"City-13" map released by Freeman a.k.a. Flynn

[Flynn(Snarkpit)]

Hello peeps, after a year of on and off work I have finally finished my first H-L 2 map, and conquered many challenges along the way. You can have a read about it here: http://www.snarkpit.net/maps.php?map=2738 Or go straight to download it here: www.freefilehost.co.uk/678658 or here: www.t3rbo.com/file.php?file=b3a2580f7dfecfdf0a51604e4c15eb1d Alternatively you can view some screenshots right here:

 

[63]

Wow.

 

[jondy]

Crumbs.

 

[JNightshade]

No hard feelings man, but it's a bit fugly :S

 

[kupocake]

The lighting doesn't look natural, the texturing looks entirely random (stately home roof in a tenement?) and poorly scaled, the scaling of the city architecture looks very wrong and the world looks very, very empty with too many simple props and wide-open spaces.

 

[Ennui]

so you've got the basics down... now learn to make it look good. the lighting is pretty bad in the last two shots. remember, atmospheric lighting is a must. it doesn't just need to not look crappy, it needs to look good. your texturing isn't that great. the wall in the first shot is obviously not meant to be tiled vertically and it looks bad. the second room's ceiling is a major WTF, and in the third one, it looks like it's on the doom engine. first, on the left building, there are windows whose tops are about six inches from the roof. it's blatantly unrealistic and it really jumps out at you. there's also NO texture variation to be seen - you need to break up the tile with different variations on the texture, overlays, decals, etc. the geometry is probably the most decent (though I have to see your brushwork to be sure... neatness is everything) but still there are some major problems. the scaling in the last shot looks very bad. the road is about 20 lanes wide, and when was the last time you saw a road whose buildings were ALL single boxes? you need a lot more than one brush to make a building. I'd say you have about the same amount of faces in that entire third screenshot that I would have on one or two buildings. same with the second shot. most rooms aren't just squares, there are little alcoves and places where the wall juts out. The ceiling there is also a bit high, but that's not necessarily a problem. as for props, you need a lot more of them. The floating tables/shelves in the second shot, which, aside from lacking any visible means of support, also need to have stuff on them, at least a couple of bottles or pans. Pipes, lights, plants, whatever you want, just break up the monotony. The third shot needs a LOT of stuff. Cars, trash, pipes, telephone poles, lightpoles, dumpsters, barrels, boxes, whatever you want.

You have a long way to go before this map is of release-quality, judging from those shots.

 

[Flynn(Snarkpit)]

Thanks, I'll take that all into account:naughty:

 

[Mutley]

That's good for a first map, keep it up!

 

[Flynn(Snarkpit)]

Fancy a go?

 

[Flynn(Snarkpit)]

The lighting doesn't look natural, the texturing looks entirely random (stately home roof in a tenement?) and poorly scaled, the scaling of the city architecture looks very wrong and the world looks very, very empty with too many simple props and wide-open spaces.

Yeah lighting always been abit of a grey area for me. What must I do to improve the lighting outdoors?

 

[kupocake]

Yeah lighting always been abit of a grey area for me. What must I do to improve the lighting outdoors?

I wish I knew, then i'd consider starting to think about making a map It's only something I can, see is wrong, not something I can tell you how to fix. Sorry bout that

edit: my hunch is that you should use a lot less colour in your lighting though. whilst coloured lighting can be what makes a well-lit map look fantastic, it only works if used very subtly.

 

[Flynn(Snarkpit)]

Oh right, I'll give that a shot 8=]

 

[-Psy-]

Just look on the Interlopers site for HL2 Skynames and Environmental Lighting Settings.

They are all you need for good out-door lighting.

 

[Flynn(Snarkpit)]

Yeah, I peeped them on the Valve wkii.

 

[XIII]

look kinda empty but still...good job

 

[Flynn(Snarkpit)]

Thanks my nig, I appreciate the feedback