Screenshots

[sock]

Nice concrete textures. I can haz?

OMG you texture hoarder! One day I hope you publish something with those half a million textures you have squirrelled away on your HD!

@phantazm11, interesting start, but where is it going?
@Kaz, Nice looking architecture, but what about better shadows? lightmapscale? Also why are all the windows black? Can't you setup a nice bright skybox outside? could be nice to see some bright light pouring in through small glass windows. Also having a good skybox will give you a better idea of window placement so you can get maximum light shadow benefit.
@Camel, Cool stargate system, but I just can't see this working for DM/CTF gameplay, it feels like a SP only event.

[phantazm11]

obsidian: I sent you a pm.

sock: I'm thinking I can create a decent 1v1 layout set in and around the immediate grounds of an abandoned hotel. Inspiration comes from Donkey's and InsaneKid's recent maps, and The Doom That Came to Dunwich that you posted about in another thread.

I worked it all out in my head...yeah, it's going to work

[Anthem]

Camel: I want to encourage you to consider converting that map into a run map for defrag. That map was the most creative theme for a map hands down. Sadly, the gameplay isn't good with that idea.

[dubz]

more of you guys should start doing defrag maps. its such a shame to have thousands of DM maps that dont get played.

check out this page: http://www.breakdown-hq.com/

lots of people maping for the mod and lots of players playing the maps and competing. i think most players play with picmip 0, which in dm maps again is such a shame when mapers put so much effort into looks when it doesnt really matter when everyone just plays with picmip 10. in defrag your efforts will be apreciated

@sock, theres some puzzle maps too or whatever you call them, so you should definelty post the map on the breakdown-hq site.

[camel]

Camel: I want to encourage you to consider converting that map into a run map for defrag. That map was the most creative theme for a map hands down. Sadly, the gameplay isn't good with that idea.

I dont play defrag at all
also about the gameplay, did you tested map with some friends?

This map is big, it needs to be played with atleast 12 players

btw I am planning to make a smaller version of this map without stargates and fancy teleporters,
I will combine 2 sections togheter, it will be non ctf map, but dm, tdm, freeze tag map.

[dONKEY]

phantazm11, is that dome textured with a single image? I tried something like that before but couldn't quite get it right.

[obsidian]

The dome is probably a model.

[phantazm11]

The dome is a model with a single texture. Took me most of a day to get the shader working the way I wanted it to. Will change the env map when I get the entire room built.

[edit] I'm not sure that the "window edges" are casting shadows, though I've used surfaceparm alphashadow.

[obsidian]

_castshadows 1 or _cs 1 on the model's entity key.

[Kaz]

Phantazm11: looking snazzy, i esp. like the green texture

Trudging along, these shots are unfinished structurally/detail/lighting wise, I'm trying to get the second half of the layout finished. Fortunately the way I've built everything so far serves as a guide on how to connect the rest of the map:

Center Area - going to stick some important item here
[lvlshot]http://student.cs.appstate.edu/freemancw/junk/shot0089.jpg[/lvlshot]

You can do some fancy CPMA jumping here
[lvlshot]http://student.cs.appstate.edu/freemancw/junk/shot0090.jpg[/lvlshot]

Center again, looking up - going to have to make a super cool ceiling/sky to this section
[lvlshot]http://student.cs.appstate.edu/freemancw/junk/shot0092.jpg[/lvlshot]

[monaster]

Just a bunch of some screenshots of all the maps I'm currently working on to contribute more pics to this thread:
Texture work is by no mean completed, be warned. Some maps are already halfway done, others might be on their way to a 1% completion.
All screenshots I'll be posting in the near future will be "collected" in this thread ( Monaster's Maps). Hope this goes ok?
[several screens following]


MOD EDIT: I'm sorry if I removed all the images (they are linked in the aforementioned thread), but at 1600x1200 and with a few dozen screenshots, I really got tired of reloading every single one of these every time I try to read this page. Even on a high-speed connection, the amount of pictures being cached was annoying as was watching the page jump around when I'm trying to read something at the bottom of the page and the pictures STILL haven't finished loading.

Please refrain from posting very large images, either link them or resize them. Much obliged.

-Obsidian

Oh my! Sorry obsidian, I didn't know it really takes that long otherwise I would have scaled them down. Although my internet access is running on a very old system (less than 1GHz CPU) it seems that my fast connection is a big advantage nonetheless.
Now that I'm aware of it, I'll post smaller screens in the future (or at least not 20 of them at a time ).

@monaster, don't you have your own thread already with all those screenshots!?!

Yes I have, but I thought that it's quite normal that mappers post several screenshots for one project into the screenshot-thread and open up a seperate one too to not let it get too ripped apart if there's a long time between their screenie uploads and thus other mappers are posting in the meantime. But I guess my bunch of 500 or so screenshots looked rather stupid because they came all at a time. So what I'll be doing from now on is to post "compilation shots" (just as Aeon does in some threads) and the bigger screenshots are one by one to be found in the "Monaster's Maps" thread. What about this? I hope it goes okay this time.

EDIT: Made quote work and corrected some [sizes]

[monaster]

New Screenshots from on of my biggest projects, city:.
I grouped them so that there'll be only 5 pics loading here, much like a graphical index. If you wanna see these screenshots one by one, just click here, that's the thread dedicated to all my quake maps I'm currently working on.

[lvlshot]http://resiyoyoyo.bplaced.com/pics_pub/Q3A_own/city_scrncoll_1_1.jpg[/lvlshot]

[lvlshot]http://resiyoyoyo.bplaced.com/pics_pub/Q3A_own/city_scrncoll_1_2.jpg[/lvlshot]

[lvlshot]http://resiyoyoyo.bplaced.com/pics_pub/Q3A_own/city_scrncoll_1_3.jpg[/lvlshot]

[lvlshot]http://resiyoyoyo.bplaced.com/pics_pub/Q3A_own/city_scrncoll_1_4.jpg[/lvlshot]


(Edit:Turned that levelshot temporarily to a link since it was quite big, I'll upload a jpg soon.
Edit2: Used a .png indstead, but it's working now. Almost forgot about that one.)
I'll upload the other screenshots for the MM-thread today or tomorrow. --done!

[AEon]

On posting images:

• Hmm... we had another thread with tons of shots, and I could *never* load them all either.
  
  Here the above collages will not completely load (I see about 20% of each shot) using Firefox v3.5.6... might be some caching setting or my slow connect 45KB/s just "gives" up loading the images completely (or the image server simply stops the upload of the images to my brower).
  
  More important than size is actually to save the images at reduced JPG quality (60%-80%) to keep each image at around 100KB-150KB. But I always still recommend images to be 640x max (to not mess up the forum width), and only use larger images if details *really* need to be shown. Larger images should *always* be placed in a [ lvlshot ] tag pair, this will scale the image width to 640x (but not change the image!).
  
  Also, personally, I'd only post shots here if you are *not* planning to create a separate thread, e.g. working on ideas that are not going to be maps, or are very far into the future. It is much more convenient to have all related images sorted into a new dedicated thread, IMO.

[obsidian]

Agreed. BMP files are not compressed and not ideal for web. JPG are ideal for most cases (sometimes PNG).

You can always post a tiny picture and link to a bigger one, like what o'dium is doing above.

[obsidian]

BTW, sometimes you just have to start from scratch (before and after comparison). I think I redid this texture 3-4 times using a bunch of different techniques, everything from hand painting to modeling them in 3ds Max, rendering black and white to texture and colouring them back inside Photoshop. Full texture is 1024x1024.

[Theftbot]

Ill take a "3ds" export of them.-if you dont mind obsidian.

[AEon]

obsidian,
are any of your textures downloadable, even if the "pack" may still be beta?

[cityy]

Would be awesome if you would offer them for quake 3 mapping :/

[sock]

In between the food and drink festive excess I have had some time to do some detailing on this old familiar area, which I have featured in many screenshots. (Sort of a benchmark progress screenshot) Getting close to the end of this map, I am hoping to finish it for the beginning of the new year!

[lvlshot]http://www.simonoc.com/images/design/maps_q3/moteof1ei1.jpg[/lvlshot]

[lvlshot]http://www.simonoc.com/images/design/maps_q3/moteof1ei2.jpg[/lvlshot]

@obs, that is a damn fine brick textures. It would be nice to see it on some geometry in a scene.

[AEon]

Sock,
From the screens it's hard to tell, but I am guessing you created a portal sky that contains fog? and the mountain geometry seen through the windows? Nifty.

[monaster]

On posting images:Hmm... we had another thread with tons of shots, and I could *never* load them all either.
Here the above collages will not completely load (I see about 20% of each shot) using Firefox v3.5.6... might be some caching setting or my slow connect 45KB/s just "gives" up loading the images completely (or the image server simply stops the upload of the images to my brower).

Interesting, since I've tested both Opera 8.5 and FF3.5.2 and I can always display everything that's been posted on this forum -ever. Is anyone else having the same problem. At least that would partly explain why I never got any feedback on any of my screenshots except once . I don't think that it's a problem with the image server since lycos offers unlimited bandwith and runs surprisingly smooth these days.

More important than size is actually to save the images at reduced JPG quality (60%-80%) to keep each image at around 100KB-150KB. But I always still recommend images to be 640x max (to not mess up the forum width), and only use larger images if details *really* need to be shown.

That's the reason why I usually upload bigger images (thus lvlsht'ing them) since I don't know when I consider a map to be good enough for publication which prolongues a possible release date even more. Therefor I want to show as much as possible through screenshots so people can get an idea of what my bigger projects look like, even without any bsp or map files. Good thing that my latest screenies are actually around that size of 150-200 (sometimes more).

Also, personally, I'd only post shots here if you are *not* planning to create a separate thread, e.g. working on ideas that are not going to be maps, or are very far into the future. It is much more convenient to have all related images sorted into a new dedicated thread, IMO.

Understood, even if the release of most of my maps is reaching indeed very far into the future. I'll see what I can do with the Monaster's Maps thread so that you can see it in its full "glory" (I believe you meant that certain thread with "tons of shots"?).

@sock: New Year's Eve's going to be much better with your awsome looking map, sock. Really looking forward to see the final result.

[Delirium]

Would be awesome if you would offer them for quake 3 mapping :/

that would be more than wonderfull =)

[cityy]

[lvlshot]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9202/shot0001u.jpg[/lvlshot]

I am currently trying to create some textures for q3ct4.

Edit:

New shot (:

[lvlshot]http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/5650/shot0002r.jpg[/lvlshot]

[sock]

At least that would partly explain why I never got any feedback on any of my screenshots except once

Well your screenshots have several problems:
1) Crazy large filesize to view/download. Nobody wants to spend ages waiting for screenshots to load, especially ones that look unfinished. Not everyone has a 10Mb internet connection and large part of the world are still struggling with <256K ADSL, so trying to download a 1.5Mb screenshot is just frustrating.
2) Your screenshots always looked rushed, unfinished, hardly any shadows or light contrast and countless broken textures. A screenshot is suppose to give people an idea of what you are doing and a visual presentation of what to expect. I suspect you are so eager to share what you are doing that you are just taking snapshots (a rough screenshot used for testing) and not being patient and waiting till you got something done.
3) Actually finish a small corner of something and make it look good. Test your lighting, apply textures and make it look amazing. Once you have people's attention then they will look past the rough stuff and give feedback. Remember your screenshot should be a hook to get people interested in what you are doing, not something that makes them turn away.

I am currently trying to create some textures for q3ct4.

What theme are you trying to do? What style of architecture are the textures suppose to work with? Why post this in general screenshots when you have a thread dedicated to your map already! If you really want to understand how textures work then I highly recommend you start with creating something with a ID texture set first before trying something brand new. There are alot of lessons to be learn't from using an existing set.
For example: see how the horzontial/vertical lines in the textures are mostly on the editor grid so that they can work across brush/patch edges. See how the overall texture colour palette works together and do not look like a cranky steve disco collection. Work out how to solve large wall surfaces with texture detail, get use to a grid scale (16/32 trims, 128 blocks etc) Understand texture scaling across edges (0.35 scale across 45 degree surfaces) and texture alignment rotation tricks (27/45/63 angles).
My point being, if you spend time understanding how an existing texture set works, you will be in a a lot better position to understand how to create your own texture set next.

[obsidian]

The reason I haven't released the textures yet is because they are going into a rather large texture pack that are mostly hand painted/generated from scratch and there is quite a bit of work and reworking to make sure all the textures match as far as tone and shade. So I do find myself doing minor adjustments from time to time.

If anyone wants any of the textures I've posted it their current progress, just let me know and I'll send them to you.

Once I'm done with the whole package, I'll be sure to share them (though may not be for a while, as you guys know I'm notoriously too much of a perfectionist).