UnrealSP.org

-= The Oll Stone Prologue: The Ibyn Complex =-

Story: You are on a boat headed from Australia to the submarine pen where you will begin your real journey. It is kind of a long trip though so you try to decide what to do to pass the time.

Final Version (~8 PM GMT )(technically late): ibyn_gold.zip (Save As)
Beta Version (~11 AM GMT): ibyn_beta.zip (Save As)

There are three maps, start with ebd_usp10_oll_ibyn.unr, not the other two. You will know when you are done when you get an error message about teleporter destinations (for connecting to any future hub map). Also I made the map with U227g OpenGL and realized at the last minute that is looks god awful in UT436 Direct3D but there is nothing that can be done now.

Below is the original first post, for archival purposes I guess.

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-= The Oll Stone =-
Unbelievably Unrealistic Antarctic Adventure Experience

Cool Story Bro: Speed mapping demands speed writing and speed Photoshop, even if it can't be in the map itself.


Latest Screenshot: People love pictures


Progress Index: To be updated almost weekly
Intro/Exit/Submarine: 100%
Hub Area: 95%
Area 1: 10%
Area 2: 25%
Area 3: 10%

Week 0 Commentary: On the Topic of Inspiration
I flaked something hardcore for the 8th Anniversary Contest so I want do something cool for this one, and hopefully I might just get it done. Initial inspirations were Thief - The Dark Project's "Lost City" and, if you could believe it, season two of A Certain Magical Index. When I came up with the story it seemed kind of Indiana Jones. The level itself will take place in an underground cavern with three distinct wings and a central hub. There will be lava. They will also be areas that are icy. This contrasting duality is unique and certainly hasn't been done to death by a million other games. The name is a reference to The Bard's Tale's "Obligatory Lava Level." Sound too ambitious? Don't worry, I've got a cunning plan involving Skaarj, movers, and GenEarth.utx.

Week 1 Commentary: Under The Influence
For some reason once I began mapping I quickly reminded of Metroid Prime's "Magmoor Caverns." The similarity in atmosphere is clear, I suppose, in that both Metroid's level and my design take place entirely indoors inside a cavernous areas filled with plenty of lava. Perhaps the similarity continues further though: my plan was to have a central hub area and three separate wings, each with some doohickey that is required in some way to access the next wing from the hub. For those unfamiliar with the Metroid Prime series that is pretty much how the levels flow. Now all I need is hexagonal blue doors that you shoot to open. That aside, I especially want to ensure my lava looks "hot." I think it is looking pretty good as of time of writing but we will see how it turns out in the end.

Week 2 Commentary: The Master Plan
Ho boy, planning. I'd like to say I had a complex detailed plan but that kind of isn't how it went. After I came up with my original premise (lava! I want lava!) I thought of having some kind of hub with at least two wings, and the third wing grew off that. The idea for the intro area came later. I didn't really have a concrete plan for how the intro/submarine would turn out and it ended up being bigger and fancier then expected. To be honest I really should have came up with some kind of time table and stuck to it because now I am a little behind schedule. I should have loads of time towards the end of the contest though so maybe things will pull together without too much cut content. As for planning specific areas, I don't really have a concrete plan most of the time. I come up with rough layouts in my head and work out the specifics while I am making it.

Week 3 Commentary: Playing By The Rules
Being restricted to stock content only is kind of annoying, but after a while it ends up being kind of freeing. I actually get things done rather then spending 90% of my time in Photoshop. There are some limitations that hurt more then others though: No UT content or custom texture packages hurts and really restricts the possible themes a lot. Maybe it is just as well though since I'm kind of tired of seeing so much Richrig.utx (I hate this texture package) and SGTech1.utx (I am crap at using this package). Choosing a theme that is perhaps a little different from what I would normally do seems to have helped. As for coping with the time period I am doing a terrible job. I really want to make a promise to deliver at the end of six weeks but it is going to be tough. If it were eight weeks it would be no problem. I have the last week of the contest completely off though* so it is going to be hectic, that is for sure. *statement not guaranteed

Week 4 Commentary: Knowledge is Power
Did I learn anything new? Perhaps "re-learned" is more appropriate for a lot of the stuff, but there are some cool things I picked up along the way. I had never worked with triggered warpzones before. I also learned that a depressing amount of default textures don't have detail textures set.

Week 5 Commentary: Bonus Commentary
As per Hellscrag's commentary bullet points I could talk about how pleased I am with the outcome but it seems a little early for that so I am going to write something else instead. I have yet to place any pawns in my map, since I want most of them to spawn via creature factories but it occurred to me the difficulty is going to be a little weird. I didn't want players to start with the dispersion pistol (or get it ever) so that means there needs to be plenty of ammo for the automag and other weapons. It also occurred to me that I haven't really played Unreal in a long time and I no longer possess the skills I once had, so as long as I am able to beat it I guess it should be alright. The armament in the map seems to have mostly hitscan weapons but I guess there is nothing wrong with that.

Even with the content restrictions it seems it is still easy to break away from the classic unreal style.

Interesting premise, anyway.

Subtracted tes-cubes with placeholder textures! There is no going back now. It's do or die!

Expect something far more substantial and hopefully more appealing in a couple hours. Willpower permitting I hope to work on this as much as I can this evening.

Aligning these textures took forever and I'm not totally sold on the fog lighting but it will do for now.

I like that! I do agree with the fog though, it looks a little bit out of place on that lava.

that's awesome. Seeing what you started with and what it looks like now, what a transformation! Liking the shots, and the atmosphere

Here's a tip:
Make a large cube room under that cave. Put large fog lights into that lower room and position them under the magma (and note that you don't need too many using this technique, which helps with performance). Then make both cave and lower fog room have zone infos with fog enabled (as you did in the cave already), then go into level properties and there should also be a fog enable setting which will allow fog from one zone to also exist in another room. Then you have a bright haze inside the magma (if there is an inside in your lava pools) and a nice heat haze floating over the surface of your magma.

Jet v4.3.5 wrote:Here's a tip:
Make a large cube room under that cave. Put large fog lights into that lower room and position them under the magma (and note that you don't need too many using this technique, which helps with performance). Then make both cave and lower fog room have zone infos with fog enabled (as you did in the cave already), then go into level properties and there should also be a fog enable setting which will allow fog from one zone to also exist in another room. Then you have a bright haze inside the magma (if there is an inside in your lava pools) and a nice heat haze floating over the surface of your magma.

... that's an awesome tip about the scene - that's going to look awesome

Make a large cube room under that cave. Put large fog lights into that lower room and position them under the magma (and note that you don't need too many using this technique, which helps with performance). Then make both cave and lower fog room have zone infos with fog enabled (as you did in the cave already), then go into level properties and there should also be a fog enable setting which will allow fog from one zone to also exist in another room. Then you have a bright haze inside the magma (if there is an inside in your lava pools) and a nice heat haze floating over the surface of your magma.

I could give that a try but I'm thinking the foggy lava look is just kind of strange in general. Also the lava is only 32uu deep.
I'll fiddle with it more as time goes on but it will probably end up looking something like this in the end.


Also I updated the first post to always display the latest screenshot.

It's a very ugly submarine!


Early shot of the submarine pen:

My milkshake brings all the boys to yard, and they're like, "It's smaller then that other guy's." Damn right! It's smaller then wait what?

Epic rock-brush for sure!

Totally grows my lust for creating tessellated cubes terrains/environments!

Totally grows my lust for creating tessellated cubes terrains/environments!

"Lust" is perhaps not the word I would have chosen but it is always great to see someone inspired, especially by my work.

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I knew this would happen eventually. I goofed hard

Damn, I sometimes get that when trying to get some trim textures to fit properly
Did you try pulling the verticies at the top of the triangle down?

Also in reply to your sig
You don't feel my energy, but it won't be long!

More commentary added in the first post.

Gizzy wrote:Did you try pulling the verticies at the top of the triangle down?

There are three total vertices (four, if you count the same mistake I made in a different room) spread across two (all three) terrain brushes. I guess I never thought to just suck it up, pull the vertices down and realign all the terrains. I'm currently feeling like there might be some ancient ruined archway in the pictured area which will conveniently cover up any mistakes (the chamber is intended to house the entry to an "indoor" temple area anyway so it wouldn't be out of place either).

Gizzy wrote:You don't feel my energy, but it won't be long!

I see the sun, beneath the dark. Soon I disappear, but I'll make my mark.