[WIP] 11 Day Level Design YayitsM4tt Winter

[YayitsM4tt]

Ok, need sleep, been working on this all day on and off o.O

Did some playing around with things I haven't touched, or barely touched on before before I get into lighting - Color Correction, and some fog stuff.
--For some reason however, I can't load my map in the tools mode, it gives me a "Steam validation rejected"... So I guess I'll have to just load another library from another level til I figure that out. Fog didn't load either, probably something small I'm missing.

-The glass section is either going to have to be several plates of glass and detail brushes, or a simple texture with some opacity on it. I prefer the former because zombies can break in and it won't break the realism of the level.
-Tomorrow I plan to have all the lighting props in, then to light them, along with finishing the glass section of the building. After that, more props, more lights, sound, optimization, the Nav Mesh, decals, FX, etc.

-Updated Ice Cave - I agree, it looks better, if I get time, I'll see if I can't get rid of the apparent 'seams'

By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-26

-Stairs in the glass section, along with railings

By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-26

-1st floor

By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-26

-Bathroom

By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-26

-Deck on the left, 2nd floor on the right. The shadow of the break wall is a break wall. I think I'm going to eliminate b/c the light_env is what is giving it away; that, and the model isn't meant for floors. I'll probably model a custom one later if playtests show it could help.

By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-26

[Smog]

The ice-cave looks loads better now that it's all one ice texture. Perhaps you could have the edges of the floor curling up into the walls more, and the same for the ceiling, but curling down?

[YayitsM4tt]

Gave the floor outside some snow, added tons of decals/overlays, added the glass to the 'dome' part, fog is now working, but I think it needs to be heavier with a whiter tint to it. Bunch more props added, have two lights in (the fire pulses, but it needs more of a flicker). (those brushes are still blowing up, and these are like the 4th version of them).

-Is the fire working, and the lighting color with it?
-I got feedback saying the env lighting was warm, gonna see if I can cool it down a bit
-Should have snow in tomorrow and finished lighting, props, and the Nav Mesh started


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-26


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-26


By YayitsM4tt at 2010-01-26


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-26


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-26

[T-Willard]

Another incredible level. You guys are amazing!

The office interior looks great, with nice attention to detail, and the cave looks excellent.

[YayitsM4tt]

Still having some problems with those brushes blowing up =\


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-27


To get the blending snow on the metal plate, it has to be a displacement - but it's creating this weird bump with the lighting where they match up, even tho they are 'sewed'

By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-27


And has anyone used the gun cabinet? I can't grab the weapons in it, and if shot at, the bullets collide on the exterior. So in other words, the bounding box seems to be stopping me.

By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-27

Thanks to anyone that can help resolve any of these issues!

[YayitsM4tt]

Woo! It's getting there = ]

Gonna look into seeing how feasible a blizzard is. Not much left, just optimization, skybox, nav mesh, sounds, and some small geometry/props (the rope thingies hanging off the walkways) (and the problems listed in the previous post)


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-27


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-27


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-27


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-27


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-27


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-27

[Oilcake]

Yeah, looking good, man! About those issues you had (have?)...

1. Brushes blowing up: Weird. They don't look like they would be warped to the point that the game doesn't like them. Again, did you do the check for problems thing? That will point out unhappy brushes that have had their vertices screwed with too much. All I can say is delete 'em and build 'em again...

2. Displacements: Are they they same height exactly? That might happen if one was a little higher than the other... It looks a bit like you have tiny little valleys there...

3. Gun Cabinet: Not a clue, never used it. I have to build a small test map later for a couple of things I'm figuring out, so maybe I'll throw one of those in there, too, and see if I can make it work...

Cheers!

[YayitsM4tt]

2. Displacements: Are they they same height exactly? That might happen if one was a little higher than the other... It looks a bit like you have tiny little valleys there...

Found the answer, I had two brush faces sitting next to each other inside - forgot to wipe those, which was creating the 'valley' look. vrad didn't know what to do.

[YayitsM4tt]

K, didn't run into this one in L4D 1... the "mark <insert term here>" console commands don't actually mark the nav mesh

For Example:

] mark PLAYER_START
***VPK: FastFindFile Attempting to use full path with VPK file!
File: c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\maps\jungfraujoch.nav
***VPK: FastFindFile Attempting to use full path with VPK file!
File: c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\maps\jungfraujoch_nav.txt

Anyone else getting this problem?
my guess is it's trying to use the main maps folder, so i moved the bsp out of the mapsrc folder, but still getting either that warning, or no warnings.

[YayitsM4tt]

*smacks forehead* nevermind... I forgot that I had to enter z_debug 1

[Nexusdog]

Regarding gun cabinet, I know there was a way of implementing it, but cannot for the life of me remember the specifics, so check the steam level forum and/or DVC. I have similar problem with the medical cabinet, couldn't figure out how to get it to work. :?

Alternatively, check out Dead Line and see if copying the cabinet there helps, or generally gives a clue as to how to progress.

[YayitsM4tt]

Regarding gun cabinet, I know there was a way of implementing it, but cannot for the life of me remember the specifics, so check the steam level forum and/or DVC. I have similar problem with the medical cabinet, couldn't figure out how to get it to work. :?

Alternatively, check out Dead Line and see if copying the cabinet there helps, or generally gives a clue as to how to progress.

Not a bad idea. I read somewhere that someone couldn't get the gas cans to spawn, even if copying them, but who knows, I'll try it.
However, I did get the gun cabinet. A google search led me to this site and Alex set his up with a prop_static with collision turned off and a clip box around it (So thanks there Alex!) - (though, for some reason the pistols I placed are like "shot" out when the map loads and I find them in weird spots, so temporary fix is I'll just get rid of them since you spawn with two anyway).

Still trying to figure out the med cabinet myself, in survival mode it spawns health packs. In other modes, it spawns pills >.<
--Also, survival doesn't spawn my other health packs, nor grenades, ammo piles, etc. Just guns, not sure about the melee weapons.

And as for progress goes: not much visually. Did a lot of alpha testing today. Seems it needs breakwalls, but my nav mesh isn't solid yet. Plan to get the sounds, nav mesh, and last bit of detail work finished tomorrow (along with the random errors I can't seem to fix).


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-29


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-29

[T-Willard]

Looks real good, man.

I had the same problem with med-cabinets. They kept refusing to open up, even though the bots could reach through the doors and grab the med-packs. Or it'd spawn completely empty. Not sure why.

[Oilcake]

Yep, looking really nice! Good luck with all the other little bugs!

[YayitsM4tt]

Day 10:
Fixed a lot of bug issues, such as items not spawning, etc. Only bugs left are the gas cans (still can't get them to spawn >.< ) and the broken brushes (checking the map for errors (alt+p) doesn't list any problems with the brushes, just lists a ton of unlisted keyvalues for entities for their rotation)

Playing around with the sounds, as I've barely touched on them before (Crytek's are super easy), and finally got it to compile with no errors = ]

Some optimization left, along with fixing areas of the nav mesh, then a full compile, and save out the VPK. I'll probably do a poster next week if time allows. Gonna start learning the Dragon Age Toolset


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-29


By yayitsm4tt at 2010-01-29