Author Topic: Fireblade Delirium  (Read 9819 times)

FtsUnknown

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Fireblade Delirium
« on: July 16, 2010, 10:09:59 am »
Fireblade Delirium is the first map (actually the second, but I haven't released the first yet) of a series of maps I am planning to release. It is based on a spaceship that is leaving earth to escape the aliens. It has been built with light, and although this is the first release and is only a beta, it has very few bugs, etc. I will release screenshots of it in the next few days, before the last beta is released. All of the info on it is included in the pk3 file. I originally built it for tremulous gpp1 on a g4 Mac, however it works perfectly on 1.1.0 in all the tests. The final will be brought out after all bugs and feedback have been attended to. I will try to release the first beta tomorrow. For Mac users who find it hard to sort out pk3 files, try betterzip - it helped me heaps.

Plague Bringer

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2010, 05:40:27 pm »
For the sanity of both you and the rest of the forum, don't post until you're going to include sceenshots and a link. Thanks. :)
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FtsUnknown

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2010, 10:27:56 pm »
Don't worry I'm sorting that out right now...

FtsUnknown

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2010, 12:19:27 am »

DraZiLoX

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2010, 12:21:49 am »
The page cannot be found...
---
You fail pretty hard >.>

FtsUnknown

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2010, 03:24:43 am »
Okay, this should do it...

http://www.mediafire.com/?wwaq22wot5f59i0

otherwise:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/wwaq22wot5f59i0/Fireblade_Delirium_B1.pk3

and if neither of those work, try searching Fireblade Delirium in mediafire.

Remember this is a beta stage. I am redoing the lights right now, as well as fixing the BSP (particularly the plasma that sticks out of the box)

Sorry about the faulty link before though.

nubcake

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2010, 06:28:10 am »
No ones going to download a map that has no screenshots. There are between tree fiddy and over 9000 box maps for trem atm...

God, maker of the world

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #7 on: July 17, 2010, 06:58:00 am »
http://www.mediafire.com/?wwaq22wot5f59i0

This link worked for me. Wow, 15MB. The PK3 contains, among other things, textures and shaders from default maps. You don't have to put them into your PK3 because you can assume that people have them.

But did you by any chance alter those files? For example, did you save a JPG again instead of just copying it? Some textures have considerable JPG artifacts. If you put files into your PK3 that already exist - and then alter them - you are breaking other maps as long as your map is present. That goes especially for shaders. I didn't look into that in detail, but maybe I would find a breaking shader entry.

You also included the door sound samples. You should really clean up that PK3. I bet you can drop it down to below 8MB. And then, you can save the starfield skybox pictures without those brutal JPG artifacts. I wouldn't recommend switching them to TGA as KnowItAll666 would do, because that's just overdoing it. His skybox pics were about 700kb, and that's nonsense. You can save the pictures as high quality JPGs, and then his would be like 200kb or less.

I guess that Mac users are helpless against the Mac extension files that are also packed into the PK3 and that are entirely useless for the rest of the world. Some of them are even not too small: There's a TGA with a preview picture, I believe. But overall, it doesn't really add very much, so it's tolerable.

By the way, you said that you want to work on the lighting? Good, cause in many places, the lightmap is just full white. But I wonder what your test-settings are, because the starfield skybox also seems very bright, as if your testing environment shows colors too dark. Is the blackpoint of your monitor adjusted correctly? Do ATCS, Nexus and Niveus look bright enough with the gamma settings you're using?

I flew along the spaceship (which by the way is very well done for my taste, nice little world you created there) and found Z-fighting from stuff that is in side of the spaceship. This could even mean that you have textured at least a few things completely instead of just painting the surfaces that are visible to the players.

I found a broken door that apparently has a wait of 0 so that it dances up and down once it's open.

I found several Z-fights, some only when you get further away, and I'm on 32 bit settings. I believe that a few things are too few GameUnits in thickness there. That reminds me: I didn't test it, but some walls seem so thin that luci shots might be a concern. They tend to hurt beyond the surface they explode at, even through walls. I once had an armory behind a 64gu wall and managed to kill it.

You have a few long corridors in there, which is bad for aliens. And the two right at the human base have, as they said "In Bruges", alcoves. I think those are too small for a dretch to hide behind, and I think that they are big enough for a goon to get stuck. Weird problem. For the goons, you should add playerclip. For the dretches, on the other hand, you should make them bigger.

Again, outside the Tremulous context, I like the 3D world that you created there. It needs light and JPGquality fixing, and there are a few Zfights. In Tremulous context: It's a human map. Also, the game area is very big, though in some places, I doubt that the large space is justified.

FtsUnknown

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #8 on: July 17, 2010, 07:37:51 am »
Thanks for the feedback - it's very helpful. My Mac - which is a g4, like I said, has given up on light builds, so I'm going to have to find a new computer or something. The walls are one block thick at least, which was to make more room, although doors may be slightly thinner so that there are no overlapping brushes. I did see that it was a very human map, and so I made a series of tunnels (ventilation) where drenches and basilisks can go in. The entrances and exits are all via the fans. If you saw my "jettison" button (in the corridor that leads between the end room and the plats) actually blocks off the storage room and opens the massive door in the floor of it - anyone who is on it at the time falls and dies. I will get rid of the acts and niveus etc. sharada and textures next time, as well as revising the lighting. The bsp file itself is actually 15 megabytes or so. The room with the spazzing door has no gravity in it, but I might make it an escape pod room or something. I'll se when I can get the next build done, but thanks for the feedback. I will also try to get some screenshots out and about this week.

FtsUnknown

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #9 on: July 17, 2010, 08:12:33 am »
Which reminds me, I made the jpgs for the skybox top quality. That would have had a massive effect. The full sounds folder would've been 46 mb uncompressed and icy unleashed was 33 mb. What did you think of the levelshot? It was the best I made.   

The lights were that bright because I made them 3000 intensity and 256 radius compared to the standard 300 and 64 radius. Admittedly it was a massive room, but still.

God, maker of the world

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #10 on: July 17, 2010, 09:09:27 am »
Quote from: FtsUnknown
[...] The walls are one block thick at least, [...] The bsp file itself is actually 15 megabytes or so. [...] Which reminds me, I made the jpgs for the skybox top quality. That would have had a massive effect. [...] What did you think of the levelshot? It was the best I made.   

The lights were that bright because I made them 3000 intensity and 256 radius compared to the standard 300 and 64 radius. [...]

One block thick? Uh... you do know that the grid size can be adjusted, I hope. Do you mean 32gu (1 meter)?

I knew about the BSP file being 15MB. The compressed version is a bit over 2MB, though, so that's not the big one making the map file 15MB.

The starfield JPG quality is by far not maximum. Not only do the pictures have massive JPG artifacts (which could have resulted from an earlier save, but that would be bad, too), they also double in filesize when I resave them at max quality. I know that resaving incorporates new artifacts and thus can result in even larger file size, but the added artifact between two max quality saves are very slight, so the filesize would by far not double.

The levelshot is a bit too wide-angley for my taste. I guess you couldn't get further away because of the starbox.

3000 intensity and 256 radius? I didn't even know that the radius can be adjusted. Or do you mean the (I think) two fall-off options that exist? If there's something to learn for me in there, I'd like to know.

nubcake

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #11 on: July 17, 2010, 09:20:15 am »
Brb, restarting firefox. Cant see your pictures




DraZiLoX

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #12 on: July 17, 2010, 10:23:43 am »
There is no gravity in space, except in your map!

God, maker of the world

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #13 on: July 17, 2010, 11:14:22 am »
There is no gravity in space, except in your map!

Are you serious?

DraZiLoX

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #14 on: July 17, 2010, 12:21:58 pm »

UniqPhoeniX

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #15 on: July 17, 2010, 10:55:49 pm »
Please don't use the hollow feature :( Make walls/floor ceiling yourself and make sure the brushes don't overlap. Make all walls at least 8 units thick (32gu = 1 meter)
As said, the map contains many too large and too open areas.
As you may have noticed, shadows don't change on moving/rotating objects, so if they start with 1 part in shadow, that part will stay dark even when in front of a light...

FtsUnknown

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #16 on: July 18, 2010, 07:46:23 am »
One unit, I meant. The light radius can be adjusted by opening the entity inspector and setting the radius to something other than 128 (standard)

DraZiLoX

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #17 on: July 18, 2010, 10:30:10 am »
One unit is bad. I personally use 64 units sizen walls.

Plague Bringer

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #18 on: July 18, 2010, 06:53:14 pm »
64's a bit excessive. I think 16 prevents any light leaks though you can still have problems with explosions, I think.
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FtsUnknown

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #19 on: July 25, 2010, 11:33:11 am »
Hmmm well the second beta's building now... fixed all the lighting floods, but not the walls and long corridors.

FtsUnknown

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amz181

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #21 on: July 25, 2010, 01:40:38 pm »
POST SCREENS NAO!

DraZiLoX

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #22 on: July 25, 2010, 10:55:53 pm »
How can i just stand in space?

FtsUnknown

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #23 on: July 26, 2010, 05:43:26 am »
Stand in space? What's with that? you shouldn't be able to get out at all... And I'm sorting the screenshots now.

DraZiLoX

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #24 on: July 26, 2010, 11:17:16 am »
Wait. That worked for first time :|

Anyways.

  • Dont make buttons of slick
  • How the hell you die if you just touch in space. You should make it hurt little first.

:|

Aelita

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Re: Fireblade Delirium
« Reply #25 on: July 26, 2010, 07:34:11 pm »
Problems:

  • Too many walls and things have light leaks
  • The buttons are pretty damn gimmicky
  • Screen announcements (such as the `Don't fall into the plasma' one) are also gimmicky and lame
  • The top of the alien start point box doesn't even close up multiple times
  • The map scale is WAY too large. Aliens can't even run anywhere if the humans have a clear LoS to shoot them.
  • Related to the last one: the map is way too bare. The pipes are pretty neat but you need a lot more debris.
  • The skybox is clearly obviously square. You need a nicer texture that's a lot more fluid.
  • This is a minor detail, but all the catwalks have two layers of mesh texture. You should put some sort of bordering on it so it looks more natural.
  • The big fan in the middle of the warehouse/plasma room is pretty pointless. Make a wind tunnel around it or some such?
  • Immediately dying as soon as you hit space is pretty much lame.
  • JESUS CHRIST THE LIGHTING. Needs more shader lights.
  • Human base door is too slow.
  • Again, instantly dying in the engine room - not cool. Serious pain would be nice in there. Maybe some radioactive colours and humming.
  • Speaking of the engine room - serious light leaks outside of it.
  • The room with the gated door (I guess it's a brig?): Too much of a deathtrap. Pretty much useless for any team.

This map has the size of transit, but none of the quaint friendly aspects (i.e. debris, rubble,  non-grid aligned crates, pipes, alcoves)