[WIP] Retina

[DaneO'Roo]

So, I finally decided to make a topic for this. Plus, everyone else is doin' it so I figured I may as well :P

Basically, in a nutshell, I've been making this map and it's textures since January this year. Started out as a WHOLE load of dogshit, but I'm much happier with how it looks now. Special thanks to the folks of this community who offer good crit. I do not plan on using any bungie textures, or any other textures being used in this map, or any map I make. I'm making them all, including custom sky boxes, decorators, scenery etc.

I've been through a rough patch this year, with the loss of my sister and it has given me a huge amount of motivation to better myself, so day in and day out I'm making textures, deleting textures, painting more, redoing them, etc etc. Expect to see many more maps and maybe a secret project in the future. Not before this one, though :P

This map is more of a tribute to my sisters memory than anything, and to be the first chapter in my hopefully fruitful career in this. :embarrassed:


I present my first WIP map, Retina!

The map is supposed to look similar to an eye from above, and I'm planning on making an eclipse every 5 minutes in the map (read on for more info) and we all know Eclipses are bad for your Retinas. Plus I plan on making this map very visually appealing. So yeah, tadah!

Obviously these are renders, not ingame, so they have no detail maps.

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/7092/retinarender1pj2.jpg

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4255/retinarender2kl2.jpg

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/4835/retinarender3je2.jpg
^still working on the holopanels, not sure on the colours yet so I made them white for now,and theres a bit too much glow too :P
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4610/retinarender5tm1.jpg

Alot of it isn't done yet, namely the modelling and uv mapping of things. Alot of it's placeholder texturing, until I'm happy with a design I like. Textures? I've got textures up the ying yang. Just need to get better at mawdelz.

At the side pathway near the edge of the cliffs, will be a grav lift that shoots you up to the middle structure, containing a heavy weapon.
KOTH will take place entirely on the top of the middle structure, with spawn points around the outside, with the hill in the very middle.

CTF will work just as great as any other map, with a slight assymetrical feel, but this map is more aimed at the free for all gametypes, and mainly, Team Slayer.




Now for some of my ideas with this. The eclipse, I'm thinking will be an animated moving scenery object, a moon that slowly revolves around the map, and when it crosses the path of the sun, it halts for 30 seconds, creating trippy lighting effects (Sunny, I'm gunna need your help with that, when it comes to it :P) over the map.

The other, is going to be with the teleporter to the underground tunnel (oh yeah, theres an underground tunnel, not yet made though).

Everyone knows how the sniper uses a camera effect to show a smaller image of what your looking at on the guns screen? Well, I was thinking somehow doing that with the teleporter. Have a camera right at the spawn point, that displays on a shader on the tele entrance, in real time, whats going on infront of the teleport point.

So you walk up to the tele entrance, a cool shimmery water like material with what looks like another room on the other side, with people and explosions and what not happening through it, like viewing through a TV screen! Could make for some cool gameplay elements if it's possible. If not, I can always make a large res texture of what is on the other side of the tele and just apply it where the entrance is, just for aesthetics and coolness.

And yes, I'm going to use Jahrain's cool mental ray lightmapping :D

Overall, the map is on it's way. On a timescale of "Started", to "Finished and downloadable" I'd say this the map is about 50 percent done.


Opinions?


Oh this map is also going to be for CE, but primarily designed for H2V, so I chose to start the topic here.

[Bodzilla]

like i've been saying since u started. get hte tunnels made and get it in-game so we can test the Gameplay

[Pooky]

Everyone knows how the sniper uses a camera effect to show a smaller image of what your looking at on the guns screen? Well, I was thinking somehow doing that with the teleporter. Have a camera right at the spawn point, that displays on a shader on the tele entrance, in real time, whats going on infront of the teleport point.

So you walk up to the tele entrance, a cool shimmery water like material with what looks like another room on the other side, with people and explosions and what not happening through it, like viewing through a TV screen! Could make for some cool gameplay elements if it's possible. If not, I can always make a large res texture of what is on the other side of the tele and just apply it where the entrance is, just for aesthetics and coolness.

Hey wait, I was the one who thought of that :(

Nice to see some progress on this finally, though.

[DaneO'Roo]

Yeah, and I thank you alot for it :P

[Haloking365]

Amazing work as always, Dane. Ill give full crit tomorrow after work, when im awake (Its 4:15am over here).

[DaneO'Roo]

OK, look forward to it. Anyone see anything that needs work (that I don't already know of) please tell me.

[Flyboy]

So many maps being reviled this week.

[Kornman00]

So how exactly do you plan on doing the animated scenery object thing :-3?

oh yes, and it looks supa hawt. supa. hawt.

[DaneO'Roo]

So how exactly do you plan on doing the animated scenery object thing :-3?

oh yes, and it looks supa hawt. supa. hawt.


Well, I wasn't sure but I was hoping I could do it the way the Zanzibar wheel works.

That dream also rests on whether or not people can crack that specific feature (cough splutter) >_>


stupid halo 2 vista being fail


Well, if theres no way in hell for me to do it, I'll just make a permanent eclipse. Would be an interesting wonder as to how the lightmaps would turn out, and the general lighting of the level for that matter.

[Phalanx_Master]

WooT You Rock man..love your work man!

[LlamaMaster]

I just can't get over the fact of how awesome and realistic those cliffs look! Everything looks spectacular. Your a photoshop god.

[jngrow]

pretty damn win.

[Pooky]

Well, I wasn't sure but I was hoping I could do it the way the Zanzibar wheel works.

That dream also rests on whether or not people can crack that specific feature (cough splutter) >_>


stupid halo 2 vista being fail

Well, if you can't do that for h2v you could always do it for CE *cough*

[spookers622]

i'm guesssing you used a normal map fer the cliffs... what bitmap did you use though (texture)

[Con]

the bitmap is something he made


btw, dano, I think your normal map for those outer cliffs on the top of the level is reversed for height.

[spookers622]

can i have the bitmap and shader?... plz?

[Con]

He said that's not ingame, what makes you think he has all the shaders done for it yet?

[spookers622]

o, i guess i missed that. i can settle fer the bitmap though. ill make my own shader if i have to

[Bastinka]

Wow someone knows manners, anyway this map is pretty cool. Nice textures for sure. :)

[spookers622]

are you talking to me or conscars?

[Tweek]

he's talking to you, and you're very rude.
the fact that you can't see that makes you stupid too.

[DaneO'Roo]

the bitmap is something he made


btw, dano, I think your normal map for those outer cliffs on the top of the level is reversed for height.


holy shit your right. I thought that was looking funny. My uv's for it must be flipped or something.


Also, I won't give out the textures, not until the map is released. I want my map to look unique and different, using different textures to what people normally see. It wouldn't make sense to give someone else all my textures so they can literally steal my maps limelite.

lol

[Tweek]

no, your green channel is inverted :D

[Dole]

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/7092/retinarender1pj2.jpg

This is one of those maps that's so beautiful that I would feel guilty not criticizing it, lest it not meet its penultimate potential.

All I can think of right now is the continuity break between the textures on the rim of the cliff, where the plateau begins to dip into the canyon. The transition could be seamless, but as of now they distinguish to drastically.
That's something that's nagged me in every CE map ever made.

[Tweek]

it's on top of the map, you can't get there, and you won't see it :P

also, there's a technique to get around that.

[spookers622]

he's talking to you, and you're very rude.
the fact that you can't see that makes you stupid too.

i guess it just must be that wizard angst...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD-Huwlg2kY

[DaneO'Roo]

This is one of those maps that's so beautiful that I would feel guilty not criticizing it, lest it not meet its penultimate potential.

All I can think of right now is the continuity break between the textures on the rim of the cliff, where the plateau begins to dip into the canyon. The transition could be seamless, but as of now they distinguish to drastically.
That's something that's nagged me in every CE map ever made.


Yes, I totally agree. I've been trying to fix that with the cliffs, but It seems the only way I can do it, is to actually make the cliffs a base map that works exactly like the ground map. An alpha channel and 2 detail maps, the exact same detail maps as being used around the edges of the ground maps, and the exact same colour too. I'm just not doing that yet though.

I'd rather not have to have 2 base maps for 1 level, If I can.

[Bastinka]

i guess it just must be that wizard angst...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD-Huwlg2kY
:gtfo:

Also, Dano.. how do you get on top of the middle structure, or are you not supposed to go up there?

[Dole]

Couldn't you edit the periphery of the cliff's texture [instead of an underlying basemap] to match the ground bitmap?


Also, Dano.. how do you get on top of the middle structure, or are you not supposed to go up there?
Gravlift on the adjacent elevated path.

[DaneO'Roo]

Nah I can't just because of the cliffs uv's. IF I make it seamless at the top, the entire cliffs uvs will be stretched and shitted in that area.

[Greenglow2004]

wow . this looks like it could have been a stock map. the design modeling and texturing all look very professional. this is wip that ill be watching ! keep up the good work !! +rep !

[DaneO'Roo]

ehhhhhhhh the modelling isn't that great, but It's sufficient for what I'm aiming for.

[Greenglow2004]

ehhhhhhhh the modelling isn't that great, but It's sufficient for what I'm aiming for.

the map defiantly has great concept and potential tho :lol:

[Ki11a_FTW]

ehhhhhhhh the modelling isn't that great, but It's sufficient for what I'm aiming for.

You should recieve an infraction for that post :-/

NEVER LIE TO THE FORUMS



great job +rep

[Tweek]

you didn't see the file, i have.
the modelling is not that great. :v

[DaneO'Roo]

OK sorry for the bump but I need a bit of help, I can't seem to get maya to export to max without totally destroying my uv's. Does anyone know why? It's pretty much the only thing stopping me from ingaming it.

[Chronos]

That sir, is insanely awesome.

[TeeKup]

Your terrain looks alot like the terrain from the Mars surface in Doom 3. I like it . :D

[StankBacon]

wow, i cant believe i missed this....

absolutely beautiful.

very, very nice.

[Ki11a_FTW]

OK sorry for the bump but I need a bit of help, I can't seem to get maya to export to max without totally destroying my uv's. Does anyone know why? It's pretty much the only thing stopping me from ingaming it.

Because maya is mean

[DaneO'Roo]

No maya is godly, and I find max to be extremely inefficient in comparison. Getting to things and doing things in max that would normally take about half a second in maya are a comp0lete mess to get too. The Modifiers list is a joke. Maya has all those things set out really easily in seperate sections that transform mayas ui into that catergory. Selecting polygons changings the options into polygonal type attributes, rendering changes them to rendering attributes etc. Plus maya is more history orientated, so things like welding objects, applying materials and such are EXTREMELY easy. You can also do some tripped out modelling techniques that use history from a previous movement.

I also find mayas cut polygon tool to be extremely awesome.

But anyway, I really need help with figuring out why my uv's aren't exporting correctly to max. I export shit fine all the time to teh lag from maya. Maybe I haven't set up my program correctly. Also, my bsp model is completely black when viewed from above but is the normal grey shade when looked at underneath. Plus I can't apply materials correctly. They simply aren't showing up at all in max, I haven't got so far as the editing kit yet. Just max is totally fucking shit up for me.

I need help D:



Your terrain looks alot like the terrain from the Mars surface in Doom 3. I like it . :D

Yes, I loved the mars terrain in doom 3 and have drawn a little influence from it. I especially loving the style of the new ID game RAGE. I've always been a huge fan of red deserts with baron earth and grass and stuff.

[Dark Zebth]

Did you make sure you named your materials right? The exporter needs the right names(and have the materials in the proper directory) or it won't export your materials.

[Skyline]

Did you make sure you named your materials right? The exporter needs the right names(and have the materials in the proper directory) or it won't export your materials.

What are you talking about :x. We are not talking about the .ass convertor.

You can do what conscar does; texture it in max :p .

[Mass]

that map is definately beautiful and rep worthy.:awesome:
I'm not sure the gameplay will be as good as the visuals though.:raise:

And I wish i could help with the maya-max problem. but I can't.:(

[DaneO'Roo]

I'm not texturing it in max. Mayas unwrapping tools > max's. I just want to apply materials in max and export the model to the editing kit.

But Lights has just given me lolinks so I think I should be ok.

[Con]

Dano, beware! Before you transfer this map over to Max, talk to Tweek about this file format and plugins or something he mentioned to me once. As you know, while Maya uses edge smoothing, Max uses smoothing groups. If you use something like .obj to transfer, expect to redo ALL of your smoothing. He mentioned some way to keep the smoothing as it is when you transfer.

I do the texturing in Max because eventually you're going to have to select all the faces again and set the correct material ID's. I figured I might as well do both at the same time. Max's unwrapping seems fine to me, so meh. Until there's a way to take something I texture in Maya, transfer it over, set all the textures used as sub-materials, and assign the correct ID's, I'm going to use Max to texture.

[stunt_man]

Wow, this is truly astonishing work. I really can't wait for the release!

And I'm sorry for your loss, God bless.

[Rob Oplawar]

I'm still dubious about the orange and blue- it seems a little strange, but maybe it will look better ingame. Other than that, though, those are some pretty stunning textures.

When you're done with this you're going to help with textures for Scythopolis, right? =P

[Anton]

Hey Dano what are you using to render those first few pics? They look awesome..

[Con]

Maya, baby! :awesome:

[Anton]

Maya, baby! :awesome:

Howcome max doesnt look as good? And what render settings/render engine is Dano using?

[DaneO'Roo]

because it's not the rendering thats making it look good.

It's my materials and lighting ;D

[Chewy Gumball]

Nah I can't just because of the cliffs uv's. IF I make it seamless at the top, the entire cliffs uvs will be stretched and shitted in that area.

In max you can reuv those polygons into a different uv channel. This keeps your original uvs but allows you to render to texture a separate map with the seams in an easy to paint over area. Make that seamless and then just render to texture the original uv channel and you have seamless maps without screwed up uvs :) Your using maya though, dunno how to do it in maya.

[Tweek]

^ that is win, i use it all the time.

rep for someone knowing what the fuck hes doing.

[Tweek]

you're wrong on both parts there.

on part 1 you're just plain wrong.
on 2, yes, autodesk bought alias, they're still completely different software, based on totally different structures and flows. in the end they both CAN do the same thing, but they're 2 COMPLERELY different programs.

[Tweek]

http://xs218.xs.to/xs218/07341/imright.JPG
trust me. you're wrong.

[et_cg]

1. I think i am right because if i render on my laptop then on my pc my pc looks way better and renders faster(mabe just my gfx card in laptop) im not sure.


Listen to Tweek, Kiwi, and on top of that; hardware plays into part of how fast it's processed, but ultimately it's the software that's been written (and is quite standard per say everyone used Maya 8.5, or 3ds max 8 (Just using those as examples)), so technically things would look the same. They would look the same due to the render architecture used, software, basically, software that'll do the same damn thing no matter where it goes. (as long as the hardware set meet's minimum requirements, you can't run 3ds max on a Commodore 64 last I checked)

[Snaver]

Of course the rendering times are going to be different for the two computers; KIWIDOGGIE, they both have separate hardware setups.. Plus i'm sure they look different because you used different settings perhaps? I believe 3ds max relies solely on the CPU when rendering images (not viewport), maya may be different however.

[Tweek]

CG, max1 was a DOS application :awesome:

[DaneO'Roo]

In max you can reuv those polygons into a different uv channel. This keeps your original uvs but allows you to render to texture a separate map with the seams in an easy to paint over area. Make that seamless and then just render to texture the original uv channel and you have seamless maps without screwed up uvs :) Your using maya though, dunno how to do it in maya.


that won't work because by splitting up the uv sections, the bump map will have fucked up edges appearing where ever I split it. I'd have to line it up exactly, wich is near impossible with my cliff texture.

Anyway, my cliffs allready are seamless. It's where it meets the ground map of the upper part above the cliffs that I need to fix.

I'm just going to make the cliffs a base map that works exactly like the ground map, and has the same tones near the edges so it actually blends in, not just appearing to do so.