[CS:S] - de_venetia (WIP) Created 18 years ago2005-12-08 07:56:18 UTC by AJ AJ

Created 18 years ago2005-12-08 07:56:18 UTC by AJ AJ

Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 07:56:18 UTC Post #151032
(Subject to name change by the way)

I've been (somewhat) quietly beavering away at this map for a few weeks now, helped mainly by the efforts of those on IRC (particularly Trapt who has agreed to compile the map and take screenshots).

This is my first foray into the world of Counter-Strike mapping (and will probably end up being my first released Source map, if something doesn't beat it, which I doubt).

This map is mostly inspired by the city of Venice, Italy. I've used very little reference photography (which is really biting me in the arse now): one or two pics, plus a scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

You can find the most recent screenies here. I don't normally do this, but I'm afraid that the map may be a little boring in its current incarnation. Unfortunately, the shots in the gallery are not indicative of the current version as I've not been able to get new shots just yet. I will update this thread when I have the new shots. Because of this, a lot of stuff you may mention may have been addressed.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 07:59:15 UTC Post #151033
You forgot to mention that I am the greatest living being to inhabit this planet.

Sexy map, by the way.
Trapt Traptlegend
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 08:00:18 UTC Post #151034
Agreed, sexy map :lol:
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 09:05:39 UTC Post #151062
Yeah. Can't wait to zipline across that.

D'oh.

Anyway, though, why is the lack of reference photos a problem all of a sudden?
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 09:09:19 UTC Post #151067
I'm afraid that the map may be a little boring in its current incarnation
Should've started better. ;)
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 09:11:22 UTC Post #151068
I see.
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 10:31:15 UTC Post #151086
That's some lovely work, Ant..
Love the lighting.. :glad:
Daubster DaubsterVault Dweller
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 10:33:35 UTC Post #151087
mmm sexy indeed :)
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 16:32:20 UTC Post #151144
Interesting. Are you planning some playtests soon? I'd like to check out this map in-game. Looks promising.
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-08 19:50:14 UTC Post #151190
Love the lighting.. :glad:
Thanks. ;>
Trapt Traptlegend
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-09 00:46:58 UTC Post #151209
Yeah, it's Trapt's lighting (working through me, of course).

Captain P: The map has a long way to go still, but I'd like to test ASAP. There's no CT or T areas at the moment, nor are there any bomb points. If we playtest, it'd only be to get a feel of the map.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-09 10:37:39 UTC Post #151271
What a beautiful map, I see Venice when I look at your pictures.
Lighting is good, I don't see why you can't do it Ant...You can't rely on other's forever.

Looks forward to release and goodluck hosting it cause Valve screwed up 'Listen Server' hosting yet again.
Habboi HabboiSticky White Love Glue
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-10 00:10:55 UTC Post #151423
Running Source on a GeForce 2 when it already melted my GeForce 4 - sound like a good idea to you?
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-10 06:13:40 UTC Post #151439
I thought you were about to get that new PC?

It does remind me of Venice, and I've been there. Don't know if you have, Anteh?
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-10 06:19:05 UTC Post #151444
I haven't no. As for the PC, slight delay. Alex, if you're around and free right now, get on IRC.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-10 06:21:35 UTC Post #151446
Sure.
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-12 02:09:17 UTC Post #151845
Well, we just completed the first Internal Beta for de_venice and the outcome was relatively good (some rather dubious tactics from the the T side I might add).

Internal Beta Two may be ready in a couple of days time.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-12 02:16:54 UTC Post #151846
(some rather dubious tactics from the the T side I might add)
It's true. Doodle and Rabid are amongst the evilest terrorists to ever play CS:S.
Trapt Traptlegend
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-12 02:25:36 UTC Post #151847
:o please, you know you love it when we're evil.
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-12 02:31:42 UTC Post #151849
LIES!
Trapt Traptlegend
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-12 03:45:48 UTC Post #151852
Very nice looking map!! Any special ideas regarding the skybox? I remember Venice was surrounded by small islands, and each of them had either a church or a campanile. Judging by the sky texture, it might be too foggy to see far away, but maybe one or two of these islands could show up.
I'm saying this because I recently played through the Venice level of Painkiller, and the whole thing felt isolated from the rest of the world, when this place is actually very busy with ships etc.
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-12 03:50:16 UTC Post #151853
My ideas were to have a little island in the distance, and some large hills behind the houses on the street - I was also thinking of dotting some buildings on the skybox as well. The skybox needs a lot of work at the moment, but I'm leaving it till last.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-12 04:32:10 UTC Post #151861
Internal Beta Two may be ready in a couple of days time.
Another ready next weekend, maybe? :)
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-12 07:53:36 UTC Post #151879
More than likely.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-13 22:34:03 UTC Post #152205
Well, we've just had a few runs through Internal Beta 2.

First match was with myself, dewdle, Cryovat and fourthgen. Need less to say it was a rippin' match (even with a couple of dodgy tactics from Cryo).

Second match was Trapt, myself and dewdle, but the server exploded before we could do anything. Hopefully we'll be playing again in a moment or two.

By the way, I'm looking for beta testers. If anyone has CS:S, stays online a lot and doesn't mind playing on an American server, then please contact me via IRC.

EDIT: I may also be looking for someone to host a regular server so we can test the map. More news later.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-15 07:20:55 UTC Post #152393
Bump: Yes, I'm being nooby, but oh well, its my thread.

Beta 3 is currently under construction. This particular version may end up being the first Public Beta if I'm extremly happy with it. The main displacements are getting a good overhaul so the map will look a lot more complete.

I have new ideas (well, Cryo gave me them) concerning some little easter-eggs for the library. I'm also trying to fix all the little bugs that have cropped up during our extensive (and damn fun) testing.

I've estimated that this map will support 10 players, so its relatively small. Still, the gameplay seems to be nice and tight, which leaves it open for quick and dirty CT VS T action.

My request for a server/beta-tester is still open: if you're interested, please contact me via #twhl, or email me (ascarcella@gmail.com).
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-20 00:50:08 UTC Post #153339
Yay! Media update!

So far, this is my favourite screenie:
User posted image
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-20 01:25:49 UTC Post #153340
It is indeed nice. btw, why did you shoot at the lampost? (those are bullet decals, right) ;)
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-20 02:37:31 UTC Post #153343
Yeah, I went crazy with the Dual Elites. :P
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-20 07:03:55 UTC Post #153362
Sweet screenie! Count me in for the b3 testing (I'll check if I can run CS:S today).
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-20 07:07:01 UTC Post #153365
Ooh, nice screenshots, i'm really starting to like this map
:)
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-20 07:42:31 UTC Post #153371
Nice in the middle, dodgy around the edges. Look forward to trying b3 with some other players.

The water? :(
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-20 08:18:51 UTC Post #153376
Oh god, WHY PNG?!?!

No idea why your water looks like that. Its uncubemapped though (build them and see if it changes anything). Mine looks nothing like that...it looks like this:
User posted image
And this:
User posted image
Its the same water texture in both version (the sand texture is different though) and mine isn't cubemapped either. Maybe its your card? (Ignore the piss-poor displacement in the background and the black lines on the displacements - its due to, erm, piss poor displacement work and a fast compile, respectively.)
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-20 08:27:51 UTC Post #153379
Ooooo... neat and sexy. ;)
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-20 08:56:07 UTC Post #153382
Oh god, WHY PNG?!?!
You're complaining? My ping went up to 500ms :P.

Maybe it's a nocubemaps/hardware combination. Have to try again sometime.
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-26 00:16:17 UTC Post #154536
Work on de_venice has ceased for the time being while I work out some issues with my graphics card. I hope to get back to working on it sometime during this week.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-26 07:11:09 UTC Post #154558
M'kay, jsut finish it :)
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-26 10:26:09 UTC Post #154594
Ant, have my babies.
Posted 18 years ago2005-12-27 09:04:20 UTC Post #154753
Well, I formatted last night, so it'll be a while till the Source games and tools finish updating. Dunno when I'll be ready to start work on it again.
Ant, have my babies.
Best comment ever. :D
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-21 06:30:57 UTC Post #158863
Update time (and bumpity bump bump): I've done nothing on this bar some displacement work (which I'll probably be scraping. I may be redesigning the entire street bit, because it just isn't working out at all. More news later.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-23 02:53:38 UTC Post #159167
Update time again!

New screenie:
User posted image
I'm hoping that while these new buildings look City 17-ish in Hammer, they'll look better in CS:S once I turn on bloom (yes, de_venice will have HDR). If not, I may colourise some of the textures. By the way, the textures are white because I'm mapping in the HL2 config. CS:S isn't fully updated yet.

Also, the buildings have depth and detail, you just can't see it very well in Hammer.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-23 03:59:21 UTC Post #159171
I can see it. Some parts stick out more than others. Maybe you could do something more dramatic in one of the buildings so their facades dont look like straight walls... Its just a suggestion.
User posted image
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-23 05:18:17 UTC Post #159176
Great idea. That flat area on top can serve as a balcony, so I can use some fancy fence props.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-23 09:51:21 UTC Post #159194
Wow this looks amazing, when will you be play testing? :D
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-23 20:08:03 UTC Post #159284
When its ready. :P

I won't be releasing a new version until I get my 6600 back. However, there are large differences between the last beta I released and the version I've got now. ;)
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-25 07:29:15 UTC Post #159462
User posted image
The library is currently under-going a huge renovation process. Hopefully the result will be a less crappy looking library.
User posted image
Here's a lovely in-game shot. You can see the new buildings in the background (although some are missing windows - I was going to rescale some prop windows, but Studio Compiller is borked thanks to the latest SDK update).
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-26 02:31:20 UTC Post #159615
User posted image
After about a day or so, this is what the library looks like. I'm still working on getting the basic shape of it (lots of stuff to move around) but I'm fairly happy with the results so far. In fact, the re-modelling of the library has allowed me to make up a story for the map, which is good.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-26 04:15:51 UTC Post #159618
Very nice!
Everything looks a bit cramped in pic 1, although I really like it.. :)
Daubster DaubsterVault Dweller
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-26 06:02:16 UTC Post #159626
User posted image
The basic exterior of the library is done! I'm currently working on the roof and after that I'll be detailing the outside. I rather like the new look...
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 18 years ago2006-01-26 18:25:14 UTC Post #159736
This is looking great Ant, keep it up, i really enjoy the looks so far.
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