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**VoodooMaster** · 08-24-2008, 11:01 AM

Seems to be a hawt map

.
Looking good as always Shade great to know youll get them all as a mappack.

**ShadeMistress** · 08-25-2008, 06:38 PM

Went ahead and released the first Beta for PC.

I tried cooking this for PS3 a few times, but my UnrealFrontend will not open at all with v1.3 even after a reinstall and a hard drive wipe and another reinstall... looks like another Epic fail...

Perhaps someone not having issues would like to try cooking this for PS3 for me? I'm sure it would make some people happy and I would appreciate it. Just PM me and I will send a link to an unpublished copy of the map. Thx.

NOTE: Above screens are from the Alpha, a lot has changed since then, including thinning out some of the smoke for better visibility in the center of the map, adding many more paths to follow, revamping the second bridge and adding many more rock meshes.

**ShadeMistress** · 08-25-2008, 09:39 PM

Bump to let you PS3 guys know that TheAgent was nice enough to do the PS3 cook for Beta 1 since my computer or something just isn't allowing me to use UnrealFrontend at all. (Thanks again man)

**TheAgent** · 08-25-2008, 09:55 PM

Very nice map, I had the honor of playing it for PS3 for a little bit, and once again no prob anytime.

**feisar32** · 08-26-2008, 01:13 AM

Was just wondering, Shademistress - is this the map that was originally LockDown?

Infiris works fine on my PS3 - only had frame-rate issues once, in one spot where it slowed right down for around fifteen seconds; couldn't discover any reason for it & haven't been able to reproduce it (been playing Infiris for the past 2 hours) so I'm guessing it was a random coincidence rather than anything wrong in the map

It looks great - been watching the beta of Molten Core for months but never thought we'd be able to get anything like that on PS3; glad to see you've proven me wrong

The only odd things I've noticed are when objects are viewed against the skybox or the lava (for example the bridge with the weapons lockers, or the bridge with the flag spawn on it, or even a player carrying the flag) - you seem to get double-vision and start seeing two of those objects. Could well be a necessary trade-off of the smoke rising from the lava into the sky, or the heat haze over the lava itself, so may be intentional?

Also, the bots appear to have trouble in a couple of areas - the blue team don't appear to be able to get the rocket launcher from the platform opposite the shield belt on their side of the map when translocating to it - they hit the edge of the platform, drop back down to the lower platform with the health vials, run in place against the wall for a few seconds before jumping down & repeating over again from the top. Doesn't appear to affect either team translocating in & collecting the rocket launcher from the platform on the red side of the map though. The red team also have trouble when trying to translocate to the blue flag - again, the disc bounces off & they get stuck in a loop. They can collect it fine if they go up the steps, and the blue team don't have any trouble translocating to the red flag from the rise above the flag spawn

Overall, IMHO the map is excellent, definitely a keeper

I like the layout - the long trek to the flag, the jump-pad shortcuts or the translocator route along the canyon for those who like a challenge. Apart from the odd translocator problem, the bot-pathing appears to be well thought out too - the bots really know what they're doing, even at Skilled difficulty. Or perhaps that's just because I'm ****

As ever, thanks for taking the time to try to cook for PS3 (I see from the other thread that you may have a pointer for resolution of that problem now?), and also thanks to TheAgent for providing the interim cook

**ShadeMistress** · 08-26-2008, 01:40 AM

Oh no no no... Lockdown is a completely different endeavor that I have been still plugging away at from time to time (I have some odd Kismet anomalies to figure out, like sometimes the orb spawner stays shut forever or stays open even under "lockdown mode"). I'm sure that it will get finished eventually, I may have to just do all of the Kismet from scratch once I am finally happy with the flow.

I know that the bot pathing is a bit funny in places, mostly where I have pathnodes kind of hovering over the edges of things and stubborn stupid bots don't know to either shoot passed the node or give up. I will tweak these later as I near the final... not used to just plopping pathnodes where I want them, I'd gotten used to having to path for Warfare, where most nodes have to be within line-of-sight of each other.

The double-vision effect is from the way I did the heat distortion. I'm hoping it doesn't effect the gameplay at all and is barely noticeable to me most of the time unless I am trying to snipe. I may tweak this later on too so that I can get the wavy effect without the double vision.

Thanks for the feedback and it's good to know that it runs well on the PS3. It should run even better once I actually optimize it.

And the bots are pretty **** good. I have a hard time with them if I add more than 9 at Skilled, but I'm not at that uber either. Maybe I should play more and map less..... hahaha yeah right....

**feisar32** · 08-26-2008, 01:52 AM

Ah, okay - I'll keep my subscription to the Lockdown-Beta thread then

I wondered if the double-vision thing was attributable to the heat haze - it doesn't really detract from the gameplay at all, although it can be a little difficult to lock on accurately to bots defending the flag spawn point. Otherwise as you say, it's barely noticeable, and again the difficulty with the bots could just be because I'm ****

And I guess now I know why I was having such a hard time - I was using a full complement of 15 bots (the PS3's limit

) on Skilled

**ShadeMistress** · 09-01-2008, 12:36 AM

Release Candidate is ready for your testing pleasure.

Here's a short list of changes:

- Added a lot more meshes and expanded the layout.

- Added more cover meshes for a somewhat safer retreat for flag carriers.

- Improved bot pathing somewhat though the bots still like to get stuck on the jump pads up to the Rocket Launcher.

- Added some signs to make navigating back to your flag less confusing, just follow the signs that are your team's color.

- Added more ground light arrow meshes that should assist in leading you to/away from the enemy flag. They also help let you know which side of the map you are on.

- Added more Jump Pads to halp flag carriers take alternate routes without as much of an increased risk of dying by bottle-necking like it was previously. There's usually at least 3 paths from any given area when you have the flag... except down by the lava in the center.

- Added a few more emitters and some sound effects to better the ambiance.

KNOWN BUGS:

- Bots will sometimes get stuck in a few weird spots, I will fix this with blocking volumes if I must.

- It's easy to get stuck on the "Broken Road" area on the 'red flag' side of the map when carrying the flag, for now just try to remember to keep dodging/jumping. (which you should do anyway.)

This performs exceptionally well on my PC (65-80 FPS Constant) at max settings, but I may be able to optimize a bit more if it is needed.

**ShadeMistress** · 09-01-2008, 11:00 PM

B-b-b-b-bumpage... No feedback on this at all?

**feisar32** · 09-01-2008, 11:31 PM

Originally posted by ShadeMistress View Post

B-b-b-b-bumpage... No feedback on this at all?

Give me an hour or so, Shade - downloaded at 4.45 this morning & not long finished work, but been looking forward to test driving the RC

**Duper** · 09-02-2008, 01:33 AM

I found a rock spire that needs a blocking volume. The one that's directly through the arch.

[shot]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/Duper/UT3/9735035f.jpg[/shot]

[shot]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/Duper/UT3/3d1e1915.jpg[/shot]

[shot]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/Duper/UT3/76338711.jpg[/shot]

I ran through it for about 10 minutes without bots to get the layout. This thing is HUGE! ...well ok.. it's big. Well.. more than that there are many different levels and routes. Not linear by any means. That's one thing I found very attractive about this level (besides the eyecandy) I ran into a couple of areas where it wasn't "smooth going" where movement is concerned, but then again, we're in a LAVA FIELD and barely cooled lava is normally anything but smooth (unless you live in Hawaii

)

I also very much enjoyed no vehicles or boards. It gives this map a very old school feel and should add a lot of tention to the game. There's nothing like the adrenaline rush you get from running back to base not knowing if you're going to get thrashed in the next 20 feet. It also really ecourages team play (or should) in covering each others back.

**ShadeMistress** · 09-02-2008, 01:45 AM

There's a few spires like that I been finding. I may have to copy the mesh into the map package as a duplicate and put a different collision model around it.

**feisar32** · 09-02-2008, 01:57 AM

Bloody hell Shade, I'd thought it looked good before! The extra meshes & layout changes are really good; as pointed out by the previous poster, it's nice to see detail like broken petrified lava flows which, along with the stalagmitic protusions can alternatively help or hinder you, depending on what you happen to be doing at the time

They help make the terrain look a lot more natural & realistic.

Like the fact that you were able to get rid of the double-vision effect without losing the smoke or heat distortion, retaining a lot of the atmosphere of the map. The DOF or bloom effect, not sure which it is, also helps add to the overall heat-haze

The signs are a help too as the layout is initially a little tough to work out, although I'm starting to find my way around now anyway

Bot pathing's better too - nice workaround, blue bots translocate up to the shield belt on their side before translocating over to the rocket launch, nicely sidestepping the original problem. They're still fully capable of kicking your **** if they find you with their flag in the centre near the bridges

The only problem I did notice - although this runs very well on my PS3, without frame-rate issues or slowdown in most instances, there are occasions when the frame-rate will drop to around half & occasionally briefly hitch before continuing. I've run into it a couple of times, but it's frustrating as hell because I can't replicate it on demand or narrow down what might be causing it

It usually only lasts for a short time ...

I've noticed it when among the debris near the vest, but only once; also noticed it on the rocket launcher platform on the blue side, and near the red flag spawn point, but again only once each. I wondered if there might be some timed event or effect that stretches the PS3's RAM but I've played matches through without it happening at all.

I wonder perhaps if it happens when the bots grab a particular power-up? I've only noticed them pick up the Redeemer once or twice, could it be the effects from the detonation of the warhead? The only reason I ask is that I've seen that frame-rate drop & brief "hitching" before - on Chemical Refinery Beta 5, when a timed event causes strobe lights to flash and the frame-rate to "hitch" in synch. I mention it in case it gives you an idea as to what might cause it, but like I say, try as I might to find out what causes it, I'm stumped

Long review over - thanks for the changes Shade, this is retail-quality or **** near it IMHO

**ShadeMistress** · 09-02-2008, 03:03 PM

The slowdown may just have to do with the absence of a CullDistanceVolume. The final will have this fixed along with any other optimizations I can find. I know there are a few brush surfaces that need to have materials removed and light maps shrunk as well. Once this is done, the map size should go down a slight bit and the map should run a lot more smoothly as well.

All in all, I may be able to release the final within a week unless someone finds some drastic bugs.

Announcement

CTF-Infiris RC1 UPDATE! [New Screens, PC/PS3 Download]

CTF-Infiris RC1 UPDATE! [New Screens, PC/PS3 Download]

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