Knights Reborn

Senbou wrote:

AJ wrote:

~LK~ wrote:Well heres the thing concerning the lighting. Afew people out there have attempted tree maps, and most end up looking like crap. Not because the designer did something wrong per say, but because the skybox "glows" and thus can be seen regardless of lighting. It gives the feel that even though the design might look great, you still see the edges of the box kind of killing the feel of the map. SJC (one of the better mappers for JKA) did a wookie battle map and had to make mountains/rocks to block this effect. I have no interest in a ground aspect so that wouldn't help me. I could.. write a new shader for a custom skybox.. but then I'd have to still add more things to it to complete the effect, and since my main goal is playability (fps) I don't think that will be the best route.

What I did do for this area is is the following:

1) After trying several of the stock skyboxes, as well as creating a new yavin one, I decided to through out the need for a skybox entirely. I am using a pure black texture for the box (which I will have to write a shader for so no-hit/impact) which fit in well with the night feel.

2) Trees... oh the damn trees.. gave me alot of problems. I tried to use misc_model settings which turned out all black regardless of lights. I then tried misc_model_static.. which looked great.. except for the leaves that blinked like chrsitmas tree lights (due to a stock shader that was borked when the game was shipped). So how did I fix it? lol... I rigged it. I used cylinder patch meshes shaping them to look like tree trunks, covered them in a custom tree bark texture.. and reduced the scale of a stock tree placing it inside near the top (so the leaves etc could be seen above). The overall effect worked well for a dark map, and there was little hit on fps doing it this way.

3) Design: I am designing the map.. all sections with the idea of optimal fps, even over design. There seems to be alot of KR people who have either older tech, and whats the point in designing a map for them.. if they cant even enjoy it? No worries though, the map will look good regardless.

4) Im using png's instead of jpg format. JPG's loose to much integrity where as PNg loos nothing... this makes for more crisp textures in game. I'll switch back to jpg only if in the end the need arises for performance.

Areas of the map:

1) Tree area:

I've already gone into detail above on this area. As it stands, there will be three main areas where a bot can be spawned byt he push of a button. The three bots are alora, desann, and.. umm.. the other one I cant remember right now. This area is complete accept for two things.. the shader for the black box (mentioned above) and the addition to the bots limiting spawns till the first is dead. Eveything else works perfectly.

2) Main area

OK.. lets talk about this for a bit. I've shown some pics of the main area, and I must say I most likely am going to toss it out. It seems to be a bottomless pit of detail work thats going to kill fps sooner or later.. and it's functionality is to limited for it. I have though, created a new main area which is done except for the tele spots. The new area is smaller, though has more room to duel, and looks better imo. Ill post some pics of it soon.

3) Swoop track

This area is fairly straight forward.. its a indoor swoop track. It will have the feel of being underground, and will consist of nothing but a swoop track. There will be a button (or 4) for spawning swoops for races etc. More on this later since this is the area with the least amount of work done.

4) Rancor room

This will be the easiest area to complete, which is why I've focused on the other parts first. Do we want a dungeon? do we want something else as the setting? Let me know.. and soon.

5) Playground

This area, as stated has a trampoline, a skating rink, a pool with functioning diving boards, and maybe a half pipe... if I can get it to work right (big if). I'm also considering have a "training area" of sorts where dummies or destructible items can be used... we will see, dont want this project taking longer than it has to.

OK.. lots of words.. lots of typing.. hope that gives more light onto things.

~LK~

I'm sorry I'm not reading all that caz im lazy I can;t wait to see the ersult

if ur too lazy to read that, then why did you reply saying as such? seems to me the laziness would continue XD

great work so far LK, keep it up dude!

tldr <--

Akimoto wrote:

Senbou wrote:

AJ wrote: I'm sorry I'm not reading all that caz im lazy I can;t wait to see the ersult

if ur too lazy to read that, then why did you reply saying as such? seems to me the laziness would continue XD

great work so far LK, keep it up dude!

tldr <--

Well, I did read it all, and what's more understood pretty much all of it too. I was thinking if that stock shader was giving you a problem, you need only overwrite it with a blank file (or your own shader) of the same name.

Jaw Ill get back to thisafter bit when I have more time. Forgot to point out I have put.. references of sorts of many of the active members in the map (things like the AJ magazine etc). Some subtle.. some not so much. So far I have added these for:

AJ
necros
pyra
ahsoka
evan

I will be adding more as I go to various areas. Just a piece of useless info for ya all lol.

here's a initial light test of the part of the main area.. the lighting obviously needs changed (hence the light tests) but it will give you a general idea...

~LK~ wrote:here's a initial light test of the part of the main area.. the lighting obviously needs changed (hence the light tests) but it will give you a general idea...

very nice

ffs it looks awesome.

Here's alittle progress from the same main area... lighting still needs afew tweaks but this is a general example of what I'm shooting for here:

looks much brighter now ^^

OK.. the main area is 99 percent complete now. All I have to do is add the teleporters which I need to do after I combine all the areas into one. I also added area portals into the 4 doors blocking draw in each area until the door is activated. This also should help people with fps though, I dont think its going to be a problem.

You win the A-award for making the best KR map so far. Or at least for taking good screenshots. Or both.

OK.. let's talk about the game area some..

I got the ice rink working fine, the trampoline working fine, and the pool/diving boards working good.

The half pipe ramp idea didnt turn out good. It worked.. barely.. and it wasnt that fun really. Also.. I made a merry-go-round and it works fine to.. though the player jitters so much it makes it no fun.

I did make a "training area" per say.. some ground targets to hit.. one higher up that is moving back and forth.. and two wooden character's that move back and forth (think of wooden planks held together by wire.. nothing fancy).

Thats about it right now.

can't wait to see the finished product!
i'm quivering with antici.....






...pation

GREAT! awsome lk

90% done with swoop track.. here is a quick pic from testing..

Alright.. I have all the areas approx. 95 % complete at this point. I have some more work to do on the fighter jet area and then comes the combining.. which could prove fun... not.

Once those things are all done.. The final compile will take place.. this could take several hours or up to two days of computer crunching. I am not doing the "hyper tunnels" inbetween areas.. seems to me it would be cool the first time or two.. then would be a waste of everyones time having to go through it always. Direct teleports will work good enough.

Ill try and finish the fighter area tonight and maybe the combining.. we will see. Then, Ill need my assistant to take a tentative pk3 to see if all is well (forgot any textures etc). after that.. if all is good.. we can set up a day for a clan test.. up to you.

~LK~

Really looking forward to it LK

OK, was playing around in the fighter/bed room area.. and thought hmmm. Maybe people dont like flying.. maybe they would prefer to have a choice between flying in a fight and maybe.. machine gun turrets.. or maybe a ground game with those walker things. So.. going to add some of that if I can.

NICE!! i can't wait to play!

Alright.. I got tie fighters, tie bombers, atst's, and emplaced stationary guns in the area working.

Sidenote.. I may just set the wait key to like 10 seconds for the spawning items as a way to keep them from clogging things up. The atst self destruct when empty so they shouldnt be a problem. we will see...

coolbeans

All map areas are now in one file. Things left to do:

- Make sure no errors or mistakes
- Check textures (especially the bonus.pk3) and make sure they are all packed right.
- Do a final compile which could take afew days to finish.
- Have Evan test the final pk3 to make sure of all things above.

~LK~ wrote:- Have Evan test the final pk3 to make sure of all things above.

Why does Evan get to test it? D:

@necros

I guess because he spoke to me about it some time ago, and he seemed excited to do so. And beyond that, (no offense evan ).. He may have one of the worst fps's in KR which is what I want for testing.

~LK~ wrote:@necros

I guess because he spoke to me about it some time ago, and he seemed excited to do so. And beyond that, (no offense evan ).. He may have one of the worst fps's in KR which is what I want for testing.

none taken can't wait to test it

Well if i hadn't smashed dave the lagger to bit's with a very big hammer ( saved the casing ) i'd be able to wire him up and have a far fps worse than you evan!!