Oilcake_Winter2011

[Oilcake]

Takes real skill to create things that quick and look that good. Great job.

Thanks, man! All I can say is it's the product of hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice. And there's still so much I don't know... :lol:

Thanks, man! All I can say is it's the product of hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice. And there's still so much I don't know... :lol:

'Practice makes progress' - right... and speaking of which I can't wait to see where you're going next.

[Oilcake]

Today I finished up the garage and finished the house, which was far more complicated than I first thought! :lol: Anyway, all's well that ends well, I guess! Still have to mess with hints a bunch, but it's not bad as is. On to the screens...


Here's the house under construction. I'm working out window placement and such here.


:lol: I went all crazy explaining this one. Here's the upstairs level of the house. This will be an infected only area, and is sealed from the rest of the house. You can see where I've faked in the staircase down on the right side, just by window 4. Infected can spawn and then exit the house through the windows, numbered 1-5. 3-5 allow roof access. I'll do all the infected ladders at the same time later on...


The finished house from the *ahem* NE. :lol: The areaportals help see the breakable windows. The basement is only accessible by the entrance you can see here.


From the SW. I'll do steps up to that door on the lower right side later on.


Here's that Hammer shot from last night in the game.


And the instanced shed frame. Some lighting issues there I have to look at...


The house from the main courtyard.


And from down in the SE corner. There's that door that needs the steps...

More later on! 8-)

[gizmosan]

looking good!!

[keithgarry]

I like the last picture the best. Good spacing.

[Deltathunder]

Looks good matey..Good luck .

Yeah I must say... it's looking very nice.

I like the last picture the best. Good spacing.

Agreed, I like how this is coming together!


Although I thought the point of the contest was no detailing until AFTER the 16th?

[Oilcake]

A lot of people seem a little confused on this issue in their threads. I guess it depends what your definition of detailing is. Here are some thoughts:

-To me, detailing is fine brush work, making and placing detail models, lighting, texturing, sound, etc., etc.

-For my part, I can't get the playable area of a map (certainly not in a rural area) without placing the props which will make up the boundary. You could approximate, I suppose, but that defeats the point of testing the playability of the map, doesn't it? You'll notice I have some patches of trees and rocks in places. Those are infected spawn areas which will be marked obscured and are integral to gameplay, thus the models are required at this point. Doors and windows are part of basic construction. I do have a few trees, such as the poplars, that are extraneous at this point. Here's my reasoning. When I design a map, I'm thinking about all the sight lines. Props like this are placed early on to make sure everything is balanced. I could take them back out again, but why would I do that? I could hide them in a visgroup for the time being, but that seems stupid, like I'm trying to get away with something I shouldn't be doing. I'd rather people see how the process actually works. An argument could be made to allow placing far more models than I have at this point.

Initial take is that it's too spread out, but when I put cover in there that will fix that. NEEDS MORE COVER! I found myself hanging around the barn and stable more so than the other areas because of the lack of cover, but initial combat tests have proved fun. Ambushes into the barn work great because of all the doors but needs more cover.
---
I'll add cover brushes that represent things like vehicles, haybales, boxes, troughs, etc., but for now I'm off on vacation!

In my opinion, Qmaster should be allowed to insert props that affect gameplay right now. It's an utter waste of time for him to make brush based cover that may or may not work the same way that the model will. I'm having the same issues, really. The farm reference shot makes for some wide open spaces, as does the concept of a farm in general. Not inserting props that affect line of sight at this point will affect gameplay tests.

-Snow texture: When you make a displacement, you have to make sure all six sides of the brush are textured with something other than nodraw. Why not make it snow, it's easier on the eyes and saves going back and re-texturing all those displacements later on. It's actually counter-productive to not use the snow.

-All of this affects the mindset of the mapper as he/she works, as well. I think it's important to find and maintain the "feel" of the map as you work. I wouldn't expect anyone to try to design a map in a counter-productive manner, nor do I think people should mistake the "no detailing" rule for a "no props at all" rule. I may get yelled at for this, but so be it.

Anyway, I need to get back at it, got a lot of work to do still before the 15th... 8-)

Seems like a logical, well thought out argument. Oilcake, I'd have to agree with you.

The point of a workflow is that it makes the work... flow easier/better/smoother/(insert adverb here).

If it's slowing you down and making it more difficult. Something's gotta give a little.

[Smog]

While you are not alowed to detail during Part One of the Challenge, you must also integrate gameplay, and test it before moving on to Part Two next week (Sunday). This cannot be done without some props and lighting as they effect gameplay.

[ZensDeath]

Great Argument Oilcake, I can't agree more. Although, I think the proper response to Aezon's post would be:
"Detailing?! If you think that's good, pull up a chair young padawan and I will show you the ways of the force." . . .something like that.



note: I lost my geek license when I had to google 'padawan' for spelling. . .sad.

[Oilcake]

Phew, another day over already...! Man, time is flying! Today I did the infected spawn house in the east field, and the building that used to be the mill (which was the majority of the work). Gonna get right on to the screens so I can go crash for a bit. :lol:


The mill (we'll just keep calling it that for the hell of it.) under construction. I'm really trying to stress verticality in the gameplay here, as you'll see in the next couple of screens.


Getting near done the guts of it now. This is the upper floor, which will be an infected only area. There will be an infected ladder to the upper middle window on the left side of the shot. Also a smashed hole in the floor down to the main level, as well as open windows on all four sides. At the bottom of the shot, you can see where I've faked a stairway again, like the house.


Main floor from the other direction. You can see the fake stairs here again. There's another drop down here,too, by way of an open hatch way to the lower level. Open windows on the N and W walls only.


There it is with the roof and porch added.


There's the infected spawn house. If I have time in the second half, I'll collapse the roof like in that ref shot. I made it an instance to make it easier to work on when and if that happens.


Tomorrow's job! The little hut on the left won't take long, but the barn is gonna be a lot of work!


Both of today's buildings in the game.


Mill from the SW.

OK, that's it for me! More tomorrow... 8-)

[Nexusdog]

Stunning work, mate. Your workflow, project management and descriptive journal are sublime.

However, take a step back and be objective about this - who builds a house on half a slope? It seems awfully weird to me, especially to raise it on columns. Especially with level ground behind the building and all.



Looking at this angle, it compounds the look that it's contrived, so unless you have plans for the area beneath the building, say storage rooms or garages or utility rooms, it's looking a bit odd. Besides the porch, it's one big block. Think about the farmhouse from Blood Harvest, see if that percolates any creative juices.



I look at the building and keep asking myself, why would anyone need to make a building like this, basically, on stilts, next to flat ground?

Don't get me wrong, everything you've created so far is an utter joy, it's just the logic of this building is off.

However, take a step back and be objective about this - who builds a house on half a slope? It seems awfully weird to me, especially to raise it on columns. Especially with level ground behind the building and all.

I look at the building and keep asking myself, why would anyone need to make a building like this, basically, on stilts, next to flat ground?

I have to agree, though I must admit I've seen houses built in some pretty strange places.

If the ground was modified (or the house moved) so that the house is at least 3/4 on the upper level, I'd probably 'buy' it, particularly if there's a visible reason it couldn't be elsewhere. (For example: another property/extremly uneven land/water/trees or something of that sort)

Regardless... it's looking pretty stunning.