Mudanchee - Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Created 18 years ago2005-10-04 19:07:58 UTC by Captain P

Yes, it's that time of year: Captain P is busy again.

In the works: Mudanchee. This time I'm working with the Source engine and that's a lot better to do than HL's engine. Mudanchee is a cave-styled map that features crystals, waterfalls, archeologic equipment and signs of long forgotten cultures.
Currently it's in alpha-stage, meaning that it's playable, but needs a lot of work on the details and some gameplay elements. The layout is mostly done, though, and I've started spicing up some area's already.

Enough said, here are the screenshots:The archeologic siteGlowing crystals... Archeologic site overview'tomb' cave overviewCrystals again

As you can read in my journal, I just playtested this with some friends, one being Muzzleflash, and we had a lot of fun.

Any comments are more than welcome.

Very dark. You should adjust the gamma of captured screenshots before posting 'em to the same level (if approximately) as used in-game.

Looks quite nice from what I can see, though.

It's brighter in-game indeed. Viewing them full-screen gives a better impression since there's no bright parts on the screen then that make it look darker, but since that's not really applicable here... I'll touch them up a bit next time.

And thanks.
I'm still working on many things, one of them is the lighting so maybe the full version gets brighter somewhat. During playtest it wasn't really a problem though. We'll see.

Indeed screenshots are darker...
Thats a nice map! The crystals are very well done although a model might be better

The displacements however are very well done! Show us some of the roof

CP, post that wireframe screeny.

The crystals are very well done although a model might be better wink-wink -

They are models, actually...
But the textures are shaded at the moment, I'll make them self-illuminating to do away with those ugly shadows.

Wireframe shot? Coming up straigh away: Wireframe attack!

I'll show some more once I've got some more done, which is likely in a few weeks time.

Good heavens.

Ehehe not too crazy but still quite wireframy

OMG!
Did you do that using this new texture thing that makes the brush bumpy, or did you make it al in vertex? :S

No that is done with Displacements mapping.

looks great..

1 question, why use the dev textures?
they were only used to see what the map was like before all textures were made in HL2.

unless of course you are making your own textures

Looks nice, good Displacement work (and lots of it ;)).

Maybe it's a good thing that I don't map for HL2.. What a wireframe..
Anyways - the whole set looks good.. Can't judge much by the screenies, tho..

1 question, why use the dev textures?
they were only used to see what the map was like before all textures were made in HL2.

I've built the layout first using simple dev textured brushes, to get that part done first. This new approach seems to work: before, I usually got stuck at the layout part after I had done a few weeks of detailing work. Now, I can do the detailing while I already have a good layout.

And yes, I'm going to draw my own textures, but that's not the real reason for the dev textures. I just used them to get a feeling for the layout without getting bothered by the looks of it.

The wireframe may look complicated, but because of displacement maps it really is a lot easier to work with than the HL equivalent of it. It takes some time to get used to them but it's worth it.

Thanks for the comments so far.
I'm starting to add detail to the map and tweaking the lighting. It's a bit dark now...

Yeah, that screenshot is taken in 3D view, daubster. Displacements dont show up on 2D views which can be really frustrating but is better than a huge tangled mess

I playtested with 8 or so people on the Snarkpit server yesterday. We all agreed the layout works really nice and that the map is fun to play.

Of course, there were bugs, quite a lot actually. I've got to fix the spawnplaces (had to do that anyway), put some clip-brushes here and there to seal off certain area's and prevent players from getting-stuck and all that. Besides that I'm working on the lighting (I'll light up the paths so players know where to go and keep the rock walls mostly dark and gloomy for the athmosphere) and the details (a lot of modelling involved).

I'm also adding some gimmicks, e.g. 'hidden' items that are harder to get than the usual ones. I'll post some screenshots once I have a next version up and running.

Dev textures work better for pre-planning when you dont have textures, too - In BMS for example inbound is mostly dev-textures, while I go along and try to fit the ones from CSS and HL2 in where appropriate. This lets me finalize some architecture without worrying about the texture artists.

wow, that sure took a lot of work...

Looks great, although the lighting is less than perfect...

I would add more emphases on the flames.

A few of the textures looked stretched in a few specific areas (4th screenie, upper right)

Yeah Rabideh, this approach works really well for me. It's good to see a layout works so shortly after I started on this map. If it didn't work, then it hadn't cost me too much time to rework it, too.

Bratty, it's a few weeks of work, the map is about 40% done right now. Much will be fixed/tweaked/added in the coming weeks. I'm trying to fix those stretched textures (though that's sometimes hard to do because they're displacement maps) and I'll tweak the lighting. The wooded paths will get an overhaul as well, I think I'll put in sime holes here and there so people can see others walking beneath and fire at them. I'll see how that all turns out next playtest.

Looks like it will turn out great

Good luck.