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TDM NEW MAPPERS WORKSHOP


Springheel

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The stone part of the wall ended up too low and I'm not sure how to fix it. It's a mild thing (I can just change that bit of wood into something else), but I'd like to know if there's a way to tweak it.

 

 

I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking at there. If the problem is that the model wall doesn't reach the ceiling, there's three basic options.

 

1. is to add a horizontal spacer model on top of the wall (most sets have them),

2. Make a new brush ceiling that is low enough to touch the wall

3. Make a long, horizontal brush to fit in the gap between wall and ceiling

 

It is possible to resize models, but that's a pretty advanced feature I wouldn't recommend using yet (I haven't even tried it myself).

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Map progress - spoilers in the pictures.

 

http://imgur.com/a/iQb9Z

 

Everything is brushwork because I can't find modules that have the materials I want etc. Also brushes seem more natural to me, because you can make them almost any shape and size you want. I know the point of this tutorial is to use the modular prefabs that we were given to download but I've done a fair bit of playing around with this technique and it seems to work really well. Unless I am misunderstanding the advantages of using the prefab modules and the disadvantages of brushes for all the geometry?

 

Feedback welcomed!

Edited by DoubleOhZero
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There's nothing inherently wrong with working with brushes. Models give you much better results in a much shorter amount of time, but they don't have the flexibility that brushes have, as you mention.

 

edit: Sotha nicely demonstrates his method, which is to make prefabs out of brushes, here:

 

 

This gives you the flexibility of brushes with some of the time-saving elements of prefabs.

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Check the models/modules close to your sealing brushes. Most likely there is one that has its origin in the void. My first guess would be the ones, you can see in the picture called "Whole level overview - outer", as the origin of the modules is on the "good" side of the modules that can be seen in the picture.

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Check to make sure entities aren't filtered off. There must be some entity with an origin at one end of the pointfile line.

 

https://youtu.be/sz5u398AgP4?t=29m18s

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I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking at there. If the problem is that the model wall doesn't reach the ceiling, there's three basic options.

 

1. is to add a horizontal spacer model on top of the wall (most sets have them),

2. Make a new brush ceiling that is low enough to touch the wall

3. Make a long, horizontal brush to fit in the gap between wall and ceiling

 

It is possible to resize models, but that's a pretty advanced feature I wouldn't recommend using yet (I haven't even tried it myself).

 

The part in the shadows is a wood wall, the stone doesn't cover all to the top of the celling. I suppose I can just make that part something else rocky looking, since I doubt people will notice unless I blab it on a public thread. :P

Because in mystery novels, the first suspect is almost certainly never the murderer. No matter how much unmovable evidence there is, it will all be smashed in pieces by the wrath of the remaining number of pages of the story.

 

-"The Evil Spirit of the Zushi Clan" from Virtual Carnal Pleasure by Yamada Fuutarou

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New problem: this is all I see when I get in game, the texture on the screen varies depending where I place the player_start

 

 

That kind of looks like the distorted texture you see behind the "press attack to start" screen, which suggests that the mission isn't starting properly. Can you go to the console when that happens and save it?

 

To share the warnings from the console, open the console and type "condump [filename]"

 

That will create a .txt file in your darkmod folder. You can then copy and paste the text here.

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Looking nice thus far. The contrast seems a bit high to me, so you could increase the ambient a bit. But this may only be in the picture and not ingame.

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FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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Thanks! I am still playing around with the ambient light (brightness as well as colour; so far it is simply white). I don't want it to be too bright, as I expect the inside of a building to have not too much secondary light, but in this case it would fit quite well due to the windows at the top. The windows, in general, don't have any lights yet. I will add these and see how it looks.

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Why did you use such a bright ambient light in the first place? Even for testing I would recommend an ambient light that is only a bit lighter than the one you want to use. I toned your light down to brightness 10 and this was absolutely sufficient to see anything you need. It also has the advantage that you get a better feeling for the textures as they are not intended for this brightness.

All in all, I like the cluttered feeling of the hut. Alternative entrance points are also always welcome :) One thing that you should check again is the scale of the floor texture (not sure if you wanted to keep it or if it is a placeholder). I would resize it to the 0.3 Springheel suggested in the video. As a reference: right now the gaps on the floor are as wide as a leg of the chair. The planks are as wide as the chair itself. But in general, I think it is a pretty good start.

Another remark I just saw: While I like the crates and stuff outside, you should keep in mind that the player can use these to climb onto the roof. Again, it may be that this is intended (maybe another entry point via a window/hatch on the roof?), but if not you should either use clip textures to prevent it or (even better) think of visible and sensible obstacles for the player (similar to the barbs on top of the walls).

 

And one final remark: In my experience, people on the forum usually prefer screenshots over maps. It is nice to be able to look around the whole thing on your own, but it also is more cumbersome as you have to dmap and map the map first.

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Thanks for the feedback. I used a bright light because it made it easier to see when I was working with geometry. I'll tone it down when I start finalising models and lighting.

There is to be an alternate entry via the back window, which means I will push the far garden wall back to allow access.

As far as climbing on the roof is concerned, the players mantle height is absolutely ridiculously overpowered - I've had to line the walls above the spikes and the overhang with playerclip to prevent climbing.

 

I can't figure out how to make the gables, besides making a flat wall and clipping it at a 30-degree angle. But this ends up with lots of thin slivers of brushes that turn invisible - any ideas?

 


snip
It fixed itself after a dmap. Strange.
Edited by DoubleOhZero
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I can't figure out how to make the gables, besides making a flat wall and clipping it at a 30-degree angle. But this ends up with lots of thin slivers of brushes that turn invisible - any ideas?

This is pretty much how it is done. You make a wall, where you want your gable and then use the clipper tool to cut the brush along the roof. This should result in three pieces (four if you do it all at once), but not any thin slivers...

Step by step: Create a brush, where you want your gable to be. Then you select the brush and select the clipper tool. In the YZ-view choose two point that lie on the line of your roof (it is important to only choose 2 points, a third point will result in a 3D cut, that we don't want here) and hit shift+enter. This will cut your brush without deleting any of the two. More often than not, hitting only enter resulted in the wrong brush disappearing for me, so I ususually use shift+enter all the time. Now you can delete the brush you don't need and repeat these steps for the second side to get a gable. Remember that you can only choose points on your grid for the selection, so you might have to choose a smaller grid to be able to get the cut at the right line.

The "turn invisible" part is most likely a filter problem. If you have filtered out caulk textures (that are used for the sides created while cutting) they get filtered out as soon as you deselect them. Or if you jsut hit enter, it might be the parts that get deleted automatically. Apart from these two solutions, I oculd not think of anything else that could happen here.

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I wouldn't use the clipper tool for gables, actually. I'd move the verts.instead. I'll add a demonstration of that to the next lesson.

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To move the vertices of the brush, press V same as patches, and just move them into the position you want. You might want to drop the grid size for that a bit though.

I looked at your map, looks good so far detail wise, other than the issues already mentioned.

 

Something I would do if you're going to stick with the timbered plaster texture downstairs, is add the timberwork over the texture. ie where texture has timber

build out those timber textures with brushes so they are 3 dimensional. The reason is the walls are close to the player and are obviously just a texture,

so you want to build those out. Takes a little time, but it's well worth doing. Also, the moss coverered timber doesn't really work inside as

a house keeper would've removed it when cleaning. These are things to think about, on how the house is used, lived in and maintained. :) Keep going.

 

Oh and if you don't want people to get on the roof, drop a player clip just by the corner of the roof, as I can jump up an mantle onto the roof from that corner. D

I'm guessing the roof texture is a place holder.

 

If I could make one constructive critique, it's that the house looks more like a modern house shape, than medieval. That's easily fixed if you wanted to by selecting the roof, then hitting V to bring up the verts, then select all the verts of the very top where the two roof brushes meet so they are all black, then just raise them up so pitch of the roof to a more medieval style. Also you could then remove the ceiling and add in some rafters to give it a nicer look too.

Edited by NeonsStyle

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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I wouldn't use the clipper tool for gables, actually. I'd move the verts.instead. I'll add a demonstration of that to the next lesson.

Good point. Vertices are more elegant and most likely quicker. But if I remember correctly, in some instances I was not able to fuse vertex points and the brush disappeared, when two of them were brought together. Might be that this was just a bug in my case, but this is why I used the clipper. If you don't want/need a perfect triangle (e.g. because it is hidden, as in this case) this does not matter, of course.

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But if I remember correctly, in some instances I was not able to fuse vertex points and the brush disappeared, when two of them were brought together.

Brushes need to be convex. If you move a vert in a way that this would be no longer true, other moves get moved in order to restore that property. Sometimes this can cause the brush to dissapear. So no bug :)

 

 


One thing that you should check again is the scale of the floor texture (not sure if you wanted to keep it or if it is a placeholder). I would resize it to the 0.3 Springheel suggested in the video.

I would suggest using powers of two or multiples of it for the scale of the textures if possible. This makes tiling more easier and will probably help to avoid rendering bugs due to rounding errors. So 0.25 would be more appropiate. Additionaly, as idTech4 or more precisely DR used a power of two grid anyways, it makes sense to adopt to that kind of number thinking (opposed to the decimal way we normally deal with numbers). It's not a big thing, though.

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FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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With roofs, really the best way to make them is to use patches for the main part of the roof, and brushes for eaves, roof top. This lets you give

the roof some age by making it sag a little as they do. Then you add a brush for the inside of the roof so you can do some nice interior roof beams etc

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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