Gauging interest: OpenArena Community Mappack Volume 2

[pelya]

Hey, what about no-swords rule?
Now you'll say it's machete, and non-functional, and just a part of the model.

[Gig]

Sorry for posting an almost useless post.... just to say it's time for holidays, so probably I will be mostly offline in the next two weeks (may look from cell phone if possible).
See you later, guys (and gals)!

[Neon_Knight]

Two news from my side, one good and one bad.

The bad news is that there were problems in my house and I'm moving on. The PC I was using for mapping isn't going to be here anymore. The person who owns it is going to take it to her house. (About all the work I did don't worry, it's safe. =) )
The good news is that in this semester, once I'm finished, I'll have some more time for mapping, just like old times. =)

[Akom74]

Two news from my side, one good and one bad.

The bad news is that there were problems in my house and I'm moving on. The PC I was using for mapping isn't going to be here anymore. The person who owns it is going to take it to her house. (About all the work I did don't worry, it's safe. =) )
The good news is that in this semester, once I'm finished, I'll have some more time for mapping, just like old times. =)

Sadly news......
.....but....
Will you repack the first release in the official V4 ?
(fixed i mean)

[Neon_Knight]

That's one of the first things I'll do. And once it's released, there will be no more BUT's to be taken. =)

[Gig]

The bad news is that there were problems in my house and I'm moving on. The PC I was using for mapping isn't going to be here anymore. The person who owns it is going to take it to her house.

From your words, it seems you have a bad time for your personal life. I'm sorry about that.
We are friends here, and it's sad to hear someone has got problems in real life. If someone loses an OA map, he can redo it from scratch (with some patience), better than before... real life problems are worse.
There is no need to tell us details... I just wish things will go the best way for you.

[special]

there is no interest. because open arena is dead.

[jangroothuijse]

I'm not sure if it shoud be shown yet, pre-alpha version, and its a big map so its got much wrong with it.

http://jan.groothuijse.net/img/jx2.pk3
It depends on the first mappack (or there are some missing textures)
start with /map jx2c

Note the trailing c, dont do /map jx2.

[Suicizer]

I'm not sure if it shoud be shown yet, pre-alpha version, and its a big map so its got much wrong with it.

http://jan.groothuijse.net/img/jx2.pk3
It depends on the first mappack (or there are some missing textures)
start with /map jx2c

Note the trailing c, dont do /map jx2.

A pre-alpha version? That sounds like you only started up a radiant, started with a few brushes and saved it right away.
Make sure people actually have something to see when releasing anything (so like a solid alpha version; nearly towards beta). If there's nothing to see, then why should they be interested?
So be sure the layout is clear, about half of the map is textured and lighted. Then you've got something to promote and use ideas from the input of others (which will show off more attention as they see you've invested some time in the project already).


P.S.
I'm not going to check out the map especially when no screenshots are provided.

[jangroothuijse]

P.S.
I'm not going to check out the map especially when no screenshots are provided.

I can tell.

[fromhell]

I do like the terrain so far though it feels a bit 'bumpy' with the clipping. Dunno if having it less detailed (larger terrain brush size) would contribute for that, or less height variation. Make sure you run BSPC to keep check it'll still compile for it.

The terrain could be vertex only too because it's not doing much use with the lightmap stage.  It'll also compile faster for that

Do like the 'fish' ship and the skyfog

P.S.
I'm not going to check out the map especially when no screenshots are provided.

Could you have contributed more toward that "OA is full of assholes" stigma?  It never hurts to show a work in progress, and unconstructive people like you are why I hardly show stuff in progress, leading to less progress

Perhaps many aren't registering anymore because they're reading your posts and getting the impression that everyone's a destructive asshole which definitely isn't true

[jangroothuijse]

I do like the terrain so far though it feels a bit 'bumpy' with the clipping. Dunno if having it less detailed (larger terrain brush size) would contribute for that, or less height variation. Make sure you run BSPC to keep check it'll still compile for it.

Some parts don't feel as bumpy, so i guess its just aligning them better. Less height would also help indeed, but the gameplay has to remain in tact.

The terrain could be vertex only too because it's not doing much use with the lightmap stage.  It'll also compile faster for that

OK, compile times are a bit high so, how would i flag it to be vertex only?
The lights should be very much smoothes, in gradients to hide the edges of the structure, so i'm not sure there is no contribution of the lightmap...

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not done by a long shot but wanted to show i was actually working on something. Ship was indeed inspired by whales

[fromhell]

My snow map's terrain has this shader:

Code:

textures/oa_snowy/snower
{
	q3map_nonplanar
	q3map_tcGen ivector ( 512 0 0 ) ( 0 512 0 )
	q3map_shadeAngle 179
	q3map_forcemeta
	surfaceparm pointlight
	surfaceparm nolightmap

	{
		map textures/oa_snowy/snowrock1.tga
		rgbGen vertex
		alphaGen vertex
	}
	{
		map textures/oa_snowy/snowrock2.tga
		blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
		rgbGen vertex
		alphaGen vertex
	}
	{
		map gfx/fx/detail/d_stone.tga
		blendfunc gl_dst_color gl_src_color
		rgbGen identity
		tcMod scale 32 32
		detail
	}
}

nolightmap and forcemeta are important for it, as are rgbGen vertex for the terrain texture stages, also dropping the lightmap allows for a detail texture stage that could be turned off.

[Gig]

In my WIP map I used "terrain" (rgbGen vertex) to achieve a "fade out" at long distance effect without using fog. But it has got the side effect of appearing completely black (pitch black) if playing the map in Vertex light mode... do you think it is possible to avoid that problem?

Uhm.. maybe it's related to the fact it fades to black, so it shows only the black stage instead of the texture stage? Maybe when I will finally publish its first beta (I can't tell exactly when), someone may help me with its shader...

Okay, I will ask when it will be the right time...

[Gig]

I'm not sure if it shoud be shown yet, pre-alpha version, and its a big map so its got much wrong with it.

http://jan.groothuijse.net/img/jx2.pk3
It depends on the first mappack (or there are some missing textures)
start with /map jx2c

Note the trailing c, dont do /map jx2.

Tried. Interesting concept.   Good, Jan.
I suppose it may -in a certain sense- take the place of the currently "dummied out" DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Cut_Content/islanddm]islanddm/DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Cut_Content/islandctf]islandctf maps.
Maybe it may result more a "fun map" than a "pro map", but maybe it's too early to say that (and I have nothing against "fun maps". Also mine will be one.).

Attached, some screenshots of Jan's alpha.

[Suicizer]

P.S.
I'm not going to check out the map especially when no screenshots are provided.

Could you have contributed more toward that "OA is full of assholes" stigma?  It never hurts to show a work in progress, and unconstructive people like you are why I hardly show stuff in progress, leading to less progress

Perhaps many aren't registering anymore because they're reading your posts and getting the impression that everyone's a destructive asshole which definitely isn't true

If there's nothing to see then there just is nothing to see (so uninteresting for most people). By providing screenshots, you show off the stage of progress way easier and are people quicker interested in the project (as they get served it hot instead of needing to warm it up by their selves).
There shouldn't be anything discouraging about to give such advice as eventually it pays off in support from others).

[fromhell]

Trying to map with QuArK's negative brushes for most things, seems to work faster for my process  though my results appears rather Unreal due to my curve-less habits

[Neon_Knight]

That does look pretty Unreal I. It reminds me of the Chizra/temple levels, in fact. Pretty cool.
Might I suggest some kind of trims for those windows, though?

[fromhell]

don't know if i'll do this ctf map design all the way through


Also during the creation of this map, I reallzed there's a huge lack of 'tech panels' textures, so all my walls look like some blank clouds thing right now and I'm not sure what to do about details on the curves

[Gig]

It looks nice. 

[fromhell]

I don't think so, but i'm trying to produce some wall textures to spice it up a bit


i love how the city skyroom turned out so far

[Gig]

The place of the last screenshot looks very good. 

[Neon_Knight]

I declare officially reopened the OACMP Vol. 2.

First with the official repo for the pack: https://github.com/NeonKnightOA/oacmpvol2

It has two maps (oajgdm4 from jangroothuijse, and my first contribution), plus a source (of what will be my second conribution).

Here's my first contribution to OACMP: Underground Temple (codename: oacmp2_utemple)

It's a small Tourney map. It also supports the Possession gametype. It also includes a remixed version I did a long time ago of an official OA song. The unfortunate part is that I've lost the source, so it may not get included in the final release.

As always, testing is needed. And more importantly, this is an Alpha version, so layout first, visuals later.

The map is uploaded to the OACMP2 repo, but if you want to play it without downloading the pack, here's a link.

[Gig]

Quickly tried oacmp2_utemple! Nice! 

A few thoughs:
- You need to push "jump" in order to get out of the water, on both the jumppad and the ramps. Maybe adding a small step? O changing water height, maybe?
- Maybe it's a bit too dark, directly under the "spiral staircase", at the lower level?

You mentioned this as a "small Tourney map". This makes me think about a thing we didn't do in Volume 1: using "oacmptourneyX" names for tournament maps (volume 1 did actually have various small maps, but we did name everything just "dm" -except ctf ones, of course-). Do you think we may/should add this distinction in Volume 2?

PS: I didn't expect to see the sky in an "underground temple"   

@Fromhell: I did try to attach some screenshots, but the forum says the upload folder is full...

[Gig]

I think Akom has got various maps adapt for this gamepack which are already 90% finished.

The problem is that, since oacmp2, Neon Knight added the rule that the maps should compile with a certain q3map2 version. I hope that there is no so much difference between q3map2 versions... but IFAIK he's still using his tweaked Q3Radiant package to map. And switching from q3map to q3map2 changes a lot of things, especially lighting...

While I agree that this allows better maintenance, this makes things complicated with Akom's maps...

I do have a couple of small wip maps, and they are done with NetRadiant, unlike my oacmp volume 1 map.