What's the best way to go about mapping?

Electr0

Do you start off creating bare rooms and add detail or add detail as you go, can anyone give a good idea of the order you should take things?

Also are there any guides about that would give a good idea of the work flow and stuff, doesn't matter if it's for another game, just a general guide to mapping would be useful, thanks.

Evil_bOb1

I guess each one has his way.

I used to go room by room and never end a project. With my latest I started ruff and fleshed out a simple "box" map with my core ideas. Then I refined it, then started adding detail. What I love about this way is the project just keeps on growing and as I go deeper into new visions and understandings arise. I'm also working on the whole thing at the same time so I am able to have a global and local vision.

I think this way might take longer than if you just go room by room, but if you have the patience will teach you a lot. If you have all design planed before on paper and you have a complete idea of what you want the map to be like then it would make sens to build it all together but this would be in the case of a team creating something.

If you are learning I would start humble and simple and add richness to it as you go along. Try and get a vision for the whole project first and then go into details. Also have fun with the editor and do some "style tests" to develop an understanding of how you can detail a room.

konata

Have a plan but be flexible.

Dragon-Guard

Be polite, be efficient, have a plan to map out everything you think of.

On the serious note, before looking my work in a HDD crash I was mapping like this, i pretty much drew out a basic plan of how i wanted the topdown view to look, with some isometrics to show details in rooms and collected lots of ref material.

Then i started fleshing out the map, just making a somewhat accurate layout for how i wanted it.
When needed/felt like it i mapped out some detail sections to the side, so i could try things out outside of my map if i wasnt sure about them and if i liked them i could just replace that part of my map.

But thats just my way of working.

Tig

constructively or destructively. you either build geometry from nothing and copy and paste it around constructing a room and stitching it together, or you start with a cube or sphere and divide it up and push and pull faces thus destroying the original shape.

Electr0

Thanks for the replies, do you know of any guides on the best way to go about mapping, id like to do it right and the most optimal way possible.

LV426-Colonist

<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/index.php/Natural_Selection_2_Mapping" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/inde...ction_2_Mapping</a>

Ironsoul

<a href="http://worldofleveldesign.com/" target="_blank">http://worldofleveldesign.com/</a> bum around here. But I can also give you some tips myself(I'm no mapper, but I think my advice is fairly accurate)

1.Think of an idea(you will need one of these otherwise nothing will happen)
2.Write a short paragraph describing your map(250 words or so)
3.Draw a little sketch
4.Consider gameplay(how will each area affect the teams and characters)
5.Draw another sketch
6.Boot into spark editor
7.Begin creating(basic skeleton of entire map is probably most obvious thing to do, so do that)
8.When the basic elements are in place... playtest.
9.Change things, add in detail... playtest
10.repeat 9 until map is complete

and don't forget to show us you're creation.

Evil_bOb1

I think the right way is to have fun and enrich yourself as you go, just throw yourself into the subject, and through experience you make it optimal.

It looked around for tutorials, I'm sure there are many on the internet but finding good ones takes a little patience. I remember some that were a great influence to me but have no idea how to get to them today. Anyway I got to these, I think its a good start, but learn to look for yourself ;)

Here's a list of mapping sites on valve's community website: <a href="http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Mapping_Sites" target="_blank">click me</a>

I haven't read these tutorials (yet!) but this looks like a bunch of very good reads that will benefit everyone here: <a href="http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/cat_level_design_tutorials_tips.php" target="_blank">process' of level design tutorials</a>

A very thoughtful tutorial <a href="http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/books_dvds/files/Bens_Small_Bible_of_Realistic_Multiplayer_Level_Design.pdf" target="_blank">ben's small bible of...</a>

edit: hehehe my last link also points to world of level design :)

Ironsoul

well, you know... I did already link world of level design(not specific tutorials, I wanted to leave that up to the original poster). But you're right, it should be fun, but at the same time. If you don't have a workflow, then you will make a garbage map, people will never play it, they'll complain about it, and you won't be able to fix it.

That's no fun in my opinion.

Evil_bOb1

I saw now, your post wasn't there when I was typing up mine. I'll just leave those links, because in the same way you just wanted the original poster to look for specific tutorials himself, I wanted him to jump in spark and discover the workflow himself with a hint on those tutorials i linked to :p

we on the same page ;)

Electr0

Thanks guys, thats the kind of thing i had in mind.

Kouji_San

Also keep an eye on visible stuff from each and every angle, just make sure the engine isn't over stressing itself, or rather the computer it's running on, with polygons. Spark is quite amazing in rendering polygons. Things you can use for this are visblockers (oldschool goldSRC name)

What this means is, place something in front of big detailed areas so you can't see into these areas from other big detailed areas. The best example for this is probably ns_bast engine hive, where there's a O shaped corridor into the hive room from the hallway leading into it. Preventing your from seeing into the hive from the hallway (It's not just there for rendering of course, it's also for gameplay purposes :)

Ironsoul

Evil_Bob: awesome that we are on the same page. World of level design is a good place to go for info on general level design, as well as specific tutorials. 3dbuzz.com has some great resources too, but they are more for specific tools, such as the udk.

Kouji_san, that is definitely something to keep in mind when creating a map, I agree.

Chris0132

Generally the way I've had recommended is block it out roughly, then add detail later.

Personally though, i find that starting at one end and working towards the other building everything completely is a lot easier and more fun.

Generally once you have a room, you can make small adjustments to it to make it fit anywhere in the map, so as long as you have the general layout in your head, you can move round your rooms and stuff to make them work, and build corridors between them, add doorways, that sort of thing. All that matters is that each room works as a separate entity, and that the map as a whole is balanced with the same number of rooms for each side, same res counts, that sort of thing.

Basically just make stuff, the more stuff you've made the more parts you will have to make other things out of, hardest bit is getting started, putting a little patch of substance in the featureless endless void that you get when you start.

konata

3DBuzz Unrealed teaches you to flesh out Geo to then replace with meshes. This is a good idea.