So, what are you working on right now?

[Sotha]

Don't worry about it!

 

Certainly Bridgeport can have a museum. Even Baldur's Gate (city in a game of the same name) had a museum.

 

University of Bridgeport sounds interesting too!

[someTaff]

Working on mission, adding wood to stone. This is small tavern,

[Melan]

I think I am going to like this one. Cool!

[Springheel]

Certainly Bridgeport can have a museum. Even Baldur's Gate (city in a game of the same name) had a museum

 

Don't take me too seriously, as I know most fantasy settings do this, and most people don't care at all about such things. It's just a pet peeve of mine when historical settings map completely modern concepts (like public art galleries, modern legal systems, or publically funded educational institutions) onto themselves.

 

 

 

This is small tavern,

 

Nice!

[Sir Taffsalot]

@ someTaff: That tavern looks very dark to me. Also why is there a Builder's banner in a tavern? When I think of a medieval tavern I think of getting drunk, gambling and whores. Things that the Builders would frown upon. I'd also put barrels and tankards around the bar area. Also the texture on top of the bar needs to be rotated. The grain of wood always tends to go in the direction that is longest.

[Sotha]

Good looking tavern over there. Reminds me parts of Score the Settle, somehow.

Like ST said, maybe some texture alignment on the staircase is needed (handrails!)

Also that big chandelier casts an unnatural looking shadow. I'm sure setting the wheel and chain to "noshadows 1" would look more natural.

[Melan]

The darkness level in the tavern is just fine. This isn't Thi4f.

[Sir Taffsalot]

Maybe the amount of darkness is just me. I think my other points are valid though. I love a good looking tavern in an FM.

[Capela]

Just one shot from my street, the basic is there now i need to put some details all over.

 

[Bikerdude]

very nice Capela, but long street don't Vizportal well.

[Sotha]

Lots of show and tell going in the last few days.

 

I'll join the fun too! A little something from my unusual WIP:

 

[Bikerdude]

off into the sunset our valiant protagonist goes.....

[Springheel]

Nice!

[Arcady]

Well, here's my project so far... I know it doesn't look very good yet, as it's only an editor image and incomplete at that, but here it is anyway.

 

Image: Grand Entrance

[Arcady]

Another angle:

 

Image: Grand Entrance 2

[Moonbo]

Nice! Looks pretty good to me :-), must have taken forever to get those stairs put together.

[Moonbo]

Work on the map has slowed as my day job's been picking up, but I put in several scripted sequences which I think will help with immersion (thanks everyone for answering all my questions on the newbie mapper thread) as well as finishing a couple more rooms. Feedback/critiques are appreciated, as always. Also, Bikerdude, I'll try to flip you the latest version of the map as it's been a while :-):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[someTaff]

Work on the map has slowed as my day job's been picking up, but I put in several scripted sequences which I think will help with immersion (thanks everyone for answering all my questions on the newbie mapper thread) as well as finishing a couple more rooms. Feedback/critiques are appreciated, as always. Also, Bikerdude, I'll try to flip you the latest version of the map as it's been a while :-):

 

Loved these shots very much!

BTW, Moonbo, whats the max framerate at your machine? at most shots its 39, at one its 29

After portaling all doors i got 59 in buildings, 29 at streets

Is 29 FPS acceptable to players?

Will 29 turn 10 on slower machines?

Edited April 7, 2013 by someTaff

[Sotha]

Another angle:

 

Image: Grand Entrance 2

 

Wow.. Now I understand your patch texturing problems. A patch that twists over 90 degrees is very difficult to texturize correctly. Hopefully you get it right, those are nice stairs. If it does not work out, you could attain similar effect with brushwork that is easier to texturize. That will, of course, be more blocky and not so nicely smoothly organic.

 

@Moonbo:

These are good stuff you have here. I like how there is a lot of organic stuff and nice details in every plane: walls, ceilings and floors. Usually the floors and ceilings are easily forgotten.

Special detail is great: like the second screenie has a small crack on the lion sculpture.

 

I only have one suggestion. In the third screenie the arches look too clean against the dirty natural cave wall. Tip: Clone the arch, place it exactly on top of the original one. Then change the texture on the cloned one into decals/scattered_dirt (the one with steady constant grime). Just select the cloned arch and from the texture list select the decal and choose apply on selected. The arches will be more darker and dirty/older looking, and maybe look more natural to their surroundings. And this is very quick and easy way to insta-grime-up your patchwork.

[Sotha]

Loved these shots very much!

BTW, Moonbo, whats the max framerate at your machine? at most shots its 39, at one its 29

After portaling all doors i got 59 in buildings, 29 at streets

Is 29 FPS acceptable to players?

Will 29 turn 10 on slower machines?

 

Do not look at framerates from screenshots. They are not accurate and could show anything as there is a'jink' when D3 stops to write the screenies..

 

If you have a poor framerate it means you computer is struggling with the scene complexity (or the amount of AI thinking.)

This means if someone has a weaker machine than you, they will have even worse performance.

 

I recommend analyzing scenes that have low fps. Console command "r_showprimitives 1" gives an output what is being drawn. Especially check the amount of tris and shadow tris. In a heavily patched areas you can save performance by reducing the patch tessellation with the patch inspector. The default auto-tessellated patches have a LOT of redundant tris generated. You can easily save a lot of tris by setting the tessellation to 2x2 or 3x3, without much reducing the scene details visually. Setting complex patchwork or models into "noshadows 1" can also help a lot without having any effects on visuals. Finally, the most common culprit for performance degradation is multiple lights shining on the same area. Ie, lights overlapping. Never have more lights overlapping than two or three. Just adjust your lights so that they aren't overlapping and you gain performance without changing scene visuals much. Making worldspawn things into func_static also reduces tris.

 

Tl; Dr or simple scene optimization (assuming visportalling has been already done correctly.)

0) have your map to have boxy worldspawn geometry with all the details as func_statics.

1) reduce lights overlapping

2) reduce patch tessellation

3) make things into noshadows. (lights and func_static objects).

 

Added this to the wiki to make it more general knowledge:

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Performance:_Essential_Must-Knows#Quick_Performance_Improvement_Checklist

[Bikerdude]

that last shot is awesome..

[Capela]

Thats what im working now. Just one shot.

 

[SeriousToni]

That looks really really good

[Moonbo]

@SomeTaff - you know, it's really hard to gague what's a good framerate. What I'm aiming for is a minimum of 20 FPS on my desktop in all areas of the map (it only drops to that in one or two sections though), I'm hoping to see through beta testing whether this is too little though.

 

@Sotha, thanks :-). I'll see about griming those arches.

 

@Capella - looks really good! Really clean and diverse, the trim on the buildings really makes everything crisp.

[someTaff]

 

 

 

 

view from the gate

Edited April 8, 2013 by someTaff