
What are you working on for Duke right now? "Post about whatever Duke related stuff you're doing"
#9331 Posted 04 June 2020 - 06:01 AM
This post has been edited by Mark: 04 June 2020 - 06:05 AM
#9332 Posted 04 June 2020 - 06:54 AM
Description of my functioning sounds tedious on paper but that's because I had to verbalize it. The whole process is natural for me, ideas just come and stack up and the maps come out when they're ready, except now they're just better (as in more cohesive with and representative of my vision, even if I'm still not quite there yet). It's not so much planning ahead as it is spending periods of time just spontaneously gathering more and more ideas. I'm definitely having more fun working like this than I used to as a kid sitting in front of the editor and doodling rooms at random - whenever I fire up the editor I always have something exciting in mind to build. Thinking about it, maybe this is more of a direct consequence of my time management habits than much of a conscious workflow, meaning that when mapping time does happen then it has to be optimally efficient, but either way it helps me tremendously.
This post has been edited by ck3D: 04 June 2020 - 06:57 AM
#9333 Posted 04 June 2020 - 07:36 AM
This post has been edited by Mark: 04 June 2020 - 07:41 AM
#9334 Posted 04 June 2020 - 08:00 AM
Life of debauchery actually sounds like one great source of inspiration!
#9335 Posted 04 June 2020 - 08:57 AM
This post has been edited by Mark: 04 June 2020 - 09:05 AM
#9336 Posted 04 June 2020 - 05:09 PM
You see, whenever I do something in map, I'm doing it step-by-step, making one part of the map and then move to the next one. Things ofthen go not as planned, which results in frustration and stuff. However, I made the barebones layout of the city right now - just squares and roads. Sounds very simple but it actually helped me a lot, since I don't have to keep the overall layout of the ctiy in mind, which would clash with other parts otherwise. I'm messing up with the visuals right now so thank you man!
#9337 Posted 04 June 2020 - 05:25 PM
This post has been edited by Mark: 04 June 2020 - 05:25 PM
#9338 Posted 04 June 2020 - 06:46 PM
Mark, on 04 June 2020 - 05:25 PM, said:
I understand the concern but honestly, that doesn't happen (to me at least). If anything, it's really easier to be able to manipulate empty areas around the more advanced portions of the level if need be, than it is to rearrange a sum of such advanced (when not finalized) portions that are already assembled together by design. Also in most cases, if something goes wrong and you realize you no longer like how you designed part of the layout, the format makes it easy to just insert and/or move a number of vertices without real consequences, or you can even remove the sectors altogether and then copy-paste the empty template for that unsatisfying section from an earlier save in, to redesign it from scratch with the tweaks that you want.
Both methods aren't mutually exclusive, too. Mapping as you go is fun as well - it's all I did for a long time and to this day for some specific level sections I still do it, plus sometimes you just kind of have to. Whatever works!
#9339 Posted 05 June 2020 - 01:20 AM
Beside the odd visual experimentation in particular areas, I don't focus too heavily on design from the start any more and lean favourably toward blocking out the majority of what I have in mind before the first design pass even begins. This makes significant changes less daunting and I'm not wasting time on something that may not be working right now. There must always be a start point and end goal figured out sooner than later, with several progression milestones and other ideas roughed out along the way so that a "playable" level begins to form. My current workflow is very iterative, I go through variations of structure, positioning and layout changes before settling on something that works for me and the level as a whole. Eventually, everything else slowly falls into place. The main struggle comes when I can't piece together the flow or gameplay in a specific segment, but that's why having breaks help immensely. It feels refreshing coming back having separated myself from the work.
This post has been edited by quakis: 05 June 2020 - 01:37 AM
#9340 Posted 06 June 2020 - 03:15 PM
This post has been edited by ck3D: 06 June 2020 - 03:26 PM
#9341 Posted 08 June 2020 - 06:39 PM
Just like I suspected, it looks more Winterfall than Red but hey, this style of mapping suits me well so i'll stick with it. I'm finally making some progress, adding something every day. :)


#9342 Posted 08 June 2020 - 07:19 PM
#9344 Posted 09 June 2020 - 12:16 PM
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Time to show you all a bigger part of my map and what it's all about :) Been mapping on this one since January.
This post has been edited by Maarten: 09 June 2020 - 12:18 PM
#9346 Posted 09 June 2020 - 04:14 PM
#9347 Posted 09 June 2020 - 05:54 PM
I agree that it look lovely, instantly recognisable as the old european town of some kind.
And here's another shot from my map with a couple of, umm, references. :P

#9348 Posted 10 June 2020 - 04:26 AM
This post has been edited by ck3D: 10 June 2020 - 04:26 AM
#9349 Posted 10 June 2020 - 04:49 AM
Sanek, on 09 June 2020 - 05:54 PM, said:
I agree that it look lovely, instantly recognisable as the old european town of some kind.
And here's another shot from my map with a couple of, umm, references. :P

I see what you did there :P
#9350 Posted 10 June 2020 - 01:29 PM
@ck3D: nice to hear you've many activity/ideas too! This map`s main.focus will be exploring the town / city (this is just a part actually haha).
The town is actually surrounded by nature/castle/buildings...if inspiration keeps coming, I will make a small level pack (like a level in the castle).
But for now my focus is on finishing this as a stand alone map.
Looking forward to your work!
@Sanek: haha hilarious misunderstanding :) Nope, no SG part 3...it's a map just by me haha.
Fun stuff in your shot btw!
Thanks for your support, I really appreciate it!!
#9351 Posted 14 June 2020 - 07:12 AM
Finishing the last locations & polishing stuff.
Aiming for a July release, but no promise yet!
#9352 Posted 16 June 2020 - 11:43 AM
#9353 Posted 16 June 2020 - 05:27 PM
And here's an early screenshot from my CBP 2020 part (undetailed and with some cosmetic problems that have been fixed since, a lot of stuff has been added to the scenery too) in spoiler tags for the curious.
This post has been edited by ck3D: 16 June 2020 - 07:01 PM
#9354 Posted 17 June 2020 - 06:33 AM
All screens are pretty dark due to the default visibility settings, again - everything will be made brighter eventually. I just like working in that context for shading/lighting and then eventually boost the visibility in the level just pre-release (which so many of my old levels lacked - been thinking of fixing them then packaging them together again sometime).
First two shots are a better view of the plaza in its current state. I'm getting some weird sprite clipping bugs (see the red light in the second screenshot - it looks like it's clipping into a wall, except it's really not) and texture display bugs on certain sloped floors, I think that has to do with how large the sectors still are and also maybe the extreme shade values of some sprites (?), either way only minor stuff that's both temporary and not game-breaking (it's just funny I never encountered them before, but I'm kind of new at large scale structures).
Third shot is just a simple street corner with public toilets I just made with some wall-shading I like. Area with the toilets is still undetailed/unshaded etc, absolute beta shit.
Fourth shot is the sloped back of the building I was mentioning earlier (also gives an idea of the size). There's a handful of balconies already, I'll probably make more and maybe find tricky ways of connecting them with the indoor areas. Making the inside of the building is especially going to be fun because I want it to follow the structure of the outside, so it's going to be all built on a diagonal axis too with plenty of SOS and I'm already inspired for how I want everything to look like. (Also that side of the building will eventually have windows etc.)
https://i.imgur.com/4XSTEWx.png
https://i.imgur.com/8K30z3k.png
https://i.imgur.com/UwBnsuz.png
https://i.imgur.com/RecdGlI.png
This post has been edited by ck3D: 17 June 2020 - 09:06 AM
#9356 Posted 17 June 2020 - 02:45 PM
This post has been edited by ck3D: 17 June 2020 - 02:47 PM
#9357 Posted 18 June 2020 - 06:45 PM
I've also very much reflected on how I was going to tackle building the interior of the half-pyramid-shaped building technically - probably going to make a template of the size and shape of the building exteriors, copy-paste it multiple times, give them various heights and then use that as the basis for every individual floor. From then on, with that technique it should be easy to just all drag them in place and have them overlapping then connecting once they're done, and that'll save me lots of SOS-related hassle.
Kinda trying to post every time I build something significant or get tangible progress as people were asking about my workflow earlier. Here I basically made the main hub and now, I've started working the surroundings to clean up that whole section (besides leaving the south of the map open for a later segment I have in mind) before I get to fill in the hub. Also as the 2D plane has been more or less defined already, I can now start seriously concentrating on the 3D plane with the vertical action/features. For instance here I picked the location of the elevator ride thing on the basis of a compromise between where the view would look the best and the action would be the most practical, and I have a dozen of other angles where I could remake similar things. Not that I intend this map to be as enormous as the first two though.
This post has been edited by ck3D: 18 June 2020 - 06:54 PM
#9358 Posted 19 June 2020 - 08:39 AM
Will the player be able to get on top of the angular rooftop? That would be really cool I think!
#9359 Posted 19 June 2020 - 10:24 AM
This post has been edited by ck3D: 19 June 2020 - 10:25 AM
#9360 Posted 19 June 2020 - 06:21 PM
This post has been edited by Ninety-Six: 19 June 2020 - 06:22 PM