dod_auw_b1

DOWNLOAD (http://www.sng0.org/maps/dod_auw_b1.exe)

http://www.sng0.org/auwpics/auw44.jpg
http://www.sng0.org/auwpics/auw45.jpg
http://www.sng0.org/auwpics/auw46.jpg
http://www.sng0.org/auwpics/auw47.jpg
http://www.sng0.org/auwpics/auw48.jpg
http://www.sng0.org/auwpics/auw49.jpg
http://www.sng0.org/auwpics/auw50.jpg
http://www.sng0.org/auwpics/auw51.jpg

Allies have launched an attack to gain control of a critical
supply route through the small village of Auw. Axis troops
are outnumbered and must hold off until reinforcements can
arrive or push the Allies back across the river Kyll.

Objectives:

Allies - Capture all three flags and take the city.

Axis - Hold off the Allies until reinforcements arrive or
push the back across the river.

Known Bugs: Truck light glow slightly off on some lights.
Only one truck done. Going to add some more light here and
there.

Credits: DOD team, a lot of others...adding that in next version.

********

This map is loosely based on a real battle in a small German village named Auw. Unfortunately the scenario is much changed from what really happened, but at least in some way I feel I did a small homage to the soldiers who fought on this day.

The map is dark. It's night. If you can't see...well, tinker with your brightness and gamma. Everyone who has play tested this has said it works for them brightness wise although a few had to tweak their settings. On my machine it is really bright almost to the point where it breaks the ambiance. Anyhow, I'm not likely to make it any brighter since I love it the way it is, but I'm open to other suggestions.

Still some stuff to fix. For example, the water texture is awful. I'm probably going to have to make that myself sometime. Also, the credits are a bit pathetic which I'll try to fix. Get's hard when I use one texture from this wad and another from that wad. Also, the DL size is kinda big since it's all jammed in there. I have to reinstall DoD to figure out what is default and not etc. which isn't a high priority right now.

There is one spot where the r_speeds aren't really good. I need to figure out a way to use some hint brushes to fix it, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Perhaps if you find the spot you can come up with a creative way to fix it. =)

All in all, it's free so if you enjoy it great, if not, sorry...like I said it's free.

Monk

I like night maps. This one reminds me of zafod. Good work.

I would try to do something about the water. Maybe make is the grey water texture? Meh

Yeah...I'm really hating that water. Gotta find something that won't glow really bad in the dark though. =\ I'll tinker with some water textures this week, but if anyone has a good one for night maps lemme know.

Monk

Map has got great atmosphere....
But try to make the rockformations a bit more realistic, sum are just to blocky. Also the houses look a bit boring, add more things in the houses, tables, fireplace, paintings on the walls.
use more custom textures, it could became great map imo.

looks nice :)

@RA7: I agree with most of what you said, unfortunately with the map being so open there are limits to how much more realistic I can make things. The houses aren't changing since the r_speeds in that area are already pretty high and it's a high combat area. The rocks...I can maybe do a little work on the Allies cliff side, but not a whole lot. To be honest, some rocks actually look like that. =) But alas, I'd love to add more curvature as well...just not really possible with this engine because if I do, people with cruddy vid cards will hate me.

As for more decorations...well, the people are gone...and they try not to leave much behind. So...if I add a bunch of stuff then it looks like they ran off which wasn't the case.

As for custom textures...dang...I've a couple thousand textures I pulled these from. Guess they are too common, but unless someone wants to make me a new set I'm stuck. It takes me far too long to make my own and I'd much rather build a new map then spend the new few weeks building textures...so if someone feels ambitious...heh.

But yeah, I agree with you on most of your points. Just not a lot I can do unfortunately.

Monk

Added the actual links to the images so you don't have to go get them off the website anymore. Hopefully that makes life easier. =)

Monk

Is there a single light source in that map? I have my monitor on default settings and all I can see is from what I think is a flashlight.

I dislike night maps made by people who crank their monitors up.

Who cares if its that dark...its that much better. There are like no very dark maps and the war was also faught during the night

2ltben:

You have a few misunderstandings about a few things. Lemme explain two of them. If you still don't like the map then I'm sorry, but I didn't make it for people who aren't willing to at least try it and possibly tinker with their gamme and or brightness.

1. Hardware affects the brightness of your pc both in and out of game. You probably know that, but be aware that screenshots will differ from how things look in game. If you have actually tried the map and it is still dark, also be aware that everyones pc varies significantly in its brightness and contrast. This is due to the video card, the monitor, and the software telling these devices what to display.

For me, my monitor is at 15/100 brightness. The map is bright enough that even in the darkest spot if there is movement I can see it. If yours is so dark that you can't see anything at all then I'd suggest you check your settings. Chances are your game is hella dark and you'd probably enjoy it more if you fixed the brightness/contrast in it.

2. War happened at night as well as the day. Again I'm sure you know this, but let me explain further. Have you ever tried playing a dark map? If you did, have you ever played one with teamwork involved in it? I personally have had a much better time playing DoD on the maps that are dark and offer realistic combat scenarios. This map, for example, is prone to having the Allies sneak into position and then launching attacks as a unit. It's pretty darn exciting to be sitting on the Axis side with your trusty MG all gussied up and ready to fire when suddenly you hear a few grenades tinking on the ground around you and the next thing you know there is a barrage of Allied troops charging your position. You see the muzzle flash and instantly train your sights on it and unload on the enemy all the while calling out positions and begging for backup. Trust me, it's a lot better than seeing everything they do and never having new things tried. With all the shadows and places to sneak around the maps is always exciting.

3. There are about 20 light sources. One of them is an light_env which casts moonlight on the map. In the game you'd also notice that it is stormy and the lightning flashes light up the map fairly often. There are also street lights, lanterns, headlights, and even some things that light on fire. But you'd have to play to see that.

Anyhow, like I said, to each his own...but you'd probably like it if you gave it a chance. One of my favorite maps has always been hedgerow (the dark one =).

Monk

does anyone notice there is something wrong here ;o

http://www.sng0.org/auwpics/auw51.jpg

[:C:]Zer0: Not sure what you are talking about unless it is the water. Water textures and dark maps don't mix well. Unfortunatley that texture wasn't supposed to be in this build, and is worse than the sorry one I have in the newest build, but to be honest, they all look pretty awful in the dark.

But I don't know if that's what you are talking about.

Monk

Originally posted by Monk
2ltben:

You have a few misunderstandings about a few things. Lemme explain two of them. If you still don't like the map then I'm sorry, but I didn't make it for people who aren't willing to at least try it and possibly tinker with their gamme and or brightness.

1. Hardware affects the brightness of your pc both in and out of game. You probably know that, but be aware that screenshots will differ from how things look in game. If you have actually tried the map and it is still dark, also be aware that everyones pc varies significantly in its brightness and contrast. This is due to the video card, the monitor, and the software telling these devices what to display.

For me, my monitor is at 15/100 brightness. The map is bright enough that even in the darkest spot if there is movement I can see it. If yours is so dark that you can't see anything at all then I'd suggest you check your settings. Chances are your game is hella dark and you'd probably enjoy it more if you fixed the brightness/contrast in it.

2. War happened at night as well as the day. Again I'm sure you know this, but let me explain further. Have you ever tried playing a dark map? If you did, have you ever played one with teamwork involved in it? I personally have had a much better time playing DoD on the maps that are dark and offer realistic combat scenarios. This map, for example, is prone to having the Allies sneak into position and then launching attacks as a unit. It's pretty darn exciting to be sitting on the Axis side with your trusty MG all gussied up and ready to fire when suddenly you hear a few grenades tinking on the ground around you and the next thing you know there is a barrage of Allied troops charging your position. You see the muzzle flash and instantly train your sights on it and unload on the enemy all the while calling out positions and begging for backup. Trust me, it's a lot better than seeing everything they do and never having new things tried. With all the shadows and places to sneak around the maps is always exciting.

3. There are about 20 light sources. One of them is an light_env which casts moonlight on the map. In the game you'd also notice that it is stormy and the lightning flashes light up the map fairly often. There are also street lights, lanterns, headlights, and even some things that light on fire. But you'd have to play to see that.

Anyhow, like I said, to each his own...but you'd probably like it if you gave it a chance. One of my favorite maps has always been hedgerow (the dark one =).

Monk
I could see hedgerow though. My gamma's on max in DoD(it doesn't have the same effect as in the old HL) and if I turn up my brightness or contrast any more I can't see text out of the game. Sadly my current monitor doesn't have a Reset to Default button to use like my last one did.

Did you try your ingame brightness settings as well as the ingame gamma?

Also, you may have a game and a desktop setting for gamma adjustment in your vid card options.

If those don't work though...hmm, sorry man. We (my clan and those who frequent our server) have played the map a fair bit and only 2 guys have said it was too dark during the game (they fixed their settings and now are happy as pie). I guess some hardware combos just don't have love for dark maps - though this is darker than hedgerow.

Did you actually load up the map and try it? It's really not as dark as those pics make it look.

Monk

I just found something that might be interesting for some of you. Though it doesn't work in game, you may find it of use. This will help you calibrate your brightness properly.

http://www.risingphotography.com/calibration/brightness1.cfm

Basically just read the text and then use the image at the bottom to see if you did it right.

Monk

Brightness of maps is problem. I'm not talking about your map, but overall. Many settings can affect brightness of map in DoD, the way you see on your monitor.
For me I have settings about 90% to typical work. In DoD I use about 95%, sometimes 100%, depends on map. So I can't bump more here. I have one option more - graphic cards settings. But real problem shows here. I could increase brightness/gamma in here but picture starts to look really ugly, because of available range of contrast. I see better in darkness areas but the rest looks very bad (very washed out colors, etc.).
I would advice you too make your map less contrast. Add a little to light_env, lighter diffuse color (lighter gray for example), add some light to textures in light.rad; add non-visible gray-colored lights in darkest areas.

I'm always trying new lighting tricks, but to be honest...I don't WANT people to be able to see clearly in the dark areas. That's the whole point of my night maps. They have dark areas where you can't see. People have to come out of the dark into the light for you to see them.

On the other hand, if all you see is dark everywhere then there is an issue. But for me and everyone I've tested this map with that is not the case. For example, coming up the hillside path there are large shadowed areas but there is also moonlight streaming down on large pieces too. It's not solid darkness everywhere, but there are always places you can dive into for the cover of darkness.

I've also compiled the map with ambient rgb so I know there are no areas that are totally dark. It's not possible. However, if you have a specific area you are having serious issues with (ie are you getting stuck in the dark) I'd be curious to know your settings both hardware, monitor and ingame so I can consider a fix. But as I've said nobody has mentioned anything being a problem. Seriously...add some bots and play the map. You'll probably find that it's not as dark as you think. Granted, if you have a glare on your monitor you'll have a few issues in a some areas...but that's true for many maps. Even the ones with bright lighting. =)

Monk

Well, due to model lighting problems in HL and presence of cl_fog there is no place completely dark, it only depends on desperation in bumping up all available brightness settings. Some people rather waste their eyes than lose in game :-\.