Next Gen Mapping contest
Kittamaru
Join Date: 2006-09-18 Member: 58017Members
Join Date: 2006-09-18 Member: 58017Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Mapping to Max Out NS1 :D</div>Right off the bat, let me say this this contest is meant to push NS and the HL1 engine to it's absolute limit. I want you to break the damn thing, fix it, and make it shine. Remember, polish a turd, it's still a turd <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
<!--sizeo:5--><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Contest Judging Statistics<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
I will be running NS with these specs:
AMD Opteron 148 OC'ed to 2.8 ghz
2 Gig Dual Channel DDR ram at PC 3200
1 Ghz FSB
nVidia GeForce 7800 GT
Antec 550 watt PSU
(chokepoint) a WD 250 gig IDE HD (guess why it's my chokepoint <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />)
Obviously the machine can handle most anything the HL1 engine can throw at it- I want you to make it suffer!
Maps will be judged on the following:
Quality:
Architecture - a cube is a cube no matter how you texture it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Texturing - beautiful maps can be destroyed by horrible textures.
Lighting - the final touch of a map, lighting can have a huge impact on it's make or break
Layout - obviously this will have a huge effect on the next catagory
Gameplay - if it ain't fun, nobody will play it!
Use of Extras (Particle Systems, Special lighting, ect) - do what hasn't been done before
Simplicity:
How well you can optimize the map. It's no good to have a beautiful map if it's made of 1 unit brushes now is it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Design:
No siege maps... please. No average joe schmoe style play if you can help it. Make it fresh, make it new. Add things that alter gameplay based on who's in control. You know- make it different.
I have no set date for final submissions, though it will be at least a few months down the road. I want this to be either a brand new map ( no nearly finished ones ) or one that you have recently started. I will be pitting my revised ns_incubus in this, though I doubt my mediocre mapping ability will stand up to some of the big boys I've seen in here.
I will post screenshots and, if I can, fraps videos of the maps for judging by others. The community will, of course, have a say in who wins. Votes will be handled by PM or E-mail (I will be using a spreadsheet to keep track of votes and to prevent double votes)
There will also be a second part to this- to make the best Single Room you can. On room only. Make it as beautiful as you can.
I have to sign off for now, as my class is starting... now... XD. C'yall later!
<!--sizeo:5--><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Contest Judging Statistics<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
I will be running NS with these specs:
AMD Opteron 148 OC'ed to 2.8 ghz
2 Gig Dual Channel DDR ram at PC 3200
1 Ghz FSB
nVidia GeForce 7800 GT
Antec 550 watt PSU
(chokepoint) a WD 250 gig IDE HD (guess why it's my chokepoint <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />)
Obviously the machine can handle most anything the HL1 engine can throw at it- I want you to make it suffer!
Maps will be judged on the following:
Quality:
Architecture - a cube is a cube no matter how you texture it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Texturing - beautiful maps can be destroyed by horrible textures.
Lighting - the final touch of a map, lighting can have a huge impact on it's make or break
Layout - obviously this will have a huge effect on the next catagory
Gameplay - if it ain't fun, nobody will play it!
Use of Extras (Particle Systems, Special lighting, ect) - do what hasn't been done before
Simplicity:
How well you can optimize the map. It's no good to have a beautiful map if it's made of 1 unit brushes now is it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Design:
No siege maps... please. No average joe schmoe style play if you can help it. Make it fresh, make it new. Add things that alter gameplay based on who's in control. You know- make it different.
I have no set date for final submissions, though it will be at least a few months down the road. I want this to be either a brand new map ( no nearly finished ones ) or one that you have recently started. I will be pitting my revised ns_incubus in this, though I doubt my mediocre mapping ability will stand up to some of the big boys I've seen in here.
I will post screenshots and, if I can, fraps videos of the maps for judging by others. The community will, of course, have a say in who wins. Votes will be handled by PM or E-mail (I will be using a spreadsheet to keep track of votes and to prevent double votes)
There will also be a second part to this- to make the best Single Room you can. On room only. Make it as beautiful as you can.
I have to sign off for now, as my class is starting... now... XD. C'yall later!
Comments
wonder where he got this idea from *cough*
I got the idea, obviously, from your contest, but decided I'd have people do their absolute best without any real regards for the limits. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> After all, with NS2 coming eventually, the old limits wont' matter, will they <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
I thought your contest had ended though? If not, sorry mate, I'll cancel this one till it is <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
That and your sig says the community needs another one of these. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
I thought your contest had ended though?
That and your sig says the community needs another one of these. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
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It's ended... lol..
didn't know anyone ready my sig...
you'd probably have more entries if it were along the lines of the first, meaning a room or set of rooms instead of an entire map.
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Maybe we should host a several-part contest. 1 room per contest, and perhaps piece them together as we go....
*tells voices in his head to shut up*
Hm... Shentrax, do you want to host this instead? I had a wonderful idea when I started to post this... but now that my g/f and I decided to break up for a while, I'm kinda... out of it... *shrug*
We can have 3 winners....
Then we can have a MS competition...
And we then have a MS, Ready Room, and 3 hives....
Just some random corridors later we would have a complete NS map from competitions.
I might have money to pony up for a prize.
If everything goes well, I'll start a new thread.
Eg, winner's entry gets used and remade for NS2.
*sighs* I'm sorry mates, I'm not yet back to myself... I hope yall can understand...
It's be less daunting for mappers I think if they had to make an NS map with only 1 Hive room! Then they could focus more on trying out interesting and fun features to make the game inbetween more fun, as they would spend less time on making sure all the hives are the same distance, good connectivity, etc.
I'd love to see some maps in this thread! I would try it myself but I have other engagements.
<b>Hints & Suggestions:</b>
"-chop 32" parameter for HLRAD.EXE will make lighting sharper (I think any lower than 32 and it will crash).
Scaling textures down makes lighting sharper also.
Creative uses of welds. See ns_nexus for some good examples (one of which quite possibly influenced a new weld in the next version of machina), or the laser-weld in tanith, hera fog corridor, etc. Welds should do ANYTHING that makes the game easier for marines, and preferably do it with coolness. That is their sole purpose.
Use env_sprites to enhance atmosphere with hera_fog.spr set to different colours/brightnesses. Examples: Heras fog corridor, Machina's death-pit-o-doom, Machina's <a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/ns_machina_recovery0000.jpg" target="_blank">Turning Point</a>, Machina's Imine Falls.
The creative use of effects, in particular additive textures used on objects like func_conveyor, func_pendulum, func_rotating. Pair effects together - don't limit yourself by thinking that for 1 effect you need only 1 type of entity: Additives are GREAT for mixing together. Make new textures to use for additives, open up your paint program and think "What would look cool additively rendered?". Example: <a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/dna.jpg" target="_blank">This screenshot</a>. The DNA is a func_rotating with many horizontally orientated faces, and another func_rotating that is a cylinder. Each func_rotating uses just 1 texture type; the horizontal one is simply a bar ala ' I ', and the vertical one is a series of white stripes that have been aligned to sync up with the bars. Also you can see an attempt at creating a cool effect using two func_pendulums on top of each other (the circle). The pendulums would spin independently back and forth on the centre axis, and spaces would open up/close on the disc due to the additive textures.
Moving objects as background detail, eg pumping pipes (func_train or a func_door that triggers itself). If they can be made to affect gameplay somehow, all the better.
USE YOUR BRAIN. You should be required to actually hurt yourself with thinking at stages in your map; if not then you're not trying hard enough!
Make a small Classic map (one hive room, 3 hives, as mentioned earlier), but include lots of detail and interesting things in every major area. Have a theme, a scenario, something.
The potential for coolness in NS maps is about 20% tapped I would say. Take a risk. Try something new. It's not guarrenteed to fail, as proof look at ns_machina - a very unique map in the ns_ line up that breaks the mapping guidelines on more than a few occasions, but yet still seems to have great potential for being a fun and balanced map.
Use model files to make things look cooler. For example, compare <a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/temp0001.jpg" target="_blank">this</a> screenshot, with <a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/temp0000.jpg" target="_blank">this</a> one. The 2nd screenshot is a .mdl skybox additively rendered over a black sky. The skybox is over 500,000 units across, and the map max draw distance is 1,000,000. This technique could potentially be used for many situations/ideas - scrolling clouds, lightning, asteroid belts; just find yourself a modeller and get some creative ideas! [edit]This idea is, to my knowledge, completely new to the half-life engine. I've never heard of it done before or seen it done.[/edit]
Above and beyond all, bend the engine to suit your whim! You won't be able to squeeze goodness out of it if you don't twist it. GO!
These things are great to try, but they are things i don't even know about yet, let alone actually tried!
I'm sure there are many others out there in the same boat, and personally i am looking at learning mapping more with the source engine at the moment (my zombie map is taking shape very nicely..).
There is just so much to learn, and it seems a bit wierd to try and learn all about an engine that in all probability will hardly be used in another 2-3 years. It would take me that long to get any good!
But it boils down to whether you want to map for NS or not. If you don't, then you're right - there's no point mapping for NS if you'd rather be making a zombie map in Source <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> Ultimately any mapping you do for any engine is a good thing, as it's all experience...I just hope that there are still people who want to map for NS, as, like I said, there is so much potential. And not everyone here is a new mapper, some of them are just lazy. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
I Just feel that by the time i get my mapping skills upto the level required to create something on a par with the rest of the NS mapping fraternity, everyone else would have moved onto bigger and better things!!
Plus a zombie map is a good idea as the LAN parties i host have our own online servers, and our zombie server is by far the most popular. The map i am making, zm_uklanparty is actually a map of the building in which we host our LAN's, so it is easy to do because i have an exact design to reference..
I find NS mapping so much harder because there are no hard and fast designs to follow, and my ideas change as i go through the map, so by the time i'm half-way through i need to scrap what i started and begin again, i just never seem to finish anything.
And not everyone here is a new mapper, some of them are just lazy. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
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That would be me ^_^
<!--quoteo(post=1585280:date=Dec 7 2006, 10:54 AM:name=Merkaba)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Merkaba @ Dec 7 2006, 10:54 AM) [snapback]1585280[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> And not everyone here is a new mapper, some of them are just lazy. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That would be me ^_^
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> And me!
That would be me ^_^
And me!
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I'm afraid I'll have to join that club too. Until the NSTR for NS2 comes out that is, then I'll be hard at work porting adrianne over.
That would be me ^_^
And me!
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We're all lazy!
We're all lazy!
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Oh the horrible predicament of all mappers! WE ARE ALL LAZY! well, the good ones anyway. ^_~ we still get a lot of ns_seigexxxxx maps.
tiny junker pod/tas ship of some form crashes into planet puchest thru the terrain and into a net work of tiny tunnels where 80% of the tunnels are single file with a few turn around locations and so on 20% of the tunnesl are duck locations, ist farily dark clostrophobic to the max, 50% of hte tunnels are strait up tunnels and the entire place consists of lvls requireing at least three marines to boost to any locations
there is one main access for ono's to each hive / com, each hive has access to second lvl/thrid lvl at ground acess 4th lvl is flyer wall climbers only unless you climb up then gorge, or pull a 4 man boost
main access is shaped like a capital Y except the two top prongs bend back around and down similar to a little m in turn hives are far enough away they cant be seiged but each hive has direct access to rine start
crashed rines come with own res nodes, aliens have own res nodes
rines have to spend 5 minutes welding thru door with alien top vent access from 4th floor that not even 4 trained rines can boost up into, gorgie cloaking oc then building them and droping them into a traped rine start with no where to hide
rine start res should be set up to take advantage of elec nodes and or TF's from each main access point
seige favors rines, 4 foot tunnels black as ngiht with flash light rines that cant shoot past there mate int front of them to save them favors aliens
Sry for the sarcasm <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> but i think you got the wrong thread <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />.
Sry for the sarcasm but i think you got the wrong thread .<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think you'll find he was replying to this post by Merkaba and the conversation on different ways to take NS to the absolute max.
<!--quoteo(post=1585268:date=Dec 7 2006, 02:24 PM:name=Merkaba)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Merkaba @ Dec 7 2006, 02:24 PM) [snapback]1585268[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Has anyone ever made an NS map with three hives in the same area? (That wasn't a siege map)
It's be less daunting for mappers I think if they had to make an NS map with only 1 Hive room! Then they could focus more on trying out interesting and fun features to make the game inbetween more fun, as they would spend less time on making sure all the hives are the same distance, good connectivity, etc.
I'd love to see some maps in this thread! I would try it myself but I have other engagements.
<b>Hints & Suggestions:</b>
"-chop 32" parameter for HLRAD.EXE will make lighting sharper (I think any lower than 32 and it will crash).
Scaling textures down makes lighting sharper also.
Creative uses of welds. See ns_nexus for some good examples (one of which quite possibly influenced a new weld in the next version of machina), or the laser-weld in tanith, hera fog corridor, etc. Welds should do ANYTHING that makes the game easier for marines, and preferably do it with coolness. That is their sole purpose.
Use env_sprites to enhance atmosphere with hera_fog.spr set to different colours/brightnesses. Examples: Heras fog corridor, Machina's death-pit-o-doom, Machina's <a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/ns_machina_recovery0000.jpg" target="_blank">Turning Point</a>, Machina's Imine Falls.
The creative use of effects, in particular additive textures used on objects like func_conveyor, func_pendulum, func_rotating. Pair effects together - don't limit yourself by thinking that for 1 effect you need only 1 type of entity: Additives are GREAT for mixing together. Make new textures to use for additives, open up your paint program and think "What would look cool additively rendered?". Example: <a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/dna.jpg" target="_blank">This screenshot</a>. The DNA is a func_rotating with many horizontally orientated faces, and another func_rotating that is a cylinder. Each func_rotating uses just 1 texture type; the horizontal one is simply a bar ala ' I ', and the vertical one is a series of white stripes that have been aligned to sync up with the bars. Also you can see an attempt at creating a cool effect using two func_pendulums on top of each other (the circle). The pendulums would spin independently back and forth on the centre axis, and spaces would open up/close on the disc due to the additive textures.
Moving objects as background detail, eg pumping pipes (func_train or a func_door that triggers itself). If they can be made to affect gameplay somehow, all the better.
USE YOUR BRAIN. You should be required to actually hurt yourself with thinking at stages in your map; if not then you're not trying hard enough!
Make a small Classic map (one hive room, 3 hives, as mentioned earlier), but include lots of detail and interesting things in every major area. Have a theme, a scenario, something.
The potential for coolness in NS maps is about 20% tapped I would say. Take a risk. Try something new. It's not guarrenteed to fail, as proof look at ns_machina - a very unique map in the ns_ line up that breaks the mapping guidelines on more than a few occasions, but yet still seems to have great potential for being a fun and balanced map.
Use model files to make things look cooler. For example, compare <a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/temp0001.jpg" target="_blank">this</a> screenshot, with <a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/temp0000.jpg" target="_blank">this</a> one. The 2nd screenshot is a .mdl skybox additively rendered over a black sky. The skybox is over 500,000 units across, and the map max draw distance is 1,000,000. This technique could potentially be used for many situations/ideas - scrolling clouds, lightning, asteroid belts; just find yourself a modeller and get some creative ideas! [edit]This idea is, to my knowledge, completely new to the half-life engine. I've never heard of it done before or seen it done.[/edit]
Above and beyond all, bend the engine to suit your whim! You won't be able to squeeze goodness out of it if you don't twist it. GO!
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You might agree that this post would fit in <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?s=4116528743173022720&showtopic=98404" target="_blank">Map Ideas for NS2</a> better..