So, what are you working on right now?

[RJFerret]

And there's a workaround for maps in development prior to 2.02's release in this thread: http://forums.thedar...leasing-on-201/

[Digi]

Below, I've linked an album of screenshots from my in-development FM. It now has an official title: Poets & Peasants

 

There should be nine pics in all. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but please keep in mind that this is my first time doing, well, anything. Prior to this mission, all I'd made were a couple generic rooms from pgs. 1-2 of Fidcal's A-Z tutorial. Specifically, I haven't "noshadows"d a ton of things yet, so there are occasional shadows being cast in some of the sceenshots that won't be there in the final version. I know there are other skills I have yet to learn that will help with my mapping, but I'm happy so far, and it's been fun.

 

http://imgur.com/a/lopZj

 

Enjoy!

 

{edit} Bah! I'm already nitpicking my shots, and I've found a couple textures that need to sync with one another (shots 3 and 9).

Edited June 9, 2014 by Digi

[nbohr1more]

Honestly, this looks pretty damned good for a new mapper's output. Lots of great light and shadow contrast. You might wanna add some paintings on the walls to increase the visual density of some of your larger rooms.

[Digi]

Honestly, this looks pretty damned good for a new mapper's output. Lots of great light and shadow contrast. You might wanna add some paintings on the walls to increase the visual density of some of your larger rooms.

 

Thanks! I'll probably take your advice on paintings, but the walls that are most in need of it are actually ones I didn't screenshot. I've been trying to "decorate" as much as possible, but I'll have to give some thought to what else I might use.

Edited June 9, 2014 by Digi

[Melan]

Digi: It is coming along nicely!

• I would break up the front wall with a few supports (so it is less flat, plus there may be possible hiding places), maybe a ledge or balcony if you can incorporate it into the design, or even an upper floor that forms a slight overhang above the main entrance...
  
• Slight slopes and other height variations on the ground make the scene look more realistic. Dirt decals and a few scattered objects also do the business.
  
• In the rooms, try to think about what holds the ceilings. Support beams? Support columns? A larger room should usually have one of them. Otherwise, a wooden trim to separate the side walls from the ceiling should be good. That's nice, three-dimensional detail. You can also do it between the floor and the wallpaper... even adding a wooden beam makes a big difference. "Breaking the cube" is one of the big steps from cubical rooms and lived-in spaces. This tutorial is for Thief, so the techniques and possibilities are different, but it is useful to take a look at how he transforms plain rooms and corridors into something more detailed.
  
• Door and windowframes add another 3D element. If you work with standard-sized objects, you will find objects which are well suited for the task, but it is very easy to make your own.
  
• In the last shot, I would use a different texture for the sink.
  

These are just suggestions

[Melan]

The biggest impact is the sound fix. If you're using location entities in your map you will notice a big difference in how AI react to loud noises like yells for help.

No kidding. Testing the same mission under 2.01 and 2.02, there is a tremendous difference in how AI calling for help raise the ruckus over an extended area. In 2.01 and before, guards would often downright ignore some AI running around and yelling for assistance. 2.02 can be downright vicious in this respect if you let some random peasant get away from you.

[demagogue]

@Digi, it looks good. Yeah, a little border work goes a long way.

Wainscoting is another thing that really helps a room IMO.

 

And like your question in the other thread, make sure you convert border & detail-work brushes (basically any smaller brush that doesn't seal a location/leaf) into func_stats. A single func_stat can be a whole group of brushes too.

[Sir Taffsalot]

Looking good Digi. Thanks for keeping us updated. I agree with what other have said. A good way to understand how to create realistic scenes is to do a google image search and try to re-create some of the scenes.

 

Look at how the walls are broken up into three sections. Wood panelling at the bottom, wallpaper in the middle and wooden beams at the top. There are lots of beautiful textures in DR that you can use for this.

 

 

Look at the wooden beams going along the ceiling in this picture. Not only are they necessary to support the ceiling and whatever is above it, it stops the ceilings from looking flat and boring.

 

 

Once you've tried to re-create a few rooms from Google images, all this stuff will be second nature. You wont need to at look pictures. Your imagination will be your limits.

Edited June 9, 2014 by Sir Taffsalot

[New Horizon]

No kidding. Testing the same mission under 2.01 and 2.02, there is a tremendous difference in how AI calling for help raise the ruckus over an extended area. In 2.01 and before, guards would often downright ignore some AI running around and yelling for assistance. 2.02 can be downright vicious in this respect if you let some random peasant get away from you.

 

Hmmm, so are all of the missions with location entities going to require an update? It would be a shame to have the update break the current behavior.

[Melan]

More advanced AI that behaves logically should not be cause for alarm. Maybe they are justa little bit too sensitive to the noise made by the player, but... it could be just my mission.

[Lux]

I thought this was only AI related audio however, in beta testing your mission, Melan, on map load, the convo of the two guys above you (for me at least) was much more positional and audible. First thing I did was hear it and looked up and was thinking... was that convo there the first time I did this? (on 2.01). I'm sure it was but it seemed to stand out a bit more and I wasn't thinking about 2.02 anything at the time. Hmm.

[Melan]

I think that's a special case - we had to amplify it quite a lot to make it stay audible.

[Springheel]

Hmmm, so are all of the missions with location entities going to require an update? It would be a shame to have the update break the current behavior.

 

The current behaviour (with guards ignoring yells for help or noise arrows) is wrong. Now that the bug is fixed, AI are behaving the way they are supposed to. None of our developer test-maps have location entities, so AI have been tested under the proper settings all along.

 

Of course, people who find the correct settings too difficult now have a menu option to adjust AI hearing.

[Digi]

Welp, some good suggestions, and thanks all. As expected, I have a bit more work than anticipated, but still don't think I'm too far from calling it ready. Decorative stuff like the suggestions I got above are most of what is left. I'm ironing out some things with visportals and objectives, but a lot of the big stuff is already done.

[New Horizon]

The current behaviour (with guards ignoring yells for help or noise arrows) is wrong. Now that the bug is fixed, AI are behaving the way they are supposed to. None of our developer test-maps have location entities, so AI have been tested under the proper settings all along.

 

Of course, people who find the correct settings too difficult now have a menu option to adjust AI hearing.

 

Ok, maybe I read the posts wrong but I thought people were saying there were instances now where some sounds were traveling too far.

[Digi]

I spent the evening finding ways to escape from my map and building stuff to prevent it. Or rather, places where you would be able to escape, but you hit a fake sky wall instead. And then building stuff to prevent such errors.

 

It was somewhat exhausting, but my map's better off for it. More varied, and I had to improvise a couple cool (well, cool for me) bits of decoration or repurposing of sections to settle on a solution. I also love the cityscape sky texture. Instantly makes the place seem like it actually exists, especially since my small-ish map feels isolated otherwise.

 

I'm really not too far from done at this point. I have some additional details to include, per the suggestions I got in this thread (mainly to the mansion that is the primary focus of the mission). I have to force myself to learn how to do terrain variations, and implement it in a couple places (even if it's only small stuff), optimize it as best I'm able, and pack it (and test my Briefing in the process, which I have written and put into the xd file, but haven't looked at in-game yet). And that's it. I'm trying to be thorough, but it's not a terribly big mission (though it ended up bigger than Thieves Den, which was my original benchmark for size and complexity). Even an item-by-item inspection isn't going to take me more than a half hour or so.

 

I feel like things are probably going a bit quicker because there's stuff I don't know to do (I'm just trying to hit every major step in Fidcal's tutorial), and any higher-level stuff that would take more time is beyond my knowledge at the moment. But I might be ready for beta testing as soon as next weekend, assuming I don't hit any massive roadblocks.

Edited June 12, 2014 by Digi

[Melan]

I spent the evening finding ways to escape from my map and building stuff to prevent it. Or rather, places where you would be able to escape, but you hit a fake sky wall instead. And then building stuff to prevent such errors.

 

It was somewhat exhausting, but my map's better off for it. More varied, and I had to improvise a couple cool (well, cool for me) bits of decoration or repurposing of sections to settle on a solution.

That's the way. Organic-feeling maps emerge from patching up things, testing and constant refinement.

[Dragofer]

I've set to work on my own project recently, which starts with a ship. I tried something like this a number of years ago, where I've made plenty of experiences with everything, including bending patches into all sorts of shapes. Back then I didn't get much further than a basic hull and putting some bunks in the one cabin because I didn't really have control over a lot of things, but this time around it was much easier.

 

The ship itself is done, beams, rigging and all, now it's just to furnish the cabins and the 2 decks of cargo hold, which is going slower than expected. In my mind making a mess on the table with a dozen cups, bowls and bottles isn't much less painstaking than bending patches. So there isn't any finished interior to show yet, but making the framework was great fun.

 

In terms of story, you aren't a stowaway this time (though there's still sneaking) on a voyage to... somewhere, far away. Caracks were real ocean-going vessels at the time.

 

Floating high above the sea in one of the two pictures is an early version of the crude brush hull that I've held on to The framerate in that picture was 25 by the way on my integrated graphics - the skybox took it down from 45 fps, but it's worth it.

 

http://imgur.com/4pzCjVJ - exterior

http://imgur.com/EgHfedH - crew accomodation & mess

[Dragofer]

Back again, this time mostly after trying out different things for the interiors. It's not so easy, so I've gone back and replayed some of those castle/city type missions, which was nice I'd really appreciate listening in on other people's views on this.

 

 

Weatherdeck - with a view to the moon

 

Captain's - The captain lives here, furnished with my homemade desk, bookshelf and wardrobe (not shown). He will get more things to showcase once I know what kind of places he's been to - maybe some small pots of spices, or chinaware, or strange instruments. Probably the whole lot. The lighting doesn't really seem to work very well though, especially the right one

 

Hold - I wonder how much cargo is going to fit in here

 

Gundeck/Hold - the cannons take so much space away... and there's only 4 of them

 

Magazine - it's completely encased in copper to keep the humidity away

 

Galley - This one I'm really happy with, the decals made a huge difference. It seems the way to go from now on is to bombard everything everywhere with these decals

 

Navigator's room - everything seems to float in space here... making the lantern light bigger didn't really solve it. He also really needs some handmade furniture too, if only for the colour

[Digi]

In the Magazine, the barrel in the top left seems to be oddly stacked. Would it not fall eventually? And the bust in the Captain's deck looks like it's floating.

 

Love the look otherwise. The Hold is especially cool imo. Unique level locations are always awesome.

[Digi]

Plus or minus a couple nit-picky things, and assuming I can pack it without issues, I'm done with my FM. I've got maybe a day or two more of my own testing before I'm ready to pass it along to anyone else, but I have no major "steps" left to do.

 

Here's some preview shots:

http://imgur.com/a/AuxWJ

 

Among the shots there, the only thing I'm not entirely sold on is the 3rd light near the top of the one house. It makes for some possibly unnecessary overlapping (though as you can see, the frame rates don't exactly suffer and are actually higher than they were the last time I was taking screenshots...a product of my optimization, I'd like to think). But when I removed the light, the lack of light, and lack of definition in the house, was actually more jarring. Within the story, the guy who lives there is fairly well off financially, and we gather he's a little bit of a show-off, so I'd like to think he wants his house lit up like a Christmas tree for everyone to see. I may experiment with a spotlight instead, or other solutions, but I'm not sure how well I'll be able to pull it off.

 

I could tweak and alter things forever, and given my modest skills I know that there will always be something to improve. But I'm happy with it, and I'm ready to get it out there.

 

Having read this: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10349-how-to-release-a-fan-mission/

...I'll probably be asking for beta testers in 2-3 days. It's a small level, so I can't imagine it will take people long. But I want to make sure I'm doing everything right.

[RJFerret]

Testing takes far longer than you'd imagine. Some may give quick feedback, others will say they can test...expecting to play on a weekend, but end up busy that weekend. I know it's thrilling and you want it out as soon as possible, but budget far longer than you might expect. This isn't even accounting for inevitable changes.

[Digi]

Testing takes far longer than you'd imagine. Some may give quick feedback, others will say they can test...expecting to play on a weekend, but end up busy that weekend. I know it's thrilling and you want it out as soon as possible, but budget far longer than you might expect. This isn't even accounting for inevitable changes.

 

Oh, I'm not worried if it's delayed some. I don't have a set timetable, and I want to be mindful of others' schedules.

[Obsttorte]

Just wanted to show this. This is still VIP and needes tweaking, but I'm making good progress

[Obsttorte]

Thanks for the likes guys. Even if there will be no helloween contest, I think it would be cool to have a mission in the style of Alone in the Dark or Amnesia. TDM provides a whole lot of possibilites in terms of customizing the gameplay experience and mechanics, even if you have to use a couple of dirty hacks here and there.

 

I really would like to release a mission where you beg me to not release one of that kind anymoe because it was too friiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiightning