Mapping Contest: "UT99.org Xmas 2012 Mapping Contest"

[DeathoX 8]

Swanky you're a rocket! Looks nice, can't wait to play it

I have worked on my map for quite a while and I'm still in cheese land, still not done with geometry although it's slowly getting there... the most unfinished part at the moment is everything after the normal Bluff ending, including the boss battle. The prisons/Krall cellars zone is also quite rough, while the underground part is nearly complete.
There's an additional part that I'm leaving last, I can cut it easily if I'm starved for time.
Of course this is only the geometry! I'll probably miss the deadline by a long shot...

I've had a nice Nodes.Num()<=MAX_NODES message but luckily it was just because I accidentally hit the rebuild Geometry instead of Rebuild All (ignoring groups and hidden objects), I have some duplicate geometry that adds up quite some nodes...


Edit: looks nice jaypeezy! With the current lighting I prefer the lighter skybox, it's IMO a bit too bright to have such a dark night sky. If it would be me I would try using a less saturated texture (not so blue )

[jaypeezy]

Deth: Dang... all that cheese My hat goes off to you in advance for the work ahead of you. But it's definitely gonna be worth it. Are you making a snow-themed MH map?

I think I'm changing the lighting in the map. I don't want it to be so blue after all...

ALSO: I'm putting these resources up for anyone who wants them:
http://www.mapraider.com/maps/?fileid=4684 <- DM-AlpineCrimbo. This map contains an awesome snow generator, you set the radius as well as the intensity and size of the particles. Not sure if you can change the texture for the particles...

http://www.unrealplayground.com/forums/ ... hp?t=33744 <- DM-CustomActors. This map contains a Footstep Zoneinfo Actor, you can use it to modify the sounds that bots/players' footsteps will make in-game. You still have to zone off what portions you don't want affected by this actor, but for the trouble of going through that the effects are rather convincing. Only problem is, landing noises aren't taken into account... but there's a way around that. Write back if you're interested!

I have no idea if either of these resources work online.

[Ozma777]

sorry for posting back so soon but I just gotta ask this after seeing so many screenshots of the default UT texture all over the whole map (ie cheese land)

how and why did you do it that way?
I just opened 2 editors with the same map to copy "from" then after copyfrommap.unr was opened in both editors I opened mymap.unr in one editor then used the other one to copy from.

That way you can copy and paste the map parts exactly as they were...
avoiding cheeseland. You can also throw them in a build room and intersect them too, just keeping at least some of the textures.

[papercoffee]

@ Ozma777
He is doing the architecture first and texture it later ...I can't imagine how this work ...but I think he planned the whole map in advance.


New Wip screenshot of my map. (yes I am slow)
As told already the game-play will be little different... there will be no middle part like in DM-Morpheus ...but wooden planks and bridges around the three Rock parts like in DM-Peak.
But I think I will screw up the bot pathing again ...I'll need help there ...I'm certain.

[Swanky]

Hm. I ran into an interesting problem this morning: A certain playerstart - two in each base, and they are all in the same area within each base - will only initially work at first spawn, after that, it seems to deactivate and I've got no idea how to correct that (replacing with a new playerstart actor does not work) as the network is fully operational and working.
€ I think I can narrow it down a little. Seems the effect is happening if a player is killed in the same zone in that it should respawn -> it will most likely respawn in another zone if possible. I have to experiment with that.
€2 The theory is proven right. The game will always attempt to let you respawn in a different zone than the one you died in. -> I added in two more zones and thus players are spawned there regularly as well. \o/
€3 With everything now working as intended, here is that last shot someone was requesting. It shows the map, top view on a 6vs6 Masterful botmatch, about 1/3 into the game. As you can see by all the weapon decals, the action is pretty spread out.
€4 No fapping guys!

[Ozma777]

sort of....I just cut and paste, line them up to my terrain. I had NO idea what it was going to look like or even which parts of epic maps I was going to use...just random really like a puzzle...put em where they fit. (I just hope it all works and is fun to play in the end) I was going to retexture all, but I'm out of time I think.
Although retexturing will be like select matching texture and change all to a different one for the most part.

omg bot pathing...I totally forgot! Thats gonna be some work!

[Isotoxin]

Aight, so done some rework on the lighting, also created some additional jumppads. Hey I like pipes!

[Swanky]

That image is not working (unfortunately). With which actor are you doing jumppads?
€ now the image works. Looking good, but could use more light and contrast. Change the flares to something from genfx.utx (select lighting->brightness 0 and colorlevel as desired). Some lamps need to be brighter. If standard lights with high brightness und low radius don't work, try a single light with bspeciallit -> true and the desired lamp texture flagged as speciallit. Your Detail level is alright. Maybe you could add a few more structures to the rocks and link them with the main platform? Above question is still standing.

€2 My question about where to upload the map is still unanswered. I can post an open link here or I could send the map via PN. It's your call, but I sure would be grateful to know how this will work.

[Isotoxin]

That image is not working (unfortunately). With which actor are you doing jumppads?
€ now the image works. Looking good, but could use more light and contrast. Change the flares to something from genfx.utx (select lighting->brightness 0 and colorlevel as desired). Some lamps need to be brighter. If standard lights with high brightness und low radius don't work, try a single light with bspeciallit -> true and the desired lamp texture flagged as speciallit. Your Detail level is alright. Maybe you could add a few more structures to the rocks and link them with the main platform? Above question is still standing.

€2 My question about where to upload the map is still unanswered. I can post an open link here or I could send the map via PN. It's your call, but I sure would be grateful to know how this will work.

I'm using the swjumpad, but that doesn't really seem to work out real well, as it always bounches me up against the bsp.... Furthermore, great idea with the rocks, i'll be trying that for sure! And yeh, the lighting still looks real dull, need to get that better, however I suck at that.

[Swanky]

First, lever the end point of the swjumppad atop the floor, then make sure that the jump degree of the root actor shoots you into the air high enough. 90° is straight into the air, depending on the angle, 70 to 80 degrees should be fine.

[{dFb}VanQuisher]

Hm. I ran into an interesting problem this morning: A certain playerstart - two in each base, and they are all in the same area within each base - will only initially work at first spawn, after that, it seems to deactivate and I've got no idea how to correct that (replacing with a new playerstart actor does not work) as the network is fully operational and working.
€ I think I can narrow it down a little. Seems the effect is happening if a player is killed in the same zone in that it should respawn -> it will most likely respawn in another zone if possible. I have to experiment with that.
€2 The theory is proven right. The game will always attempt to let you respawn in a different zone than the one you died in. -> I added in two more zones and thus players are spawned there regularly as well. \o/
€3 With everything now working as intended, here is that last shot someone was requesting. It shows the map, top view on a 6vs6 Masterful botmatch, about 1/3 into the game. As you can see by all the weapon decals, the action is pretty spread out.
€4 No fapping guys!

Have you noticed if a bot is near the spawn point your not spawning back into ? I know if there is a bot near the spawn point it will direct you to the next player start in the map .

If the spawn point is lets say #1 and a player or bot is next to or in that area ,It will find spawn point #2 and place you there unless there is also a player or bot there then it will look at #3 and spawn you there , So on and so fourth .

Map is looking great by the way .You might give it a server test with real players and see if your problem really effects the game play .
Might not even matter in the end when everyone is in game .

[Swanky]

Have you noticed if a bot is near the spawn point your not spawning back into ? I know if there is a bot near the spawn point it will direct you to the next player start in the map .

If the spawn point is lets say #1 and a player or bot is next to or in that area ,It will find spawn point #2 and place you there unless there is also a player or bot there then it will look at #3 and spawn you there , So on and so fourth .

Map is looking great by the way .You might give it a server test with real players and see if your problem really effects the game play .
Might not even matter in the end when everyone is in game .

Playerstarts are almost all quite out of the way, yet close enough to get into the action fast. The spawning problem on my map was soleily based on the zoning problematic and is already solved. It won't affect gameplay. As for server tests, I will send you the map once it's clarified if such an open beta test is true to the contest rules and how the packaging will be handled.

[{dFb}VanQuisher]

Good deal .We all are curios about where to submit maps .

Please do send us a copy when you are finished or a link to download it when you are ready .
All the screen shots makes me want to click the little joy stick in the editor and play it now ,then i realize it is just a screen shot .lol

[FraGnBraG]

@swanky - not too sure about that - my observation is spawns are triggered based on proximity of other bots and available guns/pickup at the time of spawn. I have never observed zones affecting things as you noticed... just saying i've never seen that. i'll presume the path network is not too huge. just to be sure, if you check the logs and see any of those "1000 path nodes reached" messages, then consider the path network to be "broken" and likely to have mal-functions. If the log is clear of path-related errors then god knows what the problem is...

Good job finishing already - map looks like a great addition to your catalog, I know i will enjoy it just as much as your many other excellent works

As for server tests - you can just run your UT99 as a host, then connect to it (same machine) and run the test matches that way. Any issues with packages or scripts will show up in that mode, then it's easier to fix, then re-test etc without having to do any uploading. If your map works flawlessly in "host mode" then it should work in an online "host" just as well

@deathox - go man go!!!! you are definitely one whole level of crazy more than me, lol!!! pretty cool stuff - i can actually recognize those areas now, in spite of all the cheese

@gen - pretty please get a submission thread going

[Isotoxin]

@swanky - not too sure about that - my observation is spawns are triggered based on proximity of other bots and available guns/pickup at the time of spawn. I have never observed zones affecting things as you noticed... just saying i've never seen that. i'll presume the path network is not too huge. just to be sure, if you check the logs and see any of those "1000 path nodes reached" messages, then consider the path network to be "broken" and likely to have mal-functions. If the log is clear of path-related errors then god knows what the problem is...

Good job finishing already - map looks like a great addition to your catalog, I know i will enjoy it just as much as your many other excellent works

As for server tests - you can just run your UT99 as a host, then connect to it (same machine) and run the test matches that way. Any issues with packages or scripts will show up in that mode, then it's easier to fix, then re-test etc without having to do any uploading. If your map works flawlessly in "host mode" then it should work in an online "host" just as well

@deathox - go man go!!!! you are definitely one whole level of crazy more than me, lol!!! pretty cool stuff - i can actually recognize those areas now, in spite of all the cheese

@gen - pretty please get a submission thread going

And what about writing a feedback about my stuff?!