Hello,
This is the first map ever I'm doing. The Map is called Zoo (ns2_zoo). I guess you know what the map will look like. Yesterday I made the lobby so here are some pics. What shall I change? Ok I know it's way too small but it is WIP.
FlaterectomyNetherlandistanJoin Date: 2005-02-03Member: 39643Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
Hi, and welcome to the wondrous world of mapping for NS2.
I'll just address what stands out the most to me in those screenshots.
1. The lighting is a little bland, almost looking full-bright. Rather than just putting a light in the room, think of the landmark objects in there that you want to draw the eye to, add lamp props in places that both make sense and cater to those landmark objects, and use carefully aimed and placed spot and point lights to illuminate those areas. Use ambient lights to have a basic light level in the room (and set the colour at the bottom 'Right Color, Left Color, etc' options, not the Color option closer to the top). Be sure to tfigure out a colour scheme for your lights as well, and not just use white.
2. The glass tube that contains your greenery seems to just disappear into the rocks. if I were you, I'd just use the corresponding Biodome assets from Canopy: (models/props/biodome/biodome_container_01_bottom.model and models/props/biodome/biodome_container_01_top.model). This will add some quick and easy detail to the room, and you can always get creative with other props to add onto this set.
If you want to do it all with geometry, then think of some way to trim the glass in a way that makes sense.
3. The walls seem to be natural rock faces, but then they're planted onto a very artificial diamond plate floor. Think of what the natural cave would look like first, then imagine how the flooring would be installed. There would probably be natural soil on the edges under the rock walls, with artificial floors installed on top, or into the soil.
WELLO!
Mapping is a wonderful hobby... once you get over the first few bumps, that is. But you seem to got off to a good start, and choosing NS2 is always a win.
More general advice when getting into mapping:
1. Look at how the pro's do it. sounds obvious but going back and playing the games you find most aesthetically inspiring purely for the visuals (with god/easy mode on) will help you understand what makes good design without compromising your own style. Take screenshots and even notes on the bits you love then work out why you like them.
2. Read this book. Its a short read and worth every penny.
3. Join the SCC. We're officially the best spark engine based mapping collective out there... and by a long ways too! Its a easy way to make lots of mapping buddy's and get your work tested. Add me on steam if you want to be one of the cool kids.
4. Have fun. It'll take time to figure out the editor as well as you develop you own style. Jumping straight into a full map might be a bit too daunting. So make small, manageable scenes. go crazy and post the results here. You can always integrate them into a map later.
One of the trickiest things to do is make a room feel "real." The best way to do this is figure out what the room is, what its purpose is, and how it would really look to fulfill this purpose. Biodome for example, "Reception". At the back of the room, is a big door, outside is a landing pad. Inside is a large open space, and a big desk. Obviously this is a place that everybody goes through when they arrive at the biodome. Yes, the map makers have taken a little bit of liberty with the size of the room, as this IS a videogame, and gameplay has to come first. Same thing with "Locker Rooms" in docking. Yea it's a little bit big, but I could still buy into it being an actual locker room.
What you absolutely want to avoid is having your room feel like a textured box with some stuff thrown in. At the moment, that's what this feels like. What I suggest you do is play around with the walls of the room. Maybe make one side round, or maybe the floor has a big ditch running through it, or maybe the ceiling slopes down. Do something the make the room feel unique. It'll be tough, trust me. I still have difficulty thinking of how to shape a room to make it interesting!
Another thing you need to keep in mind is art consistency. Right now, you've got high tech biodome and descent stuff mixed with low tech rock walls, etc. Not that this can't work -- just look at summit -- but it'll depend heavily on how well you've blended the two together. As it is right now, you've just thrown a bunch of props together, and it just doesn't look very believable. For example, look at the top of the glass container. You've got something high-tech like this container... thing... and it's been jammed straight into the rock. What I would believe instead, is if that container is attached to a big metal plate that's been drilled into the rock. You could have some girders (I'd use the rusty mineshaft ones if I were you) poking out of the rock holding the metal plate, and that biodome container base can be attached to the plate. Not only does this look more convincing, but it could potentially create a hiding place for aliens, if executed in a certain way.
That brings me to my next point: nooks and crannies. A good map has plenty of places for aliens to hide in. Tram is one of the best examples of this, in my opinion. Not only does the ceiling have plenty of beams to hide behind, but there are plenty of pillars close to walls that make good hiding places, as well as some nice pockets of space under the floor (elevator transfer).
I'll also go ahead and share something I discovered after many months of failure/learning. Try to be modular in how you design your map. Ie, say you want to put a pillar in the ground. Well you might be tempted to just use the rectangle tool, cut out a section of the floor, and extrude that upwards. That's close, but what you should be doing is trying to keep the pillar as a separate piece, so it can be selected easily (double click selects all connected faces/edges/vertices in a shape). This makes it much easier to copy details from place to place.
One last thing: Organize organize organize!!! EVERYTHING in your map should be in a layer. Personally, I like to break up the map into layers by room, and by type (eg "Cheese Mines - Geo" would hold all the geometry for the room called "cheese mines", or "Occlusion Geometry" would hold the occlusion geometry -- don't just have it in a group!)
Thanks for all the tips and tricks. I might try an little arena first so I don't need to connect rooms etc. I try to keep the topic 'Zoo' in my mind. I like the spawn to it'll stay in some way, but bigger. By the way how do I make a good looking ground texture. I mean look at my spawn :P
Comments
I'll just address what stands out the most to me in those screenshots.
1. The lighting is a little bland, almost looking full-bright. Rather than just putting a light in the room, think of the landmark objects in there that you want to draw the eye to, add lamp props in places that both make sense and cater to those landmark objects, and use carefully aimed and placed spot and point lights to illuminate those areas. Use ambient lights to have a basic light level in the room (and set the colour at the bottom 'Right Color, Left Color, etc' options, not the Color option closer to the top). Be sure to tfigure out a colour scheme for your lights as well, and not just use white.
2. The glass tube that contains your greenery seems to just disappear into the rocks. if I were you, I'd just use the corresponding Biodome assets from Canopy: (models/props/biodome/biodome_container_01_bottom.model and models/props/biodome/biodome_container_01_top.model). This will add some quick and easy detail to the room, and you can always get creative with other props to add onto this set.
If you want to do it all with geometry, then think of some way to trim the glass in a way that makes sense.
3. The walls seem to be natural rock faces, but then they're planted onto a very artificial diamond plate floor. Think of what the natural cave would look like first, then imagine how the flooring would be installed. There would probably be natural soil on the edges under the rock walls, with artificial floors installed on top, or into the soil.
Keep at it!
Mapping is a wonderful hobby... once you get over the first few bumps, that is. But you seem to got off to a good start, and choosing NS2 is always a win.
More general advice when getting into mapping:
1. Look at how the pro's do it. sounds obvious but going back and playing the games you find most aesthetically inspiring purely for the visuals (with god/easy mode on) will help you understand what makes good design without compromising your own style. Take screenshots and even notes on the bits you love then work out why you like them.
2. Read this book. Its a short read and worth every penny.
3. Join the SCC. We're officially the best spark engine based mapping collective out there... and by a long ways too! Its a easy way to make lots of mapping buddy's and get your work tested. Add me on steam if you want to be one of the cool kids.
4. Have fun. It'll take time to figure out the editor as well as you develop you own style. Jumping straight into a full map might be a bit too daunting. So make small, manageable scenes. go crazy and post the results here. You can always integrate them into a map later.
looking forward to seeing more of your work!
And here the Marine Spawn (Very early version like 30% ready):
(Alienvision because I need to add light and so on)
One of the trickiest things to do is make a room feel "real." The best way to do this is figure out what the room is, what its purpose is, and how it would really look to fulfill this purpose. Biodome for example, "Reception". At the back of the room, is a big door, outside is a landing pad. Inside is a large open space, and a big desk. Obviously this is a place that everybody goes through when they arrive at the biodome. Yes, the map makers have taken a little bit of liberty with the size of the room, as this IS a videogame, and gameplay has to come first. Same thing with "Locker Rooms" in docking. Yea it's a little bit big, but I could still buy into it being an actual locker room.
What you absolutely want to avoid is having your room feel like a textured box with some stuff thrown in. At the moment, that's what this feels like. What I suggest you do is play around with the walls of the room. Maybe make one side round, or maybe the floor has a big ditch running through it, or maybe the ceiling slopes down. Do something the make the room feel unique. It'll be tough, trust me. I still have difficulty thinking of how to shape a room to make it interesting!
Another thing you need to keep in mind is art consistency. Right now, you've got high tech biodome and descent stuff mixed with low tech rock walls, etc. Not that this can't work -- just look at summit -- but it'll depend heavily on how well you've blended the two together. As it is right now, you've just thrown a bunch of props together, and it just doesn't look very believable. For example, look at the top of the glass container. You've got something high-tech like this container... thing... and it's been jammed straight into the rock. What I would believe instead, is if that container is attached to a big metal plate that's been drilled into the rock. You could have some girders (I'd use the rusty mineshaft ones if I were you) poking out of the rock holding the metal plate, and that biodome container base can be attached to the plate. Not only does this look more convincing, but it could potentially create a hiding place for aliens, if executed in a certain way.
That brings me to my next point: nooks and crannies. A good map has plenty of places for aliens to hide in. Tram is one of the best examples of this, in my opinion. Not only does the ceiling have plenty of beams to hide behind, but there are plenty of pillars close to walls that make good hiding places, as well as some nice pockets of space under the floor (elevator transfer).
I'll also go ahead and share something I discovered after many months of failure/learning. Try to be modular in how you design your map. Ie, say you want to put a pillar in the ground. Well you might be tempted to just use the rectangle tool, cut out a section of the floor, and extrude that upwards. That's close, but what you should be doing is trying to keep the pillar as a separate piece, so it can be selected easily (double click selects all connected faces/edges/vertices in a shape). This makes it much easier to copy details from place to place.
One last thing: Organize organize organize!!! EVERYTHING in your map should be in a layer. Personally, I like to break up the map into layers by room, and by type (eg "Cheese Mines - Geo" would hold all the geometry for the room called "cheese mines", or "Occlusion Geometry" would hold the occlusion geometry -- don't just have it in a group!)
Woop, that's an interesting tip. Thank you very much.
Marine Spawn was changes complete. Need to work on it tomorrow
I worked on the Marine Spawn. I think it's well done for a newbie. I also made a second room which needs more detail.