El Capitan
06-10-2003, 09:45 AM
Following the recent heated debates between what makes a good map, and whats more important; Gameplay or Beauty, I thought maybe I would post a few pointers on what should be included in any good map.
- Lighting and Sky
It is no good placing in a light_environment and expecting your map to be perfect. You will need a sky to match with it, which can be set in Map >> Map Properties, under "Sky". To take a look at what the skys look like, go to dod/gfx/env and open the TGA files there (image ready/photoshop will do this). The actual name of the sky is the filename minus to characters. You may notice a sky name "avaup" - this would just be "ava"
When it comes to compiling, you should always run the final version of the map with VIS and RAD utilities. You may also tweak your lighting from here, by edding in smooth, extra, etc parameters into the compile.
- Textures
Try to make the textures fit in with the theme of your map, the halflife.wad isn't a good place to get all your textures from, as they have not been designed for the World War 2 look. You will need to spend time adding in the wads (each official map now comes with its own wad file, which you are free to use in your map). When applying textures, choose carefully and take the time to align the textures, size/rotate and pick them carefully. Also, it is always good to have varying textures. The same texture for the wall and floor doesn't always look good in a house, although it would be ok in something like a bunker.
If possible, try to make your own textures also; give that map a unique touch :)
- Time
You should spend lots of time working on your map. Mapping hard over one day and releasing a map is nowhere near good enough. For a real good map to be ready for release, it will take at the minimum weeks after tweaking and playtesting before it is ready for release. Spend time on every small element of detail in your map, make sure things align properly and NOTHING is rushed.
- Brushwork
Use the scaling tools, use vertex manipulation, rotation and clipping to their full potential. Brushes look so much better when they are not just a plain block, SPEND TIME ON THINGS!!!
Also, as you are going keep tapping alt+p after every brush you manipulate through vertex manipulation or clipping. If you have an invalid solid structure, redo it!
- Use entities
Don't be scared if you don't know how to use an entity. Its better than having a map with just a couple of spawn points and know proper entites. Take the time to research what an entity does, then use it. It can make the gameplay (or visual) aspects of your map much better.
- Clip!
Clip off sticky brushes, make walls smooth to walk against without the player having to get caught on brushes sticking out...don't overuse them and make them noticeable though, clip carefully :)
- Work in progress
You should not post any pictures of your map until you really have something decent to show, and the work is all yours (ie. don't just post a few brushes and a model). Also, make the aread of map you are showing to the public look good and give them a variety of pictures to look at. Compress into JPG format and don't use a host such as geocities. Also, include in-game screenshots and not ones from Worldcraft/Hammer
- Release
You should include a minimap, readme and all relevent custom files(models/sounds/etc) needed with your map in a ZIP file (most users hate exe's). Remember, you only need to include CUSTOM material (get permission if other peoples work to use it) and not official files which people already have. You should definately not overwrite any files (best to keep in your own subdirectory "<mapname>" eg dod/models/<mapname). Check with a clean install of dod if you are unsure which models you have used are official ones and which ones are custom.
When releasing, you should take some decent screenshots of your map and enter a brief description on the map for the public to actually want to download it.
Use a good host also, geocities, a host which doesnt allow external linking or is likely to fail are not good!
Think thats about it, if you have any points to add reply to this post and i can paste them in :)
- Lighting and Sky
It is no good placing in a light_environment and expecting your map to be perfect. You will need a sky to match with it, which can be set in Map >> Map Properties, under "Sky". To take a look at what the skys look like, go to dod/gfx/env and open the TGA files there (image ready/photoshop will do this). The actual name of the sky is the filename minus to characters. You may notice a sky name "avaup" - this would just be "ava"
When it comes to compiling, you should always run the final version of the map with VIS and RAD utilities. You may also tweak your lighting from here, by edding in smooth, extra, etc parameters into the compile.
- Textures
Try to make the textures fit in with the theme of your map, the halflife.wad isn't a good place to get all your textures from, as they have not been designed for the World War 2 look. You will need to spend time adding in the wads (each official map now comes with its own wad file, which you are free to use in your map). When applying textures, choose carefully and take the time to align the textures, size/rotate and pick them carefully. Also, it is always good to have varying textures. The same texture for the wall and floor doesn't always look good in a house, although it would be ok in something like a bunker.
If possible, try to make your own textures also; give that map a unique touch :)
- Time
You should spend lots of time working on your map. Mapping hard over one day and releasing a map is nowhere near good enough. For a real good map to be ready for release, it will take at the minimum weeks after tweaking and playtesting before it is ready for release. Spend time on every small element of detail in your map, make sure things align properly and NOTHING is rushed.
- Brushwork
Use the scaling tools, use vertex manipulation, rotation and clipping to their full potential. Brushes look so much better when they are not just a plain block, SPEND TIME ON THINGS!!!
Also, as you are going keep tapping alt+p after every brush you manipulate through vertex manipulation or clipping. If you have an invalid solid structure, redo it!
- Use entities
Don't be scared if you don't know how to use an entity. Its better than having a map with just a couple of spawn points and know proper entites. Take the time to research what an entity does, then use it. It can make the gameplay (or visual) aspects of your map much better.
- Clip!
Clip off sticky brushes, make walls smooth to walk against without the player having to get caught on brushes sticking out...don't overuse them and make them noticeable though, clip carefully :)
- Work in progress
You should not post any pictures of your map until you really have something decent to show, and the work is all yours (ie. don't just post a few brushes and a model). Also, make the aread of map you are showing to the public look good and give them a variety of pictures to look at. Compress into JPG format and don't use a host such as geocities. Also, include in-game screenshots and not ones from Worldcraft/Hammer
- Release
You should include a minimap, readme and all relevent custom files(models/sounds/etc) needed with your map in a ZIP file (most users hate exe's). Remember, you only need to include CUSTOM material (get permission if other peoples work to use it) and not official files which people already have. You should definately not overwrite any files (best to keep in your own subdirectory "<mapname>" eg dod/models/<mapname). Check with a clean install of dod if you are unsure which models you have used are official ones and which ones are custom.
When releasing, you should take some decent screenshots of your map and enter a brief description on the map for the public to actually want to download it.
Use a good host also, geocities, a host which doesnt allow external linking or is likely to fail are not good!
Think thats about it, if you have any points to add reply to this post and i can paste them in :)