[Krijak]

I haven't been around the neighborhood in quite some time due to a plethora of personal reasons, but i'm happy to report that i've saddled back up and began design work once again on a level that i put on hold quite some time ago. I'm letting you folks know that i've committed myself far enough to at least finish this one map, as i hate leaving my projects unfinished. Some of you probably recall the gothic style map that i showed some early screenshots of about 6 months ago (or so), well it is going to be the one i'm finishing. Giving you a timeframe on its completion at this time is well out of the question, it could be a few weeks, but most likely a few months yet. In terms of overall progress, it is around 33% complete, so there is much to be completed and tweaked.

Here is what to expect from the completed level when complete, currently untitled:

Gothic-style fortress with cathedral, castle grounds and walls, numerous buildings (most lack interiors but their main purpose is to create alleyways for gameplay), and a roadway that loops around 90% of the circuit.
Absoluetely no jump-pads, ladders or teleports. I want to keep things oldschool and as exploitation-free as possible (i.e. ladder jumps).
The map is ideal for tactical and ctf modes, though DM will be added. Travel times between regions of the map will take more time to trek due to horizontal size and restricted accessability to areas (think of Borders layout).
Lots of rooftop access to exploit and they chain together much like Brooklyn, though most buildings will be shorter and some will have angles and slopes creating more challenging but interesting gampeplay elements (at least in my opinion).
Currently setup as a night-time level; however, this may change depending on how the fps hold up on completion. Night means there must be lots of torch light which looks really moody and cool, but having so many on the level can eat up performance.

This is actually my first official Gothic-style map so i'm hoping it turns out well. I've scrapped numerous others during Gore's development (i.e. Village of No Hope) and i hope there is still enough Gore personell to enjoy it once it's done. Drop by any questions or comments, i'll be trolling the forums again.
I'll be posting screenies as they become available.

[frustrum]

good job dude and glad to hear ur settling things down for yourself

[Sam]

Krijak,

Forum does not get much traffic, which may be why there are few replies. Your map will get good play time. There are enough players still that there are games going throughout the day, every day. Some old faces and lots of new ones.

Thanks for your effort.

[Darklimbo]

Hey krijak.
Nice to see you keep working on the map.
I have the opportunity to tell you to take a better look in the fps matter cause in stakeout we have problem.
Gore se is so much different than retail on the matter of fps and stakeout gets unplayable in tact with more than 8 players
Ctf is far worse with all the item spawns and players.

Don't think i have an old pc.

Here are my specs:
Quad core Intel q6600 @2.4gh
Gfx Nvidia 9800 gtx 512 mb.
3 gb ram.

Hope you ll test the map with more players before release or add a lot of bots in the map and test the fps.

Thx for reading

[Ultraman]

I also have trouble with the Stakeout map, just certain spots & my FPS drops to low teens/single digits. One spot is in the quad area. And it doesn't matter how many people have joined. But I'm not complaining, as I have a rule that I live by and that is "never complain about free stuff". Sometimes I do tho, lol.

[Krijak]

Darklimbo, on 08 February 2010 - 03:40 AM, said:

Hey krijak.
Nice to see you keep working on the map.
I have the opportunity to tell you to take a better look in the fps matter cause in stakeout we have problem.
Gore se is so much different than retail on the matter of fps and stakeout gets unplayable in tact with more than 8 players
Ctf is far worse with all the item spawns and players.

Don't think i have an old pc.

Here are my specs:
Quad core Intel q6600 @2.4gh
Gfx Nvidia 9800 gtx 512 mb.
3 gb ram.

Hope you ll test the map with more players before release or add a lot of bots in the map and test the fps.

Thx for reading

Ultraman, on 08 February 2010 - 02:49 PM, said:

I also have trouble with the Stakeout map, just certain spots & my FPS drops to low teens/single digits. One spot is in the quad area. And it doesn't matter how many people have joined. But I'm not complaining, as I have a rule that I live by and that is "never complain about free stuff". Sometimes I do tho, lol.

I've heard a few complaints about the FPS on Stakeout, and i'm trying hard to not let this fall into that same situation, even though i'm not really sure whats going on with Stakeout. Obviously in the corners i would expect to have the biggest drops, as they are the points in the map where the most detail is visible. I noticed somewhat of a drop when first joining the map, and it seemed to hang the moment another player joined the server. Another thing that i know is hitting the FPS is the texture depth is now double on Gore SE which is a big impact to FPS especially on older PCs with smaller vid cards. I don't run much on my system, the 3.02 GHz single processor is about the only going for it. It has a Intel Vid card that came standard on the PC when i bought it in 2004 or 2005 and doesn't push much more than a GForce2 does. Remember, the original Gore levels were developed running TNT and TNT2 cards.

The style of this map is far different from Stakeout so i don't think FPS will be an issue. There are major walls that section off areas of the map to help with framerate, gameplay and so forth. The idea with stakeout was to make a nice, tight layout that focused a lot more on DM with a smaller group of people. The new level is CTF and TACT based with distinct areas that section off for more drawn out gameplay.

I hope this puts a little ease on how you are feeling. I can certainly sit down and take some time to improve Stakeout if you guys think it'll help some. I know there are some bugs in it and i can certainly removed some polys from the map that really don't need to be in there.

[Krijak]

I've already completed a considerable chunk to one section of the map since i've posted the thread so hopefully an updated screenshot will be coming before weeks end. I'm (trying) to go on vacation to Washington DC this weekend to visit my brother, but snowmageddon may be throwing a huge wrench into that plan. It's incredible how much you can get done with focus and flow hitting on all cylinders, and on other days it seems like hours just getting one wall looking the way you like it, giving you the sense that you've gone nowhere all day. Funny how it works.

[Joel Huenink]

Krijak, on 11 February 2010 - 05:12 AM, said:

I've already completed a considerable chunk to one section of the map since i've posted the thread so hopefully an updated screenshot will be coming before weeks end. I'm (trying) to go on vacation to Washington DC this weekend to visit my brother, but snowmageddon may be throwing a huge wrench into that plan. It's incredible how much you can get done with focus and flow hitting on all cylinders, and on other days it seems like hours just getting one wall looking the way you like it, giving you the sense that you've gone nowhere all day. Funny how it works.

I've found that visualization prior to working or doing whatever you are going to do helps focus. If I visualize kicking ass before hand it seems to happen. Like today I got a late start, but I had visualized kicking ass today, and even though I was time challenged, I managed to get a LOT done. If you just show up with no plan or no goals other than to "work on it" then you won't get squat done. So like the night before, visualize what you want to achieve and then the subconscious mind can go to work while you are sleeping, in the shower, etc... sort of putting together plans for your day, then you go to work and its like wow I got a LOT done.

Visualization is nothing new, bodybuilders have used it forever, artists, etc.

Good luck with your map.

[Ultraman]

I tried visualizing kicking someone's butt in Gore, but still ended up getting my own butt kicked, lol.

[Krijak]

Now that i'm back from DC i'm getting back to work again. I lost about 2 hours worth of work yesterday when i tried welding in polygon mode instead of brush mode (crashes everytime!), so that was very discouraging and i blew off working on it for the rest of the day. Progress has been very VERY good though in general. I'd say about another 7% is complete now and screenshots should be coming along soon. I am taking one shortcut on this level to speed things along. It's an unmentionable sin, but it'll get the job done faster with little to no impact. I'm really excited to see this level come to life and i'm trying to give it the same "detailed" treatment like Stakeout, only without performance issues (which i still can't figure). I've employed the tactic of cutting down the texture resolution on objects that you cannot get close too, simply because you really can't see the difference and it helps the framerate hold together. Please note that i'm going to open a poll as to which team you feel has the better bases in TACT/CTF in Gore SE. The answer could have a strong impact on the end result of this map.

[Sardonic]

Quote

Another thing that i know is hitting the FPS is the texture depth is now double on Gore SE which is a big impact to FPS especially on older PCs with smaller vid cards.

What do you mean by double?

Acro recently did some tests. He lowered all textures to half it size (512x512 to 256x256, etc) and noticed a considerable difference in FPS.

Maybe the 512x512 upgrade wasnt such a good idea after all. It didnt improve all that much (things only look a tiny bit better), but rather made things worse (if the huge FPS drop is caused by the 512 upgrade).