Vega Industries: Research Outpost 13 - Beta 1

[Ingar]

It started out as a test room for my texture set, as usual things went a bit out
of control and a new map was born:

Vega Industries: Research Outpost 13

Features:
- large map
- completely new texture set
- new models
- new sounds
- q3map2 lightstyles
- new skybox
- full source

You can download the pk3 file (around 60M) here:
map-vega-beta1.pk3 (Europe, thanks to maci of satgnu.net)
map-vega-beta1.pk3 (US, thanks to kevlarman and the Mercenaries Guild)
README

Known bugs and issues:
- If you have a pre-release version installed, remove it before installing beta-1.
- The animated pump model acts a bit weird and dissappears under certain viewing angels.
  The needle is a bit broken.
- There's a major typo on one of the computer screens.
- The basilisk and the marauder fit through the vents, but the advanced versions do not.
  I'm not sure yet if this is a bug or a feature.

Easter eggs:
- This map has a flashlight.

[CreatureofHell]

<3 Ingar for ever and ever!

[Lava_Croft]

\o/

[c4]

Fucking sexy. The entire thing, but the filesize is...ehh?

[CreatureofHell]

Fucking sexy. The entire thing, but the filesize is...ehh?

Sexyness comes at a price.

[c4]

Fucking sexy. The entire thing, but the filesize is...ehh?

Sexyness comes at a price.

Yeah :/

[Ingar]

Fucking sexy. The entire thing, but the filesize is...ehh?

The pk3 used to be 10Mb smaller, but I had to convert all the png files
to tga to make the map work on the good old 1.1. Converting the textures
to jpg didn't look very pleasing either.

I've also included the source .map file and the .ase, which technically aren't
necessary but, as Linus Torvalds once said: real men backup their files by uploading
them to an FTP site and have the world mirror them.

Also note that this map runs far better in -gpp than in -1.1

[A Spork]

Puuuurty.
that better end up on US1

[Firstinaction]

WOW. Very very nice. Really ingar you need to make a video tutorial on how to make an advanced map. This map looks crazy and IM urging to play it just by looking on the lvl shots. Nice work!!!

[your face]

Yay.

Looks amazing.

[Demolution]

I <3 this map.

[DraZiLoX]

One word: Sexy!

[rotacak]

Uploaded to R Funserver CZ (1.1) and R Unlimited CZ (1.2)

[TANK]

Nice map, but Nano nice too

[UniqPhoeniX]

  Excellent work!
Some things that could be improved:
Make the whole globe rotate instead of just the texture, atm the texture is messed up (look at it from top).
There are some blinking lights that should be a lot dimmer: at 'Pump' location towards 'Mixer Hall', and at 'Workshop'.
Light bleeding behind OM, and behind egg opposite of OM.
Clip the fire extinguisher and the desk lamp in office.

[Lava_Croft]

[Ingar]

Excellent work!
Some things that could be improved:
Make the whole globe rotate instead of just the texture, atm the texture is messed up (look at it from top).
There are some blinking lights that should be a lot dimmer: at 'Pump' location towards 'Mixer Hall', and at 'Workshop'.
Light bleeding behind OM, and behind egg opposite of OM.
Clip the fire extinguisher and the desk lamp in office.

Thanks, I hope you enjoy playing it.

- I intentionally used a moving shader on the globe instead of a func_rotate,
this way server-side doesn't have to bother about the rotation. I know it looks a bit
'broken' but I see it more like a weird effect from the holo-emitter.
It is extremely hard (read: impossible) to uv-map a square texture on a globe without distortion.

- I'll do some experimenting with the blinking lights and look into the light bleed. There's some
general weirdness with the ligh coming from the skybox.

- The fire extinguisher and desk lamp where intentionally left unclipped (I figured clipping them
would hamper gameplay more then anything else). We could argue about the lamp but I wouldn't clip
the extinguisher unless someone comes up with a compelling reason.

@Lava_Croft:
Win! 

[CATAHA]

I have one question... What means  -cpma key in light stage? Nothing about it in wiki, so...

[Lava_Croft]

I have one question... What means  -cpma key in light stage? Nothing about it in wiki, so...

It's still very difficult to enter 'q3map2 cpma switch' in Google.

[Meisseli]

Aesthetically the best anyone has made! Nice.

However alien gameplay isn't nice at all. The whole map being all low ceilings and same kind of corridors makes using a marauder a really painful experience. Same goes with all aliens. It isn't fun to play the map as aliens, more like a constant struggle. The alien mobility is effectively nulled. Human biased too, I'd say.

[CATAHA]

It's still very difficult to enter 'q3map2 cpma switch' in Google.

Yes, my fault that i missed this one in wiki... but. Its still very difficult not to be ass, Lava?

[Ingar]

I have one question... What means  -cpma key in light stage? Nothing about it in wiki, so...

My q3map2 documentation says Enables full vertex lighting including occlusion on all surfaces, including lightmapped,
It sounded cool so I tried it. What I think it does is produce better results when r_vertexlight is enabled.
Takes slightly longer to compile too.

@Meisseli

I admit the corriders suck for mara, unfortunatly I noticed it way too late. Maybe I can find a way to make them a bit higher
without breaking the map, or work open the ceiling on the upper level. I wouldn't say alien mobility is completely nullified
though, there's a lot space to run around 

Some extra vertical movement and a few egg-hiding spot could help too. (Do I hear MOAR CRATES?)

[CATAHA]

Thanx, i gonna try it and check difference. =)

[Meisseli]

@Meisseli

I admit the corriders suck for mara, unfortunatly I noticed it way too late. Maybe I can find a way to make them a bit higher
without breaking the map, or work open the ceiling on the upper level. I wouldn't say alien mobility is completely nullified
though, there's a lot space to run around  

Some extra vertical movement and a few egg-hiding spot could help too. (Do I hear MOAR CRATES?)

Sounds good and I probably exaggerated a bit Also, I think some of the vents are hard to maneuver with a marauder, you have to aim in the middle of the vent with your crosshair, otherwise you won't be able to get through.

[Crava_Loft]

[attention whorin' pic]

Thread is about the map, not your score

[KillerWhale]

The Marauder problem really only happens if you have a well-tweaked config.
If you're running at the recommended 125 FPS, which increases your jump height by 11%, you'll hit the ceiling. Run at 90 FPS, which reduces your jump height by 9%, you will not hit it.

It would be nice to have them a bit higher, and maybe a few more tweaks to the hallways. The curves make for nice long periods where you can't really do anything after hitting them with a pounce.

The map is a bit of a special hell to play with most aliens, but it's still amazing and beautiful.

Great work!

[A Spork]

Very beautiful, but it's absolutely murder on fps D:

[God, maker of the world]

Beautiful rooms you made there.

Once you make something like a final release, I think you should also use the highest lightmap resolution (_lightmapscale 0.25), the textures and the overall byte size are already killer, so why try to save on the lightmap? There are several corridor corners where the light and some small pipes created a broken shadow because the lightmap resolution is only 1 (I think).

There is an installation with a gauge, and the needle moves all weird, as if it had been "photographed" from an off perspective. Also, when I stand at that installation and rotate myself slightly to the left or right, the whole thing suddenly disappeared. Tremfusion 2009-07-06 Windows 7 64bit

.............

EDIT:

Also, there's this one open cabinet in a corridor where a human can easily hide in. Did you make it so that the alien radar doesn't show a hiding human? Might be a nice idea.

And it would be great if the little office room had a bit more, like a chair, and a computer or something on the desk. Also, the desk is a bit high.

[swamp-cecil]

hey! im in that match!

[CorSair]

Bleh, I get lost on this map.

Anyway, excellent work. Looks nice to eyes, and nice few spots (that small open wall locker for example). But one bit bothers me... the sounds of doors. They sound too lightweight, like paper doors or something similar. It bit bothers me, but don't know what others think. But that's only minor aesthetic thing to me.

Wish I could make similar maps... D: