www.tcpclan.net

The latest version of the map:
http://www.tcpclan.net/usermaps/index.p ... c-v1mn.zip

*********

Hello,

I joked about creating a map some weeks ago.
Well, here it is, although more of an octagonal map rather than rectangular. I really wanted it to feel spacey so you can move around freely, mostly. There could be more junctions added later.

(Size) This is a fairly large, mostly octagonal map.

Map size: Roughly 17 000 UU in width; 3 000 UU in height; 11 000 UU in breadth.

I think it is just about ready to be played (still needs more decorating done, and fleshing out areas that may be the main fighting areas).

(Lava) I had some ideas regarding lava <3 that might be a compromise (somewhat) for lava haters. There's lava beneath a lift, meaning the lava will be covered as long as the lift stays down, and there's a lava trap door which may only stay open as long as one player stands still in the designated spot.

(Bots) They get around...

(Bugs) Except for the notorious UT lifts, there are some annoying issues if the player is hugging the walls in some of the octagonal areas. The engine seems to make the movement rigid, meaning you seem to get stuck.

I've only played it with bots.

Anyway. Hopefully it'll play nice, and work elsewhere. I get about 300-900 fps on it on a GeForce 8500 GT 512 MB, and about 200-300 fps with 31 bots. ^^;

(Redundant post.)

Hi reject. I DL it and looked at it quickly and it looks nice. There are just a few cosmetic things that need to be worked on, but the general feel of the map (Through the editor) was nice. I will take a more indepth look later. Frank

Hi Snowbird,

Thanks!

I'll add more junctions between rooms, but I need to figure out why some of the walls are missed by the engine when it generates lightmaps. (Some walls become black.) The BSP should be fine. I've followed the intersect-subtract guidelines, and every BSP brush is aligned to the grid, which is not the default case when using octagonal shapes (had to manually adjust vertices).


(Minor errors) I forgot to add karma primitives to the lava mover and lift, so when players die, they currently fall through these objects.

This with the "black walls" I believe is an error in the editor engine. I have run into it a few times, and try as I may, I can not get it fixed. If you use protals, try takeing them out, and see if that works. Other than that, you can always make them "unlit". Or, put a wall in front of the wall. Frank

hm I found this info which solved the problem for the time being:
"it can be fixed by moving the BSP a little bit in any direction."

http://www.wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy ... ginner_FAQ

I stretched the side that was black about 64 UU (don't remember exactly, but the first stretch had no effect, so I stretched it further) and rebuilt. It solved this one, but that's not always a convenient way to solve these problems, though.

I begin to wonder how many design decisions in UT maps are actually workarounds to avoid bugs. You're already limited by a number of performance and structural issues. Oh well. ^^

Ray

I've worked a lot more on the structure and optimization of this map. The bots play well.

http://www.tcpclan.net/usermaps/index.p ... -v1mja.zip

File size compressed: ~1 MiB (~4,6 MiB uncompressed)

This is a fairly big, roomy map.
Let me know what you think!

Regards,
Ray

I think we tried the first version too and it was huge

We will certainly give this one a go again

Cheers

ah Cool! I missed that then. ^^ Would be fun to see the humans in action. xP They are cold, calculating machines compared to the predictable, lovey dovey bots. xD

If it turns out to work okay, that's cool. The newer one has more routes for additional assrunning, too.


If something's "iffy" about the map, I'm open to tweak it. If it's about adding more sections, then I think I'm already pushing the limits without introducing sudden rendering lags. Could probably add to existing geometry, though.

New version:
http://www.tcpclan.net/usermaps/index.p ... c-v1mn.zip

Bots play really well, with the exception of jumping over the pit of the lift, which they somtimes manage to do, and sometimes not.
Now the bots can dive! (The problem was that pathnodes wouldn't connect with the super shield charger at the bottom of the pond, but I kept trying things and eventually found that the flyingpathnode actors managed to connect with it, so I used them in the water volume, and the bots can now take this shield charger as well.)

The only unfair advantage bots have regarding water, is that they don't care about the fog. You can hardly see anything, but the bot can see you clearly. Haven't looked into that yet.

I hadn't used emitters at all before this map--the splashing water looks basic but ok enough--and the waterfall is not very beautiful (just a sheet with a texture panner), but on the other hand, the FPS should be superb, and I've focused primarily on the architecture, not decoration, sorry, because this map has taken so much time just to get to where it is now. But it looks nice enough with the lighting.

agh I close my eyes and see bot paths everywhere now. -_-;

BTW: I believe I found the source of the black surface issues:
http://sites.google.com/site/rejecht/un ... g/lighting

Would be great if other mappers could verify this.
It also turned out that zone portals are a contributing source of darkened surfaces, depending on where one places the zone portal sheets.

Yes, Portals in UT 2004 seem to be a problem. I have this on one of my current levels. I have decided to leave it like it is, because in that part of my level, there is no light needed. But a quick fix, and an easy one, is to put a fake wall in front of it. Do not let the surfaces touch the floor or cieling, or an adjacent wall. Make your new wall 4 or 2 Unreal Units ( UU ) thick, and give it the same texture. If there is a noticeable edge to your new wall, either put an object in front of it, like a pillar, or make it a totally new wall. These are the easiest solutions to the problem. GL with the map. I downloaded it now, and will take a look again. Thanks for the map to play with.

Thanks! and thanks for the tips! This mapping thing is a lot of hard work, and the editor crashing now and then, and build bugs, agh, it's the icing on the cake. *cries*

The map looks nice, but a bit large and confussing. I noticed that you made different areas different colors, which helps orientate, but the rooms still all look alike. Your map is designed around the cube in the middle. what if you were to connect this room with the outer rooms? This would help with the orientation a bit, and would give peeps a "meeting place" to have a nice battle. Other than the cosmetics and the size, I see no great problem. Oh, there was one thing that I noticed, also. The lift does not come up when you are on the top. I was standing there, and was thinking it would be nice to get down there with the lift. Just my opinon, though. Frank

Thanks for the feedback, Frank.

(Size) Since I've played this map over and over, I lack your objectivity about orientation, but the size was intentional, though. I tried incorporating the compass orientation in the zone info (north, south, east, west, etc) to make it easier.

(The lift) I'm still thinking about that. I planned on using a call trigger, which would add for some interesting situations if someone was just about to step on the lift platform. What I currently do is fall down, and if I time it, I would dodge off the wall to dampen the velocity of the fall, and get down in one piece. It's not always I manage to time it, though.

(Middle room) I'm not entirely sure which room you mean, but I guess you are talking about the brightest room, with the bio in the middle? I agree that this room needs better integration. I haven't had the time to really think about it yet. It is supposed to be fleshed out--definitely--and your feedback verifies that need (going on my assumption again). Nothing is set in stone in that regard. The symmetry was supposed to come from the big room with rusty containers on one side, and a similar room on the east side.

Thanks!

I think this is what you have now. Just a general overview. I think, if you connected the other rooms also, maybe 4 or 5 of them, and opened the map up a bit more, others would enjoy it more.