In each of the shots (with the possible exception of the readyroom) the room is evenly lit, more or less the same brightness throuout. In most cases this is due to the large blocks of texture lights.
By having fewer, brighter lights you can create areas of brightness with areas of shadow between. This creates contrast between the light and the dark. Ergo "contrasting lighting". You can create a sharp contrast by using world brushes between the light and the surface it's lighting to cast shows (see ns_nothing for great examples of this).
White light and grey textures tends to reduce the appearence of contast. By using coloured lights you can increase the contrast, this effect is a more subtle kind of contrast.
Ok good Im gonn work on that right away. Another important question: How do I get r_speeds to stay down, Im already having problems with that as average r_speeds are around 300-500 right now, sometimes spiking into 800s.
Yeah BiTMAP... take it easy on the poor guy. He's not claiming to be awesome. [EDIT]Join the campaign to remove the pointless bickering from this thread.
My advice to the poor lil mapper: - These rooms are WAY too open. It will take mondo brushwork to get this map NS-calibre, so keep cracking! - Your brushwork is solid, simple, and full of good ideas. You just need some experience with NS and you'll be fine. Be sure to look at the official maps to see what to ground your work on. - I'm saying more like 40% done. No offence. As I said, keep cracking. If a map knocks our eyeballs out, we wont skimp on the praise. - I'm not half-bad at making textures. If you want a few new NS-ish textures made, just tell/show me what you want and I'll throw a WAD your way. And yes, I suggest getting Wally. Wally is god. Bow to Wally. - I must say, there is indeed a bit of Half-Life-ish-ness lingering in the air of your map. - Don't whine. Just don't. This forum is the hive, the Alien mass conciousness. Whining disturbs the flow of our power, the power that spans the galaxy, the power that overwhelms all those who are unworthy and unevolved. The power can be brutal and uncaring. But it always has the warmth and heat that gives us all life. So just stop whining, or your entity will be evolved out of our collective existence due to... Natural Selection.
The main light is good, but it needs some more, small, bright lights for detail. Spaced so that there's still some areas of shadow.
And, erm, the room seems kinda plain... it could use some wall supports or something... beams with texlights mounted intermittently, shining on the walls, maybe... work with it...
What you've done with the res node and the main light is nifty, though.
<!--QuoteBegin--evoL:ving:eviL+Dec 12 2002, 04:01 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (evoL:ving:eviL @ Dec 12 2002, 04:01 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->This forum is the hive, the Alien mass conciousness. Whining disturbs the flow of our power, the power that spans the galaxy, the power that overwhelms all those who are unworthy and unevolved. The power can be brutal and uncaring. But it always has the warmth and heat that gives us all life. So just stop whining, or your entity will be evolved out of our collective existence due to... Natural Selection.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Ehehehe...
It looks like the light in the middle is illumintating the whole room, which is not a great improvement. Try turning that light into a spot_light (setting it's angle to down so it spot lights the resource node) and adding downlighters along the walls (a small light every 256 units or so).
Regarding r_speeds, just build it as you want it to look then go back and fix them later is my advice. There is really too many techniques to go into here, try one of the more general mapping resources.
That room should NOT be showing 500 wpolys like I see in the screenies. Its probably a combination of problems, such as texture scaling and the possibility that the cylinder the res is on is touching the floor and shattering it into a zillion polys.
My latest map has a marine spawn with railings, gradually growing detail and a huge chunk of outdoor terrain visible through windows, and it never goes very far over 300. Thus, a res room shouldn't be hitting 500.
I'm aware of that, I'm doing something wrong, I added some supports and its now over 1000 if you are looking at the room from the end at all of it at once. Gonna have to do some work.
Post a screenie of that view with gl_renderfaces 1 set. That'll show us what's what.
Or you could attach the RMF or a file with the room in question in it, so we can look at your brushwork from the source.
Or you could read some FAQ's on high wpolys and fix the problem yourself <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Windows were carved initially but I realized myself what they did to the wall, and knew it was gonna cause me trouble later so I took the time to clip the space out. That wall is fine, poly wise. I think Im gonna get it now, its gonna be under 600 everywhere in that room, at least.
After rebrushing, changing some textures, and moving a few things a little, I managed to get poly count down to 300ish while you are running around the room, and its 600ish while you are back at the edge looking over the entire room.
Gonna have to be good enough unless someone knows more tricks to get polys down. I scaled up all the textures I could without totally ruining the face (the ceiling is 1 texture, enlarged to fit), I moved every single worldbrush that had multiple faces off the ground 1 unit, so it didnt break up the ground... can't think of anything else atm. Gonna run a full compile to see how the light looks while Im sleeping tonite.
like chrome, I don't think I'm a fan of the long glass pane in the floor... plus, is the floor paper thin cause it looks like you could rupture the hull with a butter knife let alone a bullet.... other than that, looking good - bit more effective lighting would be nice but you already said it is only early days - so I'll shut up <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Don't worry about anything under 800 wpolys. Under 800 is fine and dandy.
I think the glass on the floor could be done properly (say, with a grate, and better brushwork), but as it is right now, I agree, it just looks wrong.
Also, gl_renderfaces (that is the right variable, right? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->) only works when you're running in OpenGL mode.
The long glass pane in the floor is gone, that entire hallway is gone, I redid it from scratch. gl_renderfaces does nothing in openGL mode, it doesn't register as a command. More pics in a few minutes.
Nevermind, no pics, I ran hlrad with -bounce 4 assuming it would make the lighting look a little better and it now looks terrible. I'll have to run it again later without it, since vis takes 45 minutes and rad takes 112 minutes I'm not running it again today tho. Unless someone knows a faster way ^ - ^
Comments
By having fewer, brighter lights you can create areas of brightness with areas of shadow between. This creates contrast between the light and the dark. Ergo "contrasting lighting". You can create a sharp contrast by using world brushes between the light and the surface it's lighting to cast shows (see ns_nothing for great examples of this).
White light and grey textures tends to reduce the appearence of contast. By using coloured lights you can increase the contrast, this effect is a more subtle kind of contrast.
My advice to the poor lil mapper:
- These rooms are WAY too open. It will take mondo brushwork to get this map NS-calibre, so keep cracking!
- Your brushwork is solid, simple, and full of good ideas. You just need some experience with NS and you'll be fine. Be sure to look at the official maps to see what to ground your work on.
- I'm saying more like 40% done. No offence. As I said, keep cracking. If a map knocks our eyeballs out, we wont skimp on the praise.
- I'm not half-bad at making textures. If you want a few new NS-ish textures made, just tell/show me what you want and I'll throw a WAD your way. And yes, I suggest getting Wally. Wally is god. Bow to Wally.
- I must say, there is indeed a bit of Half-Life-ish-ness lingering in the air of your map.
- Don't whine. Just don't. This forum is the hive, the Alien mass conciousness. Whining disturbs the flow of our power, the power that spans the galaxy, the power that overwhelms all those who are unworthy and unevolved. The power can be brutal and uncaring. But it always has the warmth and heat that gives us all life. So just stop whining, or your entity will be evolved out of our collective existence due to... Natural Selection.
The main light is good, but it needs some more, small, bright lights for detail. Spaced so that there's still some areas of shadow.
And, erm, the room seems kinda plain... it could use some wall supports or something... beams with texlights mounted intermittently, shining on the walls, maybe... work with it...
What you've done with the res node and the main light is nifty, though.
Ehehehe...
New screenshots of Hanger Access, Crossroads, and maybe Hanger Hive if I get it going, later today.
Regarding r_speeds, just build it as you want it to look then go back and fix them later is my advice. There is really too many techniques to go into here, try one of the more general mapping resources.
My latest map has a marine spawn with railings, gradually growing detail and a huge chunk of outdoor terrain visible through windows, and it never goes very far over 300. Thus, a res room shouldn't be hitting 500.
I'm tempted to make this room myself and see what results I come up with, unfortunately I have to go to work now...
Or you could attach the RMF or a file with the room in question in it, so we can look at your brushwork from the source.
Or you could read some FAQ's on high wpolys and fix the problem yourself <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Gonna have to be good enough unless someone knows more tricks to get polys down. I scaled up all the textures I could without totally ruining the face (the ceiling is 1 texture, enlarged to fit), I moved every single worldbrush that had multiple faces off the ground 1 unit, so it didnt break up the ground... can't think of anything else atm. Gonna run a full compile to see how the light looks while Im sleeping tonite.
Will check back here tomorrow with screenshots.
I think the glass on the floor could be done properly (say, with a grate, and better brushwork), but as it is right now, I agree, it just looks wrong.
Also, gl_renderfaces (that is the right variable, right? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->) only works when you're running in OpenGL mode.