arkhamsoft.com

allicorn · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1115 Location: SW, UK

Y'know, even with in its currently bright-orange state... that is an intimidating building. I'm already dreading what might be those narrow attic spaces Wink

Alli

Reverend Speed · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1123

Those towering attic points, those mysterious peaks of malevolent sharpness contain only the SHRIEKING ABSENCE OF THE VOID because they're entirely solid. Unfortunately. Maybe later. =)

New files. The front Admin building, C, is now watertight and ready for furnishing. I'll still be changing the walls around on the second, third and fourth floors but the first is pretty well finished (well, 'shell' finished).

I've just taken a quick runaround on the map and spotted quite a few errors - I've left 'nodraw' textures all around the stairs, near one of the back doors of B and some of the windows on the third and fourth floors of C are a bit weird - seem to be sticking in (which I hadn't noticed, somehow...). I'm going to head to bed soon, so I'll fix these mistakes in the morning. If you notice anything else, lemme know.

I should also probably get rid of quite a few more doors on the next release...! =)

I know I've forgotten to say something. Ehh. I'll remember in the morning.

All the best,

--RoB

PS: No, wait, I remember. Quite important, this: Our current face count stands at 33773... Despite the work I'm going to do on removing a lot of building B and removing cells in Ward A, I think we're heading for trouble here - mainly due to the amount of stairs I've got to put into A (check out the ones I have there at the moment). That's a lotta faces.

So, options:

1) We do a much smaller Danvers.

2) We split Danvers into two maps.

I'm for number 2. Two maps, one containing B & C, the other containing A , E (the boiler house) and the outer grounds. The second map may also contain part of building B, in order to get the looking from one building into another effect you wanted, Allicorn (I'm thinking the upper dormitary portion of B).

It's an unfortunate situation and it's totally open to discussion.

Sleep now.

Quinjet · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1371 Location: UK

Well, I vote for option 2 if it means we can dress it up better.
I presume that a loading screen would take players between different areas?
I don't think we have to worry about slowing down the plot using extra maps as I have found this gives everyone a chance to stop screaming at each other. CoC also has something called "Herd Instinct" (don't leave me behind) built into it, it seems. So there is little worry that a DM would have to leave a player stranded in a map. Or if he did I can see it being played like PnP. All non involved players leave the room while the DM deals with the fool hardy hero.
Q.
_________________
All alone or on a cracker

Reverend Speed · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1123

Sounds about right. I figure the players would decide to move to the Ward section of the level with the DM triggering a level change on the server.

--RoB

allicorn · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1115 Location: SW, UK

Splitting it up sounds like the best bet to me.

Alli

Reverend Speed · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1123

Okay... I'm going to continue as I am with a view to getting as much completed on a single map and then splitting it - hopefully keeping concistancy between the two maps.

--RoB

Reverend Speed · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1123

*cough* Fixed map files same download *cough*

--RoB

allicorn · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1115 Location: SW, UK

Just compiled it and had a walk around - man thats cool Smile

Stairs look great, map performs fine despite being way bigger than anything I ever recall seeing in HL2 before, and all in all, really gets me thinking about what it might be like to use this as a "set" for roleplaying. Nice Smile

Only little tweak I spotted is a doorway thats too narrow. Start from the front door, take the third turn on the right - the other door of that room.

Alli

Reverend Speed · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1123

Erm. Much silence, no? Apologies. That said, I've got some stuff for ya... =)

You see? =) No? How about this...

New files!

There's quite a lot to find on this update - lots of new rooms, reconfigurations of old ones, floors removed, staircases put in, secret passages added, etc. etc...

Notes, in no particular order:

Okay - confession time. Due to the fact I didn't have elevations and plans for different floors I've had to build portions of the map from photographs, screen captures (Session 9) and educated guesses... and less educated guesses. =)

I identified the hall on the second floor from matching the windows against images of the Danvers exterior. The prop rooms, etc... are my own addition, but they seem logical. The projection room can be seen in the film...

However, after the first floor everything in building C is a complete fabrication. =) Basically I tried to keep the rough structural structure the same - ensuring we use the same load-bearing walls, etc... After that, it's a case of trying to find the most logical / interesting layout for the floors...

You'll find places for ladders, but I haven't put them in - I'm avoiding entity work, XSI and texture work until I have the map in a nice solid state - I figure this'll be better for you folks...!

I'm really pleased with how the front of Danvers is coming along... Hope you guys'll dig it.

This'll be the last release where you'll find the Wing & Boiler Room in the same map as the Admin building. Hammer is actually playing up on me - the masks for walls (the red highlight that comes over a brush when it's selected) has become... annoyingly... detached from the selected brush - for some reason it tends now to float around some random point in the map. Additionally, models have begun to glitch quite severly - at most angles, they seem to break apart and scatter over the map.

I know how weird that sounds but in the words of Arthur Dent:

"I do not know why it is doing this, but that is what it is doing."

So I'm hoping this is because of the load the map is putting Hammer under (though I've got rid of a lotta polygons - this release is significantly lighter than the previous one) and not some kind of nightmarish new bug I've uncovered in the program. We shall soon see.

That's it, I think. Hope you enjoy...

Onwards and upwards,

--RoB

PS: Oh, fixed that door Allicorn! Probably got quite a few more in there now, however...! =) I'll have to go back and check the door later... I'm not sure what it was being used for - it's possible that it SHOULD be that thin. Must check.

PPS: Crud. I should also point out that the map took a rediculously long time to compile on my machine - 4 hours, 25 minutes. I'm hoping that there were some additional factors (as the previous versions didn't take nearly that long) but there are quite a few more complex angles in this release. Lemme know how it turned out for you - I figure I'm going to have to get the Batch Compiler set up for HL2 at this rate...

allicorn · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1115 Location: SW, UK

Ah, those blueprints are going to be really useful.

Haven't compiled the monsterosity yet. Setting aside 4 hours when I'm not using my PC here is quite a major undertaking.

I'm working on a little prog to improve workflow here and noticed that your sourcesdk maps directory is possibly misnamed Rev, "mapscr" instead of "mapsrc"? If I can get this thing running, it should simply the packaging/unpackaging of our respective work for delivery to the rest of the team.

Alli

Reverend Speed · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1123

...ah.
Erm. Yes. That was misnamed. Sorry 'bout that. Fixed now. Cough.

I'm sure that had to be a freak compile. That said, I haven't done anything with Hammer since, so who knows. I'll give it a go again sometime soon.

Are you familiar with the Batch Compiler from Nemisis? Very nice piece of work, but I need to get the latest version and get it set up. Should cut some of the compile time, however.

Hmm. Very interested to see what your new program will be like...! =) Dude, you're full of surprises!

All the best,

--RoB

Quinjet · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1371 Location: UK

Oh my god you have been busy!
Who are you really, Doc Octopus? Visions of four keyboard usage!
I'm gonna go with alli on this one as four minutes of compile is going to do my brain in let alone 4 hours, sorry rev! Unless I started it now & then by midnight... Smile

Heroic work though,
Q.
_________________
All alone or on a cracker

Reverend Speed · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1123

Sonofa... Still trying to track down the map error that (I presume) is inflating the compile times. I've had very little time to just sit down and drive through the map. Thanks for the occlusion tips, Allicorn - I was aware of them but I'll take any advice you guys can give me!

Currently I think most of the map is hiding itself from itself fairly well (erm... first floor corridor being the exception!) - or rather, tolerably well. 90 degree turns help a lot. I'm just using any time I have on the map to perform an awkward selection of process of elimination tests...

Testing will continue shortly - just trying to kick the site into some kind of shape first...

--RoB

Disturbing13 · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Posts: 10

Very Impressive! I'm looking forward to its completion. Very Happy

Reverend Speed · Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 1123

Oh-hohoho. =) At the moment I've got this piece of work set aside for donation to somebody else's project - working on something a little more substantial at the moment. That said, very happy to provide help to anybody who wants to work on it.

Also - sorted out the compile times. =)

All the best,

--RoB
_________________
"I do not know why it is doing that... but that is what it is doing" - Arthur Dent