Empires urban maps architectural style

I started big and worked inwards.

 

Heh, so theres hope for me

You'll end up just doing single rooms, but each one exquisitely designed and perfect down to the last tiny detail.

My stuff feels a bit crap now, but then mapping has moved on a lot over the past ten years, and I keep comparing my mapping work to Valves :eek:

 

I wouldn't compare it to valve's, you can do a bit better than that.

Valve stuff tends to be a bit minimalist, it contains what you need to make it believeable, and is quite efficient in that respect. You can, however, improve upon that to a degree by sacrificing performance somewhat.

 

True, true. I've spent a lot more time actually looking at the architecture in maps recently, and it's often surprising how simple they are. I try to remember that in multiplayer, people don't stop to scrutinise every detail of the place, outraged at the fact you used a flat texture for a window instead of modelling it down to the cracked paint on the frame...
I think half the reason I am not happy with my recent stuff is I have not yet done a compile with lights. (Next time I can leave my PC alone for a few hours at a time I will :D ) Lighting really helps. Back when HL2 was released, people generally didn't have as powerful PCs as now so I guess they wanted people to be able to play with older rigs. Ep2 seemed to use more detail. I checked out Minerva: Metastasis. It's excellent, but it makes you wonder how much time did he spend making the damn thing? Making one room, getting the lighting and size just right, making sure every texture is lined up perfectly, takes me an hour or so. I guess you get faster with practice.

 

I always do lights with the rest of the map, I build, texture, and light something, then I compile it and see how it looks, sometimes I change it afterwards, but I don't ever compile without lighting and texturing if I'm working on aesthetics.

And yeah, it does take hours, and I'm not even that good at it, my stuff isn't as complex as minerva.

Mapping is a time consuming process.

 

Do you create an item in a separate small map and the cut and paste it into your main version when your happy with it? Because it takes around 4 hours to compile a full size map like mine, with settings on fast, so you can't do a compile with lights every day.

 

If you optimise vis shouldn't take that long, not even giant Empires maps. (my latest map takes up about half the grid in 3D, and it compiles between 7-20 minutes)

 

Yeah, heh. Optimization isn't just a word. I'll have to look into that...

 

Take a look at this page
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Hammer_Cordon_Usage

 

Thanks! You know I did actually know about that, but I had totally forgotten about it.

 

No, I use the cordon tool usually.

And my map only takes 2 hours to compile with fast vis (I don't see the point in using normal vis, and unless someone releases a bsp tool for epsiode 2 which removes the 1024x1024 grid chopping, I can't compile with normal anyway, it just sticks half way through.)

 

I believe there is a new entity which has the same effect. Don't know the name, but it was mentioned here on the forums at one point. Solo?

When using cordons in Empires, make sure that you have all the required entities within the cordon, otherwise the map will not run. It's easier in this respect to map in vanilla HL2 (ep1), then transfer it as you finish.

 

I tend to just compile the entire thing, but iv'e got plenty of cpu and ram to do the compiling and also a lot of lazy to prevent me from doing it in smaller parts ^_^

 

I also usually just compile the whole thing, with a few optimisations it now only takes 1 hour to compile.

 

Func_viscluster, you have to combine the entity with a hint brush in the same place to have the best effect though.

 

According to the info on the wiki, it appears that doing that would let you basically define a visleaf?

 

Those that wrote the article didn't know exactly what it does, but it's now generally assumed to have vis consider all leaves inside it to be able to see eachother, which reduces the time it takes to calculate visibility, although hint brushes are still needed to define the leaves.

 

So why would it still split it into dozens of leaves if it then assumes they can all see each other?

It would surely make more sense to just make the entity define a leaf based on it's boundaries.

 

Make a grid in your mind of all those leafs.

Now add the third dimension!

Yes, that's right!

There may be user-defined visleafs below, at ground-level on the map, where all the buildings and hills and crap are!

Thus a visleaf in the sky in the top-left corner of the map may very well be unable to see a visleaf in the bottom-right corner of the map at ground level. The top-left guy WILL, however, obviously, be able to see his sky-high friend, which is what the viscluster is for. It basically allows you to define, say, a huge area in the sky where blimbs will duke it out, or a long, open street, or a huge open area on ground level, or...
or...
etc.

Basically, you DON'T make a viscluster the size of your map. You make a viscluster only for the open areas on the map.

At least, this is my understanding. My understanding may be flawed. We ALL know I'm a terrible mapper. I have good ideas, but am wholly incapable of implementing them (or at least I'm not dedicated enough to implement them).

 

Heheheh...one day, one day.....

Anyone play that old game Air Power? Get yur blimp on!