[NerdZilla]

I still have Warz from back in the day... It was awesome then... could use an update now?

[WedgeBob]

Oh believe me, I was hoping to work on an alien prison episode FOR THE PAST TEN YEARS...maybe even longer than that. However, I just never really had the feeling of getting it done in just a good way that it would be worth playing. I mean, that's a good way of doing a Duke episode, but I just never got it to feel right. Aliens take Duke hostage, bring him to their home planet, throw him in a cell, and leave him there to rot, only to find a good way to escape. It was a great story I had planned, but it was only on paper. I've been a lowly arena mapper for the past decade, and haven't really gotten back into story-telling single player maps for quite some time, just haven't had that kind of time anymore. Dunno why...and from the looks of it, I'm probably not the only one that hasn't really gotten heavily into solo-player episodic content for a while.

The good thing about my DukeMatch arenas, tho, is that even if you're not exclusively downloading and playing the map for online multiplayer, I do throw in that boss creature so those who need the practice could go one-on-one with the boss monster. I just wasn't the kind of Dukematch mapper that wanted to be a scrooge for the single player. That most recent map was a pure example of that. I usually make it either a four or eight-player Dukematch along with a single-player option of going 1-on-1 with a boss. That should've been made standard for Duke 3D mapping for those types of maps, imo. If you're gonna have a DukeMatch map, may as well not shut out the single player completely. That's the way I see it.

[NerdZilla]

heres a map thats designed for the ship. it takes a minute to reach the other buildings. i know it's dark but i wanted to show you how long it is.
im working on designs that will use my mapping open areas. and make long nerrow maps that have alot of turns to block the veiw (for FPS) but seems like one long map for flying or driveing in.

ALSO: i got to reach the draw limit (in software). to see it you have you have to make a long nerrow map (like this one) with lots of secters. It'll just stop showing secters past that point. it seems software mode has a spite limit and draw limit... i wonder if that could be done with the real 3d GFXs?

LATE EDIT: Its a glich i found, but mite be a useful one.

[pmw]

I started to play with "spritewalls". I've done some nice job with those (I think).





Also I done pretty nice gas station map:



Please tell me if you guys would do different on those shots.

[blizzart]

 pmw, on Jan 6 2010, 04:20 AM, said:

Please tell me if you guys would do different on those shots.

Looks very good. It could use more shading.

[NerdZilla]

the map looks good.

[Gambini]

Looking good, i love the crane at the distance and that warehouse (or whatever it is) behind the wall (first shot)

[NerdZilla]

just testing out some new landscape designs. heres some bata shots. would anyone like a copy of the bata?

[Mark]

yes, I'd like to check it out.

[NerdZilla]

more bata work... im useing more inavative designs. less secters, ilands, buildings and suberbs readdy. heres a look without really working on tiles.


And now that have have a good list of parts that can be used. i'll be release a map called BuildingBlocks so that others can do there own. but i'll have to write out how to build with it. but it's simple, think LAGO.

[WedgeBob]

NerdZilla, on Jan 9 2010, 09:07 AM, said:

more bata work... im useing more inavative designs. less secters, ilands, buildings and suberbs readdy. heres a look without really working on tiles.
duke0003.jpg

And now that have have a good list of parts that can be used. i'll be release a map called BuildingBlocks so that others can do there own. but i'll have to write out how to build with it. but it's simple, think LAGO.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about... Use as little sector work as you can, and use blocked sprites for doing things like pillars, bridges, ledges, etc... It's almost like the Unreal engine, same thing...use static meshes wherever you can, and minimize the use of BSP. It'll really cut down on bottlenecking the framerate doing that...

[NerdZilla]

Heres the map with only duke tiles. Please remeber to have Nothing in Tiles014. EA: move that file.

[Sangman]

Pretty cool! All you need now is to make those building textures become more detailed as you come closer (read: from afar => black with coloured lights, from closeby => actual textures!)

[Daedolon]

Those screens remind me of SimCopter (which I love).

[NerdZilla]

The Fighting Citys, this map has to have the record. It's ment for a team matchs. Protect your city that looks like theres. From those Nukem invaders that look like you.

[Danukem]

So the map has gameplay right now? There aren't any visible sprites in those screens you posted.

[NerdZilla]

DeeperThought, on Jan 9 2010, 06:21 PM, said:

So the map has gameplay right now? There aren't any visible sprites in those screens you posted.

Nope, its just a Map that is blank for any mapper to place there own battle. It'll run under any mod that way. And people can place spwan sites where thay want... What I mite need is a space jump from one tower to the other. And spots you can clime up the buildings from.
I'm the kind of guy who designs the map. I understand all aspects of it... I'm not good at the other stuff. So I wellcome people who are willing to help me.

[Jan Satcitananda]

Oh, I got it... you've made a stub map to be converted into something playable. I noticed lots of sectors outside the game area, what are they for (I guess they're temporary)? Btw, I tried another look for this map, added more details, a smooth coastline and some automatic shading (still no gameplay tho'):



 TFC.rar (82.8K)
Number of downloads: 825
What do you think about it?

[Stabs]

wow you actually changed the vis, thats a rarity in itself

[NerdZilla]

CraigFatman, on Jan 9 2010, 10:05 PM, said:

Oh, I got it... you've made a stub map to be converted into something playable. I noticed lots of sectors outside the game area, what are they for (I guess they're temporary)? Btw, I tried another look for this map, added more details, a smooth coastline and some automatic shading (still no gameplay tho'):

tfc.png

TFC.rar
What do you think about it?

i like it, it looks good. i can't see it getting any bigger with the extra use of walls. but i was'nt planning on makeing it any bigger anyways.

and yes, i made that map to share. those secters are apart of how the map was generated. I usely export the clean map out. but i fineshed this without care for time. to be honest it was just made in a day. its the building blocks that take time to make.

in a team effert i think we could produse some mager maps and mods.

[NerdZilla]

DanM, on Jan 9 2010, 10:22 PM, said:

wow you actually changed the vis, thats a rarity in itself

hold the ALT key. then hit the plus key.

[WedgeBob]

Working on revamping High Octane to a more modern look. It's been 12 years since that first sketch, and more modern technology can allow for a better map out of this. Still trying to look for it.

[Jan Satcitananda]

DanM, on Jan 10 2010, 09:22 AM, said:

wow you actually changed the vis, thats a rarity in itself

I don't like that distance fog because it gives an unrealistic look to maps. Those cities are just a kilometer apart, so everything should be clearly visible. Killing alias artifacts isn't so necessary because screen resolutions are high enough nowadays.

WedgeBob, on Jan 10 2010, 05:49 PM, said:

Working on revamping High Octane to a more modern look. It's been 12 years since that first sketch, and more modern technology can allow for a better map out of this. Still trying to look for it.

I didn't hear anything about High Octane... Can you provide some links related to it?

[NerdZilla]

CraigFatman, on Jan 10 2010, 07:19 AM, said:

unrealistic look to maps.

well thats a matter of the look your going for. i wanted it to show size of the map without it seeming like its just another mapper trick. so i pick night time as duke is good for it (exp for the mussle flash).

also: i remeber when i was going aross the contory in the bus. and first thing you'll see are lit windows of the buildings behind the mountens (if there are). and as you get closer everything become easyer to see... that map has a city across the way and it dose just that when you goto it. id say thats realistic.

PS: im not trying to give a hard time. i was also trying to make a game.com designed for that map. that mussle flash is a head ake. ive never seen a flash so BIG it would light up a whole iland.

[Danukem]

NerdZilla, on Jan 10 2010, 09:42 AM, said:

well thats a matter of the look your going for. i wanted it to show size of the map without it seeming like its just another mapper trick. so i pick night time as duke is good for it (exp for the mussle flash).

also: i remeber when i was going aross the contory in the bus. and first thing you'll see are lit windows of the buildings behind the mountens (if there are). and as you get closer everything become easyer to see... that map has a city across the way and it dose just that when you goto it. id say thats realistic.

PS: im not trying to give a hard time. i was also trying to make a game.com designed for that map. that mussle flash is a head ake. ive never seen a flash so BIG it would light up a whole iland.

My frame rate drops down to 10 when looking over the city, and that's using vanilla Duke with no HRP. I know I need to upgrade my computer, but that's ridiculous. My computer is bad, but it's not THAT bad. I have 2.0Ghz pentium dual core and a GeForce 8500GT video card.

Scaling it down to half size doubled the frame rate. Maybe the best way to play a "big" map like this is to scale everything down, including the player's size and speed.

[WedgeBob]

CraigFatman, on Jan 10 2010, 10:19 AM, said:

I don't like that distance fog because it gives an unrealistic look to maps. Those cities are just a kilometer apart, so everything should be clearly visible. Killing alias artifacts isn't so necessary because screen resolutions are high enough nowadays.


I didn't hear anything about High Octane... Can you provide some links related to it?

That's what I'm looking for... It's been a 1998 map, and it was one of the good ones that I didn't post online back in those days, but I had it on a floppy disk, which was placed on a CD-ROM. Trying to find that CD-ROM's gonna be a bear. I hardly ever labeled any of my CDs that I transferred floppies to, so that'll only make it that much more difficult. That's all right, I'll probably wing it now. Gonna have to resketch the thing. What I did 12 years ago may probably look too dated, anyway.

This was a map that took place inside a nuclear storage facility, and you had revenge on the Cyclops Emperor in the middle of the warehouse, and it also doubled as a 4-person DukeMatch on top of that. It was a nice map, but...I think it could be more updated.

[Jan Satcitananda]

NerdZilla, on Jan 10 2010, 08:42 PM, said:

also: i remeber when i was going aross the contory in the bus. and first thing you'll see are lit windows of the buildings behind the mountens (if there are). and as you get closer everything become easyer to see... that map has a city across the way and it dose just that when you goto it. id say thats realistic.

Some things may turn up illusory. Night scenes have quite wide dynamic range, far wider than overcast day ones; but the computer monitor can't display city lights at their native brightness levels as their colors clip to white. The windows and lights are much brighter than surrounding constuctions, and the simpliest way to make them look bright is to darken the surrounding objects. Sector visibility feature helps make this preserving comfortable brightness of nearby things. Modern games use HDR rendering, older ones employ simplified lighting, like the distance "fog". A possible way to obtain better shaded scenes is making photographs of similar places and matching ingame visuals to them.

DeeperThought, on Jan 10 2010, 09:26 PM, said:

Maybe the best way to play a "big" map like this is to scale everything down, including the player's size and speed.

The best way is to play in software mode, unless we need hi-tiles or models. I have the same fps in polymost, and shading problems secondly.

[NerdZilla]

DeeperThought, on Jan 10 2010, 10:26 AM, said:

My frame rate drops down to 10 when looking over the city, and that's using vanilla Duke with no HRP. I know I need to upgrade my computer, but that's ridiculous. My computer is bad, but it's not THAT bad. I have 2.0Ghz pentium dual core and a GeForce 8500GT video card.

Scaling it down to half size doubled the frame rate. Maybe the best way to play a "big" map like this is to scale everything down, including the player's size and speed.

I'm glad you see what im talking about. This is also a reason i keep it as simple as i could. And it's grate you understand.
In polymor the FPS is better because the 3d has a draw distance the guy behind DTA showed me. And even tho my simple labtops 500hrz video card cant run lighting (evil ATI glich). The style of 3d uses a draw distance that gives a grate FPS. Also software mode would be a good thing to check out. But a draw distance is a must as I plan on going even bigger.
one idea : a Game.con with a new kind of masking tile that deactavates when you get close. it would also keep the maps to the mod.

[NerdZilla]

CraigFatman, on Jan 10 2010, 12:22 PM, said:

The best way is to play in software mode.

Id have to agree. Also your point about the lighting. I mite be remebering it with the buses lights in mind? After all I did'nt walk here.
But dont forget geometric fog is in every video game now a days. It's just duke3d does'nt have that meny options...

PS: here are the options in duke 3d... dark, darker, darkest... good luck mappers.

[NerdZilla]

DeeperThought, on Jan 10 2010, 10:26 AM, said:

Scaling it down to half size doubled the frame rate. Maybe the best way to play a "big" map like this is to scale everything down, including the player's size and speed.

I had my best FPS when the map was 1/10 size. could there be a way to make it play 1/10 size?. I'm thinking if you pulled that off that would make my masking tile idea just needess... i look forword to seeing your resalts.