Digital Amusement Game Development
    
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Damn I could really use it though!!!!! Compiled a -meta -light -faster and it took 37 minutes!!! Oh wait, what was I compiling? Yes... first look at the new superman. Go to the pond on your left, into stuff, it's the last screenshot in there, if you realllly want to see what I'm up to. Again, I busted myself out for spending too much time "playtesting". I don't think there's any possible way even to have a demo out by quakecon. Maaaybe if I run a -light -faster and a -vis -fast just maaaaybe I might have something to show. Time is not on my side, but it would be great to have at least something. Pro game developers would figure out how to make it happen... can I?
Hint 2... you can see the logo from the startup screen. Been working on layout for the next version of superman. Getting ideas and all kinds of craziness to follow. The first thing I have changed is the parking garage... it's sealed. Top access only. After that, I've been working on Pond Publishing, and also added some things around the map, including making the stoplight poles climbable so you can easily reach the overpass. That's all for now...
I've been reading everything there is to read on urbanterror.net about last weeks announcement. I saw Frozen Sand sending out the call for more members. I saw myself pondering returning that call. There are more questions that must be answered though. I feel sort of scrambled after this week and a half off. Heck I don't even want answers, all I want is my flow. The rest is easy. Hint 3... You've searched all corners of the map. Did you look high? Then did you look low? Quakecon... only a few weeks away...
That's all for now, see you in about 2 weeks.
Hint 7... A player only gets one chance to touch the logo. Hint 6... The jeep may have had something to do the logo. Hint 5... Only skilled blue supermen choose to find the logo. hint 4... There's only one spot on the map that you can clearly see it. I don't think that's too cryptic. As I said in the beginning, they will get easier. A clever person should be able to come up with the location fairly soon. I'm going to be on vacation for about a week and a half, so making up for last week's hint and some upcoming ones, I figured 4 hints should keep you satisfied for a couple weeks. Quakecon is coming up! As is the answer to the contest. For some quick information as to what I've been up to with the post-release of ut_sled and ut_deep, head over to the urban terror forums to see the current month's mapper's thread. Also a big thanks to FSK405 Frog for hosting sled and deep on FSK405's public server, and to everyone that has come by and tried the new maps out!
Hint 8... Go ahead and break apart the pk3 file, you won't find a custom texture with any kind of related logo. That could only mean... They keep getting better! :D Tonight it's on to finishing and releasing ut_sled. What am I still doing writing? I have work to do!
Coming next, ut_sled.
In other news... work continues on ut_deep. I've made air canisters which should help with the lengthy space between main breathing spots. Plus I added some more rocks to help prevent breathe space camping. I need to get this done soon.
Hint 9... all the citizens wonder where superman gets all that power from... I have somewhat of another announcement to make. I'm going to try to get some good mapping done, hopefully even a release of superman_b4, by quakecon. What this means is that the funmap pack I've been working on will have to be shelved for the moment. I'll do some tweaks on ut_deep and ut_sled, and release them by themselves. It's not the way I planned on things working out, I just am not good at speedmapping at this point. I get distracted with cool ideas and next thing I know, a month goes by and the map is way more involved than planned. No, I don't excercise any control over my creative rampage and then maps take lots of time to release. Sorry, that's how it goes. The other thing, and I don't want to disappoint. When quakecon is over (August 14th) - if Urban Terror for Enemy Territory is not released by then, I'm going to take an official break from Urban Terror development for a little while. I'm doing this because I have a lot of projects on my plate, and it's more than I can allocate time to do. Something has to give, and if there's no advancement from SID by mid-August, I'll have to work on other things until there is. I think that's fair and reasonable. Anyway, keep up with more hints, as the supar sekrat to superman_b3 is revealed! :) -FSK405 wily duck
Find the superman logo in superman_b3! Each week until QuakeCon2005, I will give a seemingly obscure hint as to it's location. That makes about 10 hints. If no one gets it by then, on the last Saturday of QuakeCon, I will announce the location, and you will hate yourself. So far quite a few people have scoured and have yet to find it, however one other player in the community knows. So it's there... somewhere in the map. You have to find it. Good luck! Hint number 10... superman has great eyesight... wouldn't need a scope when it seems like it's right in front of you... :V
Today I have somewhat of an important announcement - ut_deep is in a state of ready-to-be-released beta. I actually have it in pk3 form. Before I do this though, I'm adding the finishing touches on ut_sled. It's quite possible I'll release both maps as a beta for some testing or first-look opinions. Here's a couple screenshots for the curious. Enjoy. 
 
I'd also like to take this time to say cheers to the pond - celebrating the 100th official screenshot posted! Yay! :V
Also, even though I don't have and screenshots of ut_deep to put up directly, there are some really good recent ones in the pond, in stuff. I suggest checking them out. Lastly for now, progress on ut_deep has gone in spurts for the past week and a half, due to crazy work hours. This coming week my hours will be normalized, so it will be back to business.
Might get to start mapping real soon now. Things are starting to settle down. I get up for work early, and so far when I get home it's more work. Can't be that bad today, I've set up a new domain to host and here I am writing. Almost considering a game of superman. ;) Nah, anyway I'm here with nothing new to tell. Give ya an update next week and at that time hopefully I'll have some new screenies for yaz. :) -wily duck
I was checking out Tub's site levelart.net. Gotta say it's nice to read about another mappers' adventures. He's got some good links there too. For now it's preparing for the new job, shopping for house stuff, and getting some sun in the process.
Anyway, about reading the pond. I'm quite proud of my accomplishments so far. I wish I would spend/dedicate more time to mapping, because it's so much fun, and people really like my work. Right now I'm kind of being lazy, although in reality there's a lot going on that distracts my creative process. Bah, that's an excuse, I should be hacking away in gtkradiant regardless. I mentioned the potential new job - now it's reality, I got it!!! So excited... I'm thinking what I might do is specifically dedicate 3 nights a week to strictly mapping. No gaming, no sociallizing, no nothing but mapping. Ok give me some time to settle into my new place then I can begin that. :) Another thing I re-realized about my maps. There's so much support from the community backing me. From the file mirrors, to the map tests, to the development support, to the unending compliments. I'm glad I went through the frustrations in the beginning, even took some lip from some arrogant people. It's been all worth it. There's a lot of engines out there to map for, but Urban Terror and it's community sets the balance that I just can't leave. Ah it's late and I'm getting mushy. I want all of you to know how much I appreciate your support. "Well then go finish your damn map!!" Whoa! Ok, let me get some things straightened out in r/l, things which are coming to a head, then you'll have your damn fun map. Happy? You will be. :) Might have to be without updates for a couple weeks. The move is next week, and the server will be down for at least a day and a half. Driving from Milwaukee to Austin is going to be about 22 hours, but fortunately I'll have my family with me. They're the best, and I couldn't ask for much more. Til later, don't lemming. :V Keeping ya posted... Tomorrow I fly out to Austin for a week. End of the month I'm moving down there. In the meantime, I may be able to get the final layout of ut_deep done. No guarantees. I'm seriously considering doing a mapping session/workshop at QuakeCon this year. The purpose would be to give aspiring mappers information, direction, and a firsthand look at the tools required. It would be designed to reduce the initial learning curve, which I find to the be bane of most new mappers. I hope it would be an extremely valuable session that helps produce the next great maps of the future. I may also ask other mappers to help with some of the material if they'd be interested. In other unrelated news, head to the forums and check out that link to the new lara croft. I'm not a tomb raider fan, but this is hot, imo. :) With QuakeCon around the corner, I'm going to have to switch gears soon and prep for a release 4 of superman. No I haven't done a lick of work on it since b3 hehe. If I get this awesome telecom job in Austin, I'll be pretty much set to dedicate time to mapping, rather than in the creative spurts that always seem to happen. My point - new lara croft is hot, I mean, uh, need to make more time for mapping. Yeah. Yeah!!
Not much new with ut_deep. Looking into where to place air pockets and environment stuff.
What I did to create an air pocket in the watercaulk was: make a normal brush (this will be the original), split it into quads shaped as a pyramid, gave it nodraw-nonsolid tex, and assign the brushes to a func_group. This is the air pocket. Then I made another brush identical to the original brush, selected the nodraw-nonsolid brush group, csg subtracted the air pocket group from the new brush. The new brush becomes watercaulk. I add the new watercaulk brush group to the air pocket func_group. Together, the new watercaulk brush and air pocket brush combine to look like the original six-sided brush. Lastly I make another brush sized exactly as the original, applying nodraw-nonsolid. Note that I've moved the last original-sized brush above the others so you could see the size. Otherwise the brush consumes the same space as the air pocket/watercaulk group. 
What this does is when I've duplicated the air pocket including the glass bubble around the map for players to catch thier breath in, I can then use the last original size brush per bubble location, and csg subtract that brush from the watercaulk brush that envelopes the entire map. The remaining watercaulk from the air pocket group covers where I need water. Why not just use the func_group to csg subtract from the global water brush? Remember csg subtract can do bad/weird/unintended things. The group has diagonals, so hey why not split on a diagonal, or break something else over there? Ugh, no way. One brush to split on is enough. Since there's no reasonable way to create holes that are curved, I found this method to be very efficient. In testing, I noticed no problems in gameplay with the pyramid shaped space in the bubble shaped patch. Crafty eh? Something else I'd like to note. My patch and curve skills are getting good. The purpose for making these funmaps are paying off, as the skills I'd hoped I'd gain by doing them are surfacing. :D
Neat? It's an underwater map. More to come!
Recently I've been devulging into Cisco networking books. Plus the impending next move only a month and a half away, which I am planning for. Quite a transitional time in my life I'd say. Next page |
