Post Tutorial Ideas, Requests, Topic Discussions and Ideas

[T-Willard]

I have a few questions regarding lighting...

My light has a tendency to bleed through walls. What is causing that?

How do you use sprites to light up the inside of a light source (IE: Alarm Light)?

When I tell the spotlight to rotate, it just sits there. Worse, if I put it inside the wireframe of the light source, it just makes the light source glow, but if I put it to the side, it's obvious that the light is off-center. Any suggestions?

Any suggestions, pointing toward tutorials, would help.

[Neeko]

What engine are you using? Source? Unreal? I'm going to assume Unreal?

In regardless to the bleeding problem, do you have a lightmass volume setup?

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Lightmas ... anceVolume

[T-Willard]

D'OH!

I'm using Hammer, L4D2 Toolset specifically.

Hello, I was wondering where I could get a free or very cheap modeling package. I don't really have the resources to purchase professional ones such as Autodesk or 3ds Max, and I think I should at least have a working knowledge of modeling.

[varedis]

Blender: http://www.blender.org/ Free
Wings 3d: http://www.wings3d.com/ Free
Silo: http://www.nevercenter.com/ Cheap

[saltydog_nm]

I want to start creating my own assets for the levels I create, but I do not know where to learn the pipeline for game assets.

I know the basics of modeling in Maya and have begun to learn how to UV map as well.

Could anyone help me out? I am stoked to begin creating my own environment art!

Thank you for those links!

I am playing with blender right now to see how much I like it.

[stealthsniper002]

I WAS WONDERING HOW to developers make their own editor like THE UNREALENGINE 3
:!: :?:

[WarrenM]

Months and months of writing code. Really, that's it.

Generally the game engine gets done first (or at least up to version 1.0) and is supported by a fairly shaky editor as file formats are refined and work is thrown away again and again. Once things stabilize, companies that have the resources will put more effort into the editor so that the level designers are as productive as possible.

Good tools mean that your content creators can spend less time waiting and crashing and more time iterating. A good editor is the key to shipping good levels, IMO.

UnrealEd, specifically, is the result of years of programmer effort. It is, IMO, the best game editor available and that's a direct result of how much effort Epic allocates for their tools.

[Nexusdog]

UnrealEd, specifically, is the result of years of programmer effort. It is, IMO, the best game editor available and that's a direct result of how much effort Epic allocates for their tools.

It may be the best editor, but the games created using it are the bottleneck, subjectively speaking of course.

I want co-op team play, so I am limited to L4D 1&2, which means using Hammer. Sadly, this genre is woefully under represented and so far no developers have addressed this game mode. I want to play the FEAR series as part of a human team, I want to play Bad Company 2 likewise, but so far nadda. L4D tapped into a rich vein of potential - not with the story, but the actual co-operative game mode.

Hammer has their corner of the market nailed, providing home made maps, mods and whatever for a variety of games, across various team based game spectrum. There's no reason for someone like myself, to use or investigate an editor which is used for variations of team death match, which with the exception of TF2 (because it is funny over any other reason), is of no interest to me.

If I'm wrong about the games created with UnrealEd being primarily death matchs as opposed to co-op teams, I'm more than interested to find out, naturally.

[WarrenM]

Sure, I think you have valid points there but that really wasn't what the original question was about. Most co-op experiences are on consoles these days while the PC gets the occasional bone thrown to it. Even L4D2 is on the 360, so you can get all of your co-op fill there if you just want to play. But, as you said, if you want to make maps for a co-op game on PC you're definitely limited in your choices.

[ABlackerby]

First think of the art style you are trying to create. Whenever I am modding for a particular game, say UT3 for example, I always try and match the art style of that particular game.

Just look at certain maps for the game you want to mod for and create assets based of what you see. There are great tutorials on this site too if you are having trouble getting started.

[Deltathunder]

Refrence,refrence and more refrences.
So many different ways of getting assets into a game engine..
heres my super quick 6 step lazy way.
1.Create low poly in xsi or Zbrush.
2.Work my mesh till I get a hi pol finished model.
3.Polypaint in Zbrush or project textures onto model in zbrush.
4.Once I have fully textured my hi pol model I create my Uvs .
5.Export my low poly model too Xsi.Use Actor X too create Ase file for UDK.Export texture maps too Cs4 and get them ready too import into udk by creating TGA files or tweaking texture maps.
6.Import model and textures into UDk.
Note:I would retopo for new low pol if Ive really gone mad and lost my low poly shape from original.If this happens I just project hi res details back onto my new retopo model.
Its probably a bad way of doing it but after your 100th asset u find the fastes most effective way too get assets into a engine.
I hope more respond by adding there workflow too give you an idea.
Good luck matey.

[man1ak]

I am in need of ideas for creating a completely new map, so if you got something, feel free to share them with me.

[Nexusdog]

Guys, need your help.

• I want to build a list of the mapping tools used, such as Twister, packrat, gcfscape, etc.
  [/*:m:39de5rfn]
• Also, any radial menus you guys can recommend for mapping (i.e. nav editing menu)
  [/*:m:39de5rfn]
• Could you suggest tools, links and vids if possible so we can build a list and cover them indepth, their uses and so on.
  [/*:m:39de5rfn]
• If any of you feel up to providing tutorials yourselves, that would be much appreciated also.
  
  Hoping to do an article on this, add tools list to blog and add something for forums as well at some stage in the future.[/*:m:39de5rfn]