ecave[wip]

[Stoned]

Now that I have dabbled in modeling for a bit I think its time to get back to mapping!


ecave





I intend ecave to be a free roam type map that leads to multiple other maps. Might I add I am going to fill it with various types of puzzles and of course a couple monsters. But some help would be appreciated for possible puzzle concepts. I was thinking of implementing this puzzle however, you have two paths to take, you can either kill your way to the end of the map(with puzzles in your way) or find 4(or 8 ) runes hidden throughout the map. If you find all of the runes in the map, without killing any of the mobs, you will unlock the transition to [insert map name here] while locking the other transition that you would have received by killing all of the mobs and vice versa.

 

[Crow]

Those are some pretty nice looking caves!

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

Sadly, those caves are too good looking. I don't think that map will compile without leaking.

 

[Stoned]

Sadly, those caves are too good looking. I don't think that map will compile without leaking.

zomg, you like it? Thothe said it compiles fine...with a leak I'm gonna have to seal possible leaks with extra brushes :|

 

[Thothie]

Actually, it looks fairly well sealed. The leak was caused by a blatantly open end of the cave near a player_start where I think you just meant to either expand or add an early transition. (We're talking a 512x512 open window - not an 'accidental' leak, me thinks.)

On the downside, it's also a very tiny map. What ya see there is pretty much everything.

edit: NVM... I plugged that up and tried again, and yeah, there's a lot of issues with the way the vertical and horizontal rock runs are joined - or not joined, rather. Likely a few dozen leaks...

edit2: They seem salvagable though... I did some sloppy leak fixing towards the spawn and down the river ramp, and got it to compile clean. I think there's a few shapes that were cut wrong near the top of the river, and the ramp down needs to be joined up with the surrounding walls better.

 

[Stoned]

On the downside, it's also a very tiny map. What ya see there is pretty much everything.

Thats because it isn't finished :| By the end it will probably be a large sized map. I plan to add like 9 more rooms, minus the secrets. Yeah it will probably be laggy with 90% vertex manip. but I guess I should learn how to use hint brushes. Also, mind giving me the pointfile thothie?

 

[Thothie]

Eh, let's see... Here's a point file with my tweaked map (before the leak free one):

http://www.thothie.com/msc_dev3/ecave.rar

Just extended the block at the end of the map (it's chopping through brushes though, don't leave it that way).

I'd give you the one where I fixed the leaks, but the way I achieved it just involved tossing some blocks into the map until they went away, so it wouldn't do you any good. Didn't have the time to fix em proper.

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

Sadly, those caves are too good looking. I don't think that map will compile without leaking.

zomg, you like it? Thothe said it compiles fine...with a leak I'm gonna have to seal possible leaks with extra brushes :|

Yeah dude I genuinely think that cave looks good. Compare it to your average cave in MS:C and you should be patting yourself on the back.
Downside is: There's no way that's going to compile without issues, as Thothie already noticed.

The only good caves in MS:C maps are, in my opinion:
- Aluhandra desert cave, by Rickler
- Heras cave, by Icewind Dale
- Various caves in the dangerous pass, by Father Brandon
- The short cave sections in Lodagond 2 and Lodagond 3, by Adam Foster
- The cave system below Helena (the one with the ghouls), by Thothie
- The fire cave in the dark forest, by Thothie
- The tiny single cave room in Wicard Oven by... SpiritVII (think that was his name)? Crow? replica? Thothie? So much people worked on that map...

 

[Thothie]

Replica did the original caves... I just tossed in some splicing to add non-sprite based lighting (the red crystal strips and other light props).

I think what he's got going here is doable - he just got a little sloppy in a few places... You are carving up some floors where you probably don't need to (go flat where you can - especially if it ain't visible), and some of the shapes you copy pasta'd near what I think is the entrance have too many sides... Gotta stick to shapes with 5 sides or less with this sort of work, or odd things tend to happen.

The poly count for this kinda of architecture isn't as bad as you'd think though (I'm not seeing more than 500 wpoly in the 'fixed' version). Hint brushes aren't going to help here as much as adding more bends will. The real bugger is this sort of setup makes you run out of leaf and clip nodes real fast. Gotta clip brush any area the player can't reach, and of course, null the f*ck out of everything.

 

[Thothie]

I probably shouldn't take the time do this, but on the off chance that it'll make him actually finish something:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFc80gHg ... 26fmt%3D22
^ Video of the 'hacky fixed' version. r_speeds in da upper left.
(Don't mind the 30fps - it's locked to sync with fraps - just watch the wpoly.)

 

[J-M v2.5.5]

Visportal error clearly visible at 00:13, top right. And I know this cave will be full of them, unfortunately.

 

[Thothie]

Only one I see (and with bloom on, believe me, they are hard to miss )... Sadly it's one of those that doesn't show up in the compile log though.

He's got some overlapping brushes up there, likely the cause.

 

[Stoned]

The point file was always confusing. Wasn't it red theres a leak nearby and blue is no leak?

EDIT: Also, you weren't intended to go back up to spawn once you fell down into the larger dome.

 

[Thothie]

The point file was always confusing. Wasn't it red theres a leak nearby and blue is no leak?

Red line usually points to the leak. With these sort of structures, you may not be able to "see" the leak. It's often caused by the mere float difference between .MAP's and .RMF's, or overlapping faces not forming a proper seal.

Your most common problem is not joining the seems of walls properly - especially when they are on opposing planes.

EDIT: Also, you weren't intended to go back up to spawn once you fell down into the larger dome.

I kinda figured that, since I had to cheat to achieve said - just wanted to show the wpoly in the other direction.

 

[Stoned]

Oh yeah, I gots me computer back! That means I can continue the project.

EDIT:I'm going to redesign due to vertex manipulation mess and other reasons. I will try to make it pretty but it wont be as pretty as the older version.