Screenshots

[mac]

thoose are mp maps i made for an rts called paraworld (http://www.paraworld.com/)

the company doesnt exist anymore (the game sold just roughly 35k units with developing costs ~8millions)
so you can get the game pretty cheap.. its actualy one of the few games i worked on which i actualy enjoyed playing.

[dichtfux]

Some of the screenies on that site look really freaked out. I'm downloading the demo.

@Almighty: Yeeehaaa, there's already a flag in there! Beta soon?

[urgrund777]

looks really nice mac, was the engine developed 3rd party, or was it dev'd internally?

[dichtfux]

From the FAQ on the website:

Q: Which Graphics Engine is used for ParaWorld?
A: The SEK developed an Engine called "PEST" especially for the game.

[wattro]

mac, that looks ace. you're work and the environments stand out significantly in that game

off-topic: no offense, but i can see why the game didn't sell well. a gate to parallel worlds but only one parallel world is used? it could have been a much more interesting game with many parallel worlds all coming toogether through these gates and threatening earth's existence. there's probably lots of cool ideas you could do with this, but basically imagine being able to augment dinosaurs with alien technology or creating a super race of intelligent cockroaches and insects to infest another world. i'm kinda thinking xcom/ufo meets paraworld meets syndicate. probably a lot more work

[mac]

well there are acouple reasons why the game didn't sell.. but it wasnt the mediocre storyline.. had more todo with barely no marketing and other "wise" descisions..

[Chi]

the game dit get good reviews iirc, and was way more original then al the wwII/futuristic rts games lately.

to bad it had to go this way, I didn't know

[seremtan]

heigh ho, must be time for some more WIP shots of my HL2SP project

here's the central arena of the totally re-made map #1. the trick is to get from bottom left to top right without getting creaming by the gunship, and then shoot the fucker down with rockets (it's nowhere near finished btw)

[lvlshot]http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/528/centre001qk6.jpg[/lvlshot]

here's a new building i made on sunday, inspired by the world's tallest wooden building (in russia, owned by an ex-gangster who built it himself piecemeal). the roof design is a total rip-off of his roof so he'll probably send round one of his mafia buddies to grease me at some point

[lvlshot]http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2851/centre002kz2.jpg[/lvlshot]

and finally, the same building seen from the leech-infested water you won't want to fall into once i've put the hurt trigger down there...

[lvlshot]http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/5771/centre003jj6.jpg[/lvlshot]

the lighting isn't final btw. i used the default settings for a skybox in the game but may tone down the yellow a bit

[Method]

seremtan: Looks interesting. I feel like it's missing some of the mist/fog that's seen on the beaches. Althoguh I know you said it's not finished.

http://www.boddie.org.uk/travel/iceland ... d-mist.jpg
http://climate.uvic.ca/climate-lab/fron ... g.lrg.jpeg

Also looking at movie City Of Lost Children will help with inspiration. Similar style as you used. I hope you don't mind that I quickly painted on top of your shot to show what I mean (rough idea):



Maybe have some lights from the windows (green/yellow). Will add to atmosphere as well.

-Method

[seremtan]

whoa, pretty good idea with the lights. i've just darkened the light_environment a bit to increase the contrast. actually, when the gunship attacks a warning klaxon sounds, and having some little green sprites up and down the central tower turn red for danger would look groovy

the fog would be nice but for two things: the fog volume in HL2 is not well-implemented, and apparently has a serious frame hit, plus the running +showbudget while looking down at that water shows a massive hit on the frame buffer scale, and the fps drops dramatically. i'd love to add fog but every time the player looks down...

however, i am going to try using the nifty dustcloud/dustmotes volumes instead

edit: incidentally, the level is already fogged globally, but the fog is black (it melds with the skybox perfectly)

another edit: in fact, inspired by your quick PS, i've changed the water from the murky brown to the murky green from the canals that i used in another level. i'm liking this whole greenish matrix-esque look

yet another edit: on further investigation, it appears some people at hl2world have had some success with func_smokevolume, which has huge moving sprites. with any luck, this will provide fog without a massive fps hit

[QuakerX]

Cool stuff, seremtan. Beach settings are always interesting and you've done a nice job with this one. I really dig the rooftops.

I also agree with what Method posted. I feel this scene is just asking for lanterns to help illuminate and make areas pop out.

Looking forward to it's release!

Quaker-X

[seremtan]

seremtan: Looks interesting. I feel like it's missing some of the mist/fog that's seen on the beaches. Althoguh I know you said it's not finished.

Maybe have some lights from the windows (green/yellow). Will add to atmosphere as well.

-Method

my first attempt at fog:



i went a bit over the top with the fog density - or, to put it another way, rendering this scene brought my SLi 7600s to their knees (10fps in that shot, <1 fps when you actually get down into it ). the fog you see in HL2 is mostly global fog, which is more efficient, and where there are wisps of animated fog (which i'm using here) they're usually over the players head or at a distance where the overdraw is minimal

p.s. you see what i mean about the frame buffer issue. there's dynamically reflective water under that fog, so it's not surprising this scene sent my GFX screaming to mummy with its thumb in its mouth

some rethinking needed because actually that fog looks awesome in-game

[wviperw]

That looks a ton better seremtan. Although it could still use a thin global fog over the entire level. I would remove the reflectiveness from the water since it really isn't getting you that much for the cost, especially with that fog down there blocking your view of it.

[Method]

Looks cool man, but the fog is too thick. How about lowering the global ambient light (if you have such a thing) and making it a dark black, so you can seperate spaces more with lights. Lights also used to guide the player, so if there's an area that you want player to explore add a light there. An example could be entrance to the wooden house.

It would be cool if you added light bounces from those flares. It looks like they don't produce any light. Also like I previously mentioned adding flares to those windows to create an illusion of light comming outta them.

Maybe lift those cables from the fog and to the non foggy area to break up the sky a bit.

If you can't get City Of Lost Children movie, I suggest to atleast searching for little bits of it on youtube. Here's one of them foggy-dock environments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1qbDVNJXbo

Good work man, keep it up.

-Method

[+JuggerNaut+]

seremtan, i think that around the density that method posted is about right. any more and you may as well have not put any work into the lower areas since you can't see shit. no reason to let that go to waste.

[seremtan]

like i said, it was a first attempt, and there's no way i'm having any fogvolume down there, not even a thin one

wviperw: as i said, it is globally fogged in black, but that screen doesn't show it since the cliffside is well within the end distance value

i think i'm going to follow valve's lead and have a thinner fogvolume higher up, or somewhere with minimal overdraw, also make the fog sprite much larger and with greater distances between sprite spawns

[seremtan]

made some major changes to the central arena, including restricting the water to one side of the blowhole (partly for gameplay reasons - to stop the player simply jumping off the cliff to progress - partly for performance reasons, and partly because it fits the plot better). the fog has been thinned and put higher up around the height of the top of the central tower (you can't see it in this screenshot)

[dnky]

I really miss water in Quake maps
Looks good, rock textures are nice. Are they game default or custom?
A couple of bits and pieces I have been working on. Both may feature in a SP map, or depending upon the tools, may be absorbed into a QW:ET idea I've been developing assets for.

The shot below was an early render I made to test some textures and models. I've posted it because it utilises probably the best normal map I've map to date. I know the ground looks a nit blurry in comparison, that was resolved a little later on.

The next shot is again more or less a render test for some models and textures I've been working on. The theme was a sort of 'dark satanic mills' idea. There is a bit of texture misalignment here and there, but I like the feel of the way things are coming together.

[+JuggerNaut+]

made some major changes to the central arena, including restricting the water to one side of the blowhole (partly for gameplay reasons - to stop the player simply jumping off the cliff to progress - partly for performance reasons, and partly because it fits the plot better). the fog has been thinned and put higher up around the height of the top of the central tower (you can't see it in this screenshot)

that's more like it! nice work

[Pext]

nice work seremtan, i like the red lights; however, i'd try to make the lighting on the roofs a bit less ambient. it seems a bit flat. maybe to bright? a shadow falling onto the huts might do the trick.

[seremtan]

yeah i've thinking about what to do with that flat lighting. i don't think i'll change the angle though. probably drop the direct light value and maybe the ambient a little too

[phantazm11]

Some screens from a Q4 single player project I'm working on.

[o'dium]

Looks bloody awesome phantazm11, very Quake IIish and dare I say it a lot better than any of the god awful Quake 4 SP levels.

Great job dude, good eye for detail!

[phantazm11]

Thanks o'dium. As you can tell I was inspired a bit by Q2.

These rooms are virtually done, and I've gotten a bit further into the level now. Will post some additional screenshots in a week or so.

Awww, Q4 sp maps weren't that bad

[Method]

phantazm11: Looks Q2'ish (in a good way), yet try and use more curves. Just several months ago I realized how blocky my maps were. So use 'em patches. Also those blue cables stick out from the rest of the map. Good work on keeping the feel consistent.

Method is back. Lately I've been learning modo and making more textures, but after seeing The City of Lost Children again, I was inspired to build something of similar atmosphere in Doom 3/Quake 4. This is WIP of few days worth of work:





Am I hitting the City of Lost Children atmosphere whoever seen the movie? Feedback is welcome,

-Method