Well I am still working on my first map. Actually I ditched the very first one as it was more of a learning process. I took the same elements and layout and built a new one. The screenshots below will show you what I have so far for a map I call dod_WidowsPeak. I have only started mapping 5 weeks ago and I've learned a crap load.

These shots are with bloom-only HDR. With full HDR I was getting too much brightness on some props. Not sure why? Perhaps someone could educate me on that. It looked like they were too illuminated, even though my brightness isn't that high. Anyway, I may take out the fog, or at least see what it looks like w/ out it. I will be expanding the map a bit further as well so that the players on each side of the hill you see will start way back in a farmers field with trenches. I'm going to start militarising the map now with sandbags and the like. But not too much as I want it to look like the local residents just dropped everything and left.

The credit for some of the foliage you see was aquired from the cool Eclipse mod.

*And I forgot to mention the deadcows which belong to "pedroleum". I am udderly grateful.


So basically this map's overview consists of charging up a big hill smack dab in the middle of the map and capturing flags on the other side. There will be 3 flags for each team.

More shots to come soon including the interior of the houses and such.

:cool:


*UPDATE*

I have a whack of new updated screens of my WidowsPeak. Here is just one (below), follow the link to a bunch more.

I've just started the trench so it looks a little bare right now. Also I'm only getting 30 FPS, so I need to work on that.

http://aeropause.com/dod/maps/widowspeak/

s.

my god, its beautiful.

Those bush sprites you are using are actually trees for the skybox just so you know.

I'm liking the atmosphere you seem to be aiming for, I can't really comment on the technical side of the map with any authority but surely light reflecting off fog would contribute to that overbright...ness.

If you want to avoid adding sandbags etc, you could use knocked over/blown up trees and pits where shelling or mortars could have driven the locals away.

It is indeed beautiful, though if those bushes are sprites...well I just don't know about that.

Wow good work so far!
My only critics is that those sewers don´t really fit the environment. The problem is that right now I don´t have a clue what you could do instead - maybe something like a tunnel through the soil (sorry for the bad explanation :rolleyes: ) I hope you understand what I mean.

Oh wow... That´s looks really nice.
Although I´m not a big fan of foggy maps that just looks very awesome and I can´t wait to play it. :D

Thanks.
Yep I'm aware they're brush sprites. :) If better foliage existed where little pine trees and bush could look better, I'd use that instead. These skygrass tree sprites are hard to see with my current fog/darkness so it's not all bad.

I will nix the fog and see what happens.


Steiner, I thought about the big pipe not fitting but I do want some kind of tunnel. I tried carving a hole in my big displacement map but it just wouldn't happen. I just may create another semi-circular disp. map over top of the pipe the same texture as the rest of the level.

[SLHR]Gen, that's a great idea. Yeah I want to keep it as natural and unique as possible. I just might take you up on that.

Thanks for the input. Once I get everything up Im hoping to get a few people to help me playtest it.

looking very good, love the setting and the use of the foilage!!

cant wait for more!!

Nice work, the setting is definatley impressive. I especially like the tiger tank that didn't make it across the river. I would use SHLR's comments and also, perhaps bury the "sewer" or run off pipes or what not, rather then having them above ground.

hi
looks cool :)
have you used a water tex on a displacement for the little waterfall?

Yep I'm actually building land over the pipe right now...

cheese-sarnie - come to mention it..I'm trying to make the water look like it's flowing down like a stream...Is func_water_analog the correct thing to use? I can't seem to get it to look like it's moving down or moving at all...

Looks good 3eamus, nice atmosphere!

Originally posted by 3eamus
Yep I'm actually building land over the pipe right now...

cheese-sarnie - come to mention it..I'm trying to make the water look like it's flowing down like a stream...Is func_water_analog the correct thing to use? I can't seem to get it to look like it's moving down or moving at all...

i don't think you can use tie to entity to add func_water_analog to a displacement, you'd have to use a normal brush.
i'm a noob mapper myself m8 so not too sure. :)

i have seen a cool waterfall in a map recently tho', i guess they used func_water_analog. if i can remember what it's called i'll post the name.

*edit
cs_jungle has a waterfall, but i don't think it's func_water_analog

try these tutorials:

http://www.akilling.org/akg/tutorials/wiseWaters.asp
http://www.akilling.org/akg/tutorials/wiseMaterialScroll.asp

top one's water, other one is for doing a scrolling texture

Looks dream-like.

Thanks Sarnie, I'll check those out.

Are you having problem with details?

Grass details would bring those grass patches to life. Great job though.

looks nice,
but do you really think its a map for dod?
a shiny something through the woods?
hmmm

perhaps change the dirt textures to a snowy one... that would be also looking cool and would make the light more realistic

Nave, yeah I'm going to switch the ground texture from the skybox trees to a more detailed grass. I'm also getting rid of the fog and using a different BG.

"J69L" Not sure what your point is. Why does every map have to have mortars, cannons and barbed wire? During WW2 there were many battles through small communities and farm lands. I think it's a nice change myself.

This can definetly be a DOD map !

If you look to the south of Belgium... not a lot of cities and a lot of forests ( and a lot of hills).
This is where the battle of the bulge took place.

I like the different setting and the one pic looks great indeed.
Would like to see some new pics though.

Looking good so far, a couple of things though that you might want to change, the ground texture for a start, try using one of the hl2 ones that has detail sprites, the one you're using is meant for the 3dskybox.

If you don't want to use sandbags etc for that more authentic 'just dropped my stuff and ran' look grab your displacement set the displacement tool to a radius of 120 and the up/down depth to 50 and then use that setting to make yourself a nice crater, I then usually go around the edge of the crater and raise the edges by 10 units.

And if you haven't already make sure you've got the min/max distance settings on your models set correctly and use the zclipping in the fog controller :)

Other then that its looking great so far keep it up :)

Thanks guys, Hendershot there's more pics here...

http://aeropause.com/dod/maps/widowspeak/index.html

Hey,

Thanks for the pics ! !
This is one of the most beautiful maps I've ever seen.
Also the most realistic.
This map looks like you're actually in a forest. The details (like the water lillies) really add up to this feeling.
This really is awesome.
I must admit that the pipe is a bit strange in this setting. I also think that an underground passage would be better (more realistic).

I can only hope that gameplay will also be this fantastic.
Then we would have a close to perfect map ! :D :D

H.

I do like how the map looks, hopefully the grass you choose works as well as the sprites look, but I would have to agree, the sprites would look a bit odd in game. The tunnel also does look out of place, but could be concealed with land. One thing that you could do is somehow tie it in with the river or something, so that it could act as though a water way or something like that, and put water in the bottom of it, since it is winter time (so it looks for the most part) and naturally water levels would be low. Just a thought. Keep up the good work though man, those deciduous trees look amazing and realistic. It would be a great contribution to the community to make those a prefab or something, so that others could use them, since they look AMAZING. Just another thought. I look forward to testing this map when available.

Thanks Hender, yeah the pipe is gone. I had made it into an underground sort've passage way but I was having problems with degenerate tri's and errors so I just turned it into a rocky stream of sort.

Formologic23: I checked out all the grasses and there was only one that literally stood up as that's the kind I want. It looks nice and has variations like blended with dirt, cobble etc..so I'll probably use that one. Those trees and lilly pads belong to the people (as far as I know, at least that's where I got them) who made the Eclipse mod for HL2 source. Just download the mod and you can grab all their cool foliage. Just be sure to give credit. :-)

I'm also going to start adding more detail to the ground as I don't think it's very detailed right now. Things like some impressions (little hills, slopes) and home made rocks with peat moss on them and other stuff you'd see in a forest. I'm kinda adding things as I learn and go along.

I really want to add a fast moving stream to where the pipe was but I can't figure out how. Doesn't seem to work with Func_water thing.

thanks a lot for the feedback.

Originally posted by 3eamus
*UPDATE*

I have a whack of new updated screens of my WidowsPeak. Here is just one (below), follow the link to a bunch more.

I've just started the trench so it looks a little bare right now. Also I'm only getting 30 FPS, so I need to work on that.

http://aeropause.com/dod/maps/widowspeak/

s. Man, wow, looking really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really nice.

3eamus, you're map looks superb. You're the type of mapper we need - someone looking to do something original, and by the looks of things, it's gonna be brilliant.

You've got the whole atmosphere thing going on perfectly. nothing worse than a map with no atmosphere or personality.

http://aeropause.com/dod/maps/widowspeak/dod_widowspeak_v40019.jpg

in the above picture (which looks great) i think it would be cool if that long road started to go down hill a bit (towards where the screen was taken) so which ever team comes up that way, cant see straight along it, and therefore forces them to be stealthy.
Then again, maybe you have done that already :)

Anyway, congratulations on your map so far, it looks like it could be a classic!

Elf

looks really nice so far - i prefer the outdoor maps like this, sick of every map being a close quarters village! :P

only thing that caught my eye was the bridge
http://aeropause.com/dod/maps/widowspeak/dod_widowspeak_v40005.jpg

its middle seems far to high given the breadth of the crossing... cars would have a tuff time crossing it. It needs to look more "in place"

...great work!

Hey, thanks for the feedback guys (and girls?). I appreciate it. Beginners luck I guess?

ElfmanFrEaK - Who's who needs a mapper?

My map is one big ass hill in the middle, so charging up and down on either side will happen whether you like it or not. :-)(Check out the 20 second rudimentry drawing.) There's a trench on one end and I'm not sure what element I'm going to add to the other end to make it fair. I want this map finished soon.

urgrund - Hmm well I grabbed that bridge from anzio or something, an official map so I didn't build it. The pro mappers at Valve must've thought it was crossable. Good eye though!

By the by, how many mappers out there are Graphic Designers or 3D Artists? I think the fact that I have been a Graphic Designer for 7 years and the love of games has helped with the eye for a level design. I'll be starting a new job at EA soon as well, so this is good practice.

EA? Help them fix BF2 with our feedback =P

Originally posted by 3eamus
By the by, how many mappers out there are Graphic Designers or 3D Artists? I think the fact that I have been a Graphic Designer for 7 years and the love of games has helped with the eye for a level design. I'll be starting a new job at EA soon as well, so this is good practice.

Me. I dont think too many others around here are. Unfortuneately the job has taken over the time I used to have for such things.

I hear ya. I wish I had more time with mapping too. In between jobs seems to be the best time.

looking cool 3eamus.
btw have you seen the new cs map cs_militia, it has moving water with fish ;)

I'm a Graphic Designer too. Well, I have a degree in Graphic Design but I don't have a job (yet) :P

CheeseSarnie - Haha I'm glad you mentioned that! It's a great map but for some strange reason it doesn't download to my CS maps folder, BUT I can play the level..how strange is that? Why can I play the map but not see it in my maps? I so want some of the elements from that map like uuh the fishies and trees, although I think I have enough trees. WidowsPeak does currently have leeches and crows though, which I grabbed from akilling.org.

But yeah I can't download cs_militia. Is it in your maps folder?


otF yetihw - you must've just graduated then? There's a crap load of jobs out there. I can send you some good job sites if you like.

I always found the best way to get a graphics/web design job is to do some work for free and build up a portfolio. It shows your experienced and people have used you in the past then!

me is a swiss graphic designer :)

Yeah if you're just starting out, doing some work for free is ideal. Some people who know this will take advantage of that idea. I've seen some job postings where they'll say "a chance to improve your portfolio - work free!" ...heh, uuh no.

This is my work: residue.ca

But getting back to mapping and design. I find that I'm really spending a lot of time to details. Which, can be a good thing but I need to balance it out more. The only thing I have left though with WP is adding sounds, 3d skybox and optimizing. :-)

looks great fella.

Originally posted by 3eamus
CheeseSarnie - Haha I'm glad you mentioned that! It's a great map but for some strange reason it doesn't download to my CS maps folder, BUT I can play the level..how strange is that? Why can I play the map but not see it in my maps? I so want some of the elements from that map like uuh the fishies and trees, although I think I have enough trees. WidowsPeak does currently have leeches and crows though, which I grabbed from akilling.org.

But yeah I can't download cs_militia. Is it in your maps folder?


otF yetihw - you must've just graduated then? There's a crap load of jobs out there. I can send you some good job sites if you like.

It's not in the maps folder...it's in the .gcf maps folder. Official maps don't show up in your normal css folder, all stock stuff are in the .gcf

ok thanks, but where is the .gcf maps folder? I couldn't seem to find it.

cheers

*Oh are you saying the "counter-strike source shared.gcf" file gets updated in: C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps?

I think that's what you're saying

Yep