So, what are you working on right now?

[Berny]

At work at the moment so I cannot upload any pictures, but perhaps I will release some more teasers to this mammoth of a mission when I go back home...

YES, please ;) ;)

 

 

 

[Fidcal]

Woohoo! Began first alpha testing this morning on Manor Royale. I like playing my own FMs, at least at the start. No so much after 50 tests. Still on target for March release.

[AluminumHaste]

Awesome! Need help Alpha testing?

[Fidcal]

Maybe. You'd need to provide good feedback and select player notes even if you don't need to look at them. I'd be interested if someone can play through without outside help. Also, how much RAM have you got? Have you got NTcore installed? No is good. I want to test without it. I've tested on mine without it OK.

[Aprilsister]

I, too, would love to get in on this lengthy test phase as...

 

You'd need to provide good feedback...

 

I would give some rather meticulous feedback, I believe. Maybe not fast but meticulous.

 

...and select player notes even if you don't need to look at them. I'd be interested if someone can play through without outside help.

 

I would love to be the one who gives the "no notes" challenge a go (since you say you want that too).

 

Have you got NTcore installed? No is good. I want to test without it.

 

"No", is me. And "no" I'd probably prefer to stay (though, I could be persuaded, of course). So I'd be good there too.

 

...

 

I'm, without a doubt, pretty excited for the community that a new Fidcal is on the horizon and would absolutely love to help in any way making it as enjoyable (read: Fidcalic... and immersive/trouble-free/smooth) as it can be.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Aprilsister

[Fidcal]

OK, just the two of you will do. I'll pm you both hopefully within a day or so. First I'm cleaning up the fixes on my first run through and I'm going to add some guards and other AI.

 

Note that it will be a bit rough, no title loader yet, no briefing. I'll write some quick notes for the briefing. Other stuff might be added later.

 

Also probably no difficulty differences yet. And erm... anything else I haven't thought of. At your own risk etc. etc.

[Aprilsister]

Fabulotastic!

[AluminumHaste]

Maybe. You'd need to provide good feedback and select player notes even if you don't need to look at them. I'd be interested if someone can play through without outside help. Also, how much RAM have you got? Have you got NTcore installed? No is good. I want to test without it. I've tested on mine without it OK.

 

Specs:

 

Alienware M17x

Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.2 GHz

2 x Nvidia GTX 260M 1GB

2 x 7200RPM HDD (RAID 0)

6 GB DDR2

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

Doom 3 - Steam SVN

Doom 3 - Retail v1.02

Doom 3 - Retail v1.03

 

I've done alpha/beta testing before, and I like trying to break things so I think I could do it. After all, if I'm not providing enough feedback you can always let me know

[Fidcal]

OK, thanks. Shouldn't be too long now. Spend that time sharpening your wits; you may need them.

[ocn]

An outside area. Having a rather hard time with getting it to look the right temperature... chilly. How do you guys usually build your maps? Do you build for good looking dark scenes, or try to make them equally attractive during day even though that would not normally happen when played as intended? Edited January 12, 2011 by ocn

[Sotha]

An outside area.

 

Yep and good-looking one too. Controlling the areas what the player can access looks tricky: it is rather flat so it looks like you can walk everywhere, but performance-wise you cannot make really large areas. So you need to have some kind of mountains or something in the edges of the scene.

 

 

Having a rather hard time with getting it to look the right temperature... chilly.

 

Try just a slightly bluish ambient light?

 

 

How do you guys usually build your maps? Do you build for good looking dark scenes, or try to make them equally attractive during day even though that would not normally happen when played as intended?

 

I don't understand the question. I build scenes like this:

• Figure out what the scene is about. A street? A room?
• Find some images from the net.
• Try to recreate (with own adjustments) the scene seen in the pic using brushwork and patches. General features first, then details. I never bother with tiny details. They just suck performance and the player may not even notice them.
• Then light the scene so that it is good for gameplay. Gameplay comes first, beauty comes second.
• There is not point in taking things into account what the player will not ever encounter: "what would this look during daylight?" Unless, you plan the player revisit the scene during day light. Then you gotta take that into account.

Here's the reference image for knightons

 

Here's an early build:

[ocn]

That's a real nice scene there, Sotha.

Getting the right amount of blue is the trick, and the view in the editor is not really accurate.

I've used some patchwork to simulate mountaintops along the outer walls, and it look good when it's dark- but turn the light up and they're obviously flat. So, I was just wondering how high level of detail one should put into it.

[Melan]

I believe details are usually worth it when they are emphasised by interesting light and shadow contrasts. Sometimes, though, a few good, simple strokes do a very effective job just as well, as long as they are the right kind of strokes.

[Aprilsister]

Gameplay comes first... I never bother with tiny details. They just suck...

 

Oh this is good to hear -- I was afraid you'd been caught up a bit by the... vortex!

 

An outside area. Having a rather hard time with getting it to look the right temperature... chilly.

 

You've actually done a pretty good job with that scene, IMO. Maybe some thick (or should it be thin?) low-lying (or should it be an overhead layer?) "fog"; anyway some experimentation along those lines.

 

It's be great if you could have the player do as in "Cryostasis" and emit some fog-breath...

[Baddcog]

An outside area. Having a rather hard time with getting it to look the right temperature... chilly. How do you guys usually build your maps? Do you build for good looking dark scenes, or try to make them equally attractive during day even though that would not normally happen when played as intended?

 

Like tels said, slightly blue ambient will cool it off. You could also make the crystals (with colorme tex) and their light slightly blu.

 

Right now there's alot of brown with is closer to the red/yellow side which are warm colors. So maybe adding more grass/vegetation will also help shift it to the blue side of the color spectrum.

 

If you're going for a night scene no need to even think about how it would look during the daytime.

[Tels]

Like tels said, slightly blue ambient will cool it off. You could also make the crystals (with colorme tex) and their light slightly blu.

 

Woa, slow down, I didn't even post here

[Baddcog]

*like SOTHA said...

 

lol, I guess I was just skimming and am used to seeing Tels light blueish icon, Sotha's doesn't look the same but a quick glance out of the corner of the eye...

[demagogue]

There are some basic accepted ways for building levels.

Here's things I think about.

- Map it out on paper or photoshop first, at least the general layout.

- Think about multiple open paths and player-freedom to get around. Think about a tangled web of linked nodes instead of a linear or even wheel-and-hub layout. (Depends on the kind of area you're making, though, of course.)

- Get some architectural ideas from source photos;

- Step-wise refinement. Build the basic layout of the *entire* level first, then go back area by area and refine it in steps. Does wonders for your work-flow.

- Think about lines of sight and VP-placement first, then playable space (width of streets, shadows and light, patrols), then beauty and story.

- Spread your story out in space (as opposed to time), so the more the player sees the more story he gets, and geared so he can get it in any order and connect the pieces (as if each area is a scene, and each room adds to that scene).

- This helps think about how to decorate rooms too. Think about what this room adds to this scene and what the people that actually live there are like, and decorate it appropriately adding unique features for them (even if it's arbitrary backstory that the player could never possibly get, it helps you make interesting rooms instead of generic same-looking rooms.)

[ocn]

- This helps think about how to decorate rooms too. Think about what this room adds to this scene and what the people that actually live there are like, and decorate it appropriately adding unique features for them (even if it's arbitrary backstory that the player could never possibly get, it helps you make interesting rooms instead of generic same-looking rooms.)

 

I think this is immensly important as well. But I usually build and decorate from pure intuition first, and then think why would that be there, "generate" a substory of sorts and remove/add stuff accordingly. It's extremely rewarding and fun.

[Serpentine]

What have I been working on?

 

I have no idea, but I have been remaking some normalmaps, touching up some textures here and there... the usual. Since you are now required to see this thread has been bumped and supply me with screenshots of unreleased goodness, in return I will offer this :

 

 

Before:

After:

 

 

 

Some other trims also got some love, no longer will your eyes bleed!

 

And please report other similarly urgh stuff over in : Textures that need love! :wub:

Names are handy, screenshots (spoiler tag them if they're big) are also great.

[New Horizon]

Wow. Wonderful improvement.

[Bikerdude]

looking super sexy there Serps

[STiFU]

Yeah nice. I do wonder however why that normalmap was in such a bad condition in the first place. I submitted a better version long ago when I was no contributor yet. Doesn't matter, it looks good now. Although it feels a little too round at some borders.

[ocn]

Audio Briefing. Revisiting an old idea, because things are rather quiet upstairs at the moment.

 

Spoiler Alert:

http://oceanarts.net/Downloads/Special/tdm/audio/Brief_audio_01.mp3

 

Sometimes I try to inspire myself by recording stuff. I need to re-record it though, because of all the popping B's and P's and jumping between british and american accents. But I think the idea is solid enough, if not all that original.

[Midnight]

@Serpentine: Damn that looks good. Almost makes me think I could run my fingers over the computer monitor to feel the texture.