[FS Frankie V]

Johnnyenglish, on 11 August 2011 - 07:01 AM, said:

I found that very encouraging and inspirational and I really look forward to hearing more as you discover more.

It's made me reconsider some of the work I've been doing on my current map projects.

I have a couple of questions if that's ok?

Will the new fog be locked, it looks amazing to me and I think it adds a lot to a scene, the effect of distance and depth is enhanced with just that small amount of fog BUT, I'd prefer that players cannot turn if off or change the setting that the mapper chooses.

Currently (in alpha and bumpy) normal/bump maps are loaded based on the filename and the name of the shader, will we be able to specify which normal/bump map is to be used on a per-shader basis? So in effect share normal and bump maps between several shaders.

From what I understand, new "dynamic" player model lighting will be based only on light entities, light emitting shaders will have no effect?

Will a new (official) entities.def be provided for those interested in mapping for HD or is this too soon?

Frankie, thank you very much for that, it's very much appreciated.

Interesting question.

At the moment it’s our intention to jump start the map making community and in the process make it easier for someone interested in making maps to get up to speed as quickly as possible.

As for my involvement I’m the logical choice to look into how things could be improved in this area as although I am experienced in applications like 3ds Max as well as Motion Builder I have little experience (actually none) in makeing maps and Two Towers happens to be my first.

The biggest problem I see with getting new people involved in map making is not with the artistic values that comes over time but the fundamental problem of even installing the necessary software and if not for BK and RC’s help I probably would have given up with in the first couple of hours in frustration.

Fog wise I don’t think it’s new (I could be wrong) but I think it works better because it does seem to interact with spec in a dynamic manner, but as to locking things graphics wise it is in the back of our minds but that depends on how well the new player models perform. If we can solve player model visibility so that it’s better to leave the graphic settings alone, than to turn them, off or crank them up then that’s an issue we won’t even need to address. To use the correct terminology their lighting levels are natural (or neutral)

What we will do with shaders in the future depends on how far the current maps can be pushed with what is available now. How they will be changed is really TwentySeven’s decision and his turf but improved texturing and lighting is an on going discussion.

As for player model shading that is also an area for TwentySeven but overall it is reactive to all lighting conditions as it does use some of the lighting features available to the video card ( I stand to be corrected) but also uses a spec map that we already know is reactive based on the amount of output. This gives it a high foreground to background contrast with out the need for higher RGB values (high contrast = no day glow blue uniforms or neon orange jumps suits)

Anything custom built to make a HD map will be released and in general when it comes to 3rd party maps it’s business as usual.

P.S. Your welcome

[Rayne]

I like the fact player models are visible in dark areas.
So far mappers avoided making dark maps, or they added too much light to ensure player visibility.
In the end we had a playable map with some great brushwork and crappy as hell lighting that had nothing to do with common sense.

Best examples are probably Docks where the problem isn't in darkness but in lack of contrast.
And Suburbs (which is now fixed as we all saw it) that had a night time skybox and day time light intensity. Which in the end made the map look pretty dull.

With player models new visibility mappers can now let it all out and finally build maps that have dark, even pitch black areas and define the shape properly without worrying people will dismiss the map on the ground it's unplayable cause it's too dark.
And that's exactly what people said when WillyDuck released temple map. It's too dark i can't see anything.

[C.M.M.LynXIII]

With player model self-illumination a new and unique saying was introduced to the gaming world:
"this guy was camping in the lights!"


Concerning painting with lights: Interesting technique, looking forward to trying it myself. Thanks for the extensive video!

This post has been edited by LynXIII: 11 August 2011 - 10:46 AM

[Rayne]

Can you tell us what exactly does the cube map probe entity do?

This post has been edited by Rayne: 11 August 2011 - 01:29 PM

[SilverFoxZ]

So it will be harder to hide in UrT HD?

[C.M.M.cec.]

Thank you, Frankie :) Can you show us a screenshot of the map in Radiant? I don't know if I got everything all right, _how_ exactly you are doing this.

[Nounou]

C.M.M mappers are invading this forum ! RAIDEEER !

[Rayne]

Nounou, on 11 August 2011 - 02:43 PM, said:

C.M.M mappers are invading this forum ! RAIDEEER !

hahahha Nounou :D

[-VA-Pretender1988]

Hii from non mapper, a part of me is a mapper though .
Since job hunting is high on cards so i am a spectator

Nice technique... visibility improvement is really cool.


All the best mappers.

[CMM|theRipper]

<wishes he had joined the cmm startup team when it was offered xD