So, what are you working on right now?

[Mr Mike]

Some progress in my map

 

http://img209.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=84561_schodiste_122_142lo.jpg

 

http://img259.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=84565_hrad1_122_566lo.jpg

 

 

http://img253.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=84568_hrad2_122_596lo.jpg

 

http://img257.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=84576_chodba_122_197lo.jpg

 

http://img7.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=84573_hrad3_122_596lo.jpg

 

http://img159.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=84579_kasarny_122_553lo.jpg

 

http://img179.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=84584_kuchyne_122_412lo.jpg

 

Those look awesome! Love it

[STiFU]

Very sweet Screens, Bikerdude and Rek. Those establish a pretty nice atmosphere. I have comments for both of you though...

 

BD: Just a general note. You should arrange small things like fork & knife, chairs etc. a little offset and rotated. It will look a lot more natural if things like that are not precisely aligned.

 

Rek: I think the tops of the arrow slits could do with some stone trims (like overlapping plates). Currently it looks a little as if something was missing on top of them. But it does still look very neat. Great choice of textures.

[Bikerdude]

Very good use of texture and the open fire and furnace design are inspired -

 

http://img209.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=84561_schodiste_122_142lo.jpg

http://img179.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=84584_kuchyne_122_412lo.jpg

 

your pictures are very dark though, and you know you can post directly to forum as attachments..

[aidakeeley]

BD: Just a general note. You should arrange small things like fork & knife, chairs etc. a little offset and rotated. It will look a lot more natural if things like that are not precisely aligned.

 

I'm not just being contrary, but I actually liked that... Gave me a feeling that something special was going on and/or we had a very proud kitchen staff... though it isn't some great hall, dignity abounds!

 

Not every time, but occasionally, these kind of touches can be a part of the story. I don't know if that's the case here, but I made it the case in the story in my head.

[Rek]

 Rek: I think the tops of the arrow slits could do with some stone trims (like overlapping plates). Currently it looks a little as if something was missing on top of them. But it does still look very neat. Great choice of textures.

 

Thanks for advice but my english is not so good yet and I dont know what exacly do you mean by "tops of the arrow slits". Do you mean the the top edge of the walls where should be a roof (btw I'm planning there a roof) or the crenellated walls?

[SneaksieDave]

Great stuff Rek; solid, attractive design.

[Rek]

your pictures are very dark though, and you know you can post directly to forum as attachments..

 

Yep i know both. I think that the JPG format makes the images darker. But next time i will rather increase the value of ambient light or adjust the brightness and contrast. And as for the forum attachments i tried it but i wasn't able to decrease the size of images to 500kb but now I know I can do more efficient compression. So next time everything will be fine.  

[Bikerdude]

Yep i know both. I think that the JPG format makes the images darker. But next time i will rather increase the value of ambient light or adjust the brightness and contrast. And as for the forum attachments i tried it but i wasn't able to decrease the size of images to 500kb but now I know I can

you can do both vi a program called infranview. This will batch convert them to jpg from tga, and then you can increase the brightness/gamma in them afterwards.

[STiFU]

Thanks for advice but my english is not so good yet and I dont know what exacly do you mean by "tops of the arrow slits". Do you mean the the top edge of the walls where should be a roof (btw I'm planning there a roof) or the crenellated walls?

There you go:

The imagequality is pretty poor as I couldn't find a proper example on the web, but I guess it's sufficient to make a point.

[Rek]

Yep I know what you mean. These details can be good but I'm affraid that it can significantly affect the fps (which are not entirely good in this area where its quite complicated to visportal it right). But I'll give it a try  .  

[quakis]

This might be considered nitpicking or such, but I'm getting a little concerned about texturing and texture alignment in some TDM missions. I thought I'd speak up, but this post is more aimed at Bikerdude's recent shots;

 

@Bikerdude;

 

[nbohr1more]

!!!

 

...umm

 

Someone ought to edit quakis's "suggestion pic in Photoshop and criticize the MS Paint arrows and font choices...

 

Yes, I'd say that is mostly nitpicking or artistic preference...

 

As Springheel is the art director maybe he can validate your observations (but I think he likes what he has seen so far...)???

 

But... this is the internet, feel free to nitpick away .

[Springheel]

s Springheel is the art director maybe he can validate your observations (but I think he likes what he has seen so far...)??

 

I don't "direct" anyone's individual map.

 

I think some of the observations are valid, and others are a bit nit-picky. People will generally see things in screenshots (which are almost always brightened after the fact) that they would never notice during play. My general take on it is that trying to perfect the appearance of a map would result in a lot fewer maps being released, so I don't go out of my way to encourage that kind of attention to detail.

[Bikerdude]

@Bikerdude;

Are you aware its a WIP and all that entails..? Dont get me wrong i am quite anal when with my maps, but I have only such much motivation to re-do things. I've already spent 80hrs on the cathedral map and there is still more work to be done.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Bikerdude

[Serpentine]

There's a time and a place for everything... and it's beta testing

 

I do agree with some points, but its fighting the wind to bring up nits before you hit beta. The map looks and runs great from what I've seen, the nits are there but really minor and I think it's really something that you need to play rather than look at a screenshot to do it any justice.

 

And here's a screenshot of what I've been tinkering on for the last day and a bit :

 

At the moment it will just do normal file management, however I hope to get together some package system for easier browsing and distribution should be made public in +- a week once I'm sure of security etc as the package its built on seems a bit flaky and I've found a few nasty things in prelim testing.

[quakis]

My general take on it is that trying to perfect the appearance of a map would result in a lot fewer maps being released, so I don't go out of my way to encourage that kind of attention to detail.

Of course and the more people wishing to make TDM missions, the better. Though a little bit of extra polish never hurts really. Ironing little things out early and such. Though excluding the more nitpicky crits, misaligned textures breaks the immersion for me from time to time when it's more obvious, so I like to try and avoid that.

 

Are you aware its a WIP and all that entails..? Dont get me wrong i am quite anal when with my maps, but I have only such much motivation to re-do things. I've already spent 80hrs on the cathedral map and there is still more work to be done.

Don't start the 'its WIP" argument. Of course it's WIP. But if you post a screenshot, expect some criticism amongst the praise. I'm fully aware some of it is nitpicking and I was trying to remain constructive with my comments, but does that invalidate any suggestions I have made?

[nbohr1more]

@quakis:

 

We will all remember you when FMS authors stop posting WIP pics until they are "polished"...

 

Moar Pics!

 

 

(yeah yeah, I'm the one who said to nitpick away... )

Edited June 16, 2010 by nbohr1more

[Melan]

Serpentine: what does that do? Resource repository? Place to store demo pictures? Media browser for TDM assets?

[Serpentine]

At the moment it's intended for things like prefabs, models, textures, maps that you need help with/want to abandon etc.

 

It's hosted on linode, which while an awesome VPS provider which I'd recommend to anyone without issue, they are a bit light on hosting space and there are already a number of other things sharing it. So I don't really want to offer mirroring for maps or large files in general unless permission is granted, for small stuff I don't really mind.

 

If there are things that people would like added etc, I can manage most things (sadly not DDS preview support ). But most of all just a place so that people can link things directly and avoid using upload sites which tend to make life hell

[Bikerdude]

thats looks brilliant Serps, this will be very useful..

 

but does that invalidate any suggestions I have made?

based on your observations, I have made some changed where I agreed that architecturally it didnt fly, but other things do and i like the way they look. More screenies to follow.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Bikerdude

[Melan]

Serpentine: That's bound to be useful; and yeah, upload sites can be hellish.

[grayman]

With the Summer Vertical contest now underway, I'm setting my WIP aside for a couple months. It's 2 maps, and has to wait for persistent data to be implemented in TDM, so it wouldn't have been released soon anyway.

 

It's called "Cleighmoor", and starts out with you trying to retrieve your sword.

 

http://s180.photobuc...n01/Cleighmoor/

 

Hope that link works. Look for the "slideshow" button.

 

Enjoy!

 

Critiques welcome. After all, this is my first TDM map.

 

Edit (7/2011) ...

 

Cleighmoor has now become the third mission in my William Steele series.

 

 

 

[Berny]

Wow! Super cool pics, some parts will need a bit more details, but other pics show great! atmosphere!!!

 

Besides, I love the snow and the graveyard

 

Looks like a super cool mission!

 

 

 

 

PS: The ghost is cool!

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2010 by Berny

[Komag]

Very nice work!

[aidakeeley]

Yes, I was quietly anticipating grayman's FM. Seems to be a savvy dude.

 

Hearing this:

 

Summer Vertical contest now underway, I'm setting my WIP aside for a couple months.

 

I initially cursed the contest! But, on second thought it afford an opportunity to get something less ambitious happening and all that (i.e., eg. needs the persistent mission<-->mission functionality).

 

So, the contest is gonna be a good thing for sure in this case after all.

 

So say I.