Sofia pre-final shots

(Victorianetza) #21

G0-Gerbil: COOL :)) i will upload it somewhere & post the link :slight_smile:

(G0-Gerbil) #22

Urk, youā€™ve included TONS of custom textures from other custom maps as well as youā€™ve done so without changing the folder references, so thatā€™ll probably not please people.
From the list, youā€™ve got things direct from Markoā€™s maps, the Simpsons one, Venice and Stalingrad. Hope youā€™ve asked permission, and if so, you REALLY need to move them all into your sofia folder.
Youā€™ve also included the fueldump, terrain and turbopoint shaders?
Oh, and some of the standard command map icons?

Sorry to seem to beat up on you but this is supposedly your second map with one final one behind you already, so Iā€™m suprised you didnā€™t know about all this stuff before. Better to get 1 map out properly than 2 sloppily :slight_smile:

As for the speeds, am doing a compile test now to see how long it takes on my system as supplied by you. Oh erm, it failed - I need sofia.pcx!

Just looking at the map Iā€™d say firstly strip out your hint brushes you have in there already, they are doing nothing but affect compile times.
A LOT of the brushes can be made detail, which will speed up compile times.
And then finally, I think you will always run into certain areas with speed problems because of the nature of the map, but when I get the PCX so I can compile, Iā€™ll see what I can do :slight_smile:

(Victorianetza) #23

hereā€™s the .pcx file

http://www.vibrahost.com/victorianetza/sofia.pcx

already asked for the textures

(G0-Gerbil) #24

Gracias :slight_smile:

But donā€™t forget, if you get permission, to create your own versions of the textures and shaders in your /sofia set up.

(Victorianetza) #25

is it necessary? i have used few textures from Venice & Stalingrad,

(G0-Gerbil) #26

Yes.
Never ever copy shaders and textures direct.

Itā€™s not as much work as you think though.
In your sofia.shader copy the required shaders from the other maps, and change the paths.
Copy the textures over.
Then search and replace in your .MAP file (BACK IT UP FIRST!).

Apart from it generally being neater, it also means you donā€™t infringe on the other mapsā€™ assets, which can cause problems, especially for updates and things like that.

Itā€™ll probably only take you half an hour or so, and itā€™s definately good practice :slight_smile:

(Victorianetza) #27

tnx, i will try it, i was afraid of re-texturing everything :frowning:

(G0-Gerbil) #28

If you are worried about messing up the textures in radiant, then you can always open your map file in a DECENT (not notepad!) text editor and search and replace on filepaths - I do this all the time when upgrading a map from say version _a1 to _a2 (so they use unique resources, got burnt with Helmsdeep releasing different versions with the same asset paths!).

BACK UP THOUGH!

Saves trouble later :wink:

(Loffy) #29

Iā€™m afraid G0-Gerbil is right. If you want to be a real mapper you will have to rename textures and write unique shaders.
If I use a texture from G0-Gerbil (after asking him) called metal_03 I rename it to loffy_metal_03. I put it in textures/loffy_textures.
And I write a simple shader for it in my shaderscript:


textures/loffy_textures/loffy_metal_03
{
	surfaceparm metalsteps
	implicitMap -
}

You can find and replace textures in the editor. 1) Make a backup copy of you map (for safety). 2) click Textures ā€”> drag down to Find & Replace. Then you can replace you textures with new textures with new names and shaders.
Good luck
// Loffy

EDIT: You can open you .map file in a texteditor too (see Gerbil above). And change paths there. :slight_smile: Just use whatever method that works best for you.

(Loffy) #30

And when you are reading this, we might aswell discuss shaders and old pk3ā€™s.
If you make a map and place the pk3 in the etmain folder, the game will read it everytime it starts.
If you start making a new map-project, and use the same shaders in this new mao, there is a risk. You must pay attention, and keep focused.
For example: Letā€™s assume you use a shader again (from the first map). Then you add something to the shader. (surfaceparm landmines, or whateverā€¦ somethingā€¦) And you compile and load the new map, and the new mapā€™s texture is faulty. There is somehting wrong!!! (no surfaceparm landmine, or whatever you want to have). What has happened?? This is because you have left the old pk3 in the etmain folder.
The game reads both the old and new pk3, when it starts. And if you are unlucky, the game will read the wrong shader.
Happens all the time to me. Guess I have trouble staying focused :slight_smile:
// L.

(Victorianetza) #31

so what u say is remaking the shaders? But should i re - texture everything in the radiant?

(G0-Gerbil) #32

Happens all the time to me.
I may or may not have fallen foul of this in the past :wink: As I like to put it, helmsdeep A2 was MEANT to have a large yellow grid all over the terrain.

Probably.

(G0-Gerbil) #33

so what u say is remaking the shaders? But should i re - texture everything in the radiant?

Remaking sounds a bit harder than it really is.

Say you are using the following shader:

textures/gerbil/wibble
{
implicitmap -
}

then copy and paste it into your sofia.shader file and change it to:

textures/sofia/wibble
{
implicitmap -
}

and copy the gerbil/wibble.tga into sofia/
You just need to move the shader and change the paths to point to your file.
If you were using lots of textures/gerbil/ shaders / files, you can copy them all and just do a search and replace on /gerbil/ to /sofia/.

(Victorianetza) #34

i see, lets hope i make it work :smiley:

(Ifurita) #35

  1. it is absolutely necessary for your to rename textures and not count on pulling assets from other maps - if players donā€™t have those maps, theyā€™ll just get orange textures

  2. This is why you want to do your testing in a 100% pure environment consisting of only the core game assets, patch #1, and your custom pk3, nothing else. Notice, i did not tell you to install the radiant files to that game install. there are game assets that come with radiant, that players donā€™t have (lights). Testing in this environment will show you exactly what players will see (worst case) if you have included assets they donā€™t have

(Victorianetza) #36

because i dont want players to have orange-black textures, i have 3 installs of ET - 1 for playing, 1 for testing new maps, 1 pure with my custom map :wink:

(Ifurita) #37

are you saying that is what you have now? or what you had? If you had this previously, you would have identified the problems with using assets from other maps

(Victorianetza) #38

i have it now, & i am not experiencing any problems w/ the textures, and the beta testers dont have problems w/ text. either :smiley:

(Victorianetza) #39

wow! this thread grew very old :smiley: however i am back from my mapping vacation :smiley: and ready to continue my work on sofia. if anybody is still interested in this project, right anything in this thread; in this way i will know if somebody will take a look @ it after i finish it :wink: