zs_Eryi

[Donlan]

After numerous hours in development I'm proud to release my newest zs map zs_eryi, keeping things short it's set during winter (eryi is gaelic / welsh for snow) at a police station out in the countryside down a long & lonesome highway..

Known problems are:

-Slightly off lighting in the 3d skybox

-Colour correction not working

-One strangely placed prop (out of reach of players so no problem)

It features custom content embedded into the bsp which pushes the map size to 25mb if needed I can upload a bz2, the billboard you see in the screens rotates between two set adverts..

EDIT: map size down to 15mb, not much more can be done to reduce this.

Screenshots:

mapv2.zip

Edited December 27, 2009 by Donlan

[Botervloot]

Eryi indeed.

Edit lightmap scales

Looks a bit empty. Try adding some more detail.

And wait, 25 mb? That's a load for such a small map. Even with custom textures.

Gonna playtest it for you, response in a moment.

Edited December 25, 2009 by Botervloot

[Donlan]

Eryi indeed.

Edit lightmap scales

Looks a bit empty. Try adding some more detail.

And wait, 25 mb? That's a load for such a small map. Even with custom textures.

Gonna playtest it for you, response in a moment.

It's down to some of the custom textures used, some of them are at 4mb each so I'm scaling them down or replacing them where possible.

[Chikennugget1]

That looks nice but a bit empty though.

Add a func_precipitation to add some snow, would be nice too

[Donlan]

That looks nice but a bit empty though.

Add a func_precipitation to add some snow, would be nice too

There is snowfall in the 2nd & 3rd screenshots

Edited December 25, 2009 by Donlan

[Botervloot]

Playtested it, it was better then I expected. The site where it was still in construction is worth a screenshot.

It does have some gameplay issues, like cramped rooms and narrow corridoors. It also started lagging badly when I randomly hit a custom toilet (), and a lot of shadows have to be fixed (very dark spots where they shouldn't be). The 3Dskybox is also slighty off the grid of the playing area, making it look like it floats. And you should also make clear that the player can't go further then that, it looks like it just passes on, while it doesn't (confusion).

But I think you could balance and fix this out to make a decent map.

Oh, and fix those 3D skybox trees. They look weird with their blackness. And maybe not very important, but it will proof useful: The garages in the site that is under construction end up directly at a building. That's not really realistic.

And I could easily get onto the roof. If that's not allowed.

Edited December 25, 2009 by Botervloot

[Donlan]

Playtested it, it was better then I expected. The site where it was still in construction is worth a screenshot.

It does have some gameplay issues, like cramped rooms and narrow corridoors. It also started lagging badly when I randomly hit a custom toilet (), and a lot of shadows have to be fixed (very dark spots where they shouldn't be). The 3Dskybox is also slighty off the grid of the playing area, making it look like it floats. And you should also make clear that the player can't go further then that, it looks like it just passes on, while it doesn't (confusion).

But I think you could balance and fix this out to make a decent map.

I agree with you on a few things there and I can see what you mean- but the narrow corridors cant really be avoided without redesigning the entire map, I've tried alligning the skybox via the smallest grid scale in hammer but it is always 1 or 2 units above or below I'll add some low boundary walls around the map to establish how big it is for players..

The toilet thing I've dealt with by removing them and as for dark spots in the map thats a simple fuck up on my part which I'll fix.

[Deluvas]

Looks very nice. I can't wait to test it.

[Donlan]

Looks very nice. I can't wait to test it.

I'd hold back on that if I were you until I get the new version uploaded.

[Mr. Darkness]

25mb is ok.

I had a map that contained water, land and a prop + cylindric block. It was 16 mb already.

[Donlan]

25mb is ok.

I had a map that contained water, land and a prop + cylindric block. It was 16 mb already.

Not really acceptable though for a zs map, even worse when without the custom models & skybox the map size is just under 7mb.

Also new version coming soon with some smaller exterior buildings and a number of fixes.

[Botervloot]

I'll test it for you .

Would you mind making the spot_light in the construction site less bright? It's really distracting.

[Donlan]

I'll test it for you .

Would you mind making the spot_light in the construction site less bright? It's really distracting.

It wasn't the light brightness since that was only at 50, it was the point_spotlights I had used- lowered them by a good amount.

The garage / impound lot area has been reworked a bit so the garage doors can be broken allowing access into a new area out back.

May take around 30 minutes to get a new version up whilst I work on the lightmaps and some ugly shadows.

[Botervloot]

I'll test it for you .

Would you mind making the spot_light in the construction site less bright? It's really distracting.

It wasn't the light brightness since that was only at 50, it was the point_spotlights I had used- lowered them by a good amount.

The garage / impound lot area has been reworked a bit so the garage doors can be broken allowing access into a new area out back.

May take around 30 minutes to get a new version up whilst I work on the lightmaps and some ugly shadows.

I meant that one

Not really good at names.

[Donlan]

New version is completed however I'm lowering the filesize as much as possible- cut about 8mb off by using default content rather than high res custom textures.

[Donlan]

Bumped as new version & screens released.

[Botervloot]

Nice, I'll give it a try. Wait for response.

Ok, I can't even play it. "Bad surface extens on texture ground/blendsnow_asphault". Fix this. It crashes my Gmod too.

Edited December 26, 2009 by Botervloot

[Donlan]

Nice, I'll give it a try. Wait for response.

Ok, I can't even play it. "Bad surface extens on texture ground/blendsnow_asphault". Fix this. It crashes my Gmod too.

I know what I did there, messed something up when pakratting files.

[Donlan]

Map has now been fixed- it was a texture being stretched to a retarded level, currently making the map more zombie friendly by adding some more phys props around the map.

[Botervloot]

Played it, has a load of "beauty" mistakes:

Overlapping brushes (near the cars)

Texture lightmaps not fitting (lighter>darker)

A door in the construction site (when you look in), you can see the other side of the garage (nodraw?)

3D skybox is still fucked up

Shadows of trees in 3D skybox still haven't been fixed

Displacement of tunnel ends in the nothingness

And I would love to go inside the (new) building. And CC isn't working.

[Deluvas]

Played it, has a load of "beauty" mistakes:

Overlapping brushes (near the cars)

Texture lightmaps not fitting (lighter>darker)

A door in the construction site (when you look in), you can see the other side of the garage (nodraw?)

3D skybox is still fucked up

Shadows of trees in 3D skybox still haven't been fixed

Displacement of tunnel ends in the nothingness

And I would love to go inside the (new) building. And CC isn't working.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Booter :<, BUT the idea of the map is great! It needs more detail outside, and less detail inside ... (but not too much, because it will lower the fps). As for optimization and stuff ..well that's the part where it needs work.

[Botervloot]

I would gladly try to help, but only with small things, like detailing. I like detailing

[Donlan]

Played it, has a load of "beauty" mistakes:

Overlapping brushes (near the cars)

Texture lightmaps not fitting (lighter>darker)

A door in the construction site (when you look in), you can see the other side of the garage (nodraw?)

3D skybox is still fucked up

Shadows of trees in 3D skybox still haven't been fixed

Displacement of tunnel ends in the nothingness

And I would love to go inside the (new) building. And CC isn't working.

Some of these things I've now fixed others are unfixable such as the trees in the skybox, they produce the same effect regardless of what lightmap scale is applied to them.

Displacement of tunnel ends in the nothingness.

From where I was looking at it in game it wasn't visible, I'll fix it though.

Texture lightmaps not fitting (lighter>darker)

Not sure what you mean there.

[Botervloot]

If I'm right, those trees are props. Disable the shadows on them. Look ugly, it's a solution.

With the Dark-light thing, is that the brushes (in this case the snow) have different lightning, so one brush looks darker then the other (completely that is).

[Deluvas]

Alright, notify me when you fix the problems in the map, and I'll test it again and mapcycle it.