Beta: DM-{wp}StudioArena : Suggestions and opinions..

[legacy-HS SPoT]

Everyone did such a great job on suggestions with CrookedForest, I thought Id let you guys tell me what I need to do here. This is my first complex map. Alot of it I know what I did wrong, but not sure how to fix it. My clan mates
have fun playing TDM on it, so I thought Id put it into the wind.

This isnt an eye candy map as you can tell. I can add alot of detail, but it will drive the fps down even more. Let me know what you would like to see.

A few suggestions I was looking for is how to increase the FPS with what I have now. Some portals would do the trick, but I put in the terrain before I learned what portals do. Should I add portals and then redo the terrain?

Also, the radio antenna. What do you think of it? I know some of the walkways arent lined up right, and will correct them. What else?

Any and all suggestions welcome!
This is just the base.

DM-{wp}StudioArena.zip (http://www.clan-wolfpack.co.uk/UT2k3/DM-{wp}StudioArena.zip)

shots (http://www.serv.net/~spot/shots)

P.S. Thanks for checking that for me Sobe!

[Frogger]

this the one with electric fence??

[legacy-HS SPoT]

yup

[legacy-Yournan2000]

Hi HPSPOT,

I was the 1st chap to reply on your electric fence thread, did you get it working? Look like only me & frogger seem to reply to you, it a shame other numbnuts should help you out:up:

I seen this map else where, have you submitted it?

I like it, havn't played it but from the screens it looks good, kinda reminds me of dm-crooked forest, but inside.

Do you like doing outside maps?or just doing terrain?

Anyway the only thing which i don't like is the roof, but i know thats the theme of the map, so i know it can't eally be changed, unless you put a kinda of a skybox inside, to look like the sky of the set, just an idea.

As for redoing the terrain, i can't help you there mate havn't a clue. Looking at shot 0002 now, the light looks a little too bright on the building wall. But it might be because the shot was taken from a distance. Also on shot0004, the walkways look fine, but below looks really bright, what is it meant to be?

I'm not flaming you in this thread just telling you what i think, i know i'm no map expert myself or brilliant at it.

I'd be gratful as well HPSPOT if you could post some comments on my thread if you don't mind, DM-Corridor (dm-biological) thread, some n00b has already been an pain there already and pain veyr unhelpful.

Anyway keep up the good work your maps look nice dm-crooked forest was good as well i'm gonna down load this and give you more feedback if you like?

I like the look of this very much, another thing i would suggest would be taking the building, out of the studio and placing in somewhere else e.g mountains, grassy area.

Its your call ,up to.

Let me know what you think or you just wanna call me an n00b for leaving stupid and usless comments:D

MsM:up: :D

[legacy-HS SPoT]

Thanks :)
But I didnt do crooked forrest, but Im sure the feedback from here helped it to be good. Im having the same problem with fps though :(

Ill work on the lighting. I just learnd of Radi View, and that will help :)

As far as the maps are concerned, I like realistic maps. As long as it looks good enough to give you a flow, and the fps is high... Dont care much for the eye candy, I dont have time to stop and look at the detail when someone is shooting at me. My next map will have some good detial. This one is just fun in TDM, lol...

[legacy-Yournan2000]

So you gonna leave the map in the studio, or take it outside?

Just wondered, me personally would prefer it to be outside.

Look good though, other than the lighting i said and that funny bit in shot0004.

Keep it up m8 your doing well.

MsM:up: :D

[legacy-HS SPoT]

Im going to leave it inside. All of the maps are the same. You eventualy hit a wall somewhere. The difference is that with mine, there isnt a skybox.

If you read the opening text of the map, the wall is supposed to be digitaly generated. So while the players know they are in an arena, but people viewing the match at home on the couch still see the the outside world on thier monitors.

What I want to do is make it obvious to the players that they are in an arena, but fool the viewers.

[Frogger]

on the topic of antiportals...with that flat terrain the only place you have to add them is within the walls of your buildings..short of adding tall hills or some stone walls or something...i don't see much more that can be done with antiportals...but to keep from drawing all of the trees and other meshes you can adjust their cull distance and also the use of distance fog would aid in performance. Personally i hate it when terrain is changed just to hide meshes. sometimes it's too obvious and no longer fits the map. I like your terrain as is...i would try these other 2 options and see how it helps your performance..

[legacy-HS SPoT]

Thanks frogger, Ill look at that.

Hey could one reasons the fps gets so low be due to lighting and the shadows caused from a dark map?

[Frogger]

i don't think so...i will dl map tonight and take a gander.. it is more than likely the fact that you are having to draw all the way across the map all the time because of it's flatness and lack of antiportals..

[legacy-HS SPoT]

If you notice, Im already using culldistance. I lightened up the fog a bit. To cull more, Ill have to add more fog.

I tried removing the terrain last night and put up some portals. What I got was static streaking. What causes this again? I dont think it would take too long to redo the terrain after putting in about 4 tic tac toe type portals in. Then just remake the terrain in each of the zones once I find out why the the meshs streak. I think it would be better to do this. The frame rate is way to low in areas.

[Frogger]

i finally got a chance to take a gander...it looks as though none of the tree meshes have cull distance enabled, which i think would greatly help performance. Secondly, antiportals can easily be added to the walls of the buildings..this will help prevent drawing the entire map most of the time..I would also increase your distance fog (reduce start distance)..just some ideas..map looks great though..i like terrrain as is..

[legacy-HS SPoT]

Thanks frogger.

Im working on the portals now. As for the trees, the grouped trees dont cull, but the single ones do. Ill very the cull distance so the onces that do cull do it sooner, and then the others start to cull. Ill also increase the fog.

After I do that, Ill clean up the terrain a bit. There are some areas I dont like. nothing major.

Now the eye candy. Should I add some? I can add bushes, desks and computers in the main office, freight in the hanger, a cargo ship on the top of the building....
IMO, too much candy ruins the map, no matter how pretty it is. 2019 looks fantastic, but is unplayable. Crooked Forrest is another that looks great, but I average about 16 fps on it:( I would rather have skeletal buildings and it run on a P700 and a GF2MX. Itll still look better than UT :)

Anywho. Im willing to put in the detail. What do you guys want to see?
BTW, thanks for your time frogdude :)


Added:
I just changed this map type to TDM.
Its fun playing it DM, but it shines on TDM.

What do you think about Team spawn points? Shoud I group them per team?

Next is objectives.
I can add objectives that dont matter at all, just something for a team to go after. Kinda like assult, but you cant win by doing it. It would be more like DOM. There wont be any points for hitting them. What do ya think?