So, is map making a form of art. Did you ever do a map for a game ? If so, what are the main things you worry about ? I am interested in that because I like the fact that you can actually do some pretty cool looking maps, but sometimes the polygon budget just makes you cut down the fancy details. Personally, I love making cool looking outdoors, but more than often I end up with unbelievable poly counts... but I am getting there. I have been working on Halflife for the last two years (or so), and I am getting fairly happy with my work. My main concerns are the architectural design, the style of the constructions if you will. And the lighting. God, you an do so much with lighting it's a shame it's so underused in usermade maps. In one of my maps, as a sort of exercise, I used a same texture in different rooms but with the different lightings you get totally different feelings/textures. Today, I was working on a water room. A sort of hamam thing that I have in mind. I spend most of the afternoon doing the lightings, and working on the curves of my walls. Here it is : So, any one care to share their views ? youpla :-P Edited by - ahw on 12/27/00 3:17:03 PM

maps can be anything that you can walk on. i do prerendered backgrounds. they are great to do and yes it is art if they are interesting enough and not boring to lookat

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts

Ah, I am talking about Levels for 3D shooters here.
Because in those games the emphasis is mostly on the gameplay, rather than the visually stunning graphics, as sometimes they will disturb the gameplay.

Doing a tutorial ? Well, I wouldbt be the best to talk about making levels, as my main problem is to FINISH one
I have a few *almost* done, but I jsut seem to always take ages and ages to finsh them. My problem is that I am jsut too perfectionist. I keep looking at the "best" levels on the Net, and cant help but notice tons of textures misaligned, or lights that just dont fit that well... I just cant do that. I have to get everything perfect. The room I show above took me a whole afternoon to finish, because I couldnt get the lighting the way I wanted it : perfect
Then I spend another couple hours aligning my textures. Not to mention the actual choice of textures, which took me a good hour of trial and errors...

What I would love to see/read though, is design talks. There are plenty of tutorials on the web for using the tools, for understanding the entities (to make doors, ladders, etc), but nothing about the STYLE.
No one describe how to use the textures to make something nice. Like, for instance, I used a few textures, but combined with cold lights, I get a very effective water room style, dark, yet cold, which is exactly what I wanted. I use tiled floor to emphasis the bathroom look kinda thing.
The red lights are used to make an intereting contrast with the dominant blue. I use curved arches to create a sort of arabic style, because well, the hamam (the water room), is basically an arab idea, so it fits the room to have those curves (though you cant see them on the pic).

mmmm... anyone has some levels he has done ?
Or maybe I could write a little something if I am asked questions

youpla :-P

i enjoy mapping for fps style games also. i personally use
q3radiant for my quake 3 mapping and sof radiant for my sof mapping. i think the hardest thing to do in making maps is to stay focused and not to go into to much detail at first. i cannot ever finish a good map unless i have already drawn it out and i have to have in my head the way i want everything. hope that helped. i dont like world craft by the way

I map for halflife, because face it. q3 and unreal will never beat it. Sure their engine can handle more wpoly and epoly, but halflife engines doesn't require any coding to get that really cool effect. Too my knoledge, q3 can't create rising water. That sucks.
Ferrett
p.s. here is my work

http://www.shogunmod.com/swatu.jpg

Edited by - Ferrett on December 28, 2000 12:49:53 AM

I am also on a project for feudal japan.

Ferrett
www.shogunmod.com