"Pyramid_Alpha" map All New! Impressive!

[TheSeventhCircle]

Just finished my first map ever. This is still an alpha version.
The weapons are kind of placed haphazardly in places, not really uniform.
games types Oddball/Race/KotH are supported but not really defined.


*--- "pyramid_alpha" ---*


Map created by: TheSeventhCircle

Release Date: February 22, 2008

Email: cafar808@yahoo.com

Website: http://iris.nyit.edu/~mcafarel

Description: A mid-sized to Large Map featuring two pyramids with roman architechture, a roman sacrificial temple,
a waterfall, and a tomb with lush gardens.

About: Featuring lush gardens in the pyramids and tomb, this map uses a lot of scenery and custom grass elements,
both of which may disappear and reappear depending on hardware of machine, but it shouldn't effect gameplay,
just visuals.


Recommendation: This map is best made for team game modes (CTF) and Slayer. All game types are supported.
This map is best made for large amounts of players.


Notes: Since this is still Alpha, there is little balancing as far as weapons, and the lightmap is little off in places.

This is my first release, but my fourth attempt at creating a map. This is first time i have gotten to a semi-playable
stage.

The bitmaps made for this map were completely made by me, and i made them very large for maximum quality and
detail, so some slower machines may feel a bit sluggish. All feedback regarding slowdown would be greatly
appreciated.

===========================
Credits:

TheSeventhCircle
> Map
> Bitmaps
> Custom "Grass" Scenery

[DD]ZiON
> Railgun

Download: http://files.filefront.com/pyramid+alph ... einfo.html

[peta-182]

This is actually pretty nice for a first map. 8.5/10 Good job


*EDIT*Gaahh I forgot this is your first released map. I still like it though

[JK-47]

That's pretty impressive. I haven't seen a map like this in quite a while. Good job

[TheSeventhCircle]

Hey guys,

Thank you very much.

Any suggestions on how to make it better?

[TomClancey]

Looks great for a first, really interesting.

Lightmaps could use a little work, but I see you're already on that.

[TheSeventhCircle]

Thanks guys.

i just redid the grass a little, got rid of that white outline to it (alpha map problem). u prob. wont see that until the next release (either alpha ver.2 or beta)

I am currently redoing all textures and bump maps (they werent lined up with diffuse maps [color maps]).

there were also a bunch of problems with the uvw map on the desert ground, so i fixed that, made the ground more smooth, and not as polygonal. added some higher rock walls to the smaller passages leading to center of map, added a tomb (hidden, kind of) to the map, but that will prob stay unfinished for a while.

I am redoing the pillars on the pyramids to match the columns in the rest of the map, and am adding a different texture for them.

Also i heard from someone that i had the textures too large, and all they could see was black. whether their video card was old or what i dont know, but i am downgrading the textures a tiny bit to help this.

will prob post new pictures at the end of the week.

[TheSeventhCircle]

ok i lied, heres a flash video of some upgrades:

http://iris.nyit.edu/~mcafarel/halo/

[DEEhunter]

It needs some better lightmaps. I see almost no shadows.

[TheSeventhCircle]

DEEhunter, i didnt want to do to much radiosity (just enough to make the level appear) because everytime i do, it just looks awful

Here are some screenshots in sapien after i did a 0 0.000001 lightmap in tool. I don't know where these shadows are coming from, because the sky polygons are completely flat. And im pretty sure the smoothing is even as well (or else it would look bad in 3dsmax and the uvw's would be off).

So, what the hell?

[L0d3x]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought that in radiosity you had to set the value higher to improve lighting quality.

It literally says so in the HEK tutorial, you should run it at 0 1 for your final version, that's what it says somewhere.

If you run it on a low number like 0 0.0001 then the light won't 'bounce' as much and this I think is creating your shadow things, though technically it's just a patch of dirt that didn't get litten by the radiosity process.

Cheers

[TheSeventhCircle]

L0d3x,

the first number is the quality (0,1) 0 is draft, 1 is final
what this refers to is the size of the lightmap created. 0 creates a map 256 pixels wide, while the 1 creates a map 1024 pixels wide (i think, could be 512). but the point is that all that means is the size of the light map.

the second number is when the radiosity should stop. Radiosity counts down, so 0 would be full radiosity done. 0.000001 is the closest you can get to 0 in tool.

so doing a 0 0.000001 lightmap in tool would give u full radiosity on a smaller pixel size than quality "1". This just means there wont be a lot of detail, but is no reason for these strange shadows.

[L0d3x]

Ah okay it seems I was misinformed. Thanks for the explanation though, unfortunately this means I cannot help you with this problem...

[llamaboy772]

This is impressive? No, no it's not. What this is is an eye sore. Please learn to model and texture better before making another map. I don't want to be an ass, but I'm not going to lie to you like the rest of these noobs.

[Cryticfarm]

I agree with llama_boy, it looks pretty ugly, acceptable for a first, but still ugly. Your textures looks odd, and t he model is really weird. The uvs are messed up on some parts as well.

[nick247]

9/10

[SHOUTrvb]

Llama, nowhere in that post did you actually help him get better. True that the comments above are a little one sided and the map honestly isn't fantastic, but for a first, it's sure as hell not awful. T7C: Consider this a first draft. Get what you want done, then go back through and try to improve on the models and textures. It has potential.