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[bobo72a]

Hello friends, long time player, first time poster.

As I've never used any sort of map editor before (save for starcraft :p), I decided to test out my skills on hammer with a remake of Doom 2's DWANGO5_M01, plus a basement I added myself. If you've ever played Doom/doom2 deathmatch, it's likely you've played this stage. I tried to keep it fairly classic upstairs and just go wild underneath.

This map is still alpha (bad textures, no lights yet, not many props yet), but I do need some help testing it and will hopefully get some feedback to improve my mapping skills, especially on weapon/respawn placement.

Screenshots:

[killermonkey]

Dude that's fucking epic. Great job so far

[mookie]

First thing you want to do (based on those screens) is learn how to do displacements. You'll kill yourself trying to make the ground look OK with brushes like that.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Displacement

[bobo72a]

First thing you want to do (based on those screens) is learn how to do displacements. You'll kill yourself trying to make the ground look OK with brushes like that.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Displacement

You know, I kept thinking to myself that there must be a better way to do this. Thanks.

[Jeron [SharpSh00tah]]

This is the first time you ever used a 3D based map editor!? Wow, good job man, you definitely have potential if this is seriously the first time you ever used one. I mapped for starcraft lol, triggering SUCKED in that!

[WatchMyTrace]

Some advice:

 Become more familiar with the texturing tool to get those textures aligned properly.
.
Keep optimization in mind as you go, a good trick I wish I knew when I started is to create brushes with the nodraw texture then only texture those faces wich are visible to the player. Also try not to use dynamic lighting and keep physics props to a minimum if your making a multiplayer map.

Learn the proper way to do a skybox (many tutorials teach the bad method of simply wrapping the level in one) large outdoor areas such as yours would look much more interesting with a 3D skybox, look it up.

Experiment with I/O s it takes some trial and error but once you start getting the hang of it there much simpler than they seem.

Become familiar with the cutting tool and never... Ever carve.

Lastly reasearch as much info on hammer as you can, there are some really good tutorials on you tube (3k_phillip I think? Does some of the best I've seen) there is also some crappy ones so look out. Try looking for those that go beyond the 'build your first map' ones that can teach bad habits. 

I'm no pro by any means (grid was my first map... Ever).  I've found it so easy to learn though and now I'm even giving people advice!? ...huh

[bobo72a]

It's gone into beta. Here are some more screens:

[major]

Was lucky enough to get a run through of the map, and I can say it has a very good potential for a fun map.

A lot like WatchMyTrace's(scooby) Grid map, its rough around the edges, but the core is there. And as his first map its very good, I remember my first map was my house for CSS, never finished, and was terrible.

But I will sure to be in close contact with bobo and provide some feedback.

[Rodney 1.666]

Ah, multiplayer map.
I didn't see that at first and was confoosed for a minute.

The map itself looks great, though I was not fortunate enough to experience it in D00M II's deathmatch. I'll have to look into that and compare accuracy.

Lookin' good so far.

[Jeron [SharpSh00tah]]

you know what to do with lighting colors, just remember to always use sprites! not just bloom and high HDR values!

[bobo72a]

you know what to do with lighting colors, just remember to always use sprites! not just bloom and high HDR values!

I'm not even consciously using HDR. Also, I know nothing of using sprites for lighting.

EDIT: NM, I'm an idiot. Reading http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Advanced_HDR

[Jeron [SharpSh00tah]]

Well start using HDR values, they will make the lighting look good, try to keep the HDR values +/- 50 within the normal light values. Also, use the entity "env_sprite" set the Render Mode to "World Space Glow" and play around with the settings. The FX amount is pretty much the opacity of the sprite, so I usually use anything from 140-175 out of 255 (fully glowing)

[bobo72a]

Alright, I feel like it's time for a public beta so I can get some more feedback, especially with 8+ players at once. I renamed the map as I feel it's not really a remake now, it's grown into something much more.

You can catch a copy of the map (with teamspawns) here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=W1SGXFI7

If you spot an error or any exploits, please don't hesitate to mention them to me. I tried to have more than one way in to every possible camping spot, the one camping exploit I'm really concerned with at this point is someone hiding in the bushes in the lobby might be really hard to spot in LTK.


Things I know I need to do so far:

HDR lights
redo grass outside
fix 3d skybox glitch and reenable it 
flesh out warehouse section more
redo tables in dining area
find a better way to do a fence in the dining area.
possibly add a kitchen and bathrooms
animated train passby in the subway
DECALS

I read that respawning glass will be much easier to implement in beta 4, so I'm just gonna hold off until then.


Let me know! I'm giving back to the community here, and I'd like to make this map as good as it can be before I move on to something more bond related.

Thanks guys.

[mookie]

Direct download: http://ges.mksvx.com/gesource/b3/maps/ge_Phobos_beta1.bsp.bz2