So, what are you working on right now?

[Arcady]

"pilaster" = rectangular vertical support along walls

 

That's the one! Never heard the term before. Also glad to learn the definitions of the others as well. Thanks.

[Sotha]

Here is what I'm working on at present:

 

 

It is the briefing for my WIP mission, being edited in kdenlive-video editor. Now that Grayman fixed the video briefing bug, I started making the briefing itself. I'm quite enthusiastic about this method.

 

Essentially, this may release the mappers from the shackles of .gui file tinkering with a text editor. You could make any kind of briefing you want with a WYSIWYG-style visual editor. In the video channels you see the pictures (or videos) the mapper wants to present. All kinds of effects can be applied. The audio channels show graphically all the custom sounds and music one might use.

 

The potential of the video over gui files is up to the mapper's imagination. The only downside is, that the video resolution will be lower than what you might achieve with gui-file pictures.

 

Very promising. I'll write a tutorial on this workflow once I learn it fully and after I get my WIP out of the door. How annoying one must sleep, I'd rather tinker more with this briefing video...

[Obsttorte]

It's been a while since I've worked last with video editing. I worked with a programm which name I forgot under MAC and with Adobe Premiere under Windows. Both programs were quite similar and this one doesn't seem to work quite different guessing from the picture you've posted. I can only encourage people to try this stuff, as it's quite simple (yeah, I know, I always say that, but it's true, you can learn it in a week or so).

 

Regarding the thread topic: As I currently don't have much time I thought about some speed building. One thing I always wanted to do is to rebuild my first mission Old Habits. I started today and after four hours of work I have roughly 60-70% of the basic brush- and patchwrok done. I guess I can finish this tomorrow and start with detailing and texturizing, as currently everything is caulk (looks ... pinkish). I hope to finish the mission until the end of the week, so it can be beta-tested on weekend and released on sonday or monday. Let's see, I'm very optimistic.

 

I have three other missions in build, all of which are far bigger then this one, but no time to finish them (and I have to finish the alarm code ). I hope that I'll have more time in the next weeks so I can work on them and hopefully release them all this year. As said, I'm optimistic.

 

How annoying one must sleep, I'd rather tinker more with this briefing video...

How true.

[Bikerdude]

Looks awesome Sotha!

[Obsttorte]

Almost done the basic brushwork (god, how I hate this sentence). Also done some little detailing and some texturizing. The inner yard is sealed off, still need to seal the garden. And I need to add two little areas, but progress is good.

 

I hope to seal the garden and do the remaining two areas this evening. If progress is good I can also do some basic texturizing and visportal placement, so I could check the map ingame. (The mission wasn't dmapped once by now. )

[Bikerdude]

Er, pictures please mista ;-D

[Diego]

Pictures or it didn't happen!

[Obsttorte]

Once most of the surfaces are no longer textured with caulk and I've added some details I'll do that.

 

EDIT: Those are the only shots I can provide by now.

 

The area is sealed off completely (got a dozen of leaks to solve). The two little areas mentioned are still missing.

[Arcady]

Here you guys are making this stuff in days, where it's taken me a couple of weeks just to figure out the little I had made isn't any good after-all

 

Oh well, I never said I was a very good architect... let's just hope I can actually finish one at least. It is nice to see how you guys are going on yours. It can be a bit discouraging to be completely honest, but it does provide incentive.

[Moonbo]

Hey Arcady,

 

Don't get depressed, I'm a fellow newbie author and you wouldn't believe the amount of time it took just to get the first section of my map looking decent (and I'm still having performance issues w/ that part). The more you work w/ DR the easier it gets to make stuff quicker :-).

[Arcady]

No worries, just venting a bit. It really is nice seeing all the new work though.

[Obsttorte]

Here you guys are making this stuff in days, where it's taken me a couple of weeks just to figure out the little I had made isn't any good after-all

 

Oh well, I never said I was a very good architect... let's just hope I can actually finish one at least. It is nice to see how you guys are going on yours. It can be a bit discouraging to be completely honest, but it does provide incentive.

Just in case I was unclear: This is only basic brushwork and a couple of patches. Detailing and models, lights etc. are still missing. Another thing to keep in mind is that this is a rebuild of Old Habits. For this mission I've done last year I did need three months (roughly 200 hours)!!! And yeeeeet another thing is that I've been starting working with DR one year ago, and this mission was my 13th attempt or so.

 

What I'm trying to say is, that it's completely normal to be slow if you are new to the editor. But once you've done some mapping (in a scale of a couple of months) you'll see that not only the appearence of your missions but also your workflow going to be better and better. Just hang on

[ERH+]

BTW I wonder if information about time spended over every map could be roughly summed (e.i. with every autosave comparing to system clock), so mapper would have clear value, instead of "about 3 months".

[Obsttorte]

You could just write it down yourself

 

But in the end it doesn't really matter how long it takes, important is how long you actually want to spend (or are able to). When I'm posting about fast mapping progress, my main aim is to motivate new mappers, as in the beginning everything takes looooooooooooooooooong. But sooner or later things get more faster.

[Moonbo]

I usually only post screenshots when a section of map is completely done, but I really like how the lighting and textures worked out in this part so here are some early shots. The gameplay in this section is going to involve enemies with moving lights attached to them so I didn't want to make the area too bright...hope I struck the right balance. Feeback/crits appreciated:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2013 by Moonbo

[nbohr1more]

Those look gorgeous moonbo!

[demagogue]

Looks really good.

To be constructive, the brick ceiling might use some kind of cross-border work to break it up (putting aside bricks have low tensile strength so don't actually make very good ceilings); but it's okay as is too. Some of the brushwork & textures (the white borders & pink bricks) look a bit newish for what looks like should be a dingy & long-abandoned crypt. I've been thinking myself about using patch-work to make more natural & uneven floors, and that might be good here too.

[Bikerdude]

that last shot is very pretty :-)

[Obsttorte]

Looks awesome, especiall ythe last shot. But in this it seems that the patches you have used for the grey stone in the background aren't aligning properly, as there are black gaps. Maybe it's only a screenshot side effect.

 

 

 

 

 

[Moonbo]

Thanks guys :-).

 

@Demagogue - I'll see about griming up the trim. I'll see how cross-braces on the roof look too. For the floor...I dunno, I see what you mean but having uneven floors makes AI pathing a lot more difficult (unless the floor is only slightly uneven and you just use noclipmodel on it, but then it's hard to make out the effect)...

 

@Orbs - I think those black spots are just an effect of the texture's border. In game the patches line up.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Moonbo

[Bikerdude]

@Demagogue - I'll see about griming up the trim. I'll see how cross-braces on the roof look too. For the floor...I dunno, I see what you mean but having uneven floors makes AI pathing a lot more difficult (unless the floor is only slightly uneven and you just use noclipmodel on it, but then it's hard to make out the effect)...

Ai can pthfind over most floor types & elevations. As long as slopping parts of the floor aren't too step Ai will path find just fine.

[Sotha]

AI can pathfind just okay on patches and func_statics as long as there is worldspawn burshwork 16 units below it.

[Obsttorte]

A little update:

 

I've started texurizing. Five areas are still missing, then I'll add the two missing sections and start detailing. Then I place lights, AI, etc.. ... and then I'm done.

 

Here's something to feed you

[someTaff]

A little update:

 

I've started texurizing. Five areas are still missing, then I'll add the two missing sections and start detailing. Then I place lights, AI, etc.. ... and then I'm done.

 

Here's something to feed you

Let there be light! Love the last shot, especially roof. Is it custom texture?

[Obsttorte]

Let there be light! Love the last shot, especially roof. Is it custom texture?

Nope, it's stock.

 

I wont be able to start lighting before tomorrow, because I want to finish texturizing first. But progress is steady.