[WIP]Blast Castle

[fletcher77]

I have been trying to light this map properly but for right now it is at medium.
When I get about a week when I know I will not move my computer I will do it on super. The most people that have played this map at once has been five with lan connection. For just the five of us the weapon layout worked. I don't have a clue how this will play with about 16 people. If need be just set the starting weapon to battle rifle.(but this will kill the game play) Fall damage is one problem I had to try to work around. .http://h2v.halomaps.org/index.cfm?pg=3&fid=2207
http://img36.picoodle.com/img/img36/9/8/5/f_h1m_5cee19e.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/9/8/5/f_h1m_5cee19e.jpg&srv=img36)
http://img01.picoodle.com/img/img01/9/8/5/f_h2m_53bc64f.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/9/8/5/f_h2m_53bc64f.jpg&srv=img01)
http://img37.picoodle.com/img/img37/9/8/5/f_h3m_9ad9328.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/9/8/5/f_h3m_9ad9328.jpg&srv=img37)
http://img32.picoodle.com/img/img32/9/8/5/f_h4m_ca91230.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/9/8/5/f_h4m_ca91230.jpg&srv=img32)
http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/9/8/5/f_h5m_e7b8905.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/9/8/5/f_h5m_e7b8905.jpg&srv=img27)

[Con]

How about some pictures so we can decide if we want to download this map or not, and give advice.

[SnaFuBAR]

actually use the tags...

[fletcher77]

How about some pictures so we can decide if we want to download this map or not, and give advice. ok

[bitterbanana]

This map looks great!

[P13F4C3]

yea looks awesome

[wannabeapilot]

nice map! :D
oh and you might want to add a 56k warning

[Con]

Wow this map looks awesome O_o

[Roostervier]

I don't really like the style, but it is highly original... good job.

[teh lag]

I don't really like the style, but it is highly original... good job.


It definately looks nice. I hope we can see more good stuff from you in the future :).

[Llama Juice]

I really dislike the castle texture, or.. rather how bright it is.. the cracks and whatnot look faded and... weird... Other than that.. .it looks great!

[MastaCheefa]

Looks really nice! First good original themed H2v map yet. Keep it up! :D

[fletcher77]

i think you should rescale some stuff like keep the castle and signs the same but scale down some stuff because it looks hudge. and im thinking how do i get up that high :P have you played it? you can get to the top of the trees

[Terin]

Custom skybox ftw.

If only we could take it further.

[Tweek]

is that my lava shader?

[fletcher77]

is that my lava shader?no I made it. I made all the textures

[Tweek]

if you say so. :o

[fletcher77]

if you say so. :o
I made the bitmap using cloud difference in Photoshop along with some other tricks. I just goggled lava textures online and followed the tutorial. Then I compiled the bitmap as a light map. Then I used an bloom shader. I think that it still may be to bright. I wanted to animate it but I could not get it to work right.

[jngrow]

The most creative and original H2V map by far, so far. This really shows off the map editor's potential.

Oh, and it also reminds me of the painted/dream world in Elder Scrolls Oblivion.

[FireDragon04]

While the map is original, and has potential. I believe you could have spent more time on it. It has multiple errors which could have been fixed (ie. UVW Stretching and rushed shaders/bitmaps) , and i see game play problems all over (not solid game play). I also believe the textures could have been done to a higher quality. I would suggest revising the layout and working really hard on the shaders to make it more Visually pleasing.

Also, beta tests should have taken place with a higher number of people to get the kinks ironed out.

Oh, and on a last note, you should have spent more poly's when modeling because some of the map seems boxy and at a 'Halo 1' quality, this is Halo 2!

[El Lobo]

Awesome job so far man.

:lobo:

[DOMINATOR]

nice map

[DaneO'Roo]

It's ok, but the textures need alot of work :X

[fletcher77]

While the map is original, and has potential. I believe you could have spent more time on it. It has multiple errors which could have been fixed (ie. UVW Stretching and rushed shaders/bitmaps) , and i see game play problems all over (not solid game play). I also believe the textures could have been done to a higher quality. I would suggest revising the layout and working really hard on the shaders to make it more Visually pleasing.

Also, beta tests should have taken place with a higher number of people to get the kinks ironed out.

Oh, and on a last note, you should have spent more poly's when modeling because some of the map seems boxy and at a 'Halo 1' quality, this is Halo 2! yeah I have to say that I am not that great at the uvw mapping. I have to also admit that my ability as far as modeling was not that good when I started this map. It was also a struggle to get so much into a map and get it to work. As far as the kinks with higher numbers of people your right i don't know what they are. If anyone dose get to play this map with a lot of people let me know. I will make changes to this map before I do run the light on super. The bump mapping is not working right on my map. I believe it may have to do with running the map light on medium, because with out running light the bump mapping looked better.(The cliff walls were better without). As far as game play well its a lot different then most halo maps(the trees take some time to get adjusted to.)

[Ki11a_FTW]

holy crap, PLUS REPUTATION

[DaneO'Roo]

Let me expand on what I think needs improving.


The stars, the sky you have, you need to vary the size of the stars more, and they don't all have to be lens flares. Put some sort of gasey clouds and shit there too, look up some nice NAsa photos for reference in painting.

The bases, the craked texture and bump are nice, but you need to use different textures in the thing, not just cover it totally in the one texture. Make strip like ones for different sections, different kinds of tiles and bricks.

From what I can tell, your base map needs more variation, and going with the lava theme, I say make a nice volcanic hardened rock texture, really black and shiny with glowing red bits in it, etc.

And the big thing for me, is blending terrain into itself using the base map.

Wherever you have a rock touching the ground, or where the cliffs meet the ground, apply the same colour you have for the cliffs in those places on the basemap, for a smoother transition.


Oh, and for effect, make some trees on fire, and put some small fires, or even cracks and fissures with lava glow coming from them. Also, have a light smog coming from the lava pit/cracks.

[fletcher77]

Let me expand on what I think needs improving.


The stars, the sky you have, you need to vary the size of the stars more, and they don't all have to be lens flares. Put some sort of gasey clouds and shit there too, look up some nice NAsa photos for reference in painting.

The bases, the craked texture and bump are nice, but you need to use different textures in the thing, not just cover it totally in the one texture. Make strip like ones for different sections, different kinds of tiles and bricks.

From what I can tell, your base map needs more variation, and going with the lava theme, I say make a nice volcanic hardened rock texture, really black and shiny with glowing red bits in it, etc.

And the big thing for me, is blending terrain into itself using the base map.

Wherever you have a rock touching the ground, or where the cliffs meet the ground, apply the same colour you have for the cliffs in those places on the basemap, for a smoother transition.


Oh, and for effect, make some trees on fire, and put some small fires, or even cracks and fissures with lava glow coming from them. Also, have a light smog coming from the lava pit/cracks.
Ok I need some help trying to get some of the effects you listed.
With the sky all I could do was change the bitmaps that were in other sky maps. I had to make the stars a seamless tile and the more complicated I got the worse it looked. If you know of a better way to go about doing it let me know.
I do need help with the basemap. I don't know how to blending terrain into itself without making one big bitmap for the entire ground.
Light smog coming from the lava pit. I don't know how to do it.
The volcanic hardened rock texture thats really black and shiny with glowing red bits in it. I like this idea. Is there a way to get the glowing red bits to transition from a faint glow to a bright one, its been something I have been working on.
The bases, ok you got me. There instanced geometry every time I apply more then one texture to them bullet pass threw them. Thats why I call the houses suckers hideout. If there is another way to get more then one texture on instanced geometry without having this problem let me know.
I would have welded them to the map but I was afraid of the poly limit.

[Flyboy]

I really really really like the art style on the map. Ok, maybe just the skybox, whatever. The models could use some work but that comes in time.

[fletcher77]

did anyone have a problem with unzipping the file?

[Chromide]

nope WinRAR FTW

[fletcher77]

Its on halomaps.org now http://h2v.halomaps.org/index.cfm?pg=3&fid=2207
faster then rapidshare.

[TeeKup]

Holy crap. Looking good. :0

[X3RO SHIF7]

nice - very original

[fletcher77]

I have been getting complains about this map being laggy.
I have a 8800gtx so I don't if the map has performance problems. If anyone has noticed problems like this let me know. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of people I run into online are noobs to PC games, and may not know what they are talking about. I still have not played this map with more then 6 people online.

[KommissarReb]

I recently downloaded your map, and it won't load up. I put it in Documents/My Games/Halo 2/maps, and I went to the Custom map menu, and it wasn't there! Can you help? Its a shame because it looks like a really fun map, and I don't know how to use the map editor yet :saddowns:

[PopeAK49]

He ded.