Screenshots

[o'dium]

Parallax doesnt make any tris chap...

[Kaz]

Yeah but you could get away with like, what, less than 100 extra tris? Bricks are just rectangular prisms anyway

[g0th-]

Yeah perhaps, I wasn't really sure when i typed that. My point however was that is more optimized to do the geometry instead of adding a parallax in that situation

[jal_]

Just messing around:

[Completely unrelated to everything which has been talked about this shot]: I miss some contrast in there. It has nice ambient and detail, but there's a line where penumbra ambients result uncomfortable to see, and I think that shot is on the wrong side of the line. Some more instensity to the lights would be welcome.

[ALMighty]

[obsidian]

Nice work, lighting is much better than the previous version.

[Silicone_Milk]

Not much more work done but I like how these bits are coming out:

[lvlshot]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a242/caldiar/shot0019-6.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a242/caldiar/shot0018-5.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a242/caldiar/shot0017-6.jpg[/lvlshot]

[Hipshot]

Honestly I don't see how this would fit in Cod4 =)

[Silicone_Milk]

thats the point. I despise the "realistic" look and the maps all made from the same stock prefabs arranged in different patterns.

I'm making this map to give people something different. I wrote custom scripts for it too to alter gameplay a bit. This map has doors that can be jammed in place by destroying the switch that activates them, elevators, and I plan on making another script that will let a few pipes leak toxic gas when shot.

[NBLM2]

I' am playing arround. Just build what i see in my mind.

[Fjoggs]

Everything else is yellow!

[Kaz]

[WHAT!!]

thats the point. I despise the "realistic" look and the maps all made from the same stock prefabs arranged in different patterns.

I'm making this map to give people something different. I wrote custom scripts for it too to alter gameplay a bit. This map has doors that can be jammed in place by destroying the switch that activates them, elevators, and I plan on making another script that will let a few pipes leak toxic gas when shot.

I'm not saying people won't like it, but trying to get your average COD player on board with a map that's taking place on the strogg homeworld is going to be about as easy as turning Bill O Reilly into a regular listener of Air America. Kind of an uphill battle:)

Good luck though!

[o'dium]

[Plan B]

Sweet shot, o'dium, nice terrain blending.
Although, if you want to show off terrain, I'd like to see something a little bit larger than 4 square meters

Argh, that goddamn grass. Creating x-shapes with the grass texture is probably your best option, but it *does* look a bit ass.
I realise sprites might look even worse, but maybe at least add two more polies to make it look a little less obvious.
Also, would it be possible to have grass and other shrubbery cast shadows?
Would strain performance, but add a lot of realism.

[o'dium]

A) The shot is from a SDK map, so its limited to about 100x100 feet or so.
B) The grass may be simple but its good for performance. Its really hard to get instancing right AND have it look good AND play smooth Any tips guys?
C) Sprites are not exactly possible here While I could use them, you have to remember the lighting engine we use, i.e. you cant have a lit sprite. It would be fullbright. So while its possible to use them, they would probably end up looking worse
D) Anything and everything can cast a shadow, so its possible. But when you have thousands of grass instances, it can get a little slow with shadows on. To be fair, I could of used shadows here no problem because of the size and density, so thats my bad. I've enabled them now in the SDK map however.

[jal_]

The terrain blending looks great! Actually, potentially the best part is the blending to the rock which looks a bit too hard-cut in that shot. I'm fine with the grass, tbh. Ok, it isn't super-duper, but good enough. Maybe the grass texture itself should look more like coming from a single root (thinner on the botton). That would hide the X shape a little, tho it wouldn't be exactly grass.

Besides that, one question arises. Is the monster part of the game? I thought it was a team based multiplayer game, what's the moster role? Just curious.

[Fjoggs]

The monster is from doom3 no? I guess it's for scalepurposes.

[o'dium]

"Anyway, I'll leave you with a small secreenshot of good old Mr. HellKnight getting a tan in one of our SDK maps. Please remember that while we may show Doom 3's media in some screens, we never intend to release them to the public. They are there for the sole purpose of testing, and will never be included in OverDose. We have a new modeller onboard now called Dinkymod and I spoke to him over Thanks Giving. He's a great lad, very nice, and he's working on our character models, so soon you will all get what you have been waiting for... A chance to see OverDose in more detail."

From the OverDose site

EDIT: As for the sharp blending, its actually the angle the pic is taken at which makes the blend look so sharp. Take a look here (Sorry for lack of AA in this shot) http://www.teamblurgames.com/odium/terrain_blend.jpg

[Kaz]

Well shouldn't it be sharp? Or at least some of it should be, rocks tend to be separated from dirt and such. I realize it's a test to show off blending, but in production terrain it might be something to think about.

[o'dium]

Oh really, and vertex blending works that way does it?

Vertex blending works via blends over the verts. So yeah, it can be much sharper, you can make the polies at the blend much thinner and it will produce a smaller result. But to get what would be 100% acceptable would need more than that, some kind of masking... And with this lighting engine, again, you cant do everything you can in other games.

Unless of course you want us to code MegaTexture? In which case I'll get Serk right on it

[fKd]

as always, looking good o'dium. looking forward to seeing the player models

[Silicone_Milk]

thats the point. I despise the "realistic" look and the maps all made from the same stock prefabs arranged in different patterns.

I'm making this map to give people something different. I wrote custom scripts for it too to alter gameplay a bit. This map has doors that can be jammed in place by destroying the switch that activates them, elevators, and I plan on making another script that will let a few pipes leak toxic gas when shot.

I'm not saying people won't like it, but trying to get your average COD player on board with a map that's taking place on the strogg homeworld is going to be about as easy as turning Bill O Reilly into a regular listener of Air America. Kind of an uphill battle:)

Good luck though!

hehe thanks. Yeah I thought people might be put off a bit by the theme and style of this map but so far I've actually received positive responses on it. It would almost seem that every gamer craves a little Strogg action now and then.

[Hipshot]

Looks like "normal" blending on the terrain, or is there anything specific that I don't see 'bout it?
About the grass, make a gradient in the bottom and make the root a bit smaller, that should solve it, If that's a possibility! =)

[Kaz]

I meant like, a rock model stuck over terrain polygons, and maybe have some of the rock model blend to be dirty, but the actual verts aren't connected, you know what I mean?