Sotha's mapping thread

[Bikerdude]

I asked because your replies and comments can be a bit curt, to which some people would take offense. I asked beause Im windering if your young and from a country where English isn't the native language..?

[Shadowhide]

I asked because your replies and comments can be a bit curt, to which some people would take offense. I asked beause Im windering if your young and from a country where English isn't the native language..?

take offense ? why ? because i said what i see ? its better to lie instead of telling truth ?

 

i said that i like the geometry,but lightning is not good that all

 

yes,i remember when i voted poor in every category for one Sotha's fm which i totally dislike,but i must say that glenham tower and transaction was pretty good

 

 

my own mission got some bad replies from some members of community,but i didn't call them assholes and didn't have antipathy for their missions.its just a game...

 

yes, english is not my native language

 

 

[Sotha]

I asked because your replies and comments can be a bit curt, to which some people would take offense. I asked beause Im windering if your young and from a country where English isn't the native language..?

 

Oh c'mon guys. It is a troll that revels when it derails a thread for its own ego. Haven't you noticed how many threads around here nowadays gets reduced to "Let's talk about Shadowhide's persona for a while?" Not interesting, people should simply just ignore his less sophisticated blurts.

 

On the topic of the screenie:

Of course the scene lacks some details since it is a WIP. If it was totally ready, I'd be releasing my map instead of showing work-in-progress screenies, right?

[Bikerdude]

Its the way in which you say it, your very blunt! Try and be more polite before saying something which might offend is all I am saying, there are many ways of being honest etc.

 

And case in point, you felt disheartened after releasing your mission and that was a direct result of the comments people made.

 

Just think about what your going to say before you say it, ok?

[Shadowhide]

Haven't you noticed how many threads around here nowadays gets reduced to "Let's talk about Shadowhide's persona for a while?

 

wow

 

i probably miss something

 

please give me a links in threads where i can read about myself

 

And case in point, you felt disheartened after releasing your mission and that was a direct result of the comments people made.

 

 

it was fair critique

 

i just can't build anything better than WH,thats why i felt disheartened

 

Just think about what your going to say before you say it, ok?

 

ok

 

 

Edited June 18, 2011 by Shadowhide

[Bikerdude]

Now there is a two perfect examples of what I'm saying

 

Sotha's reply was very blunt, mildly offensive.

Mine, polite and a lot less offensive.

 

Anyway moving along, Sotha back to work on that WIP

 

[Sotha]

The northern parts of the Tanner's Ward are well maintained and lively. Those who claim the area has been tainted by the close proximity of the Plague Ward are talking rubbish. Nevertheless, the housing costs are very affordable...

 

[Johannes Burock]

the house on the right side is a ship with a fake facade, thatswhy there is a shipdoor

[Midnight]

Liking the latest screen. I'm a little late to this party, but regarding your previous screen:

 

 

 

I don't know if much has changed in this area, but the scene would look better if the torch in the archway on the right was removed completely to create a darker area. This would increase the contrast with the well lit street area behind it, and the darkness would also make that pathway a more appealing choice for a thief.

 

 

[Sotha]

I don't know if much has changed in this area, but the scene would look better if the torch in the archway on the right was removed completely to create a darker area. This would increase the contrast with the well lit street area behind it, and the darkness would also make that pathway a more appealing choice for a thief.

 

A nice suggestion. The lighting you see is just something I had to do so I can see my work, I've dropped torches in there with very low consideration. Before release, I have the gameplay tweaking work where I optimize the lighting for gameplay.

[Sotha]

I tried to use some decals on my buildings, but I have a problem:

 

 

See the marked window: it get split with grime decal and no grime decal sides.

 

I have wall + decal. The wall in worldspawn and the decal is f_s. On this I've placed a f_s windows, which sits on top of the wall+decal.

 

When I am far away the grime decal gets drawn ON the window even if the window is place ON the wall+decal.

When I move more closer, the window swipes the grime decal away and I see the clean window.

 

The transition between these states look very ugly, as seen in the image.

 

Is this a common n00b mistake or is this a bug/feature in the decal system? I'd rather not use this kind of big surface decals at all instead of having the visible ugly swipe-transition.

[Springheel]

That happens a lot on windows, I've noticed. You have to move the decal significantly out from the window to keep it from happening, I think. Or you can just clip that part out of the decal.

[Melan]

That happens a lot on windows, I've noticed. You have to move the decal significantly out from the window to keep it from happening, I think. Or you can just clip that part out of the decal.

You can do that??!!

[Bikerdude]

You can do that??!!

I don't think Springs means you can 'actually' clip it out, but rather just clone the patch so you have one either side and/or above and below the window etc. That said if we could just clip/remove sections of patch in DR that would be bloody awesome...!!!

[Springheel]

I was assuming you were making them with the "make decal" brush tool, or whatever it's called. Theoretically you should be able to clip the window and make it a separate brush, then just select all the faces around the window.

[Tels]

Is this a common n00b mistake or is this a bug/feature in the decal system? I'd rather not use this kind of big surface decals at all instead of having the visible ugly swipe-transition.

 

Wether a pixel is "in front" or "behind" another pixel is determined by storing the distance in the z-buffer. Unfortunately, the z-buffer has a very limited resolution (you know, the entire "it must be fast, we don't care for correct" approach the PC graphic took the last years). This means that depending on rounding and distance, things can be behind or in front of other things, if they are sufficiently close to each other.

 

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Z-buffering

 

See esp. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Z-fighting

 

The German version has one more image:

 

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/wiki/Z-Buffer

[Sotha]

In my WIP I see this message in the console, repeated occasionally.

 

WARNING: GetPointOutsideObstacles: no valid point found

 

What is this? Should I start worrying. I've monitored my extremely-dynamic AI but not a single one of them have been stuck or anything. They navigate just fine.

 

But in one session I noticed something extremely weird.

 

I'm using a dendritic matrix path, which deviates from each crossroads. The AI reaches a crossroads, and randomly chooses which path to take. This leads the AI looping around the map in a random fashion.

 

There is one area in which the AI sit down, then continue their random path. Overall, that works just fine.

 

BUT! I found an AI sitting in air and in a totally different place, far away from the sitting region. I checked the pathing matrix, but it seemed okay: the area the AI was in did not have any sitting nodes. The path he was traveling to was not pointing to any sitting nodes. (Well, it might point to the sitting area eventually, depending if the random walk in the matrix took the AI to the sitting area.)

 

I am utterly incapable to understand why the AI was sitting there. He stood up, and sat down again. This is extremely rare and I've not encountered it again thus far. Could it be related to the warning shown above?

[Springheel]

Sounds very much like you have a pathnode buried in monsterclip or otherwise inaccessible. If AI can't get to a node, they often skip it and go to the next; if the next is a path_sit, they'll sit wherever they are at the time.

[Sotha]

Oh but now it makes sense: the AI got permanently stuck somehow, skipped all his path nodes and reached the sitting ones.

 

Gulp.. I have a lot of path nodes tho check..

[Sotha]

Oh but now it makes sense: the AI got permanently stuck somehow, skipped all his path nodes and reached the sitting ones.

 

Gulp.. I have a lot of path nodes tho check..

 

Nailed it! No more warning messages.

 

If someone else encounters this too, the culprit may be path_nodes in forbidden areas like Spring said. That was not my case, though. I had patch floors which didn't have underlying worldspawn brush support: I suppose there were an area or two, where the AI got too high from the worldspawn standing on a patch and that caused the errors. Putting some monsterclip between the worldspawn and the patch removed the issues.

[Baddcog]

I think I've found 48 units to be about the Max height an AI can span when going across a gap like that.

[Sotha]

As a reaction to:

 

a )

http://forums.thedar...post__p__273436

 

and

 

b )

Nbohr: Here's hoping for some better (positive?) threads soon... Any neato WIP stuff folks?

 

I will provide a mapping update:

The holidays gave me time to make giant leaps in the WIP work mentioned in a). I think I'm not gonna show any screenies from the WIP phases at all, but I just wanted people to know that basics are pretty soon done. This means, basic geometry, basic detailing, basic AI placement. Dendritic AI with RITs will be used to some extent.

 

Next: advanced detailing, most of the AI placement, readables, probably need some conversation help (once I've written some),etc.

 

Since the holidays are soon over, I'm probably gonna get slowed down with the progress. But much has been done already!

[nbohr1more]

Thanks for sharing this progress Sotha.

 

I'm tracking this thread like a hound dog from now on.

[Shadowhide]

where is my post

[Sotha]

Thanks for sharing this progress Sotha.

 

You are welcome! Fruitful mapping today, I even got figured out something for your... death arrow -problem.