Something tells me that empires doesn't support HDR maps. Any chance that it will in the future? I've got a job sitting at a computer all day so I figured I might as well do something useful while I'm there and try my hand at mapping again (it being almost a year since I last tried). So anyway I'm thinking.. wouldn't Empires look great with a nice HDRish shine to it. Just so you know.. all of us poor < 20fps people can look in through the shop window of screenshots and wish that we could afford a new rig to play empires on (hence the job). Of course that would require that Empires has the HDR SDK code implemented which I'm nigh on sure it doesn't. So this talk has probably been pointless. Apart from maybe I might given enough time be able to create a HDR map for empires... maybe finishing in a couple of months. So a nice thing to think about for a couple of months might maybe be the inclusion of the aforementioned HDR SDK into empires (if possible) by our resident god of coding. Maybe? And now for some paragraphing... If not then I can always just make a standard lighted map. I intend on doing so anyway. It just won't look as shiny and will still be playable on plebian rigs at the gorgeous 18fps I'm used to instead of the 3-4 fps I expect during online play with HDR. And so onto the most pressing issue of this post. I would like to think that I am a decent enough mapper. I know Hammer well enough unless you start talking about jury-rigging elephant triggered physics traps that involve lots of fiery balls of doom rolling down at you while you try to kill the enemies CV. I just can't think of a decent map concept that will keep me motivated enough to put serious work into it. And I'm the kinda mapper that puts a lot of work in when I'm motivated then can just drop a project through lack of motivation. So... Map concepts? No matter how crazy they might seem.. preferably the standard full empire style, CVs and building.. building. I like maps that give the teams time to build up a decent base and defenses before they start attacking eachothers main bases. Map concepts may include aircraft in their design as by the time it is finished they will (hopefully) have made it into the game. This will be something I work on during dull periods in work so expect some weeks to have a lot of updates and others to have very little. All I ask for now is some decent concepts that some thought has gone into and decent criticisms when I post my progress. You can always criticise my work as harshly as you want. Working as a modeller in a professional company has throught me that criticism is the only way to make a good final product. Just please try and keep it constructive. If I get a good concept idea from this I will start a new thread about it. Thanks for reading
1. You need to recompile every map with HDR. So we will have 1GB basic installer. 2. You need to fix lightning not to be too bright or too dark. 3. That's all.
1: Well no. Counter Strike has a few maps that use HDR and a few that do. The Empires maps that are around now can be run if Empires includes the HDR code just the same as before. 2: Generally the case when mapping anyway. HDR will provide a new and interesting way to light a map that I've never tried before hence my desire to do so. 3: Thankyou for that notification.
Uhh, M00tant, HDR is on a per-map basis. You don't have to do the entire mod in HDR. Darg, if you do go through with this, you'll need an enviroment that will actually show off the lighting. At the moment I'm thinking either of a map with a lot of ancient ruins in it (the Ayleid ruins in Oblivion are perfect examples of how to whore out HDR effects) with small, dark interior environments (caves, tunnels, huts, whatever), or a snowscape set in the day. Snow in the sunlight looks teh arsums with HDR.
I know that HDR is per-map. If make HDR then why not every map? You need to setup lighting once again on HDR maps.
This is exactly the kind of attitude I didn't want in this topic. Please if you don't know what you are talking about then atleast accept the knowledge from people that do. Don't whine about it. Don't worry, If I do go ahead and make this a HDR lighted map I'll be sure to have it playable as a non HDR enabled map too. From what I can tell of the official HDR maps they have different lighting for HDR and non-HDR. I'll have to look into that along with many other things if I go ahead and use HDR. Dumpster Fox I was thinking of something along those lines. I'll have to read up more on the story behind the mod so i can place the map somewhere in its environment. Perhaps relics of the long destroyed civilisation of our time? That might be an interesting approach. Any more concept ideas along these lines?
Not too fussed either way. I already turn the current hdr in empires off. That being said, I don't see the harm if it can be turned off and pretty pictures do tend to attract fleet of foot gamers.
erm if you need any maping help theres tons of us here.. i asked when compiling slaughtered if i should do a hdr pass and they said dont because it would not work. also some people get confused about Lag vs Fps... one is from the server another is from the system you run.BUT you can have bad fps from a server thats runing poorly.Stormed sofar runs outstanding even with a full server , wich is like 26 or something , and with buildings and tanks flying and all the madness the fps are still better then most servers. yet i happen to have about 200 ping because i live in america and the server is in europe somewhere
Mods can't implement HDR because Valve hasn't released the SDK that supports it. Everyone is still using the HL2 SDK that was last updated early 2005.
Wow, I was sure that it was possible. My mistake. So how did Black Mesa get HDR shots? Did they just load the maps into Lost Coast and take screenies or something, or did they get a little assistance from Valve themselves?
Ah.. That's a great pity. Unusual for them to hold back technology from the modding community. I'll still be working on a map with normal lighting so if anyone has any further ideas please let me know.
You have the HDR update for hammer that allows you to create HDR maps but to work they have to be run in a HDR compatible game. Currently, according to Krenzo anyway who I assume knows, the only games that can run HDR maps would be the official mods. CS:S, DOD:S, LC etc.. You seemed to be saying that if Empires included the HDR code then all current maps would have to be updated. I told you that that is wrong. Which of course it is. Here is your original post: You were wrong. We told you as such in a polite way. You replied with an arrogant and self-damning reply and when we still tried to help you you blatantly refuse to listen to what we were actually saying. Please have a bit more maturity while contemplating your next reply. For anybody still interested in the map concept I'm starting a new thread on it now.
I had an impression that when I was making a test map for Empires HDR worked. Not sure if it was just a bloom. You wanted to make Empires HDR-enabled or something. So you wanted all maps with HDR. I didn't say that you need to recompile everything just to get anything with HDR. You need to recompile everything to have "whole" Empires mod with HDR. You started to say things that can be interpreted in 100 different ways. So now make YOUR statements precise. Don't cavil to answers to your ambiguous questions.
Ok so it was a misunderstanding. I meant that it would be nice to have one or two of the new maps with HDR lighting. It would take a lot of effort to replace the lighting in the older ones anyway. It's become something of a moot point anyway until the HDR code is released for mods.
I tried to make a map with HDR. It looks like I got the same lightning with two different settings of light (in LDR it light's "strength" was higher than in HDR). I also tried to load the test map with HDR and some settings: pp_bloom 1 mat_bloom 1 mat_specular 1 and I got interesting results. I don't think that I can get the same shiny effect on normal maps.
