Some pics of a beach map I've been making off and on lately. Based on the D-Day landings at Fox Green on Omaha Beach.

The main battle at Fox Green was over WN60 - a German stronghold at the top of the bluff.

These are probably too dark right now. Light is straight out of one of the HL2 coastline maps - maybe a bit too gray/dim, but the sun does look kind of cool behind the trees.

View on the beach



Up towards WN60, the Axis stronghold
http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/foxgreen0002.th.jpg (http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/foxgreen0002.jpg)


Trenchwork up at WN60
http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/bunker_zoo0007.th.jpg (http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/bunker_zoo0007.jpg)
http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/bunker_zoo0009.th.jpg (http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/bunker_zoo0009.jpg)
http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/bunker_zoo0010.th.jpg (http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/bunker_zoo0010.jpg)


Inside one of the bunkers (German spawn)
http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/bunker_zoo0000.th.jpg (http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/bunker_zoo0000.jpg)

Looks great !!

Looks amazing, also looks very open and HUGE. Good job.

Looking good Waldo allthough i'm lightly disturbed by you posting a WIP thread here.

nj

already looks like an axis kar/sniper/mg camp fest. please correct me if im wrong.

I see little or no cover on any of the screenshots except a trench with some really flat ground in front. Which is for the axis...

I guess its a good start but its a bit empty atm.

thats why its a wip doh

Originally posted by travis
Looking good Waldo allthough i'm lightly disturbed by you posting a WIP thread here.

Heheh why so?

Looking good Waldo, are there going to be craters etc on the beach?

Awesome.. I've been hoping for a decent beachmap.. Fighting insurmountable odds against a hidden and fortified enemy while dodging behind barely there cover.. ahh the good old days on Overlord.. Cant Wait! :)

looking good
but i noticed the FPS were left off the screenies on the beach
is it a killer, i suffer with a bit of the killer FPS on my map (dod_smallhill_b3) not sure if i can get round it, because its so open.
any tips ?:vader:

Make sure you use these:

http://oregonstate.edu/~holtt/foxgreen0007.jpg :P

Looking good. I actually hope MG's can rip it up, the way it should be. Give the allies cover, but ensure that MG's arnt topped the second they deploy in a bunker.


Keep us updated! :D

lol please don't embarass me with that old pic :^)

FPS are actually astoundingly high on a map like this. As long as it's primarily displacement surface terrain and prop models, the FPS can be in the high 90's. Not sure how well it handles with a lot of players on the screen at the same time, but that's what playtests are for!

Don´t like it ...

... no just kidding. ;)
Waldo stands for quality. Just make sure you provide us with new media from time to time.

lol please, the models look cool imo. I hope you use something similar though.

Is it possible to rig low poly (really low, perhaps low versions of what was used in gldsrc, could be like a homage:P) player models ... and have them dashing up the beach in teh distant parts of the beach section? It wouldnt need to affect the gameplay so it wouldnt need to be server sync'd.

With smoke, treacer and explosions in the distance i think it would add allot to the feel of a beach map.

Originally posted by MjM

Is it possible to rig low poly (really low, perhaps low versions of what was used in gldsrc, could be like a homage:P) player models ... and have them dashing up the beach in teh distant parts of the beach section? It wouldnt need to affect the gameplay so it wouldnt need to be server sync'd.

With smoke, treacer and explosions in the distance i think it would add allot to the feel of a beach map.

I've wondered about that - in the skybox really.

Here's a picture of Omaha Beach from WN60 and you can see how from there you get the "whole picture". It sort of begs for a great view via a skybox in a map.

http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/wn60_beachview.jpg

I like the look of it. I also think the current lighting makes it look nice and forboding. I hope you keep the lighting like that.

Wow, Waldo posting WIP screens of one of his maps. Its been a while. ;)

Is the layout new or based on a existing map? And do you plan to be as accurate as possible? It looks like you spent some time for research.

looks fairly open, which is good
its sorta hard to see the dark pictures on my monitor, but i see you already plan on lightening up the map a little more
um, i just hope you replace the dead treeline models, b/c i dont think there would be that many leafless trees in June
not really enough variety or completion to judge it fully, but coming from someone on the team, i guess i should expect a good final project. keep us updated!

Originally posted by Neutrino
but coming from someone on the team, i guess i should expect a good final project. keep us updated!

I don't think Waldo works for valve anymore, least thats what I think he said somewhere?

Originally posted by Sly Assassin
I don't think Waldo works for valve anymore, least thats what I think he said somewhere?

That's correct. I'm just pluggin' my work in here like the rest of you :^)

icant wait for cean thats going to rock

oh. so he is sort of regular now. we call them "normies"

hahah neu :)

See now this si why it was disturbing Waldo!

i hate to nitpick, but the axis spawn looks awfully clean for a room which housed numerous german soldiers

doh its a wip doh i think he adds that stuff last;)

Originally posted by Waldo
I've wondered about that - in the skybox really.

Here's a picture of Omaha Beach from WN60 and you can see how from there you get the "whole picture". It sort of begs for a great view via a skybox in a map.



Yep, a beach map just cries out for a killer skybox, with the expanse of the distant cliff face and beach. I really hope something could be managed as far as distant soldiers rushing up the beach into a hail of automatic gunfire and explosions. I dream of that day.

In fact (depends on how big the skybox is made to look) infantry could just be animated and 2d. But still ragdoll!
Kinda like this: http://www.pekkasandborg.com/portfolio/?id=2

And ships firing in the distance, who cares if it aint accurate, it would look and sound cool. Flashes on the horizon!!

Originally posted by MjM
In fact (depends on how big the skybox is made to look) infantry could just be animated and 2d. But still ragdoll!

or even just simple animated 2D sprites of soldiers moving up the beach..

Lol. It will look kinda wierd if u looking at the soldier from above and it looks like he is laying down on his side shooting.

Originally posted by mahhag
i hate to nitpick, but the axis spawn looks awfully clean for a room which housed numerous german soldiers

Dunno but Germans are famous for their accuracy to have things in order, so this might be the reason for it :p

Here's a link to a large picture showing the overview of the combat area around WN60. I'm trying to stick to historically accurate layout and scale to see how it goes...

http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/wn60_01.jpg

The whole area of that map (in the image) is about 350-400 yards (325-370 meters) across for reference. That translates to a map area about 12800 map units across.

nice this map is going to rock

Sniper limit - 0

And I'm game.

Originally posted by Black Lotus
Sniper limit - 0

And I'm game.
agreed.

Originally posted by Waldo
Here's a link to a large picture showing the overview of the combat area around WN60. I'm trying to stick to historically accurate layout and scale to see how it goes...

http://www.orst.edu/~holtt/foxgreen/wn60_01.jpg

The whole area of that map (in the image) is about 350-400 yards (325-370 meters) across for reference. That translates to a map area about 12800 map units across.

Lol Tim that pic reminds me of something ;)

Looking great Waldo =D. Can't wait for its release =).

@Black...man that sig looks so photorealistic the way you did it!

The map looks good.

I think a light grey/yellowish sky would make it even better.

I definately agree on the 3D skybox as well.

Yes default sniper limit of ZERO please.

3d skybox with all the ships on the horizon? Can you do that.

Otherwise keep on kicking ass with this map because it looks great.

Didn't the hedgehogs and other obstacles stop about halfway up the beach at Fox Green? It was one of the longest beaches, so it was quite a feat to dash that distance without cover.

Originally posted by 2ltben
Didn't the hedgehogs and other obstacles stop about halfway up the beach at Fox Green? It was one of the longest beaches, so it was quite a feat to dash that distance without cover.

I believe you are correct, however dod has never been about realism - well im sure the dod team has strived for certain aspects of dod to be realistic but overall its gotta be fun! More people will play something thats fun and viable than something thats realistic or historically accurate.

Still, this map looks to be going more for a realism approach. It looks far more like an actual beach landing than most beach maps(no offense to them, but they're not exactly picture perfect)

It could actually be a pretty cool thing, having a sprintable distance from the last bits of cover to the shingle. It'd promote quite a challenge in the map, and would promote using covering fire.

It looks ok, sort of bland for source but it is a WIP, the layout looks really cool though

Hey Waldo send me a PM when your done I want to be one of the first to try this awesome looking beach and trench map out! :D

Due to maintenanance on ONID systems, ONID web pages will be unavailable from 8:00am until 12:00pm on Saturday, November 26th.

OoooooOO!!! A historically accurate and high quality Omaha Beach map created by a former DoD Dev team member!!! I love that, love the historically accurate layout!!! I'm going to have this map in my DoD: Source folder as soon as its finish!!! KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK WALDO!!!

Thats looking great WALDO.

Reminds me of when I used to play dod_dog1 in BETA DAYS.Im sure what your making is gonna be fabulous.

Any plans of redoing ZAFOD for Source?

Originally posted by V.C. Sniper
OoooooOO!!! A historically accurate and high quality Omaha Beach map created by the co-founder of DoD!!! Actually, Waldo is not one of the co-founder of DoD. He joined the party very late in the beta period, around the time when he created dod_koln when i remember correctly.

Oh, sorry for the misunderstanding. :confused: I read somewhere that Waldo is the co-founder and I don't take the time to see if the source is realiable.

Ahhh but I do believe he is one of the best ever dod mappers,besides Fuzzdad being one of my favorites!

looking good.

Another vote for a hardcoded zero sniper limit (if possible). Please waldo, you know you want to :D

Originally posted by rampant hamster
looking good.

Another vote for a hardcoded zero sniper limit (if possible). Please waldo, you know you want to :D

Not necessary at all I'm betting. For starters, the scale of the beach and distance from water to shingle to upper bluffs is a lot larger, and then there's smoke & haze from fires. Lastly you've got trenchwork, which means you're probably not going to get sniped up top unless you leave the trenches and run across the open ground

It's all just guessing of course, but my guess is a map like this designed to match the real thing in layout is going to either be pretty cool, or suck :^) It may need to be a multi-step spawn setup. IE capture shingle, spawns advance. The real battle is for the top WN60 area though, at least at Fox Green.

Originally posted by Waldo
It's all just guessing of course, but my guess is a map like this designed to match the real thing in layout is going to either be pretty cool, or suck :^) It may need to be a multi-step spawn setup.

Huzzah!!:D

I've been waiting for a good advanceing spawn map, those are always great fun.

Any ideas for "useable" tanks sprawled on the beach? ie: crawl inside of to take cover from mortars/snipers/Mg42's/etc ? Or maybe the old school ability to fire the turret or have a 50 cal hooked up to use?

Don't get me wrong, I like to have the 1 or 2 random vehicle on a map to give it that look. However I think the bonus feature of being able to get inside some of them and at least use them as cover would be great.

I would love it if this map would become the official D-Day Omaha Beach map. :D

Any screens or info as the the actual beach layout? Will the obstacle layout be the actual Fox Green layout, or at least historic? (there was an order to the laying of the obstacles, they wern't just scattered about)

I love historically layed out maps more than you :D Here is one of the Omaha beach sector layout for you :) Its at the D-3 Draw in the Easy Green sector of Omaha Beach.

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/100-11/mp2.jpg

Looks sweet! DO you reckon a progress percantage would be to rude to ask for? :D

Looks very nice I hope that this one gets finished and released soon. Looks like a dark map so I guess you wont be using HDR.

Ah, I remember WN60, you know I was there(and at all the other beaches) in summer. Very well done.

Now if this would be an official map ...

Cross your finger PuXX. I'm crossing mine right now. ;)

It would be nice if the allied and axis spawn entites allowed you to set which classes are allowed to spawn at them so you could have snipers only be allowed to spawn once the first bojective is captured which would mean they could only spawn past the bluff

Waldo,

This is looking great indeed !
I would like it very much if you didn't change the lighting too much. I like it this dark. And the sun looks awesome through those trees. I am still waiting for the first decent dark(er) map and this could very well be it ! :D

Also I think snipers should be allowed ! Not only is that historically accurate, but it can be more fun too. Like Waldo said himself there is enough coverage / possibilities to get accross alive.
Beach maps are ment to be a struggle to get accross alive... it was no different in real life !
Also if you take away snipers from the Germans, it will be too easy for the allies to get accross and then it becomes very hard for the Germans to defend anything at all (I think).

Anyway... looking forward to this map !

Any more new pics of your work Waldo? Looking great man!

Ever considered redoing dod_dog1 for source if you had InvasionWorks blessings for it?

are you gonna put the old school "wheres waldo" pic somewhere in it??? pls say yes

Also I think snipers should be allowed ! Not only is that historically accurate, but it can be more fun too. Like Waldo said himself there is enough coverage / possibilities to get accross alive.
Beach maps are ment to be a struggle to get accross alive... it was no different in real life !

Have you ever played on Earlzeytown 23/7 Charlie? Beach maps weren't meant to have 5 snipers a side and only 1/2 the team making any attempt to get off the beach. Beach maps were supposed to be hard sure, if the defense is skilled. Any tard with a super-accurate rifle can pick off people darting to and fro, real men use machine-guns. Play on earlzeytown and you'll see how charlie and ALL beach maps should be played.

This map is going to be great.. keep up the good work.
...and remember that the beaches were bombed to bits, so that should provide some natural cover against snipers..

Hello

Dark Nation,
I have never played on that server.
However, I have played Charlie on a lot of different servers. When there are a lot of snipers on the defending team, then it might be harder to get off the beach (but not impossible). Once behind enemy lines it often becomes not too hard to capture the different areas (as there are not many Axis defending the capture areas).
I also love to snipe on Allies side and when I do so I often have a pretty decent K/D ratio.
Machine gunners are the easiest to kill, because they are easily noticed. When they go for the first kill, everybody knows where he is.

BTW Playing Axis on beach maps (like Charlie) is not as easy as it seems, even with snipers. Like I said before, snipers can't kill everybody.

I do however agree that when almost everybody is playing machine-gunner & sniper, there will be little to no progress, because almost nobody is even trying to get off the beach (and the ones that do try then, will get shot).

I believe a limit can improve gameplay.
I do not believe that not allowing snipers will further improve gameplay.
I also believe this is a matter of opinion. :D

H.

Originally posted by r00t
This map is going to be great.. keep up the good work.
...and remember that the beaches were bombed to bits, so that should provide some natural cover against snipers.. Actually, the bombardments really doesn't have much effect on the beaches since most of the shells fired from the ships and bombs from airplanes completely miss the beaches and were drop far inland. There were little or no craters at all on Omaha beach.

Looking pretty damn sweet Waldo!

Just out of curiosity, where did those bunk-bed models come from? Are they burried in Valve's secret stash for devs or did you make them yourself, or get someone to make them for you?

I'm just curious as I'm searching for some just like that for my map!

Thanks

Any plans of redoing ZAFOD for Source? [/B]

I'm redoing dod_zafod for Source. Check out this (http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=58871) thread. These are a very early shots, and im going too slowly, because my hammer crash when it execute vrad.exe.

El Cap - they are custom models I made. I'll try and remember to upload when I get home.

BTW I've put working on this on hold a bit. I've been rather busy trying to finish another project (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933097132).

--- edit ---
Oops - forgot I was logged into the admin account...

Quite expensive for a paperback book O-o. Is that the final price or a random one amazon is giving?

450+ Pages on how to make a mod from scratch, I think its worth it.

I may be biased as I helped on little bits of it :P

*just wonders if he can go down by Portland and get Waldo to autograph it if he buys it*

BTW, My MG42 misses you waldo :P

Then you need to release the "For Dummies" version for the rest of us...lol

Originally posted by Ol' Noodle Head
Then you need to release the "For Dummies" version for the rest of us...lol

Actually it will be probably more on the simple side. I also realize that mapping is probably one of the most popular modding things for people to do, along with custom models & sounds. Coding is about the last thing anyone does.

look forward to it. About time someone made a truer-to-life beach map.

And I must admit, God knows I would love to see snipers off the map, but I guess that's is up to the individual server admins. Personally, I think snipers are very good to have on many maps, but taking them away FORCES people to use the regular rifles, which on wide-open maps are deadly with the iron sights.

and NOT having snipers sure wouldn't make it too easy for the allies. The axis still have the K98 and MG42 - and allies have NO sniper to knock out that MG42.

Then you need to release the "For Dummies" version for the rest of us...lol
Actually it will be probably more on the simple side.
God bless you, Waldo...!

Just so you don't think I'm slacking on the book, I put up a few images from sketches I did last night at http://www.vintnerd.com/?p=18

I am definitely slacking on the map work as of late though - but right now the book has to come first.

Keep up the amazing work Waldo!! We are rooting for you!

Waldo, I was wondering how you made the displacements around the trenches. Do you make seperate brushes surrounding the trench and apply displacements to them? Or do you just use one big brush and somehow make it work.

So how's progress on the map? Been a long time since I've last heard anything about it. Or probably still working on the 1337 book. :)

I guess the book came first. :P