Map finally ready for testing.

[Cruce]

Hey everyone,
I am finally to a point to where I think I can release my first map for a trial run. There are so many more features I would like to add, but I need to stop somewhere. I already know what changes I still want to make, but I want to here your thoughts. Also, I have tried it on a couple of monitors; one came out really bright and another really dark in some areas.

It can be downloaded at http://www.pagehosting4u.com/DM-cruceIsland_BETA.ut2

Have fun with it.

[MrWright]

I like it, looks great. You might think about a blocker closer to the shoreline so people do not just sit out the the water. It is so black and blends into the sky so much it would be very hard to see them. Lots of good snipe spots. Looking forward to the next release!

[Cruce]

Sorry for forgetting to put up some pics.

http://www.pagehosting4u.com/Shot1.bmp
http://www.pagehosting4u.com/Shot2.bmp
http://www.pagehosting4u.com/Shot3.bmp
http://www.pagehosting4u.com/Shot4.bmp
http://www.pagehosting4u.com/Shot5.bmp
http://www.pagehosting4u.com/Shot6.bmp

I am not sure why the images are not showing in the post.

[THEXFILES]

Well Mr Wright and myself are kinda on the same page, the map will be a cool sniper map, and the reflection of the water is cool, but my opinion its to dark, not sure what it is, if the water looks to black or the sky needs to be lighter or what. But when I first played it, the water looked like black oil... lol, but then again that just my opinion, besides that the map looks cool.

[Cruce]

Thanks guys. I will try to add some blue to the cubemap used for the water reflection. I forgot that you are able to shoot from the water. I will play with the water volume settings and see if I can get it to where the player has to be moving around to keep their head above the water. Maybe a different volume around the edge of the map that pulls the player under to death... Like being caught by an undertow. I will place some fireflies in some areas to brighten up some of the darker areas. I was thinking about putting some hidden places(rooms), but I figure that there were enough "Natural" hidden places to hide.
Thanks again for the feedback.

[Centurion]

we really like the map - I played it today down here on the box
C

[Cruce]

OK. There is an updated file at the above link. I have changed the texure for the water reflection from black to a dark blue and added some transparency to the water. The reflection looks kind of crappy up close IMHO, but looks better from on top of mountains. I also didn't like the camo tent. So I added onto the garage. I am still looking for some good fireflies to add into some of the darker areas to brighten it up a bit. Please let me know how your FPS is doing. I have enabled rmode 1 in game to view the meshes, and meshes hidden out of view on the other side of the map are still being generated. I have not figured out why. I have followed the optimizing terrain VTM off the bonus DVD and can't seem to see the meshes dissappearing in the distant as I move behind objects, hills, etc. Any suggestions would be great. I also set the fadeout radius for the deco layers really high, because if a sniper is on one tower and zooms in across the map to the satelite dishes, the trees do not come into view like I would have expected. With a low fadeout radius, the ground coverage is not there; therefore, no trees to hide under from snipers far away. Bummer!
Anyway, thanks again for your feedback.

[THEXFILES]

Ok Cruse here ya go, I messed with the map, and the water still didnt look right to me, i added the same water mesh that I have in my camp crystal lake map, whick can be altered and was a BITCH to do in the beggining... lol and also gave the sky some night time life, the sky moves with a fog, as the water does as well. Now dont take it personal and think im picking at your work, cause Im not, im just trying to help ya here dude, and as of your distant fog, the reason it wont work is, in the zoneinfo properties, then zoneinfo, you had distance fog set to false, i set it to true and the fog is now in the map, and also fog will give you better fps, cause you dont load some stuff in the distance you dont see. hope this helps ya.

also I fixed your pictures urls, and also check out dm-mpc-crystal lake, I have fire flies in that map

[Cruce]

Hey X,
Totally AWESOME dude. I'll take a look at your crystal lake map. Can you email me the modified map so I can learn from it? I am still going to try to make the changes myself, but am curious to how close I get to what you did. I'll PM you my email address.
Thanks again,

[Odysseus]

Nice work Cruce! I hope to do this (build maps) some day when I have time to learn how to do it.

Cheers,

Oddy