Quake3World

Another thing is that those shots are plagued by Q4 bland lighting. I'm assuming you haven't actually tweaked lighting yet, but when you do, try to make it more dynamic and interesting (partly by lowering your ambient/sky light).

o'dium wrote:Its just looking dull and uninteresting, flat... Any ideas...?

I actually think it's looking pretty cool. Q3 in Q4.

How about making that walkway and/or the floor sections around it some sort of grid/grate/mesh/something over the lava that pools under the entire area? You could do some funky things by using the lava as the primary direction/source of lighting (and yeah, toning down the ambient and using more directional lighting would probably be good).

build a forge dammit!

needs a lavafall from the rocks and maybe a really tall spire over top of the jump pad. that path way is dull, grey, and flat... maybe some bright color on the upper level walls

A lava fall wouldn't work, simply because lava doesn't really do that unless its going into a pool. Doing it here wouldn't make sense because the gap wouldn't fill up? The floor lacks decals and detail and such, thats why its a little flat.

Also make the missing blocks on the wall wrap around the corner, and make the missing tiles in the floor look as though something hit that area, like a large boulder or something.

Good ideas, both will be done in a tick.

Another thing is that those shots are plagued by Q4 bland lighting. I'm assuming you haven't actually tweaked lighting yet, but when you do, try to make it more dynamic and interesting (partly by lowering your ambient/sky light).

Lighting will be done last. Its looking a lot better since I added a vaint fog over the whole level, it just seems to have atmosphere now. The lighting is also static in these pics; You cant see the light wobbling from the fires, or the sky light with its clouds passing over.

How about making that walkway and/or the floor sections around it some sort of grid/grate/mesh/something over the lava that pools under the entire area? You could do some funky things by using the lava as the primary direction/source of lighting (and yeah, toning down the ambient and using more directional lighting would probably be good).

Well, i've added a grate/lava pool up by the jump pad that lights the area up a bit. Problem is that you cant do to much because it looks messy.

Little update:





And an overhead view of the layout so far (still small I know):

o'dium wrote:Its just looking dull and uninteresting, flat... Any ideas...?

* Change parts of the colour schemes. Make the rocks grey instead of brown. Your base overal colour scheme is brown, brown and more brown. break it up with at least 2 other colours.
* Use the torches for corridors only and create yellow glowing pentagrams for wall lights. Make fire pits for wide open areas to suggest light.
* Add skulls or bones poking out from walls or floors. Suggest the structure was made from human bone parts. (demonic)
* Add more incidental details on the horizon. Maybe add stuff floating in the sky above.
* Add chains to supports or structures
* Break the corners of the building (model it)

Sock

Routes seem smooth and circular.. Like a DM map? Kinda hard to imagine which part of this will "lead to the other CTF base", etc..

GODLIKE wrote:Routes seem smooth and circular.. Like a DM map? Kinda hard to imagine which part of this will "lead to the other CTF base", etc..

Maybe because I... erm... I may of like... erm... Changed it to a tourney/DM map, instead...

*cough*

Drop the fog, it looks better without then with. Also, try Sock his suggestions.

The terrain corner is almost straight from top to bottom. Try to vary the height so it looks more natural.

The damage to the wall and floor look out of place. Probably due to the clean look of the map. Perhaps some decals can bring some variation.

riddla wrote:I predict this will be the next never-finished odium project.

Funny, seeing as OD is in full swing, Q2E is being worked on by another team, and I'm working on this now...

I've yet to download a single custom Q4 map - this could change things. :icon14:

Feck, sorry people, been playing Gears so much I forgot about this...

*picks back up*

lmae....

ok... not.... no apologies necessary....

I'm not the first person on these boards to stop working on something because of that damn Game

Because some of you said the broken floor doesn't look like its broke at all:

[lvlshot]http://www.quake2evolved.com/odium/odctf1_theme19.jpg[/lvlshot]

This is looking great o'dium! I also wish I could do stuff like this. You should write a tutorial.

It just keeps on getting better =)

The floor is a little unconvincing though (broken tiles)

It looks like a small but heavy blunt object dropped on a small section of the tiles in the bottom left hand area of the broken tile section.
However, if that were the case it should just be a few cracked tiles... maybe about a 3x3 square.

The broken area, however, is a 4x4 square area. Try making the circular break pattern bigger and have its epicenter smack dab in the middle of the dirt where there aren't any tiles. And if possible, have the inner tile edges sunk down into the ground in the direction of the epicenter and the edges of these inner tiles furthest away from the epicenter should raise up from the ground a little. This will give it a look of something big and heavy that caused the tiles to be forced into the ground as well as cracking the ones not close enough to be completely obliterated. =)

Besides that, excellent work once again. :icon14:

Or, you could work on actually making the map layout work, and go back to artistic details at the end? I realize you're an artsy kind of dude, tho..

I like levels where things have been "taken apart" somewhat, it adds to the overall atmosphere. I think the 'large cracked slabs of stone' theme sets up some nice opportunities for trick-jump-friendly areas, too.

Looking nice.. Keep it going.

yeah.
Paying way too much attention to art detail has resulted in way too many unfinished maps for me. Actually, all of my maps are unfinished because I work too much on the art.

Ohhhhhhhhh believe me, I know... I get way to into making sure that the trims are aligned instead of the damn brush work heh... I'll try and work on the layout. Theres a whole other area I haven't shown you yet anyway... I just cant stand showing bland pics is all.

Yeah yeah yeah... I know I'm supposed to be working on the layout etc. I'm doing whatever my mood takes me. Been busy of late with other things

Anyway, removed the broken wall stuff up top, and went for a more Q3 ish organic feel:

WIP:

It looks great, keep it up! I think you should continue working on the theme, until you're satisfied with it. Layout can always be planned later.

If you're modelling that corner anyway.. Why not let yourself go and lose the 'wall' structure underneath.. if it's organic, let it bubble out like wobbly cellulite..

Re: layout: if you do it last, you'll basically be restarting the level, with a fistful of art assets to re-use. That's not all bad, but for gameplay, layout should be an early goal.. or you're just making work for yourself.

I agree with godlike's comments, get the layout right first then add your visual style to the map. You seem to have the visual and artistic ability to create your own custom assets, that will just be a bonus in the long run.

As for what you currently have I personally am liking the organic theme and I think Q4 needs more of that to make it stand out from the rest of the tech themed maps out for it.