV Lock is available in hammer 4 as well. That's cool in some way, because jackhammer's UV Lock is very useful, but the editor doesn't fully support Source at the moment. You can load a .vmf with Jackhammer (I'm not sure it's easy to do though), but many Source-only features will be unavailable, like displacements.
In fact, I started toying with displacements right after I got the SDK to work. I like this feature so much.

@Tetsu0

I know that displacements don't seal the map. You actually have to make your outdoor area in a big box with all the sides except bottom covered with sky, while the bottom side is covered with nodraw.
Although I'm a GoldSrc mapper, it's still interesting for me to read mapping tutorials for a different engine (except the UE4 ones).

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 17:20:03 UTC Post #335191

Speaking of optical illusions:

This floor is actually flat:

And back to the topic of making that stuff:
It's susceptible to Vertex Manipulation:

But not as well as it should...

Now I see the problem with Vertex Manipulation. If you manipulate a displacement in that way, it doesn't preserve the texture UV, unlike real displacement tools. :/

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 21:11:31 UTC Post #335192

And I tried to make something decent-looking:

I know it looks like shit, but making all this was satisfying.

"Subdivide" sometimes doesn't do what I want it to, so I had to manually smooth some of the edges. However I got used to drag every vertex manually in GoldSrc so it's ok.

Windawz

Jessie

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 23:16:45 UTC Post #335194

Hmm. I recall Tet explaining in one of his streams that displacements can be sown together - does that work for brushes going in different directions? I.E. a displacement floor sowing with a displacement wall? (Or is there some other way to achieve the same thing?)

JessieTrans Rights <3

Tetsu0

Posted 7 years ago2017-05-31 23:55:04 UTC Post #335195

yes. So long as the displacements are of the same power (you should really use 3 mainly) and the underlying brushes themselves line up

Tetsu0Positive Chaos

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 00:20:36 UTC Post #335196

Can I somehow merge multiple surfaces?

Because after subdividing this all I get some weird bugs.

I didn't think that connecting two displacements with a bridge will be so difficult:

Source isn't for me.

EDIT: Nevermind. Just need to sleep more than 5-6 hours a day.

P.S. Sorry for the toolbar below. I'm so tired I can't even remove it.

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 10:11:01 UTC Post #335197

I don't understand why would someone be sorry about including the taskbar in a screenshot.

And now that I think of it, I could've used Power 1 displacements to achieve whatever Dr. Orange did. Aaaaahhh... now I see...

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

seedee

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 10:17:17 UTC Post #335198

About your map admer, I have to say one thing: visibility is key if you are mapping for CS. from what I have seen there are many large unopen areas and the map is too dark in some areas, in fact it reminds me of storm, a map nobody played just for this reason.

There are other options like making an overcast warm theme or dawn, just not night time unless you are going to really light the place up. There arent many night maps however.

Try to increase the light intensity from the lamp posts and add more of them in important areas, and see how it goes.

seedee

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 10:34:39 UTC Post #335199

@Admer456
I usually edit my screenshots to make them low-res and to hide the taskbar, since I use a lot of software some of which is pirated. I also don't like when people know too much about me, because they can use this info against me. Well, now it's too late to edit anything.

@Cd5ssmffan
Light coming from the windows is a good option too.

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 11:07:55 UTC Post #335200

@Cd5ssmffan
The map should come in 6 versions:

de_kobbl - Original map, night time
de_kobbl_day - Original map, daytime
de_kobbl_gsu - Map for GSU: some features removed
de_kobbl_gsu_day - Map for GSU, daytime
fun_kobbl - Fun version, with more features
fun_kobbl_day - Fun version, daytime

If no-one likes the night version, then screw it, you have the day version.

And, Slade directly told me to use de_storm's aesthetics, hmm...
(P.S. Admer is a name, not an object xd)

@Windawz
"some of which is pirated"
In my case, it's "most of which is pirated". Man, you should just see how many programs I've pirated, ever since 2011. I blame Goldeneye: Source for that. I discovered torrents because of it.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 11:30:17 UTC Post #335201

I start to like mapping for Source. Displacements is a wonderful thing.

@Admer456
I must say that "most of which is pirated" fits me better too. I just wasn't sure should I say that.

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 20:37:57 UTC Post #335202

So, I did some experimentation with the visgroups.
Aaand, I halved my compile time.

Basically, all the grass brushes (the ones with a transparent grass texture) were causing a major slowdown in HlRad, in such a way that even with -chop 512 -texchop 256 -bounce 1 it took it 10 minutes to do the job. Now it shrunk to just 5 minutes.

Now I am compiling the map with -chop 64 -texchop 32 -bounce 9 (and -texreflectscale 1.33) for a good result to show you folks how it looks like.

I also replaced my info_texlights with 3 light_surface entities.
In the meantime (while it's compiling), I'll show you this awesome C4 blast compilation:

This, my friends, is the reason why I started mapping. This is the definition of insanity. xd

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 21:13:21 UTC Post #335203

Looks very cool. But I still think that the blue light is out of place.
Also, how do visgroups affect the compiling process? Is there something I don't know?

Can't make myself to continue working on the map. I don't know, I'm just out of ideas, so I have to abandon it for a while.

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 21:17:05 UTC Post #335204

Well, in the compile dialogue, you have this thing called "Save Visible Objects" or something like that.

When brushes and entities (which are a part of a visgroup) are hidden (i.e. the visgroup is turned off), they don't get compiled into the map.

Literally, those are visibility groups in the editor. You can, for example, visgroup a lot of detail brushes and hide them, because they're not needed for the fast compile. It's cool.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 21:39:47 UTC Post #335205

I thought visgroups are used to make working on a complex map in 2D views easier. The more lines you have on the front/side/top view the harder it is to work on the map. So you just hide what you don't currently need to work on.
But I would never think that a hidden visgroup will not be compiled at all. It means the .gif you made features the fast-compiled version of the map, right?

Windawz

Jessie

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-01 22:42:51 UTC Post #335206

The primary use of visgroups is, as you say, cleaning up the 2D views from stuff you aren't actively working on (or whatever you might want to hide specific groups of objects for). I guess it is also a fast way of doing what Admer suggests as well, but it's not what they are FOR, per se. If there's any other primary effects, I am unaware of them.

JessieTrans Rights <3

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-02 00:13:01 UTC Post #335207

And here's an another weapon spawnpoint:

Recently I've been trying to make weapons spin like in UT and made some research. Here's what I have:

!tl;dr!

Found an old thread here on TWHL where vluzacn wrote about the "avelocity" and "gravity" keyvalues. That didn't work though, because the game crashes as soon as the weapon respawns. So I tried to use func_rotating along with some ZHLT-only tricks. I made a solid (non-passable yet) func_rotating covered with "BLACK" texture, then added "zhlt_invisible" and "zhlt_noclip" keyvalues. "zhlt_noclip" allows the player to pass through the entity with this keyvalue, but items still collide with such entities. As well as the bullets. Also, the weapon that is supposed to spin must be placed high enough from func_rotating. But that's one thing. I thought I have finally found a way to make weapons spin, but after picking the tau cannon up, I decided to wait until it respawns. And it respawned... On the ground. I picked it up once again but it kept respawning on the ground, even after I have scaled the func_rotating up and even added an another one below the first one. Though sometimes it respawned flawlessly.
Damn, I was so close...

@Jessie

Also, what's up to that platformer-like map I helped you a bit with?

Windawz

Jessie

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-02 03:45:22 UTC Post #335208

I wouldn't call it a platformer, but it's getting there, slowly. (I wouldn't hold your breath, it won't be that interesting a final result.)

JessieTrans Rights <3

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-02 08:13:31 UTC Post #335209

@Windawz

Quote: "It means the .gif you made features the fast-compiled version of the map, right?"

Tututututututu, not in the way you think.

The .gif featured multiple versions of the map. If you watch closely, you will see that the explosions on site A also come with a bright light entity. Some parts of the GIF don't feature that. And for some darn reason, the trigger_camera entity doesn't work, despite being triggered and having a set of path_corners to follow. >:(

To actually answer your question:
The map versions were compiled with these parameters in HlRad:
-vismatrix sparse - texreflectscale 1.28 -chop 512 -texchop 256 -bounce 1

HlVis had "-full" every time, and it was pretty quick, actually!

And no, I didn't hide the visgroups. The individual grass blades really slowed down RAD.

Quote: "I thought visgroups are used to make working on a complex map in 2D views easier.

They are, but they can have that secondary purpose of "interchanging" map features. I could literally produce all 6 versions of the map by switching the visgroups on and off, which I will do.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-02 11:43:25 UTC Post #335210

@Admer456

"They are, but they can have that secondary purpose of "interchanging" map features. I could literally produce all 6 versions of the map by switching the visgroups on and off, which I will do."

Looks helpful. Thanks!

Also, will you make the chop and texchop values lower at the final compile? Because I don't think shadows will look good at "-chop 512".

More progress on the map:

And about that trigger_camera. How did you try to trigger it?

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-02 12:02:10 UTC Post #335211

"How did you try to trigger it?"

With a multi_manager.

It worked on 2 of my maps which use a camera.

de_stroytheschool has a trigger_camera which gives a scene of the school being destroyed after the C4 blows up.
And demo_2 which has a helicopter in it.

Ah well, I don't really need the camera. xd
The player can get close enough to the C4 explosion to see the beauty, without getting wrecked because of it. It's the player's option to admire the explosion. :3

And about the chop thing... it makes no damn difference. No difference whatsoever. I tried -chop 512, -chop 256 and -chop 128 (with halving the -texchop, of course), and it made no difference to me.

Of course, once you use "-notexscale", it should make a difference.

Basically, if your texture scale is 0.100, you'll have ultra-sharp shadows. If it's 2.000, then you'll have a very low-res thing from the mid 90s.
Basically, -notexscale treats every texture equally and projects the same grid on everything. That's at least how I think it works. Hmm, I haven't done any real experiments with it, but I'll see what I can do about it.

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-02 12:23:39 UTC Post #335212

@Admer456

I wouldn't suggest you to trigger cameras with "relay-like" entities. The triggerer must be a player to make the camera work. And if you try to activate the camera with a trigger_auto, the game can even crash, because it doesn't understand who activated the camera.

Ok, now it looks a lot better:

Gonna convert the parts of that structure into func_details with different detail levels.

Windawz

Admer456

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-02 12:39:28 UTC Post #335213

In de_kobbl's case, it goes like this:

The bomb zone triggers the multi_manager which triggers the camera.

But in de_stroytheschool, it goes like this:

The C4 explodes and breaks a func_breakable which triggers a multi_manager which triggers a camera. At least I think so... hmm...

Admer456If it ain't broken, don't fox it!

Windawz

Posted 7 years ago2017-06-02 12:46:23 UTC Post #335214

Here's my entity chain: the bomb breaks a func_breakable which triggers a multisource. The multisource is the master of a trigger_multiple that covers the whole map and activates the camera. Trigger_multiple's delay before reset must be 0.1 or lower.
Try this.

Windawz

Post your screenshots! WIP thread Created 16 years ago2007-12-16 00:58:58 UTC by doodle